google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, Nov 14th, 2015, Barry C. Silk

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Nov 14, 2015

Saturday, Nov 14th, 2015, Barry C. Silk

Theme: Saturday Silkie~!

Words: 70 (missing J,Q,V,Z)

Blocks: 32

I blew through this Silkie in less than half my personal time - and did not have a whole bunch to work with after my first across pass.  There were some crossings that indicated my original ideas might hold water (e.g. 15a.), and then there were plenty of clues that were in my "wheelhouse", as we say.  Triple 10-letter corners in the across, triple 9-letter corners in the downs, and two more 10's inside;

10. Predator known for its piercing call : SCREECH OWL - intimidating


27. Florida surfing mecca : COCOA BEACH - I only got as far south as Jacksonville


half a league ONWARD~! (thx Steve~!)

ACROSS:

1. Musical group founded by a Civil War vet : BOSTON POPS - not that I knew this, but I was fairly sure it was not "Aerosmith" of the '70s - you can read more about the vet here

11. Some email attachments : PDFs - dah~!  Not PICS, and then not GIFs

15. Symbol for the NFL's Bears : UPPER CASE C - I knew what the logo on the helmet was, just had to wait to see how Mr. Silk was going to phrase/parse "capital C"
16. 1970 Kinks hit : LOLA 

17. School uniform part dating to the 1800s : ETON COLLAR

18. Presently : ANON - think  Shakespeare

19. Strip lighting : NEON - the strip in Las Vegas, e.g.

20. Partly roasted treat : S'MORE

21. Consequences of too many blows : TKOs - Boxing

22. Wing it : AD LIB

24. Larger-than-life types : LEGENDS

26. Big name in investment banking : SACHS - Goldman-Sachs, which is a company that was a client of the architects I once worked for

30. King of pop : CAROLE - not fooled; waited on perps, which helped me remember Carole; I was stuck on Ben E.

31. IRA components : CDs - certificates of deposit - one way your individual retirement account can save money

34. Complex pipes : HOOKAHS - so as a carpenter I was thinking about sink traps, etc.


36. Pitch : TAR

37. Civil Rights Memorial architect : LIN - same artist as the Vietnam Memorial - more on the piece here

38. Tahrir Square city : CAIRO - half perps

39. 1979 Pa. newsmaker : TMI - not "Too Much Information" - this refers to Three Mile Island, the nuclear plant that had a "malfunction" - I recall it being a major news event, but I was 8 and did not understand the implications

40. Altar on high : ARA - the constellation

41. "Happening Now" airer : FOX NEWS - don't care for watching the news in general; I can generate enough of my own bad fortune

43. Lotion letters : SPF - sun protection factor - more here - I see that nylon stockings give an SPF of 2; so protect yourselves, ladies~!


44. Italian road : STRADA - straight translation; need to keep your Italian supercars off the streets of NYC~!

46. Peabody Essex Museum city : SALEM - again, perps

48. Course outlines : SYLLABI - now this one I did know - I had to review the syllabus for my Adult Education AutoCAD class back in 2008 when I was an adjunct at NYU

50. Seat of Greene County, Ohio : XENIA - the "X" was my last letter - how did I miss 42d.~?

54. Long haul : TREK

55. Do away with : ERASE - about the only clue I would define as "weak"

59. Low spots : RUTS

60. Taunt : RIDE

61. Like emus : AUSTRALIAN - LONG-NECKED fit, too....

63. Positive assertion : "I CAN"

64. Ownership issue : CLEAR TITLE - the owner of the restaurants I work at went to closing on his first house yesterday - now it's my turn; I have to close up a window, paint the interior, and strip/poly all the floors

65. Red Rose : PETE - DAH~!!  I am so disappointed I missed this one.  Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds; I am sure C.C. nailed it - are you having baseball withdrawal symptoms~?

66. Home safety feature : HEAT SENSOR - along with motion, what typically triggers your....

13D. Outdoor security item : FLOOD LAMP

DOWN:

1. Lake __ Vista : BUENA

2. Didn't sit around : OPTED

3. String holder : SPOOL

4. __ elbow : TENNIS - I have "high volume" elbow from working at UPS - same condition - see the pic in the 'causes' section; this is what I do for 4-5hrs every morning

5. Tolkien monster : ORC - monster meant it was not "ENT"

6. Base figs. : NCOs - military bases, that is; I went with the carpenter's ESTs

7. Where to get a date : PALM - anyone know where to get the "other" kind of date~?

8. Vigeland Museum city : OSLO - again, perps; Mr. Silk does come up with some unique alternatives to the standard clues

9. Bit of wisdom : PEARL - the same restaurant owner's daughter will be 1yr old on Dec 7th - and her name is Pearl

11. Certain metalworker : PLATER - I've seen enough "How It's Made" episodes on this operation

12. Five-time 1960s Emmy-winning actor : DON KNOTTS

14. Literally, "without lines" : SANS SERIF

23. Crotchety remark : "BAH~!"

25. Atmosphere makeup : GAS

28. Fake : HOAX

29. Potato __ : SKINS - oooh, CHIPS was so close - 20%, but 100% in the right places

31. Museum visit, perhaps : CLASS TRIP

32. Traditional Cajun dish : DIRTY RICE

33. Warned, in a way : SNARLED AT

35. Neighborhood : AREA

41. Rx overseer : FDA

42. "I can remember when the air was clean and __ was dirty": George Burns : SEX

45. Ethylene, for one : ALKENE

47. Legendary speller? : MERLIN - casting spells, that is

49. Cry of domination : "I RULE~!" - huh - iRule; I thought this was Apple's new digital tape measure....

51. Dark times abroad : NUITS

52. Novelist Calvino : ITALO - again, perps and one WAG

53. Longtime Moore co-star : ASNER

56. Completely lost : ASEA

57. Fantasy player's concern : STAT

58. Stumbles, say : ERRS

62. Bolted down : ATE

Splynter

48 comments:

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks, Barry and Splynter!

Plodded away at this one until I got it. Whew!

Late for bed.

Cheers!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Pretty straightforward romp today. Nice to see some local flavor (well, local for me, at least). I've been to the Peabody Essex Museum several times, so SALEM was a gimme. And, while I didn't know the history behind the BOSTON POPS, I only needed a couple of perps to guess it.

XENIA was mostly unknown, but vaguely familiar enough to guess at once I had the initial X. ALKENE, on the other hand, was completely unknown and looked wrong in the grid, but the perps were solid enough to convince me.

Didn't really care for the clues for RUTS or RIDE, but that was made up for by the wonderful cluing on CAROLE, PETE and PALM.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

This wasn't nerf, but it was a softball from Mr Silk. Turned out to be faster than average.

Got stuck in New England, so I worked the rest of the puzzle and then came back for a second look. With KNO in place, I had WAGged NICK NOLTE -- hey, it fit. Realized that was the wrong decade -- Wite-Out, please. That allowed PDFS to appear, and the rest is history. The only other major goof was thinking ME____ could be MEDUSA rather than MERLIN. Quickly fixed.

Splynter, do you get any sort of treatment to tone down that "high volume" elbow? That's the sort of chronic condition that can make your later years miserable.

John A. said...

stumped in the SW...unfamiliarity w/ SYLLABI, STRADA and ALKENE doomed me...may have been able to maneuver had they not been so close together...aced the rest...the usual nice saturday morning challenge from the silkster

HowardW said...

Like Barry G., I was helped by the local flavor to BOSTON POPS and SALEM. And no unknown pop-culture names. So this ended as the fastest Saturday for me. Had a little trouble in the NW where I had chulA for BUENA -- although there isn't a Lake Chula Vista, just the city -- and acTED for OPTED, but once I figured out BOSTON POPS then those were fixed. Favorite clues were "King of Pop" and "Red Rose" which should have been obvious, but only were in retrospect.

FLOOD LAMPs -- surely Noah used them.

Another excellent Silkie puzzle. And thanks Splynter for the recap, limbs and all.

My heart goes out to the Parisians after last night's terror attacks. I have a daughter in Paris, making it more troubling for me. She responded quickly that she was safe, but it's hard to relax, knowing that she'll be there for months more.

OwenKL said...

Red letters day, and still DNF, naticks at STRADA+ALKENE+PETE.

So many place names! Embedded like BOSTON, ETON, AUSTRALIA; locations of places in CAIRO, SALEM, XENIA, OSLO, TMI, COCOA BEACH; and a partial Lake BUENA Vista; and a sky location ARA. I'm surprised we didn't get 7d:____ Beach*, 9d:_____ Harbor, 35a: La Brea attraction. And then there were the travel related words GAS, STRADA, RUTS, TREK, RIDE, CLASS TRIP; and place related words AREA, A SEA, CLEAR TITLE. Even a few near misses for Platte River (PLATER) and {DON} kNOTTS Berry Farm!

* This would have caused a conflict with BEACH in both a clue and answer, but we already have that with LEGEND at 47a & 24a.

I'm surprised FLOOD LAMP and HEAT SENSOR weren't clued as a clecho, home security device.

Montana said...

First Saturday puzzle I've tried to solve in nearly a year. I did surprisingly well. Red-letter help, but no alphabet runs. I'll be surprised if most of you don't say this was an easier Silkie than usual.
Great write-up, Splynter!

Montana

OwenKL said...

Clecho (from clue echo), crossword clues that are the same or similar, but lead to different entries in the puzzle.
This was coined before I came here, but I've wondered if it was in part derived from Cleché (also clechy, from Latin key-holed), a heraldic term for overlapping charges of the same object but different size and colour.

Yellowrocks said...

Yes, this Silkie was easier for me than most. ALKENE was all perps. I wondered for a while how UPPER could be the start of the Bears symbol. V-8 moment when it dawned on me.
Would you believe I got TENNIS elbow from shoveling snow? One winter it snowed so much the piles beside my walk were higher than my head. Hoisting shovels full of snow up there did me in. That winter our condo assn. had to pay to have some of the snow trucked out.
I liked seeing RIDE clued by taunt. To me RIDE (riding) is persistent taunting harassment triggering the response, "Get off my back!"
I also liked legendary speller, MERLIN.

desper-otto said...

Montana, I like your new avatar. Cute.

OwenKL, I don't think so. Dennis coined it to mean "clue echo" -- I've never been sure if it's correctly pronounced Clecko or Clesho.

OwenKL said...

Fun avatars -- new for Montana and one you may have missed for HowardW. BTW, HW, I liked your mot, so could FLOOD LAMPS also be Ark lamps?

Ergo said...

Holy smokes! A Silkie that I finished in its entirety!

That has to be a first. Either I'm getting better or Barry showed a little compassion for us Saturday novices.

Thanks Barry for the puzzle (and for making my day) and Splynter for the write up.

TTP said...

Good morning all. Thank you Barry and thank you Splynter.

It sure wasn't my fastest time, but I have nowhere to go until it warms up outside, so I savored almost every minute of this puzzle. For those of you that are keeping score, no red letters, and no look-ups, but in the end, a FIW.

Stumbled with potato SackS for a short bit, and progressed from ALKALI to ALKINE to ALKENE. In the south, entering flightless where AUSTRALIAN belonged took a little longer to ERASE.

It was ASEA, STAT, ERRS and ATE that gave me Australian, and that also lead to CLEAR (deeds at first) TITLE. The ending of those two also got me to think of ASNER rather than thinking of Phylis and Rhoda's real last names.

That A in ASNER also forced me to remove Akron for Greene County seat, so George Burns quip became apparent as SEX, not SEa (Hi Splynter). And once that X was in, this (half) Ohio Buckeye knew XENIA.

Failed at the intersection of RUTS and ITALO. We have Calvino as a clue often enough that I should be abe to auto-fill it as quickly as Husker Gary entered (Lake) BUENA (Vista), but can never seem to remember ITALO.

Think I will use Zatarain's to make that traditional cajun dish DIRTY RICE to go along with my fajitas tonight. By the way, if you are in Louisiana and don't see dirty rice on the menu but see rice dressing, order it. Same thing. Dirty Rice is Cajun. Rice Dressing is Accadian.

inanehiker said...

WEES about this being a fast run for a Silkie - my challenge was the Northeast - with only SANS SERIF being a gimme. Was thinking musical pitch instead of TAR - so my fill there left me hanging until I stepped back.
I had ALKANE first before ALKENE - sometimes knowing chemistry is a drawback- but it did give me the ALK start right away.
I see lots of TENNIS elbow in the office - but almost no one plays tennis to get it- but saying tennis elbow is lot easier than Lateral epicondylitis which is its official name.

Thanks Splynter and Barry!

OwenKL said...

My Muses have struck!

Old Noah was worried, with skies growing gloomy,
Inside his boat it was all dark and tomby.
So before 'twas too damp
Japeth made a FLOOD LAMP,
But was outdone by Shem, whose Ark Light was illumy!

Northwest Runner said...

I guess Calvino has to get in there with Turow and Ferber as crossword regulars. As for baseball withdrawl I can't help bringing up Bart Giamatti's wonderful observation: "[Baseball] breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." Full essay at: http://mason.gmu.edu/~rmatz/giamatti.html

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Easy Silkie today. No searches needed. Came together well.

Brought out a couple pleasant memories
:
Vigeland Museum in OSLO. We were blown away by all the beautiful outdoor sculptures. A 'Must See' if you ever visit there.

BOSTON POPS - Arthur Fiedler was conductor for 49 years. Privileged to see them perform several times; at RPI, Newport Naval Base, and at the Shell.

Big Easy said...

Did I sleep for 72 hours? Is today Monday? This was my fastest Saturday puzzle ever. My first thought was MARINE BAND for BOSTON POPS but I always look to fill the short fills and work from there and did the NW in about one minute. The NE took about two minutes even though my only sure fills were LOLA and CAROLE.

The dead center gave me a little trouble, due to the fact that I misspelled Goldman SACHS as SACSS and was unsure of how to correctly spell HOOKAH. My only unknowns were FOX NEWS, LIN, and SALEM, but the FDA took care of FOX and the perps took care of SALEM.

DIRTY RICE- Popeye's Chicken used to call it that but changed it Cajun Rice.

TTP- Dirty rice with fajitas? Never seen that on a restaurant menu.

Madame Defarge said...

Good morning.

This was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. Thanks, Barry. Stalled immediately with the Bears. I wanted Chicago C because I think the C came from the University of Chicago style. I guess I might lose my Season tickets for that one. PETE and CAROLE were great clues.

Thanks, Splynter for another fun Saturday. Great links.

Enjoy the day.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Always fun to see my favorite Saturday constructor and more fun to solve w/o help. Went astray with acted before opted and alkali before alkene, but everything else fell into place, some areas needing perp help.

Thanks, Barry, for the usual challenging but doable (mostly) offering and thanks, Splynter, for the detailed expo.

Have a great day.

Husker Gary said...

Dang! Just when I though I was really getting on Mr. Silk’s wavelength, you all solved it as easily as I did. ☺

Musings
-This store that covers a COCOA BEACH block was a fav for my Nebr. “surfer wanna be’s.”
-We just installed strip lighting like this
-C.C.’s and Argyle’s Wed. puzzle featured a HOOKAH smoking member of the Lepidoptera family
-TREKS into Russia undid German war plans
-Oregon Trail RUTS caused by many steel wheel wagons heading west
-EMU Oil made from the fat of EMUS is said to help with joint pain
-My daughter got a DATE and a wonderful spouse at this electronic address
-Don KNOTTS knew Andy Griffith from their No Time For Sergeants movie and called him and convinced him he needed a deputy on his TV show
-I’ve taken many kids on a CLASS TRIP to the fabulous SAC Museum near Omaha
-Favorite George Burns line (esp. at my age) – “The first thing I do in the morning is read the obituaries. If I don’t see my name, I make breakfast.”

Steve said...

Pretty quick for me too - thanks for the expo, Splynter. I thought I'd be stumped down in the SE for a while, but things emerged nicely. Plenty of learning moments, including SALEM and COCOA BEACH.

I'm off for my Saturday hike - about 27 leagues or so. Beautiful day out there!

desper-otto said...

Steve, are you serious? That's about 81 miles! Somebody must've really told you to "Take a hike."

TTP said...

Waco is the host town for today's ESPN College Gameday, as the #12 Oklahoma Sooners look to upset the #6 Baylor Bears.

Hi Big Easy, yeah, put me on the bandwagon of those that like to shake up cuisines and non-standard pairings and call it "fusion." Hmmm, I wonder how kimchi and fajitas would pair ?


Was sent the following observation the other day.

The reason Mayberry was so peaceful and quiet was because nobody was married ....

Andy, Aunt Bea, Barney, Floyd, Howard, Goober, Gomer, Sam, Earnest T Bass, Helen, Thelma Lou, Clara ... and, of course, Opie-- all single. The only married person was Otis, and he stayed drunk.


Can't put it off any longer. More leaves and cleanup awaits.

C6D6 Peg said...

Thanks, Barry, for a breeze! Nice clues, but didn't fool me (King of Pop) or (Red Rose). Great puzzle.

And a very nice write-up, Splynter. What would happen if you DIDN'T put a picture of legs in there?

Misty said...

I can't believe I actually got a Saturday Silkie! Okay, I had to cheat on one item, and goofed on one single letter, but that's not bad for a Saturday and for a Silkie it's downright brilliant! Yay! Yay! Yay! Many thanks, Barry, and you too, Splynter, for the ever helpful write-up.

But what a sad morning to wake up to. Howard W, I'm so glad your daughter is safe--you must have been desperately worried. My heart goes out to everyone there.

Have a good weekend, everybody.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Hand up for finding it easy today. The solve went faster with long, reliable anchor answers such as Sans Serif. I had Field Trip first - close enough.

Howdy Splynter, today's legs are some of the loveliest yet!

Stay strong, Paris! Illegitimi Non Carborundum!

Abejo said...

Good afternoon from Minneapolis. Thank you, Barry Silk, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Splynter, for a fine review.

Changing lanes in Minneapoliss. Heading for Chicago Midway inna few minutes.

Did the puzzle on the plane from California. I was surprised to actually finish it. Must have been the altitude.

Got he NW and the SE as first. Then the other two quadrants.

They were all tough. Was happy to get BOSTON POPS with a few perps. That energized me to avidly continue.

HOOKSHS was easy. I do not use them, but have seen them many times.

PETE was a good one for Red Rose.

Getting ready to board, so I have to run. Have a book for the rest of the trip. Source, by James Michener. Only 1100 pages.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Yellowrocks said...

Abejo, I have read the Source three times over the years. I thoroughly enjoy it. Each time I find something new in it because this TOME covers such a large sweep of history and ideas. I hope it gives you as much enlightenment and satisfaction.

AnonymousPVX said...

A Saturday Silkie and from the comments it seems Mr. Silk had mercy. Definitely one of his "easier" ones, but still a Silkie.

You know you're getting good at solving when you solve a Silkie regardless of its difficulty.

Freond said...

Finishing a Saturday Silkie with no cheats in under 40 minutes has to be a personal best. Most of the time it seemed I was on the right "wavelength." I swagged OSLO since Vigeland seemed Scandinavian. I've always had a eye for fonts, so SANSSERIF came to mind quickly. SCREECHOWL seemed obvious.

The SW corner was the toughest, with only SYLLABI coming quickly. This was quite a challenge, taking a lot of work to eke things out. Got STRADA once I got the D and A from perps. Only knew that from the old Fellini film with Anthony Quinn. Next came DIRTYRICE from the TY, and slowly pried out the rest of the corner. Quite a fun challenge, not the usual frustrating kind.

Rugs said...

Idiot that I am, I filled in "clean title" instead of "clear title" and then couldn't figure out what erns meant.

On the other hand, a screech owl does not make a piercing shriek. It has a variety of trills, coos, and a distinctive whinnying sound like a horse.

Jayce said...

Another wonderful Silkie Rolls Royce. Well, Bentley anyway. Superb quality and class.

Hand up for entering CHULA although there isn't a Lake Chula Vista, just the city, as HowardW said. And instead of AUSTRALIAN, after getting the first A and the final IAN, I wanted something like APTERIXIAN. Don't overthink a Silkie, Jayce.

Took me far too long to get PETE. Since Red Rose tea is a favorite of mine, I kept trying to figure out how TEAS might fit there. V8 moment when PETE emerged.

What the hell motivates people to commit such atrocities as occurred in Paris? I flat out don't understand such hate.

Best wishes to you all.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! This Silkie wasn't so hard -- just not on my "first thought" wave length. Or second or third in some places. But interesting and clever all the same. Impossible for me without a few red-letter runs, but enjoyable. Yay, Splynter!

First entry was Marine Band, but when I got a couple "P's", I knew BOSTON POPS. I have fond memories of warm spring nights, weekly attending the B. POPS and receiving a gardenia corsage each time. I also was privileged to meet Arthur Fiedler when I was a 19-yr-old babysitter in the home of a distinguished music professor in a western college. A.F. came for dinner. The baby & I made a brief appearance to show off the baby. My name was said just before I whisked baby away for the evening elsewhere. I was told A.F. lived in one wing of his home and his family lived in another wing so as not to disturb his genius.

My neighbors down the street have installed a two-FLOOD LAMPs, motion activated, which come on when someone drives past at night. Scared the **** out of me the first time I got flashed.

PK said...

Isn't it a shame that something as wonderful as the internet is being used for something so evil as recruitment to violence by military radicals? No one is safe under the new parameters of war. Watching the news while eating gives a person indigestion at anytime. Having one's dinner interrupted by machine gun fire is beyond imagination. But it happened.

Abejo said...

Yellowrocks: I am looking forward to this book, "Source.". I have also read Poland and Hawaii by Michener. Leon Uris is another favorite author. Have read several of his.

Back in Chicago now. Now going home so I can change clothes and go out again. This time my wife is going.

Abejo

Manac said...

Hand up for feeling so smug zipping through
this puzzle until coming here. I think we are
just getting too darn smart.

Some Owl Sounds for your listening pleasure.
The Barred owl is most familiar for me. I hear them a lot
on any given night.

Bill G. said...

I have nothing new to add except that I enjoyed this more than most of the rest of the typical Saturday puzzles. I would fill in a few letters here and there and then the rest of the answer would sometimes jump into my brain. Dunno how that works...

Geez, I love Monet. Gladiolus

From late last night; a baby being introduced to the family dog for the first time. BABY AND DOG

Anonymous said...

Loved the owl sounds Manac !

Bill G. said...

Here is a super photograph my bike-riding and teacher friend took of the Andromeda Galaxy. Andromeda

Dudley said...

Bill G, that's impressive. My compliments to the chef.

Anonymous said...

My screech owl was originally a screem hawk, then a screem howl.

Never really considered Carole King's music as being pop

VirginiaSycamore said...

Thanks for the doable yet taxing Saturday puzzle, Barry and great write up Spylnter.

Well I boldly did as much as I could and didn't use red letters. I looked up Tahrir Square because I hadn't a clue. The top came pretty fast, but like 20 minutes. I slowly worked the perps. I recalled TMI from when I was a lass of 28.

I soon guessed XENIA when I got the X because it had a famous, F5 tornado that destroyed half the town on April 3, 1974. XENIA

When I turned on the red letters, I had messed up . I had FAUX for HOAX and HOUKAH for HOOKAH. I had no idea about investment banking so SACFS error didn’t jump out. Oh, well.

I was glad to have something to think about so I could get my mind off the Paris evil-doing. I don't call these things tragedies, because that implies some meaning to them which they don't have.

VS

CrossEyedDave said...

Hmm,what could I possibly add...

maybe, An Otter juggling in Slo Mo...

Oh Wait!, I know, An Owl on his "migration"route...

Unknown said...

I was confused by one clue: "Predator known for its piercing call". That would most certainly NOT be a screech owl! They have a call that sounds like a trill. It's a lovely night sound; you should get a chance to hear it!

Unknown said...

I was confused by one clue: "Predator known for its piercing call". That would most certainly NOT be a screech owl! They have a call that sounds like a trill. It's a lovely night sound; you should get a chance to hear it! https://youtu.be/SyFJfmEghdY

Argyle said...

Manac at 4:57 beat you to owl calls but I found the web site very interesting. Perhaps a mouse may find the call "piercing".

Anonymous said...

Mistake at 12D: SANS SERIF is, literally, without a line, not "Literally, without lines." "Serif" is singular.