google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, Apr 2nd, 2016, Patti Varol & Doug Peterson

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Apr 2, 2016

Saturday, Apr 2nd, 2016, Patti Varol & Doug Peterson

Theme: Two Double Stacks

Words 68 (missing J,Q,X,Z)

Blocks: 27

Phew~!  This one was a toughie, yet upon reviewing it, there really wasn't a lot that couldn't be worked out - but I have to admit to one Google - the crossing of two proper names and some other vagueness in the SW slowed me down tremendously.  Nearly blank on the first passes, but a few educated WAGs at some longer fills gave me some toe-holds, and I was able to hammer out the remainder.  Two double stack spanners, tied to 11-letter fills, and a couple of paired 8's in the Down;

15. Like many a Beverly Hills party-goer :  
FASHIONABLY LATE - I think she's going to be fashionably late


17. Heeds sound advice : LISTENS TO REASON

46. Bird named for its large-scale migrations :  
PASSENGER PIGEON - I was curious, so I looked it up; I did not know they were extinct

49. DVD special feature, perhaps : ALTERNATE ENDING - I wanted alternatIVe, but the double "E" was messing me up; I couldn't see it for a while




~!

ACROSS:

1. Law school accrediting org. : ABA - looking back, this should have been a gimme (American Bar Association)

4. Current information source : TWITTER FEED - I am not on Twitter, nor Facebook - I get my news the old-fashioned way; rumor

18. Former seniors : ALUMS

19. Points for a piano tuner? : TINES - ugh.  The tool, not the person


20. "Murder in the First" airer : TNT

21. Crossword legend Reagle : MERL - should have gotten this on the first pass

22. Primed : READY

23. "Hogan's Heroes" setting, briefly : WWII - the show was before my time; I have been watching some "World War II in color" history on the AHC channel

24. Word with wash or wear : EYE - eyewash, eye wear

25. Zen teaching techniques : KOANS - I WAGed the "K"

26. "Aw, mom!" sound : GROAN

27. Zsa Zsa's older sister : MAGDA

28. "I think you'll like it!" : "TRY ONE~!"

29. Sweat inducer : SCARE

31. Desolate tract : WILDS

32. One good at figures? : SKATER - figure skater; I was on that wavelength

nice figure

33. Sea : BRINY - nope, not OCEAN

35. Mirren of "The Hundred-Foot Journey" : HELEN - this was my only ACROSS fill on the first pass

36. Thugs : GOONS - hockey players, in some instances

37. BART stop : SFO - OK, I took a stab at this one on the first pass, too; San Fransisco Airport on the Bay Area Rapid Transit

40. Hard to grasp : EELY - I went with this, then OILY came to mind

41. Complex : DENSE - I had TENSE; that's 100% 80% correct

42. Dutch word meaning "farmer" : BOER

43. Triple Crown stat : RBI - ooops, I was thinking horse racing, not baseball

44. "Tequila Sunrise" writer/director Robert : TOWNE - no clue, and the "W" was my last fill - but the "ta-DA~!" was there~!

45. Beverly Hills retreat : VILLA

50. Time for fluff pieces : SLOW NEWS DAY - I always find it a little contradictory when the 6 o'clock news spends 22 minutes talking about terrorist attacks, floods, riots, wages going down, taxes and gas prices going up, and then 2 minutes on the cute puppy that chases its own tail....

51. Soapmaker's supply : LYE - OK, I got this one on the first pass, too

DOWN:       

1. Lit : AFLAME

2. Castle wall : BAILEY - So glad I am a huge castle person; I knew this
It's hiding - think courtyard

3. Promise : ASSURE

4. All scores? : TIES

5. Wooed successfully : WON

6. Rather : INSTEAD

7. "Orphan Black" star Maslany : TATIANA - I really wanted to try this show out, but never got a chance to watch

nice figure

8. Govt. obligations : T-BONDS - another good guess

9. __ de los Timbales: Tito Puente's nickname : EL REY - I figured it was "king", but forgot the "El" part

10. Bakery output : RYES

11. Where Hollywood is: Abbr. : FLA - oh, that one - I'm sure a lot of our regulars got it

12. "American Sniper" director : EASTWOOD - I did not remember Clint did this one as well

13. Many British prime ministers : ETONIANS - graduates of Eton school

14. Tooth layer : DENTINE - ENAMEL was too short

16. Web page standard : HTML

22. "I copy" : "ROGER." - we were just talking about "Airplane~!" at the restaurant yesterday

23. Not straight, in a way : WRYLY - like some humor

25. Black on screen : KAREN - Before my time; I would have known Karen ALLEN

"We...are...not...thirsty"

26. They can be silly : GRINS

27. Bristol bro : MATEY - I am reading P.G. Wodehouse, a prolific writer his whole life, with a focus on English life - so this word pops up frequently.  I love his writing.

28. Interlace : TWINE - dah~! Not WEAVE

29. Its first national tournament was held in 1932 in Atlantic City : SKEE-BALL - I did not know this, but I tried "-BALL" at the end, and that helped hugely

30. Nymph who ultimately became the stars of Ursa Major : CALLISTO - I had an A - INSTEAD (6d.) - of O at the end; also a moon of Jupiter

32. Hillary aides : SHERPAS - oh. that Hillary.  The explorer, not the candidate - my housemate is tuned in to CNN 24/7 right now, and it's a bit much

33. Tied hats : BONNETS

34. Snow-White's sister, in Grimm : ROSE RED - found this; Disney making a movie

36. Trifle : GEWGAW - this has appeared in crosswords before, but it was just not coming to me

37. Été blazer : SOLEIL - Le Frawnche sun

38. Grand theft auto, e.g. : FELONY - since it's not capitalized, it's not the video game

39. Santa Ana's county : ORANGE

41. "Holy Sonnets" poet : DONNE - my Google - the Wiki

42. City NNE of San Antone : BIG D - Dallas, TX (colloquial names) Hi there, D-Otto~!



44. Arctic-to-Antarctica migrating bird : TERN - good guess off the "R"

45. Like clematis : VINY - I knew this was going to be something like "VINED"

47. Needle : SEW

48. Gravel designation : PEA - sizing



Splynter

29 comments:

  1. Hi Y'all! Except for the NW & SW corners, almost everything I tried turned red the first time and some several times thereafter. I did more alphabet runs than anything else recently. No patience today this early. Thanks anyway, Patti & Doug.

    In the NW I knew ABA, BAILEY, MERL and thought I was on a roll. Next section? BZZT!

    I got most of the SE corner except BIG D took awhile altho 50 years ago I lived west of Dallas & took the paper so knew the nickname. The spelling of San Antone led me to believe it might not be the city in Texas altho I've been there and knew that nickname. My AF son lived there three years. Duh!

    The SW corner was cruel. Not the Miss America pageant but SKEEBALL? Who plays that anyway? SHERPAS? Well, H. Clinton's aides probably feel like the election campaign is as hard to climb as Everest. Didn't know CALLISTO.

    Hollywood wasn't in Cal or Eng but FLA. Didn't know there was one there.

    GEWGAW? Foul, I say!

    Thank you, Splynter, for slogging through another toughy.

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  2. Morning, all!

    Definitely a challenge today, but ultimately doable. There were a few total unknowns that I needed the perps for (BAILEY, TATIANA), a few head-scratchers that I couldn't understand even after getting via the perps (TIES, TINES) and some initial wrong answers that messed me up for awhile (TNOTES before TBONDS, CAL before FLA).

    My biggest challenge was self-inflicted, however, because I somehow skipped a letter and went with ALTERNAT ENDINGS instead of ALTERNATE ENDING. That completely mucked up the SE corner for a good long time, especially since I was so sure it was right and I knew that PASSENGER PIGEON was also correct.

    Elsewhere, I was proud of myself for getting SKEEBALL, CALLISTO, ROSERED, DONNE and KAREN with little or no perp help.

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  3. I briefly had peregrine falcon instead of passenger pigeon. It was the the right number of letters and seemed obvious. But soon I saw it wouldn't work!

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  4. Hollywood is about 10 miles down the road from where I live and is on the way to Miami. Joseph W. Young founded the city; he dreamed of building a motion picture colony on the East Coast of the United States and named the town after Hollywood, California. Young bought up thousands of acres of land around 1920, and named his new town "Hollywood by the Sea" to distinguish it from his other real estate venture, "Hollywood in the Hills", in New York. (per wiki). Young circle is at the center as you drive through the city. I actually worked in Hollywood for about three months in 1980.

    Puzzle was not easy; it is interesting to see what some people see as simple e.g. BAILEY while it is unknown to others. All scores: TIES???? EL REY next to RYE...KOANS and GROAN. ALTERNATE ENDINGS was the key for me.

    Will Patti Varol emerge as Batwoman? This an other questions will be answered.

    Thanks Splynter Doug and Patti

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  5. Uff Da! (Just learned that's the correct way to spell it.)

    This was a Wite-Out workout. Thought I was heading for a face-plant, but it all managed to work out. Thanx, Pam and Doug. You, too, Splynter. I had changed ToNES to TINES (TATIANA looked more reasonable than TAToANA), but didn't understand why til you 'splained it.

    TWITTERFile and WED really slowed me down up top. "Aw, Mom!" was a GROAN, not a whine. And it wasn't GEESE that were silly. All fixed, so all's well.

    Don't understand 43a -- RBI. Isn't the Triple Crown a thingee in horse racing, and an RBI a thingee in baseball?

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  6. Slow start - but with the long answers once you have one, it opens up the puzzle a lot.
    Good mental workout this morning!

    @D-otto - to win the Triple Crown in baseball you have to lead in 3 categories: batting average, home runs, and RBIs if you are a batter - very hard to do. Last one was Cabrera for the Tigers in 2012-- but the one before that was Carl Yastrzemski in 1967!
    There is a pitching Triple Crown, but it is not as hard- leader in ERA, Wins, and Strikeouts - the last ones were Verlander and Kershaw for their respective leagues in 2011.

    Have a beautiful Saturday!
    Thanks Splynter, Patti and Doug!

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  7. Hi All,

    Pretty much WES, but especially PK's BZZT! I missed quite a bit for quite awhile. I didn't get to yesterday's puzzle; I often think a Friday struggle makes for a doable Saturday. Thanks for the challenge, Patti and Doug. Splynter, you were right on target with the sticky parts of this one. Thanks for the explication.

    Have a good weekend.

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  8. Wow, that was a beautiful themeless. First pass I got about 6 words, but with persistence it finally fell (with one unknown letter).

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  9. Lemony, think "all" scores for the clue, e.g., "three all," "seven all"

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  10. Good Morning:

    After the first pass, I thought I was headed for a big DNF, but that old duo, patience and persistence, did the trick. I had a few missteps at first, Calliope/Callisto, Rosebud/Rosered, etc. Didn't know bailey, koans, and thought gewgaw was geegaw. Getting the long fill really opens things up.

    Thanks, Patti and Doug, for a Saturday stumper and thanks, Splynter, for the neat expo.

    Have a great day.

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  11. I vowed to not start at the bottom and work up but the “Best laid plans of men and mice…” Like SSJ, I had one bad cell – geWgaw/toWne. What a lovely and doable exercise Patti and Doug! My list of erasures would be huuuuuuge!

    Musings
    -ALTERNATE ENDING – Oh great! Rhett does give a damn!
    -Beats are caused when those TINES vibrate slightly differently (:34)
    -Your computer better have a reverse gear if you use your TWITTER FEED in anger
    -Fascinating history about Hogan’s Heroes
    -MAGDA and Zeppo had more famous siblings
    -“C’mon, TRY ONE sugar cube”, said Dr. Leary
    -Most buildings in Atlanta were built post-1865 because Sherman set the city AFLAME
    -Promises from both parties – “No new taxes” and “You can keep your doctor”
    -Waiting to call TATIANA (3:48)
    -Roger, Roger (1:36)
    -Callisto is also one of the Galilean Moons/Satellites of Jupiter
    -Gyoo’ gaw is new to me
    -D _ N _ E was not DANTE
    -Our clematis still has last year’s leaves on it as the new ones start to bud out

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  12. lemony said:

    "I actually worked in Hollywood for about three months in 1980."

    Was that work done on the side of the road wearing orange and holding a pointy stick and a bag?

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  13. Chairman Moe: Thanks for the emails yesterday.

    Splynter: Wonderful write-up with very informative links.
    Especially enjoyed reading the entire Wiki article about the PASSENGER PIGEON.
    (I does like "Learning-Moments").

    Patti & Doug: Thank you both very much for this FUN, tough, but doable, Saturday offering.
    On the "Scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the 'Highest rating'" ... this rates out, at Villa Incognito as a 15.
    Probably the most enjoyable Saturday puzzle I ever solved!

    Fave today was that 36-d, Trifle, GEEGAW ... what a great word!

    Well it is raining Cats-and-Dogs here ... Something about April Showers bring May Flowers ... lol
    I always enjoy a nice, soaking rain ... that will last ALL DAY ...

    Time for another Cup-of-Coffee ... hmmm, maybe with some BAILEYs Irish Cream ...
    Well that's "The PLAN" ...
    Cheers!

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  14. If a Saturday puzzle takes less than an hour I consider it easy and this was it. Thank you, Patti Varol and Doug Peterson. It didn't start easily, HELEN, MAGDA and KOAN were all I got on first pass but slowly the long answers came alive and as someone said, once you have those, it's manageable to work from them. it's good to know, too, that most British PMs attend Eton which we also know as James Bond's alma mater.

    Hillary was a big misdirection until realizing it was the mountain climber. And hand up for TWIRL before TWINE.

    This was fun and satisfying.

    Thank you, Spynter, for the great commentary. I enjoyed reviewing the castle. That's something kids love to create and study about.

    Have a lovely day, everyone!

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  15. Well it must have been a SLOW NEWS DAY at the LA Times because Patti got my lunch money this morning. I made one sloppy mistake on 24A, filling PRE INSTEAD of EYE for 'wash or wear' and BAILEY was the unknown. The cross of GEWGAW & TOWNE got me, as the director and movie were both unknowns and I have only seen GEEGAW, not the other, and didn't really know what either was. I really made myself miserable in the top by initially writing TWEETER FEED instead of TWITTER. I feel satisfied that I got the rest.

    Many false starts today. WED to WON, ALLURE to ASSURE, T-BILLS T-NOTES to T-BONDS, GEESE to IDEAS to GRINS, LES SOL to SOLEIL (frawnch- ich weiss nicht),with KOANS, MAGDA, CALLISTO, ROSE RED, EL REY being pilled by perps. I knew DENT_NE would have I,E, or Y and couldn't get STALAG 13 out of my mind instead of WW-II. DONNE and VINY were WAGS.

    And what's a Splynter Saturday write up without 'legs'.

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  16. Tough but fair (and fun) puzzle today. To borrow from JFK's 1962 Moon speech, I enjoy crosswords not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

    Just an FYI regarding 44A, TOWNE, as in Hollywood screenwriter Robert Towne. He wrote (or contributed to, or fixed) the screenplays of some great movies from the '70s. Probably best known for Chinatown(1974), a must see if you like film noir. Also wrote or contributed to the screenplays for Bonnie and Clyde(1967), The Godfather(1972), The Last Detail(1973), Shampoo(1975), The Missouri Breaks(1976), and Heaven Can Wait(1978).

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  17. I thought "All scores" would be tough for anyone who doesn't watch soccer. The convention is to describe a tied game as "two-all" rather than "two-two".

    I had an interesting excursion down at the bottom - with the "P" and the "ON" in place for the grid-spanner, I confidently entered "PEREGRINE FALCON" commenting to myself that "peregrination" was a nice synonym for migration. It was only when failed to make any of the downs work that I started doubting myself.

    Really enjoyable puzzle.

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  18. If you haven't done the NYT yet, then don't read this ...

    Funnily enough, 36D appears there also.

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  19. Hi all!

    Sat pzls are still way above my pay grade. Thanks Patti & Doug for the poke in the EYE :-)

    My scan... ABA(?) wasn't sure, didn't ink. Long ans, long ans., rinse & repeat. Finally, @21a, something I know! MERL (RIP). And I tried to break up that corner. I had OUT (wash out, wear out) @24a before I was ASSURE'd I was wrong...

    17a - aha! LISTEN and learns... It fit something in _LA (Calif, not FL) but not the TBONDS I wanted at 8d. Aggravation ensues...

    SFO & FELONY & LYE are the only other things right. RIB for needle @47s didn't help one bit. Hand up for ocean @33.

    Fav: SO to MERL. If you get a chance to see the movie WORD PLAY, take it.

    Splynter - thank you so much for stopping two hours of me wasting ink. One write-up nit, D-O is down here in H-Town not in Dallas. Please don't confuse the two - H-Town is waybetter. :-)

    With all the Hollywood clues I ended up w/ this ear worm (Bob Seger).

    Y'all have a great Saturday!

    Cheers, -T

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  20. I actually had a great start with this puzzle, filling in the NW pretty quickly, and a little later the SE (well, I live near Santa Ana in ORANGE county, so that one was a gimme). But then it got tougher and although I got most of the top half without cheating, I needed a lot of help to finish the south. At least I knew MERL (I still miss him, but thank goodness his 18 crossword books are in print), HELEN Mirren, of course, MAGDA (don't know why I'd remember all those Gabor names), and DONNE (know my poets, well, most of them). Still, a lot of fun, so many thanks, Patti and Doug. Loved the gravel size pics, Splynter, many thanks.

    Have a great weekend, everybody!

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  21. Hello Puzzlers -

    A whopping, crash and burn, lost my lunch money, got a wedgie and a swirlie, embarrassing DNF.

    Example: I was sure the big Atlantic City tournament was Monopoly. Hey, it fit, and that's the place where all the funky street names came from (Ventnor, Marvin Gardens...) That left no room for Helen Mirren.

    Flew through the top half, no prob, but the bottom was intractable, even with two of the long ones in place. Just not my day.

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  22. I threw in the towel. I'll never know if it was because of the toughness or that I couldn't give it as much time as it needed/deserved. My wife and I are going shopping for a new iPod today, and I couldn't leave the pzl undone.
    A quick read of others' postings leads me to suspect this was right on the line between "ultimately do-able" and "flat-out impossible" for one of my skill level. So Congratulations to those who finished w/o cheats, and my Commiseration
    to everyone else!

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  23. Until today I don't believe I'd seen a CW with Doug's byline on I didn't like. This one had plenty to like, as well as plenty of challenge, but the final linchpin for me was GeeGaw/Toene. GewGaw just sounds wrong on so many levels that it's plain BU! I guess that's why I'm only a solver. But today I wasn't.

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  24. Tough one. Due to lack of time I red lettered three or four difficult answers. I got them on my second guess. TATIANA and TINE were the most difficult.
    A lot of fun. Very interesting expo.

    I am currently reading a print book until I get my Kindle library app reinstalled. Just now I was looking for the button to turn it off. Force of habit.

    I had Doctor Computer in today do my every other year checkup and tune up. I had some malware removed that was causing very minor problems, but I don't let them build up. I have thus far avoided any major problems all these years. I have never had a virus. Because the company did not arrive on Thursday as planned and did not respond to my complaint, the tech didn't charge me for overtime. It is worth every penny to stay clean.
    I have my sound back. I am glad I waited until I could bundle it in with the the check up. I blush to say that it was a V-8 can moment. All my wires are connected behind my computer desk. Oops, all but one. The big sound box is plugged in on a different wall next to my daybed. I didn't notice it was unplugged. Tsk tsk.

    Going to a fun dance tonight with a carload of friends.

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  25. AnonT, my favorite Bob Seger song is "Old Time Rock and Roll" made more famous by Risky Business.

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  26. I know we're not to acknowledge childish anons, but can anyone please block the attacks on Lemonade? I'm so tired of it, and he doesn't deserve it! Thank you.

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  27. Good puzzle! I thought I'd not be able to finish it, and then I did finish it. Whew!

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  28. Then here you go Bill G. Seger's Old Time Rock & Roll.

    MIL came by during nap time & stole the girls. After they all came back we compared puzzles. I beat her yesterday (she had 3 lookups) but she Villanova'd me today. Ouch on OU in the Final Four. MIL's following us, but doen't want to chime in yet...

    Cheers, -T

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  29. Gewgaw?! Who knew? Oh well, DNF 'cause I settled for 'Toene' instead of 'Towne'. Liked the movie but didn't know the director and Toene might have been a name.

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