google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday August 9, 2015 Gail Grabowski

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Aug 9, 2015

Sunday August 9, 2015 Gail Grabowski

 Theme:  "Forgotten"- EN is removed from each theme entry.
 
23A. Seasonally decorated doorways? : FALL ARCHES. Fallen arches.

25A. Inept burger joint cook? : BUNS BURNER. Bunsen burner.

47A. Prospector's pooch? : GOLD RETRIEVER. Golden retriever.

97A. Uncultivated area in Roseanne's back forty? : BARR WASTELAND. Barren wasteland.

122A. Snake looking scared? : QUAKING ASP. Quaking aspen.

126A. Sales pitch for an Austrian pistol? : GLOCK SPIEL. Glockenspiel. Learning moment to me. I also did not know Glock's Austria connection.


36D. Gals' gathering before the flick? : CHICK DINNER. Chicken dinner.

46D. Allergen survey? : RAGWEED POLL. Ragweed pollen.

Another classic Gail G grid. 6 theme entries  are placed in Across slots and 2 in Down spots. Gail also made sure that none of her fill (non-theme answers) was 10-letters or longer. Sometimes long fill can confuse solvers about the theme entries.

Gail is all about smoothness. She's not one to surprise you with long splashy fill.
 
Across:       

1. Dramatist Connelly : MARC. Stumped immediately. Wiki said "He was a key member of the Algonquin Round Table, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930." Gail also gave us new clues for KEANE (87A. Award-winning Disney animator Glen) and RENE (95A. Peace Nobelist Cassin).  Crossings made the last two easy to obtain.

5. Invite to enter : ASK IN

10. Mall draw : SALE

14. "Take a chance!" : TRY IT

19. 1997 film apiarist : ULEE. Ulee's Gold.

20. Glittery stone : GEODE

21. Available : OPEN

22. Reason for wobbling, perhaps : HEELS. Drew a blank on the intersecting THURBER (14D. Longtime New Yorker cartoonist James). Been forever since I wore heels.

27. One begins "Rhapsody in Blue" : TRILL. For a whole while, I only had ULEE in this  whole left corner.

28. Casual wear : SLACKS

30. Sword-wielding legend : ZORRO

31. "No worries, dude" : I'M COOL

33. Viewpoints : SLANTS. And 58. Viewpoint : ANGLE

35. Crime-fighting film cyborg : ROBOCOP

39. Condescending sort : SNOB. Also 112D. Supercilious sort : SNOOT

41. Hoodwinks : FOOLS

43. Prefix with centric : ETHNO

44. "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" band, briefly : CCR (Creedence Clearwater Revival). I knew the crossing CLARO (44D. Mild smoke), so CCR was in. Otherwise, ELO, my other go-to band.

52. Sch. in Ames : ISU

53. Rye buy : LOAF

55. Whittle (down) : PARE

56. Some fitness ctrs. : YMCAs

57. Maker of Veriton computers : ACER. My screen is Acer.
 
60. "What a shame!" : SO SAD

63. Carol contraction : 'TIS

64. Sign on a B'way booth : TKTs

65. Not as experienced : RAWER

66. Digital jewelry : TOE RING. Great clue.

69. Identified : NAMED

71. Like he-man push-ups : ONE-ARM


73. Ill-fated woman? : PANDORA

75. The Clintons, notably : YALIES

78. Citation or Corsair : EDSEL. I wanted HORSE.

80. Lets out a bit : LOOSENS

82. Small amount : PINCH

83. Dry riverbed : WADI

85. Victim of curiosity : CAT

88. Tijuana title : SENOR. 102. 88-Across feature : TILDE. Señor.

89. Longtime Kentucky hoops coach : RUPP

90. Deep depression : CHASM

93. Registered, with "in" : SANK

96. Excitement : ADO 

101. Casting aid : ROD

104. "The Great Dictator" Oscar nominee : OAKIE. I need "Jack" in the clue.

105. Shredded : TORE

107. Most sacred : HOLIEST. And 119. Sacred structure : SHRINE

110. Potpourri pieces : PETALS

113. Fragrant resin : BALSAM

117. Modern storage area, with "the" : CLOUD
  
121. Choose to play for pay : GO PRO

128. A lot : OFTEN

129. Wasatch Mountains resort : ALTA. 131. Sight from Taormina : ETNA. Instinctive fill for me.

130. __ shirt : ALOHA
  
132. Bond player before Dalton : MOORE

133. Level : TIER

134. "Dragonwyck" author : SETON (Anya)


135. Cherished : DEAR
  
Down:

1. Civilian attire : MUFTI. I used it once in my own grid before.

2. Thing to set : ALARM. And 3. Thing of the past : RELIC

4. Ensemble of eight in the score of Villa-Lobos' "Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5" : CELLOS. No idea. Might be Rich's clue.

5. Cabinet dept. : AGR

6. Brief times : SECS

7. "Expect great things" retailer : KOHL'S.  I wish they would give me the final price instead of percent off gimmick.

8. Perfect : IDEAL

9. Brand that includes Taster's Choice : NESCAFE

10. Often-exaggerated tale : SOB STORY. Have you guys read or watched "The Bridges of the Madison County"?

11. Calcutta Tech grad on "The Simpsons" : APU

12. Kay of "Rich Man, Poor Man" : LENZ. Stranger to me.


13. Belgian painter James : ENSOR. This has become a gimme.

15. Establish a fresh foothold : RE-ROOT

16. Hankering : YEN

17. Key for Satie? : ILE. Erik Satie was French, hence ILE. But he was also a musician. Very tricky "Key" clue.

18. Original D&D co. : TSR. Appeared in yesterday's grid. I'll copy what Splyter said "- Tactical Studies Rules - ah yes, how I spent my junior high school days....I liked being Dungeon Master - is that TMI~?"

24. During : ALONG

26. Dude : BRO

29. Granny __ : KNOT

32. Aerial stunt : LOOP

34. Poor, chance-wise : SLIM

37. Advent : ONSET

38. Does some bartending : POURS

40. Big blowout : BLAST

42. The Amish, e.g. : SECT
 
45. Mystery middle name : CONAN. Arthur Conan Doyle. ALLAN won't fit.

48. React to humidity, in a way : DROOP

49. Close again : RE-SEAL

50. Ineffectual : VAIN

51. "Me Talk Pretty One Day" piece : ESSAY. Love that piece. Reminds me of my own spoken English. 

54. Pet parasite treatment : FLEA DIP. Never had a flea dip. Don't own pets.

57. Artist's studio : ATELIER

59. Throws wildly, say : ERRS

61. River of Tuscany : ARNO

62. Was fairly successful : DID OK

67. Narrow margin : NOSE

68. "Summer Nights" musical : GREASE

70. Weather reporters : MAPS. 84. Speaker's output : AUDIO. No people here.

72. Tourist attraction : MECCA. Xi'an is a tourist mecca.

74. Year's record : ANNAL

76. Money-saving, commercially : ECONO

77. Scintilla : SHRED

79. "If I Only Had the Nerve" singer : LAHR (Bert).  "The Wizard of Oz".

81. French governing group : SENAT

83. Fury : WRATH
 
86. Islands staple : TARO. Dim sum staple as well.

91. Kids' baseball card deal : SWAP. Not many kids collect baseball nowadays. The prices are getting ridiculous.

92. Matches the scorecard, so to speak : MAKES PAR. So I followed Tom Watson for a few holes at the 3M Championships (Senior Tour) two weeks ago. Alas, the thrill was gone.

94. A lock may be in one : KNOB. Got via crosses as well.

97. No-nonsense route : BEELINE

98. "Dark side" sci-fi group : SITH

99. SWAT team supply : TEAR GAS

100. Fast races : DRAGS

103. Haggle : DICKER

106. Took off to team up : ELOPED

108. Hamlet, to Gertrude : SON

109. Pull with effort : TUG AT
 
111. De Gaulle's birth city : LILLE. Gimme.

114. Ill will : SPITE

115. "The Hunger Games" setting : ARENA. I was worried that the answer was an exotic place unknown to me.

116. Back biter? : MOLAR. Nailed as well.

118. "Lobster Telephone" artist : DALI

120. Lovelorn nymph : ECHO

122. Iranian pilgrimage site : QOM. Or QUM.

123. Tabloid pic subject : UFO

124. From __ Z : A TO

125. Fr. holy woman : STE

127. Leavenworth locale: Abbr. : KAN


Boomer and I met with crossword constructors Andrea Carla Michaels, Tom Pepper and Andrea's friend Lori last Wednesday. Andrea was gorgeous and cheerful as ever. She really is an angel. Gary/TTP, Tom Pepper has two holes-in-one. And he speaks Latin. Lori is an avid golfer as well. You can click here for more pictures. That dog is Tevah.

Andrea, Tom, C.C. and Boomer

Lori and Andrea
Lake Calhoun, August 5, 2015

C.C.

32 comments:

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks for the amusing effort, Gail! Thanks for interesting expo, CC! Swell them. Knew immediately.

Great pictures!

Took quite a long time. Brain not functioning very well. One look up, MARC. (Couldn't remember MUFTI for the longest time.) No other cheats. Had scale before TRILL. Liked GLOCKSPIEL.

Harv coming home tomorrow late. Have not received a new picture of him and Brad (Abejo) yet.

Beddy bye time!

Have a fabulous Sunday!

Cheers!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Got the theme right off the bat with FALL ARCHES (and the theme title certainly helped). This let me enter some of the theme answers with little if any perp help, such as GOLD RETRIEVER and QUAKING ASP. Some of the other theme answers needed a bit more help, but none of them were hard to get.

The rest of the puzzle was mostly smooth sailing, but I did get bogged down by some of the names. MARC, KEANE, OAKIE, ENSOR, RENE and LENZ were all unknown (especially as clued) and I needed a lot of perp help to remember SETON, EDSEL and THURBER.

ZORRO surprised me since (as far as I know) he is a wholly fictional character and not actually based in any sort of legend. I could be wrong, however.

KNOB almost proved to be my Waterloo. Had KNO_ and just couldn't come up with anything. Finally ran the alphabet until I hit KNOB (I was starting from the top row of the keyboard, so it took a little longer than you might think). I'm assuming a KNOB is another name for a bun hairstyle? Either way, BALSAM seemed like it could reasonably be a sort of resin, so I went with it.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Sounds like my solving experience was a lot like C.C.'s. That NW had only Ulee, plus I put in Clock for a thing to set, and so it stayed for nearly an hour. Later on, when theme was understood, I put in Gold Arches without even noticing the clash with Gold Retriever. Took a while to comb out that snarl and get a few more letters in there.

For Key for Satie I put in Clé, the word for key. Seemed solid enough until it didn't. Got there eventually.

Morning, C.C., thanks for the pix!

Dudley said...

Forgot to mention: the clarinet solo opening to Rhapsody in Blue starts out with a simple trill, way down at the bottom of the instrument's range, and then...the famous glissando or "slide" that rather quickly jumps up two registers toward the upper limit. It's pretty difficult to do well, but this guy makes it look easy (0:49) - Glissando

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

My stubbornness almost did me in this morning. With NES in place I confidently wrote NESTLES and refused to give it up for the longest time. First I was setting a TABLE, then a CLOCK (and that O gave me GOLD ARCHES) until ALARM finally reared its ugly head.

I tried FLEA DIP one time, back in the early 80's. Almost killed the cat. Those new-fangled rub-into-the-neck treatments are much, much better.

I could name only one member of the Algonquin Round Table: Dorothy Parker. What a wit! Her tombstone reads, "Pardon my dust."

Barry, that KNOB is a doorknob.

Nice pix, CC.

TTP said...

Good morning all. Thank you Gail Grabowski and thank you CC.

I don't normally post times, but this gem took 1:34 minutes to complete. Had to make quite a few guesses to try and get something going in some areas, and nearly shot myself in the foot more than a few times. Perps filled in more than a few.

Misread of the day, ardent rather than advent.
Original D&D co. was easy after yesterday. But I will still read TSR as Terminate and Stay Resident.
Messed up early by entering NESTLES for "Brand that includes Taster's Choice" and KMART for "Expect Great Things Retailer." We have a KOHLS 30% off coupon on the counter. DOH !
"Small amount" was PINCH, not TRACE. DROOP not DRIPS, and RESEAL, not RESHUT. TOE RING changed those last two.
GOLD RETRIEVER was the first theme entry to fall. Hmmm, looks like EN was forgot. CHICK DINNER and BUNS BURNER fell within minutes. Now the nonsense made sense.
"Summer Nights" musical caused an earworm.
I love all the clues for ELOPED. "Took off to team up" is another winner in my book.
Speaking of KAN, I haven't seen Blue Iris or PK post for a while. Hope all is well.
I watched The Bridges of Madison County. I liked it. I read Rich Man, Poor Man, and saw the miniseries. The book was much better.
Dare I admit that I got French word SENAT easily ?

Unknown said...

The Week in Review: M 5:43 T 5:47 W 6:40 T 9:51 F 12:09 S 21:32 S 27:04

Friday: CTRL was the KEY that opened the door.

Saturday: The usual roller-coaster. The NE was the last to fall.

Sunday: A helpful theme. It came down to the SE and GLOCKSPIEL.

Other than that it was pretty much WSES (What Someone Else Said).

See y'all next weekend.

Barry G. said...

Barry, that KNOB is a doorknob.

D'OH! Thank you muchly. I was thinking "lock" referred to a lock of hair.

Yellowrocks said...

Fairly quick for a Sunday, no where near TTP's 1:34 minutes, though. Rooted around for quite a while until CHICK DINNER appeared, then I took off. Gail, fabulous theme answers, especially GLOCK SPIEL. CC, great post. I learned TSR yesterday. ACER was all perps. KNOT before KNOB, but TALSAM was too odd.

"A lock may be in one" had me wondering whether a LOCKET received its name from holding a lock of hair. Not! A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. LOCKET comes from the Middle English: crossbar in a framework and Anglo French: little latch. This is why I usually check before opining.

I saw The Bridges of Madison County long ago. I liked it.

What a delightful week weatherwise.

Lemonade714 said...

Aside from the difficulties mentioned by C. C. I had trouble relating to the clue/fill for SNOOT and REROOT.

The theme was fun and I remember Kay Lenz. Her look reminded me of Susan Dey who was starring opposite David Cassidy in The Partridge Family when Kay married David.

TTP said...


CC, looks like you all had a nice visit. Nice pictures.

Now that I am retired, and presumably will have more time for golf, perhaps I can join Gary, Tom Pepper, Chairman Moe, et alia in the Hole In One Club. Definitely golfing more. Looking forward to golfing in the Moose Lodge Charity Outing this coming Saturday.

Dudley, that's the United Airlines theme song ! (Similar to, "That's not the William Tell Overture, that's the theme to The Lone Ranger.")

Interesting (to me) that SPIEL in English has a connotation that is more about a sales pitch, while in German, it seems to me to be more about game playing. Spitz or Kazie, am I misunderstanding the German connotation ?

Off to breakfast with the BILs and their wives. Spater.

Dudley said...

TTP - it is?!? I didn't know that Gershwin was part of an ad campaign. Huh!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Finally, finally, Tin got his Pinch! And he got to pour it, too. CED got his cat, and Dudley got his loop. And we got a delightful Sunday romp from Gail. The minute I read the title, I guessed the theme and the first entry, fall arches confirmed it. Very clever theme answers and some great cluing. For ill-fated woman, I immediately entered Pauline, she of "The Perils of" fame but perps changed that to the more likely Pandora! My fav theme answer was Glock Spiel.

Thanks Gail and CC for a great start to another beautiful summer day. Nice pictures, CC, thanks for sharing.

I read both books and saw both movies. Rich Man, Poor Man was a TV mini-series with, I believe, Nick Nolte. IMO, Clint Eastwood was miscast in TBOMC as he was much older than the character in the book.

Have a great day

Anonymous said...

YR said . . . Fairly quick for a Sunday, no where near TTP's 1:34 minutes, though.

We're talking about an hour and thirty-four minutes, yes?

desper-otto said...

For Dudley.

maripro said...

Thanks G.G. and C.C. Nice start to the day.

Husker Gary said...

I’ve never seen a theme where once discovered gave some very long fill with so few letters. For example RA quickly became RAGWEEDPOLL. Fun, fun, fun although ULEE stood alone awhile for me too.

Musings
-Classic Let Mikey TRY IT (:30) commercial
-A long wait for one that is OPEN/available
-Didn’t know THURBER was a cartoonist too
-A fun series about FOOLing on YouTube
-TIS the season to “don we now our gay apparel”
-This movie raised the question of whether Kentucky coach RUPP was a racist
-Some modern Kentucky players now play one year and GO PRO
-I haven’t set an ALARM for 6:00 am for years
-Joann piles up those KOHL’s gimmicks and gets huge savings. I wouldn’t
-Have you ever called this style a Granny SHOT?
-Corn doesn’t DROOP in the humidity, it thrives on it
-My lock (hair) was in a KNOT
-The BEELINE Expressway is the route from Orlando International to Disney
-Does anyone remember this Dodger who ERRED many times throwing?

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling thoughts":

HG @ 10:27 - regarding the "Granny Shot", Rick Barry for years held the record for made free throws in a professional basketball game using that style - his overall conversion rate stands at 90%. Wilt Chamberlain - OTOH - used the same technique and barely made 50%

Your erstwhile Dodger 2Bman was none other than Steve Sax, who got the "yips" (stealing a phrase from golf) and had to I think resort to being a DH at the end of his career (but that's just off the top of my head)

No puzzle today; just had a few moments to pop in here and say howdy ...

TTP - did you get to watch the HOF induction ceremony last night? The Bus was amazing as were the number of black and gold clad Steeler fans at the stadium; despite that, Sydney Seau's (Junior's daughter) speech brought me to tears

Yellowrocks said...

One of our Sunday newspapers has a puzzle named R&D by Clive Probert, edited by Rich and Joyce. I wonder whether the editor published next week's puzzle by mistake.
While I was driving along this AM, I realized TTP meant an hour and thirty minutes. I am accustomed to Al Cyone's the Week in Review style.

VirginiaSycamore said...

Gail's puzzle looked daunting after doing the across items: I only had a few short ones filled in and none of the theme answers. Fortunately, the downs seemed much easier. I even knew THURBER on the first pass. I had read his book, My Life and Hard Times and was influenced by seeing a local theater group present A Thurber Carnival.

I really wanted CLE for the Key for Satie? Clue. I guess the question mark should have warned me it wasn't straight forward.

Otherwise it was not too bad. It took forever to get KEANE. Is he related to Bil Keane that draws Family Circus cartoons?

I agree that the ELOPED clue, took off to team up, was my favorite. Also, I only got TSR because of yesterday's puzzle.

After a sweltering week of 90 degree weather where everyone DOOPed, we are back to nice mostly dry highs in upper 70s and low 80s in Cleveland.

Hope everyone is having a good end of the summer.

Dudley said...

D Otto 9:28 -

!!!

Never saw that commercial in my life. Has a European look to me.

Husker 10:27 - let's be clear: nothing whatsoever about that image says "granny" to me. :-)

Avg Joe said...

Clever theme that was very helpful. Gold retriever was my first theme fill, and it made most of the others pretty simple. Glock spiel filled with only the K and S. but there were other spots that were slow going. Didn't remember Lenz. Couldn't even remember TSR from yesterday (it's hell to get old), wanted some type of ship for Edsel. And locked into SETI where Sith should have been. Shrine finally fixed the H, but the E stayed, so Oakee was my undoing. BZZZT. Thanks for playing. Still, a lot of crunch for a Sunday and a good use of time.

Anonymous said...

VirginiaSycamore @ 11:18

Glen Keane is the son of Bil Keane

Jayce said...

Cool puzzle. Pretty much what Irish Miss said.

Had to change CHEVY to EDSEL, IN E to ILE, NEWER to RAWER, WASH to WADI, CLOCK to ALARM, NESTLES to NESCAFE, MIXES to POURS, SWEAT to DROOP, ALLEN to CONAN, and so on.

Wanted PANTS for Granny, but didn't fit.

Best wishes to you all.

OwenKL said...

I just read yesterday's blog, and Argyle, I don't know what that link pointed to when you wrote it, but I bet it wasn't the same text as it is now, and the image page is even better! (Hi, Irish Miss, Yellowrocks, & Argyle!)

TTP said...

Finally back from breakfast. Turns out, there was an ulterior motive. Actually two. BIL # 1 wants me to build a new shed. BIL # 2 needs more electrical work.

Chairman Moe, I did, and wasn't that great ? Kudos to Jerome Bettis. And to the fans that were there in droves. A veritable sea of black and gold. The Bus has parked in Canton.


To be precise, it was 1:34:45 according to the online timer.

CrossEyedDave said...

I haven't forgotten...

Argyle said...

The link takes you to the images.

Spitzboov said...

TTP @ 0850. I'm guessing SPIEL as in sales pitch is of Yiddish origin. I may be missing a nuance but Spiel in German means play or game. I think in The Longest Day, Krieg Spiel is used. It means war games.

Bill G. said...

At lunch back when I was an engineer, we used to play a challenging version of chess called Krieg Spiel. Really clever and tough.

Avg Joe said...

Glockenspiel dredges up a vivid memory for me. A little nacht music: Tubular Bells(25:36)

Big Easy said...

RE-POST (too much blank space in yesterday's comment):

I was all over this puzzle even though the theme was easy to figure out after CHICK DINNER. In the NW, MARC, TRILL,CELLOS, & MUFTI were unknowns and I guessed GOLDen ARCHES (MacDonalds) before FALLen ARCHES finally worked out. Ugh!

CCR-ELO- saw them both live over 40 years ago but Friday night we went to see the COMMODORES ( without Lionel) in Biloxi. We had 3rd row seats and saw a great show. This puzzle was full of white because there were just so many things that I was unfamiliar with. Luckily, I worked yesterdays puzzle Sunday night( fairly easy for a Saturday) so TSR was still in my lap when I started today's. The triple consecutive unknowns- LENZ, ENSOR, THURBER combined with the previously unknown TSR- made the NE hard to complete. ACER, TRILL, KEANE, RENE, OAKIE, SETON, ARENA, ECHO were all filled by perps.

I had false starts with ALLAN-CONAN, ABYSS-CHASM, KNOT-KNOG (knotted hair), JEDI-SITH, ARLES,PARIS,& PAREE before LILLE. I do not understand MAPS for reporters. Favorite clue- 'Back biter' for MOLAR.

MAKE PAR- I usually make 6-8 a round but the doubles and snowmen more than offset them so that I earn my 16-19 handicap.