google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, Nov 21st, 2015, Bruce Venzke

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Nov 21, 2015

Saturday, Nov 21st, 2015, Bruce Venzke

Theme: None

Words: 70 (missing F,Q,X,Z)

Blocks: 36

 Second time in 6 weeks for a Bruce Venzke puzzle - and another relatively quick solve for me - lots of "gimme" clues and answers for a Saturday.  Unlike that last puzzle, however, this one had several proper names, and those fills were the only ones that left me stumped; and since they crossed in two places, I had to cave in to red-letters for ONE lousy cell.  Oh well.  Two triple spanner stacks and a very cool looking grid;

1. Amuse to the hilt : LEAVE IN STITCHES

16. Goth is a subgenre of it : ALTERNATIVE ROCK - I prefer the "goth" at 8d.

17. Tax inequity : MARRIAGE PENALTY - seems like a redundant phrase - but I am biased from my short-lived 2yr marriage



58. Slide rules, for example : ANALOG COMPUTERS - the abacus is another


64. Borrower's protection : INTEREST RATE CAP

65. Some emcees : TOAST MISTRESSES - new to me, but it seemed logical

ONW
A   R
D ~ !

ACROSS:

18. Blotter name : ALIAS - oops, not aliBI - but I was 100% 60% correct

19. These, overseas : ESTOS - threw in estAs, and that was close enough; and on this I'm 100% 80% correct

20. Film lioness : NALA

23. Financial shellacking : BATH

25. T-__ : BIRD - not BONE, and not BILL; I had an '86 4spd 4cyl turbo coupe - nice

in this color, no less

28. Where surfers look for bargains : eMALL - internet surfing

30. With 34-Across, China's locale : EAST

34. See 30-Across : ASIA

35. Logician friend of Einstein : GÖDEL - did not know this one, but I was vaguely familiar with the crossing ADLER; more on Kurt here

36. Give (out) : DOLE

37. Chinese dish eponym : TSO - one of my favorite dishes, General Tso's Chicken

38. Swansea-born : WELSH - bottom left, not far from Cardiff

39. Got used up, with "out" : RAN

40. Scary St. Bernard of fiction : CUJO - one of the first books I ever read

42. Beyond chunky : OBESE

43. Dough dispensers : ATMs

44. Try : HEAR - as in court

45. Not seen as frequently : RARER

46. Amphora, e.g. : VASE - I like the sound of "amphora"

47. Requires : ASKS

49. Dino, __ & Billy: '60s band that included sons of two musical celebs : DESI - a healthy WAG after I had the D--I; more here

51. Sentry's stint : WATCH

54. Is charismatic : HAS IT - I am lacking in the "charisma" department, but I "has it" in other areas; I had to wire a series of cabinet lights at my friend's new house, but I cannot run extension cords in the wall - so I came up with this clever solution

DOWN:

1. Monastery figure : LAMA

2. It has blue-striped jets : EL AL

3. Abruzzi bell town : ATRI - poetic; more here

4. Tara feature : VERANDA - Gone With the Wind

5. 1974 pension plan legislation : ERISA - seen this B4 in crosswords, but it filled via perps today

6. Words with stew and pickle : IN A

7. Bug : NAG

8. __-Chapelle: historic Paris church : STE - spectacular; I love Gothic Cathedral architecture; if you have the time, here's a link to a great show about the building achievements of the time - I like the demonstration at 24:30


9. Track advantage : TIP

10. "__ Got a Secret" : I'VE

11. Belief : TENET

12. Surprised at the party : CRASHED

13. "Dateline NBC" anchor Lester : HOLT

14. Prefix with -plasm : ECTO

15. "The __ the limit!" : SKY'S

21. Investigator's data gathering : LEGWORK - this kind of investigator


22. Low life : AMOEBAS

23. Consecrated : BLESSED

24. Attendant to a man : ALL HERE

25. Baker's quantity : BATCH

26. Send forth : ISSUE

27. Spanish wine region : RIOJA - filled via perps

29. Freud contemporary : ADLER - as I have said here before, there's a book on personality types that I frequently use to understand why people behave as they do

31. Inner tube? : AORTA - har-har

32. Verbal attacks : SLAMS

33. It may be perfect : TENSE

41. Forecasters : ORACLES

43. Flies : AVIATES

48. Insufficient : SHORT

50. "On the Beach" novelist : SHUTE - the "S" was a WAG

51. What early arrivals often have to do : WAIT

52. Cornerstone word : ANNO

53. "So long!" : "TA-TA~!"

55. Moments : SECS

56. "Dies __" : IRAE

57. Recipe abbr. : TSPS

59. Special someone : GEM - here's my "gem" for the week


60. Show with many spin-offs : CSI

61. USAF commissioning prog. : OTS - Officer Training School

62. He played Clubber Lang in "Rocky III" : Mr. T - I pity the fool....

63. Links figure : PAR

Splynter

47 comments:

OwenKL said...

FIR! I did have to rely on the tada to let me know when I'd hit on the right combination of WAGs. Last change was the oxymoronic ALiEn-NATIVE ROCK (the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth?) to ALTERNATIVE ROCK.

An abacus is very much digital, not analog!

There once was a vestal virgin named SIBYL
Who learned to couch her foretellings in riddle.
Her musings ORACULAR
Were sometimes spectacular,
But DOUBLESPEAK prophecies made patrons uncivil!

Tho never invited, Charlie went to each blast;
He'd stoke up on liquor and get totally smashed!
Next day, he'd say why
He was that kind of guy --
Since a PARTY is thrown, it's meant to be CRASHED!

The author of "ON THE BEACH", with his muse
Boarded a plane that was bound for Duluth.
He saw his companion
Was placidly travelin',
If the plane ever CRASHED, well, she had her SHUTE!

Lemonade714 said...

A very nice challenge and a great visual grid. Thank you Bruce and Splynter. Birthday party day today. Enjoy the day all.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Well, this one certainly looked daunting at first glance and I struggled to get started, but once I finally got to a point where I I could enter stuff I knew things smoothed out. ERISA was a big gimme that broke open the entire northern section, and I was fortunately able to remember both GÖDEL and ADLER in the center. Ditto for SHUTE down in the south.

Lots of fun, tricky cluing today that made me pause for a little bit but brought a smile to my face once I figured them out. "It may be perfect" for TENSE and "Attendant to a man" for ALL HERE were particularly nice.

Also, nice to see the "correct" spelling of AMOEBAS for a change...

JCJ said...

NW corner filled in last. Had to look up ERISA to make sure it was correct. Enjoyable puzzle.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Wow, that makes two softball Saturdays in a row! Thanx, Bruce, and thanx for the expo, Splynter.

The "slide rule" clue reminds me of the Post Versalog that I used back in the day. I bought mine new, and paid about a quarter of the asking price for this used one.

Anyone else think of the Mirror of Erised when ERISA appeared?

There used to be a solid MARRIAGE PENALTY in the tax code. Now, depending on income, anybody can "earn" a penalty.

Nice CSO to Steve with ORACLES. They've got a great database, but I sure didn't care much for their software.

Anonymous said...

Did no one notice the mistake...34 across should of been "see 30-across"

Big Easy said...

I almost got it all but the 'Attendant to a man' clue had me thinking of a valet, not those who showed up. So I wrote GODEC and ALCHERE, guessing some Frawnch word. I got lucky with the cross of RIOJA and CUJO, and SHUTE and HAS IT as the three were unknowns and it took a V8 moment to realize HAS IT would be two words.

Goth and ALTERNATIVE ROCK; I really have no idea what they consist of but I know crap when I hear it. It would be nice if these 'musicians' learned resonance, dissonance, chords, times, tempo, and what key their 'music' was supposed to be in before they sound like donkeys accompanied by screech owls. And some some talent might help.

Two days in a row-DNF.

Big Easy said...

Anon- I noticed the 34A-30A- 35A error but since I didn't know GODEL but did know EAST ASIA, then a person named ASIA GODE-C seemed possible to me.

desper-otto said...

Anon@7:14 -- Hit 30-across first, immediately entered EAST there and ASIA at 34-across. Guilty for not reading the 34a clue. I do that a lot, and often get bitten because of it.

Avg Joe said...

I missed the error in the 30-35 mix up, but filled it in without hesitation. Most of the rest involved a lot of hesitation. Fell for the Elsa/Nala trick. Alias made 3 appearances before I finally found enough support to keep it. Took a complete flyer on Welsh with only the W. (glad that worked, cuz it helped). Was certainly on the Valet line of thought, but length forced it to be something else, and the aforementioned Welsh gave me ....here, so that dime dropped.

But 'twas not to be. Adler seemed the likely answer, and more familiar than Abler, but Godel did not seem near as likely as Gobel. So the B won in my mental wrangling and it was a FIW. Oh well, it was an enjoyable effort. And besides, what's time to a pig?

Anonymous said...

Is "attendant to a man" = ALL HERE lame or what? "Attending," maybe.

Argyle said...

30-35 fixed

Barry G. said...

Is "attendant to a man" = ALL HERE lame or what? "Attending," maybe.

Tricky? Most definitely. I wouldn't call it lame, though. Attendant can be (and usually is) used as a noun, but it's also an adjective meaning "being present or in attendance." Just a bit of Saturday-level misdirection.

Anonymous said...

"Is 'attendant to a man' = ALL HERE lame or what?"

Just a bit of Saturday-level lameness.

Bluehen said...

Probably my fastest Saturday solve ever. What a craftily designed puzzle. Thanks, Bruce. Very informative expo, Splynter. Thank you. I did have a couple of missteps along the way as others have mentioned, but perps soon straightened them out. Fun puzzle.

Cya!

Avg Joe said...

Okay, this is from the "short section" conversation last night. If not interested, stop reading here.

Some effort will be required. This is the best I could find that illustrates the point and is linkable. This is the Lancaster County engineers web site for maps. Enter Here

On the 3rd block from the top you'll see "Please enter Section/Township/Range. I'll start at the southern boundary with the widest of these short sections. Enter Sec 31, Twp 7, Rng 8, then click "section plat" and choose open to see the PDF. You have to zoom up to 100% to read the numbers, which should be in the center at the top. But you can see that the bottom cord is a total of 3,659.7' and that the top cord is a total of 3,696.7' (You can also see that there are numbers that do not agree, since multiple surveys have been done as technology has improved). This is the width of the widest short section in our county, at well under 5,280'

Now to the N boundary. Enter Sec 6, Twp 12, Rng 8 and again click "section plat" to open the PDF. This one is so narrow that is shows parts of adjacent sections. The road near the center is 112th, and that is the west line of Section 6. This one has a top cord of 1,064.6' and a bottom cord of 1,237.7'. Both are "full" sections, but neither is anywhere near 640 acres. In fact, the smaller one has only a total acreage of 146.02 if I added up the sum of the parts correctly.

I have a paper map of the entire county that illustrates it really well, but I can't find a good link for that. If you want to see a fuzzy version, Look Here Near the right side you can see a vertical line of thin sections that taper to nearly nothing on the upper edge. This will be the 6th vertical row from the right hand edge.

Borefest over. I hope you enjoyed the nap. There will be a test. :-)

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

D-O My 'slip-stick' is a Post Versalog, too. Paid $22 for it , new. Still keep it handy but use it maybe once a year.

Stared at the triple spanner stacks and said, "Here we go." Slow start but then the lower right and then the whole bottom coughed up their fill. ANALOG COMPUTERS was the first spanner to yield. Finally realized Swansea was in Wales so got WELSH. Eventually got it all except for needing help with ALL HERE which I just 'got' now..
OTS - Navy's equivalent is OCS (Officer Candidate School)

Have a great day and weekend.

Husker Gary said...

Imposing at first but doable. AL_HERE/GODE_ left me a cell short.

Musings
-We subs say “ALL HERE?” but this…
-Gee, I hope they they included my favorites
-Big Easy - Lack of musicality is a point of pride for that genre.
-You have to know a lot of math just to run a slide rule
-My first T-_ _ _ _ entry
-Is there a correlation between OBESITY rates and income?
-Pulling “Dough” out an ATM never fails to amaze me
-An incredible story about Desi Arnaz Jr., Patty Duke and Sean Astin.
-A really good quarterback HAS IT
-Wanna guess who was the main sponsor of I’VE Got A Secret
-Is this really a legitimate BLESSED event?
-Verbal SLAMS fill the halls of schools
-If those ORACLES giving TIPS are so smart, why are they so badly dressed?
-I usually have to WAIT because I beat the secretaries to school. Dang OCD.

Yellowrocks said...

I enjoyed this faster than usual Saturday, but there were a few sticking points. I never heard of ERISA. CUJO was all perps. I enjoyed the expo, Splynter.
Even accepting that ATTENDANT is not a noun here and reading all your explanations, I don't get 24D, ALL HERE. I wagged the L in GODEL and my solve was technically correct.
Very busy. Catch you later.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

At first glance, my immediate reaction was "Uh-oh, I'm in trouble!" 😟. But, as so often happens with a Saturday stickler, patience and perseverance won the day. 😎 I knew Adler but not Godel but perps solved that area. I did have OCS before OTS, but I wasn't tricked ny Nala 🐆. vs. Elsa as I had the N filled in.

Thanks, Bruce, for a challenging but satisfying solve, and thanks, Splynter, for the walk through.

Another crisp, sunny Fall 🍂 🍃 day. I doubt there are that many left before the ❄️❄️❄️❄️ flies. ⛄️

Have a great day. 🍀

desper-otto said...

YR, Attendant is one who is present at an event, and "to a man" means without exception. So, they were All There.

C6D6 Peg said...

Thanks, Bruce, for a nice challenge today. Finished with a WAG on ADLER and GODEL.

Nice job, Splynter. You even got 2 sets of legs.... one for the guys and one for the girls (Tom Selleck)!

Apias said...

I would have thought "attendance". Attendant seems grammatically incorrect

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

The dratted DNF today. I plum didn't know the J in Cujo and Riejo. Really loved that Attendant to a Man clue, once I finally "saw" it, which was rather later than I'd have liked. I should know better by now! Everything else went smoothly enough.

Slide rules were just on the way out when I reached high school, so by my freshman year of college, they were really toast. However, the college president had earlier written a textbook on slide rules, so a slide rule course was still (laughably) mandatory during the first year. The prof knew it was ridiculous, and on Day One we were offered an exam - a calculator quiz - which, when passed, excused us from class the rest of the semester. Everyone aced it, so the class never met again.

Morning Splynter, you've done well again! Especially in the leg area....

Apias said...

Overall a good challenge. Ethos for tenet and Elsa for Nala slowed me up for a bit. Desi was a lucky wag as was Godel / Adler

HowardW said...

Intimidating to see those spanners at top and bottom, but the 3- and 4-letter crossers provided enough hints to get this done in faster-than-average time. I knew ERISA, but had a moment of doubt when ELSA seemed like the answer to 20A -- I never saw The Lion King, but its characters seem very popular with crossword constructors! Like some others, I didn't even notice the mistaken cross-reference in 34A, just filled in EAST ASIA and went onward. That makes two days in a row, after yesterday's issue with Porto.

Splynter, thought you'd react more to LEGWORK! But you snuck one in anyway...

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning,

I'm running late today so pretty much WES. I only succeeded with WAGS and perps.

Thanks for the puzzle, Bruce. And Splynter, the tour was perfect, especially the STE Sulpice link. Thanks.

Have a fine day everyone.

Yellowrocks said...

I need a break. Two hours of physical work without stopping is about as much as I can take. Such are the attendant woes of being a senior citizen.
DO, thanks for the explanation. I think attendant was used as an adjective. Although correct, I believe attendant is not often used standing alone, rather attendant at the meeting, attendant problems, etc. But lesser used constructions are fair game late week. I did realize what to a man could mean.
Off to the salt mines.

Bill G. said...

Good morning/afternoon depending. I got it done with a little bit of red-letter encouragement. The cluing seemed trickier than usual.

I was going to make the same comment that Owen did; that an abacus is digital, not analog. Actually, it's digital in two ways; the other being that's it's operated with the fingers or digits.

Splynter, I always enjoy your leggy photos. In this one, the model seems really thin.

VirginiaSycamore said...

Thanks Bruce, for a challenging yet fair puzzle. And Splynter for a fine write-up.

I was able to get all but the NW with just a cheat looking up SHUTE. Had to finish with red letters.

I never go the "Attendant to a man" cluing. Still didn't get until several bloggers explained it.

Not knowing how an L could begin a person in a monastery kept me from putting LEAVE before IN STITCHES. I was also stuck on ELSA. Forgot the Lion King movie.

CUJO is etched in my memory. My husband and I found with the scene with the rabid Cujo attacking the Mom and kid in the Pinto so scary (I was pregnant with 2nd child) that we turned off the sound.
WIKI_CUJO
The IMDb says that Stephan King totally made up the name CUJO.
IMDB_CUJO_TRIVIA

Live Well and Prosper
VS

Ol' Man Keith said...

The 30-35 mixup did me in. I had it finished except for that quirk. Its secondary effect also threw me off of VERANDA and LEGWORK and between NALA and ELSA, so it goes to show how one glitch can have several consequences. I must remember in future to cross check the "See also" directions.

Credit to the editors for making sure such things do not usually happen.

AnonymousPVX said...

Tough but doable thanks to good clueing.

Splynter - you are obviously a leg man and no issue there, but perhaps you can use photos that don't feature women who are dangerously thin.

Lucina said...

Hello, friends!
Back from yet another friend's funeral today. That's two in as many months. It's a hazard of aging. This one contracted C Diff in the hospital. Very shocking and a slow death.

The puzzle was surprisingly doable and managed to fill all the long ones, starting at the basement. I completed each section almost independently. The center was last to fall with two names crossing each other. Had to Google of course.

LAMA and NALA were interesting misdirections but once VERANDA emerged, the rest followed.

Thank you Bruce for not beating me up and Splynter, too.

I hope all are having a great Saturday!

Lucina said...

Thanks to all who explained "attendant to a man" which I finally got. I, too, was in the VALET frame of mind.

VirginiaSycamore said...

Lucina,

I am sad that your friend died from C. diff. This is a disease of modern medicine because often the normal bacteria of the intestines, which can overpower C. diff have been knocked out due to antibiotic therapies for other problems. And "Due in part to the emergence of a fluoroquinolone resistant strain, C. difficile-related deaths increased 400% between the years 2000 and 2007 in the United States."
CDC_SOURCE

One new treatment being investigated is stool transplants from healthy donors. It is up to 90% effective, but still seeking FDA approval.
WIKI_STOOL_TRANSPLANTS
Epidemics can occur in hospitals and nursing homes. Isolation of cases, hand-washing and eating of yogurt are also helpful to prevent it. Also avoiding the hospital. It is not out of line to ask your doctor to wash his hands or put on a new pair of gloves before he/she examines you.

VS

Lucina said...

VirginiaS, thank you for that information. All of us who are friends of the deceased were in shock when she was diagnosed and most of us had never heard of it. I was told about the stool transplant but I believe she was too weak for it by the time it would have occurred.

Anonymous at 7:14 A.M.
I did notice your mistake, "should have" not should of.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! A TOAST to Bruce. I hope his MISTRESS(ES) HAS IT! A TOAST to Splynter who definitely HAS IT on Saturdays.

This went fast but was more WAGd from looking at what letters I had than from the clues which were far out. I, too, got hung up on GODEL/ADLER cross & had to red-letter it. Hand up for "valet" & "body guard" which didn't fit.

Not LoGbOoK but LEGWORK. OTc (from ROTC) before OcS then OTS.

Never heard of ERISA pension plan or RIOJA in Spain.

Loved inner tube = AORTA.

YR, you're lucky. 10 min. of physical work does me in now.

PK said...

AvgJoe: Very interesting. I didn't find last night's posts until 2 a.m. so didn't answer. I admit I don't know a lot of the finer points of land surveying and classification. Yes, what I was mapping from were official in the county engineer/road supervisor office. I spent so much time there during a couple years, they asked me to come in and "baby-sit" the phone when the secretary had to be gone and I was no longer employed full-time elsewhere. While doing so, I finished my mapping for my son's business.

The mapping turned out to be valuable because he could go to work sooner if there were no major utility conduits underneath the surface. Otherwise he had to wait, sometimes several days, for techs to come plant flags above the lines. We also found out that sometimes the local line people didn't have accurate maps. The phone company rep came out in the field with me one day and was copying my map because his didn't show a major cable running through a property. It was there and my son was going slow when it surfaced under his blade so it didn't get cut. He was building terraces.

OwenKL said...

When butler and valet didn't fit, I thought batman, but wasn't positive how to spell it (I think my subconscious purposely blocks it out for the obvious reason) so originally put in BATEMAN. Once perps revealed the deception, the sentences I had in my head for clarification were "The whole office went to the convention. We were attendants. To a man!"

Anonymous said...

Doh! Thanks v. much for that. I'd been reading it as "one who is present to some guy" but the gender specification felt wrong and the construction felt clumsy.

Jayce said...

Wow, great puzzle. As usual on Saturday, I felt intimidated by the large expanses of white space, but chipped away at it and solved it all, which is also usual for Saturday. Excellent cluing! Bravo, Bruce.

hebow44 said...

Needed a lot of help from Wiki, Google and my wife. The long answers seemed to come easier than the fill. Strange. Learned about many different things with all the research. Always nice.

Anonymous said...

Enjoy!

Anonymous T said...

Hi Puzzle Pals!

Late by a day it seems...

I started the puzzle and 1st pass got about 6 answers (SKYS was 1st and key) before Eldest & I stared on the trebuchet. Then, teen attitude kicked in. She went to pout and I filled the north. Then we got back to work, saw Youngest in her school's play Shrek (she was a fairy & dwarf), and then back the the trebuchet.

So, Bruce, thanks for everything N. of 40, 42, 43a. 1/2 was fun enough. I am too tired to finish the south (CSI not SNL!). And, I wanted to read Splynter and see how my Pzl Pals are doing before bed.

Great writeup Splynter. I liked the junction box for the puck lights - cool idea. Know anything about trebuchets? :-) [the sling isn't un-cuddling the projectile and it goes down or backwards - storm the castle from behind!?!?]

Lucina, I'm sorry to hear about your friend. VS - I've heard about dookie-doping and I think there's merit there. I even asked the Dr. if we could do that for Youngest when she drank bad well water 2 years ago (took 6 mo. for her tummy biome to get right).

Grunge (Nirvana) is about "ALTERNATIVE" as I got. I can only stand The Smiths or Echo and the Bunny Men (both Emo) for about 12 min before wanting to off myself. Goth is way out.

Ave Joe. I'm going to re-read your platting post now so I can sleep :-)

Cheers, -T

Bill G. said...

We had our Thanksgiving get-together today since our son will be on a trip to Cuba next week. I ate TOO much! I'll see if I can sleep it off for now. I'll be gooder tomorrow.

What about 30 feet for that ping pong ball? Doable?

TTP said...



Dadgummit ! Just when I was certain he was figurative, Bruce was literal. Hung my hat on SCUMBAG or DIRTBAG for lowlife as they fit with OBESE and RARER. Nuts !

Oh well, it was a natick with man's attendant and Einstein's logical friend.

One thing about about all of the 15 letter phrases... They cover a lot of ground and move you that much quicker towards completion.

I received ERISA material when I retired. It was a gimme answer.

57D TSPS was a simple but effective misdirection. Very clever.

Early missteps..Tried ESTD for cornerstone word and OCS (officer candidate school) for USAF commissioning program. OCS was (still may be) the Army equivalent.

Early arrivals may have to help rather than WAIT. Didn't have to wait long until the help arrived and cleared that up.

Spitzboov said...

Anon = T @ 0108 - Re: sling isn't un-cuddling the projectile

Is your sling well vented? A ping-pong ball is terribly light and might be hard for a solid rubbery type of sling to release.
A hard surfaced sling might work, too, since suction wouldn't be a factor. How about a catcher's athletic cup?

If the sling is rotating on the launch so as to trap the projectile, perhaps a 'tail' such as a kite might have would keep it oriented.

My 2¢