google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, May 14th, 2016, John Lampkin

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May 14, 2016

Saturday, May 14th, 2016, John Lampkin

Theme: JL

Words: 68 (missing J,Q,Z)

Blocks: 31

  So pleased to get a John Lampkin puzzle, and this, if I am not mistaken, is his first Saturday publishing, at least for the LA Times.  I have enjoyed his Sunday constructions, and I find his cluing to be fresh and humorous - and today was no exception.  To find out more about John, his interview is here.  Of course, no grid would be complete if he didn't include some animal references - and I was determined to get 1 across, no matter how long it took.  As it turned out, the whole thing took about 30 seconds longer than my personal allotted time, and I have to admit to one red-letter; see 60 down.  Triple 10-letter across corners, triple 9s in the downs;

17a. Hammers home : REITERATES - my first read was "hammer's home", as in TOOL BOX, which wasn't going to work; this is the verb, not the noun

12d. At ten, say : ON THE HOUR - simple, and yet difficult to see in the 'down'

62a. Leftovers dish, perhaps : COTTAGE PIE - never heard of it; had --PIE, and the rest was perps and a WAG

31d. Short putt : TWO-FOOTER














ACROSS:

1. What separates the gulls from the buoys? : WEBBED FEET - it took most of the time to get the NW corner to fill, because I was stuck at 1a. thinking "something ---NET"; this is just plain clever


11. Red number : LOSS - I tried DEBT

15. Come fashionably? : ARRIVE LATE

16. 20 fins : ONE C - I did the math; 20 x 5 = 100, but couldn't fit "C-NOTE"

18. Nail target : ITCH - I had the "B" first, so I tried STUD; can you tell I'm stuck in carpentry mode~?

19. Chemical formerly used in carbonless copy paper manufacture : PCB - Polychlorinated Biphenyl; more from Wiki

20. Challenges : RIGORS

21. "Go away!" : "SHOO~!" - had it in, took it out....

22. Mayan pyramid feature : STEP

24. Threw on : DONNED

26. Self-described "non-musician" : ENO - oops, I had EMO first

27. Portent : OMEN

29. It can be before you : ARE

30. Checkup result letters : HDL - cholesterol number

31. Nut features : THREADS
This would make a good "john" sign, too

34. Experimental habit? : LAB COAT - I totally nailed this; and yet I did not get "oodles" at 55a.

36. They can be frustrating : WAITS - I lack patience, most definitely

37. Enterprise officer : UHURA - I always misspell this with a third "U" at the end

38. Eponymous Seminole leader : OSCEOLA - all perps, and a WAG at the "L"

41. Kiwi genus : APTERYX - once I had the "P", I knew that birds were "pter", and flightless ones were "A-pter"; the "YX" seemed good taxonomic Latin

43. Disgusted word from Lady Macbeth : "FIE~!"

44. Rest : NAP - I take one every day, roughly between 12-2pm

45. Rest poorly : TOSS

46. Kind of trading, briefly : OTC

47. Pabst brand : STROH'S - a little history lesson

49. Big Ten player since 2014 : TERP - Maryland Terrapins - another animal reference

53. Epps of "House" : OMAR

55. Gobs : OODLES

57. Good name for a London washroom attendant : LOU - lou/loo

58. Net : TAKE

59. Zip : SPEED ALONG - I considered "NOT A THING" kind of zip, but it didn't fit

61. Apple site : EDEN - not the computer ( e.g. DESK ), and not TREE

63. Leftovers : REST - a clecho from 62a., another JL cluing stlye

64. Valuation : ASSESSMENT

DOWN:       

1. Twists : WARPS - common in wood boards, especially 1x lumber


2. Straight up : ERECT - ah.  Not LEGIT

3. Crooked bread? : BRIBE - ah. ah.  Not LUCRE, but I was on the right wavelength

4. Boring piece : BIT - and more carpentry

5. Lasting start : EVER - everlasting

6. Knocked : DERIDED

7. Spouted containers : FLAGONS

8. Big name in stationery : EATON - perps

9. Lasting : ETERNAL

10. Mosaic piece : TESSERA - learned from doing crosswords

11. __ Chiles, portrayer of Dr. Holly Goodhead in "Moonraker" : LOIS

13. Lesser : SECONDARY

14. Homeowner's burden : SCHOOL TAX - my "U" from Uhura was leading me to "something TUB"; again, I'm in the middle of building a bathroom, so....

23. Baudelaire, par exemple : POETE - Les Frawnche

25. Times to come out : DEBUTS

28. Plinth course layers : MASONS - ah, the worker, not the stratum

32. Is set : HAS IT MADE

33. Generally gluten-free snacks : RICE CAKES

35. Tea __ : CHEST

39. Play that inspired Puccini : La TOSCA - filled via perps; the Wiki

40. Fitting : APROPOS

41. Fit figure, usually : ATHLETE

42. Impersonated : POSED AS - my kind of pose


48. "Sweet Smell of Success" co-screenwriter : ODETS - perps and WAGs

50. Slip to tie a knot? : ELOPE

51. Masterless samurai : RONIN - learned from an episode of "The X-Files"

52. Sound named by George Vancouver : PUGET - funny, I've been reading the making of Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back, so I was thinking of the noise sound, not the body of water sound.  I took a vacation to Seattle, and saw the sound - or is that an oxymoron~?

54. Torn : RENT

56. Weakens : SAGS

60. Rover's kin? : LEM - dah~!!  I went with LAM - as in 'going on the lam', which I think is similar to someone 'roving'....and John ends his clues with "kin", I might add....

Splynter

44 comments:

OwenKL said...

:( After yesterday's triumph, today was a RED NUMBER (& letter) LOSS! 'Nuff said.

If you ever take a cruise on the Styx
A bird you might see is the APTERYX.
It's facing extinction
But has the distinction
Of more hair than a guy in politics!

Fill up our stein and fill up our FLAGON
With PABST and STROHS to whet our tongue-waggin'!
We're fearless in battle!
No foe makes us rattle! --
Though tomorrow our wives will have us on the wagon!

MOSAIC PIECES was a clue for fragments,
Bits of stones, or glassy segments.
But TOSS that plethora
Of mosaic TESSERA,
They could have been some Mosaic Commandments!

If you've been Rick-rolled, then after Rick's,
You've probably felt like an APTERYX!
He's been had, he can't fly
Like a normal bird-guy,
He was click-baited for one of God's tricks!

{A-, A-, B+, B+.}

Barry G. said...

This was exceedingly tough in spots, but ultimately doable. APTERYX, LOIS, COTTAGE PIE and OSCEOLA were all total unknowns that took a lot of perp help, a little guessing and a bit of faith (especially OSCEOLA, which just looked wrong to my eyes).

The NW corner was the last to fall, and I was hampered by having MASON (as in "Who but W.B. Mason") instead of the lesser known and barely remembered EATON and NIB instead of BIT (don't ask). Once I finally figured out WEBBED FEET, however, everything else took care of itself in short order.

John Lampkin said...

An early greetings to y'all since I'm out the door now for NABA butterfly count.
Thanks for the kind words, and pot on Splynter! This is indeed my first LAT Saturday so after only eight years I've finally hit for the cycle in the LAT. Cause for celebration.
If you are wondering, WEBBED FEET with its silly clue was the seed.
Happy solving, solvers!

John Lampkin said...

...Er, rather SPOT on, Splynter!

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

I started badly with LUCRE, AWL and CARTONS where BRIBE, BIT and FLAGONS needed to be. Somebody musta said, "Let there be light!" -- I WAGged WEBBED FEET and that corner quickly fell. Once I changed EKG to HDL the Carolinas filled in. The south came together with nary a hitch. In the end, I finished in better-than-normal Saturday time. Thanks, JL. Very nice.

EATON was a WAG, but I dredged up "EATON Corrasable" bond typing paper from my ute. Remember typewriters?

APTERYX was logical -- recalled the prehistoric bird Archaeopteryx.

Splynter, I was with you thinking Debt and UhurU. But, I'd stick with buoys and gulls and pass on the clever hardware restroom signage. You know the guys would go in the door with the nuts on it.

Splynter said...

Hi again~!

Thanks for stopping in, John~! Congratulations on the cycle~!

Oh, good catch, D-otto; I can picture men going for the 'nuts'....

Splynter

Big Easy said...

On the first pass it was all white with very few TWO FOOTERS. But in the end, I got it done-almost. I filled SAPS for SAGS and never having heard of COTTAGE PIE, filled CUT TAPE PIE, which made as much sense, but forgot about APROPOS. It took a lot of guessing to fill it out. I filled FOOTER and waited for ONE or TWO to complete 31D. Scanning back over I thing that PUGET was the only gimme.

The NE gave the most trouble, no knowing LOIS, wanting ESTATE before SCHOOL TAX, SPOCK before UHURA, and SCAT before SHOO. FIE, LEM, PCB, ODETS, LOU and ETERNAL were just luck WAGS this morning. But in the end it was a DNF because I use ink on the dead tree version with no red letter help. Didn't double check.

Madame Defarge said...

Ah, Much better day for me today than yesterday. As is usual for me, slow and steady wins the race--or at least completes a Saturday puzzle. Thanks, John. I was on kiwi the fruit instead of the bird. No hope there. My favorite: COTTAGE PIE. I never heard it before, but it made complete sense. I also chuckled at WEBBED FEET. Great fill!

Splynter, thanks for another thoughtful Saturday walk through.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was a real test of the old patience and perseverance mantra but I passed with flying colors, albeit in much longer than usual time. The NE and NW corners were almost my downfall, with the NW being the more difficult to break open. I had Crane/Eaton and Ono/Eno and needed a lot of perps in other areas. Osceola was a gimme as was cottage pie, with a few perps. Isn't that similar to shepherd's pie? Fav clue was Experimental habit=lab coat.

Congrats, John, on your Saturday debut and hitting for the cycle (and for stopping by), and thanks, Splynter, for the fun wrap-up.

Have a great day.

Lemonade714 said...

Congratulations JL. It was a very entertaining solve with the joyous Buoys and Gulls and the already mentioned WEBBED FEET. Splynter I agree with John that your write up was great. It is so interesting how your background brought you to linking wood for WARPS while my warped perspective gave me this IMAGE immediately.

I also was lucky having read many British mysteries which fed people Cottage Pie and living in Florida, OSCEOLA, was a gimme, especially after going to FSU football games.

Finally how can I not love a puzzle that ended with a. CSO to me

Bluehen said...

A super slow Saturday slog, yet delightfully entertaining thanks to some clever cluing and new fill. Thanks, Mr. Lampkin, well done. And Splynter, your expos always entertain. Thank you.
Didn't know Stroh's was a Pabst brand, or that it is still made for that matter, but I believe that I remember their advertising mantra as the only beer that is "fully kreusened" (sp?). Strohs was also the first brand that I can remember with wide mouth bottles.
I remember some pedantic foodie pundit, perhaps The Frugal Gourmet, explaining the difference between cottage pie and shepherds pie. Shepherds pie, as the name suggests, is made with lamb or mutton, while cottage pie is made with beef. He went on to postulate that shepherds pie is more prevalent in Ireland and cottage pie in England. Don't know how much faith I put in all of that.
Thanks to all who commiserated with me yesterday, but I'm really not in that bad of shape. I'm not in much more pain. The worst thing is facing a second surgery on the same hip. The joint doesn't fully dislocate. It's more like the hip is double-jointed (ala Carol Burnet) and pops out at will. More disconcerting than anything.
ACLAH are having friends over today, so I better get to cooking. Hmm, cottage pie perhaps?

Cya!

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Really enjoyed the workout today! Like most of you, I had to work slow 'n' steady on this one, giving the coffee time to soak in. Smiled right out loud at Webbed Feet.

Morning, Splynter, that's impressive taxonomic sussing you did at Apteryx. I knew the bird from its occasional appearances in the comic strip B.C. - without that, I'd have had a major logjam in that corner.

Husker Gary said...

Now that was a good time. The cleverness and misdirection were maxed out in John’s wonderful puzzle!

Musings
-Biggest barrier was AUXILLARY and ANCILLARY fit for SECONDARY at _ _ _ _ _ _ ARY
-Yup, Johnny Hart is my source for knowing this word
-I had a TWO-FOOTER last week to win $1 and then I had a TWO-INCHER. Choke!
-ARRIVE LATE was my first peek behind the curtain
-A bad OMEN in Burwell, NE
-Professional actors in LAB COATS for a commercial aren’t all that convincing
-Chief OSCEOLA and Renegade at FSU
-Lady MacBeth said, “OUT” a few words before she said “FIE” so…
-The SCHOOL TAX is the lion’s share of house taxes
-I’ll bet Splynter has checked for WARPS like this many times
-Listen for the word FLAGON in the fifth line of this Kingston Trio song (1:42) Learning comes in many forms!
-My neighbors daughter came out to her parents when she was a college freshman (freshwoman?)
-Name the movie where Katherine Hepburn says to Henry Fonda, “There were OODLES and OODLES of strawberries along the old town road.”

Dudley said...

On Golden Pond?

desper-otto said...

Blue Hen, good to hear that you're still in good spirits despite your recent setback. I remember in my ute when G. Heileman Brewing Company of LaCrosse, WI advertised their "Old Style" beer as "fully kreuzened." That's another brand that got swallowed up (guzzled down?) by Pabst.

Anonymous said...

WEBBED FEET is "just plain clever"? How 'bout stupid? Lame?

Ditto LOU tending the loo.

C6D6 Peg said...

Not too bad of an outing. Never heard of Cottage Pie, but guessed. Thanks perps! Congratulations, John, on completing the cycle!

Thanks, Splynter, for your great write-up, especially the cartoon with SAND WEDGE! LOL.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! After the RIGORS of this puzzle, I need a NAP! I don't agree with the anon at 11:57, however. I appreciate your sense of humor, John. I groaned then laughed at the WEBBED FEET & LOU.

Saying that, I had filled almost nothing on the first run through except REITERATES, APROPOS, PUGET & ASSESSMENT. I thought I was very clever to get those rascals swimming in the sea of white with those GULLS overhead DERIDING my denseness. BRIBE was the last to fill. I admit to several red-letter runs to nudge the brain.

Hand up for trying Lady McBeth's "OUT out damned spot." That was a favorite quote of my crowd in high school. And my kiwi tries were for fruit.

Thanks, Splynter! Thought your LOO signs were clever but probably would confuse the current bathroom law debacle even further. Women would see that NUT on the door and BOLT for elsewhere.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Thanks John for another un-doable (for me) Sat... Thanks Splynter for learnin' me. Very fun write-up.

Can someone explain torn==RENT? Rend I'd get; but rent? Is that past-past-post-participle-something-such-tense?

The North was lost on "knots" at 1d and Laundered or some-such at 3d. I knew 15a had something to do w/ being 15 minutes off but nothing came to me - maybe "Wait, Wait" was too distracting. Nailed ENO :-)

I was also caught off-base 2x @11a. I ink'd 'even' - thinking roulette. Turns out not all even numbers are red. Good thing I don't MAKE it on gambling.

I'll just take the SW and Miami area as my win and move on to Monday :-)

Fav: Aptronym c/a @57a. Funny and my 1st 'know it' fill.

BlueHen - glad to read there's little pain.

OKL: my ASSESSMENT? All A+ today.

Off to the REST of my day after I rest, er, NAP.

Cheers, -T

Spitzboov said...

Good afternoon everyone.

Good job Splynter, as always.

Couldn't get a firm hook in until nailing PUGET in the SE. Then the bottom 2/3s and NE came easily enough. Had saps before SAGS. Needed a few red letters to complete the NW. For reasons Splynter stated; freshness, humor and animal connections, I delight in experiencing John's puzzles.
WEBBED FEET - I thought gulls and buoys were inseparable. Aren't webbed feet part of a gull?
Favorite clues were for MASONS and ELOPE.
SOUND - Splynter, being a denizen of LI would be intimately familiar with Long Island SOUND.

JJM said...

Very difficult puzzle for me. Got thru it but needed two letters. NW corner, really tough.

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle. But when I came to 63A I was flummoxed by the fact I had just seen REST used as a clue at 44A and 45A! But the REST of the puzzle was excellent. I confess I wanted SEABED something at 1A until I finally got the FEET part and the light bulb came on fashionably. I fiddled around with ONO and ENO and SCAT and SHOO and LDL and HDL for a long time until I finally realized "red number" had nothing to do with roulette. At least a few answers I was pretty sure about, such as UHURA, EVER, STEP, OMAR, and LOU (funny!) gave me the footholds to get started. Actually, with all the fiddling I did in the HDL area I even began to doubt UHURA. I enjoy this kind of mental workout involving not only knowledge and memory but also logical reasoning.
Now what will I do for the REST of the day?
Bill G, would your neck of the woods be a good place to rent a house for a week of vacation?
Best wishes to you all.

Bill G. said...

Jayce asked: "Bill G, would your neck of the woods be a good place to rent a house for a week of vacation?"

Yes, but it's mostly a residential community rather than touristy. There aren't many places (that I know of) that are weekly rentals. I wouldn't even know where to tell you to start looking. Otherwise, it's a very pleasant area with reliably good weather, a nice beach and driving access (one or two hours) to Disneyland, local mountains, the desert, etc. I'm guessing there are some local realtors who deal in short-term rentals.

Jayce said...

Bill G, thank you.

Freond said...

RENT is nothing more than past tense: rend, rent, rended, renting.

Anonymous T said...

And now I learned something new (to me). Thanks Freond. C, -T

Lucina said...

Good job, JL! Thank you though this was a mental workout of epic proportions. I awoke early and started with a few fill. To recall UHURA I use the Spanish rule for female endings, usually A and though she's a different race, it's APROPOS.

The NW filled fairly quickly and I laughed at WEBBEDFEET. When that corner was finished I returned to bed.

Obviously anonymous@11:57 has no sense of humor. What a drag! But to continue, all of this required one letter at a time to connect; I did research LOIS Chiles to get a start there and like some of you had ESTATETAX, LDL, EMO but it all came through in SECONDARY time.

LOU is very funny as a loo tender's name as is STU as a cook's name. It's all in fun, anonymous.

But drat! Drat! FIE! I forgot to return and finish TERP since I didn't know RONIN but would have take a guess.

AnonT:
RENT is the past participle of rend: to tear

Again, thank you JL, for the puzzle and for stopping by and many thanks, Splynter, for your enlightening expo.

I hope you are all having a beautiful and peaceful day! Book club for me.

Lemonade714 said...

You left out "little" from the quote, HG. According to the web...."There were oodles and oodles
of little strawberries along the old town road."

Jayce, my oldest son rented an airbnb house while he went with his family to visit my youngest in Denver and the place was great and very reasonable priced. Here is a LINK to get you started.

Lucina said...

Oopd. It should read "would have taken a guess."

AnonymousPVX said...

Cottage pie is AKA Shepard's Pie.

Only one letter wrong , had TESSETA instead of TESSERA for 10D which also gave 29A as ATE instead of ARE. I'm kind of surprised I only had the one wrong, as I thought this very difficult. But the whole NW was very hard in solving, at least for me.

See ya Monday.

Freond said...

Very tough slog, ending a week of sone tought puzzles. I finished Thur & Fri without help, but both took ovet an hour. My phone app lets me reveal just a letter, and I had to resort to that a couple of times for this one.

I also thought WEBBEDFEET weak, since those are part of the gull, a stretch to call that a separator.

What really made this tough were the plausible but wrong fills, LUCRE, AWL, SCAT, AOK or ECG, PENN altho they've been in Big 10 much longer than TERPs, so no excuse there. After all that, I need a drink straight up, NO ICE.

Misty said...

Well, this was a toughie for me and took some cheating once again. But after looking up two or three things, it all fell into place. Great to see you do a Saturday puzzle, John, and thanks for checking in. And great expo, Splynter. I loved the cartoon and the photo of the Tea CHEST.

My microbiologist husband would have loved the "experimental habit" clue for LAB COAT.

Never heard of COTTAGE PIE either.

Still, fun way to start a Saturday. Have a good one, everybody!

Ol' Man Keith said...

I too had never heard of COTTAGE PIE. Isn't it odd how something can actually be a thing when so many intelligent people have never heard of it? But in my eighth decade I am relieved to be educated by Mr. Lampkin.

Yep, this was a tough slog, as so many have attested. I needed a couple of lookups to get some decent toe-holds, but in the end most of it was solved by the usual gut work. My last holdout was the SW corner, and mainly because I screwed myself with with my very first fill.
On my initial go-through I jotted PAH for 43A, clued as a "Disgusted word from Lady Macbeth." PAH leaped to mind because it is fairly unusual, an oddity that I associate with Lady M. It wasn't until much later that I finally caved and went with FIE, a much commoner expletive, used by everyone from Hamlet to a dozen different lesser lords & ladies.

Jayce said...

What separates the gulls from the buoys is that gulls have webbed feet and buoys don't.

Lemonade, thank you.

I guess having REST as a clue and as an answer slipped in by accident.

Husker Gary said...

Musings 2
-Yup, OODLES and OODLES of strawberries from On Golden Pond (1:41)
-Okay, Lemon, one “little” mistake.
-Chief OSCEOLA seems to be at the top of the list of these ”racist” mascots.
-We’re off to six more senior grad parties.

OwenKL said...

fully krausened
Synonym for drunk. Pronounced "kroy-zind."

Origin: Heileman's Old Style Beer once advertised itself as "Fully Krausened." Krausening is a brewing process of naturally carbonating beer by adding a little fresh fermenting beer to the finished product and letting it finish out in an air tight environment, so that the CO2 which is produced is absorbed into the liquid. While legitimate in origin, the term became associated with drinking too much beer.

Most commonly heard in Chicago, Wisconsin, and other parts of the US Midwest where Old Style is most available and popular.

WHAT SEPARATES THE GULLS FROM THE BOUYS?
It's more than just the cost of their toys!
Bouys are a-wanting
To give gulls a ring,
But gulls won't give up their free-flying joys!

SwampCat said...


OMK, Many do not know of COTTAGE PIE, but many of us do. I think that is true of almost everything included in a crossword puzzle!

The fun of this Corner, to me, is the variety of experiences/ knowledge/ fields that we represent. I'm often amazed that something I knew instinctively was unknown to others here. And just as often, something I knew nothing about was old hat to many others.

I think that is true if the constructors as well. They have their areas of expertise and draw from that. And that's what makes it so much fun!!

SwampCat said...

Owen......A+

Madame Defarge said...

SwampCat,

You are so correct!! It's what I love about the Corner: the variety of experience, varied areas of knowledge, amazing personal experience, and a willingness to share both expertise and the desire to learn more about so many topics. When I can't be here for a day or more, I'm always certain I have missed something important !!

You are spot on.

Anonymous said...

Geez lemony, pedantic much?

Once again you've shown us....well...nevermind.

inanehiker said...

This was a very challenging puzzle - so I didn't get finished unassisted. I had heard of COTTAGE PIE - but put in BEEF POT PIE first and had to erase. In fact erasing was a common theme of the day - like WEES about AWL before BIT....was thinking of the Kiwi fruit so thought it might through some strange transformation be in the APRICOT family instead of APTERYX - didn't help that the first two letters are the same.

Thanks Splynter, and congrats to John!

Picard said...

Why is OSCEOLA eponymous? I don't like when I don't understand even after I get the right answer. Can someone explain this?

I did not really enjoy this slog. I eventually got everything except the SW. I had to turn on red letters to get one square. Then got the rest.

Argyle said...

It doesn't seem quite right to me either. His name has been used for many things and I found this explanation: adjective: eponymous

(of a person) giving their name to something.
"the eponymous hero of the novel"

•(of a thing) named after a particular person.
"Roseanne's eponymous hit TV series"


It doesn't quite make sense but it may help.

Picard said...

Thank you Argyle for the helpful insights! Perhaps it just means as you say: "His name has been used for many things"

OSCEOLA apparently is a place name in Florida. I hadn't realized that is enough to make a name eponymous.