google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday, November 7, 2016 Brock Wilson

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Nov 7, 2016

Monday, November 7, 2016 Brock Wilson

Theme: Uncle! - Words from a lop-sided contest.

39A. Not a close game, a headline for which may include the end of 17-, 30-, 46- or 63-Across: ONE-SIDED VICTORY

17A. High school infatuation: TEEN CRUSH

30A. A few hours for doing whatever: TIME TO KILL

46A. Rich coffee lightener: HEAVY CREAM

63A. One of two Senate "enforcers": PARTY WHIP

Argyle here. Figuratively, this puzzle creamed us but literally, it was a cream puff. Both bottom corners did give me pause though. Fourth Monday for Mr. Wilson.

Across:

1. Encircled by: AMID

5. Note from the boss: MEMO

9. Strolls through the shallows: WADES

14. Calf-length skirt: MIDI. So demure.


15. Words while anteing: "I'M IN". Poker.

16. Make a speech: ORATE

19. Wash lightly: RINSE

20. Slowpoke in a shell: SNAIL

21. Worker's allowance for illness: SICK DAYS

23. Tide table term: NEAP

26. U.K. flying squad: RAF. (Royal Air Force)

27. Detriment to air quality: SMOG

36. Prune, as a branch: LOP. Prune nothing in the fall! Story

37. Colombian metropolis: CALI


38. Capital of Morocco: RABAT


43. Runway gait: STRUT



44. Taunting remark: GIBE

45. Bobby of hockey: ORR

49. "The __ the limit!": SKY'S

50. One hovering around the flowers: BEE. 60. 50-Across home: HIVE

51. Future atty.'s exam: LSAT. (Law School Admission Test)

53. Ground beef dish: MEATLOAF

58. Coffeehouse flavor: MOCHA

62. Quarterback's "Snap the ball at the second 'hut'": "ON TWO"

66. Tall story?: ATTIC. Har Har.

67. Ohio border lake: ERIE

68. Roof overhang: EAVE

69. Place for road trip luggage: TRUNK

70. Amount owed: DEBT

71. Scott who sued for his freedom: DRED. He lost. Story If you read it, be sure to read the end.

Down:

1. Lbs. and oz., e.g.: AMTs. Amounts.

2. Personal bearing: MIEN

3. Bit of brainwork: IDEA

4. "Fine" eating experience: DINING. Meatloaf?

5. Former Russian space station: MIR. (Russian: peace)

6. Grounded Aussie bird: EMU

7. "Swing and a __, strike one": MISS

8. Available for the job: ON HIRE. Idiom: Also, for hire.

9. Company employees, as a group: WORKFORCE

10. Like the Mojave: ARID

11. "The X-Files" agent Scully: DANA. Dana Scully is played by Gillian Anderson.

12. Crafts website: ETSY. https://www.etsy.com/

13. Experiences with one's eyes: SEES

18. MLB's Indians, on scoreboards: CLE. Timely. (Cleveland)

22. Litter box user: CAT

24. Slightly: A TAD

25. Paperwork accumulation: PILE

27. Walk through puddles: SLOSH

28. __ Carlo: MONTE


29. Met performance: OPERA. The Metropolitan Opera House is located on Broadway at Lincoln Square in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Part of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, you get there by practice, practice, practice.

31. Gnatlike insect: MIDGE

32. Kit__: candy bar: KAT

33. Former Apple laptop: iBOOK

34. Comedy's Cable Guy: LARRY. He does the Prilosec OTC commercials.

35. Galactic distances: Abbr.: LT-YRs. (light-year)

37. Urban distance unit: CITY BLOCK

40. Toyota RAV4, e.g.: SUV. (sport utility vehicle)

41. Lab vessel: VIAL

42. PCs, originally: IBMs. Back in the day.

47. Top corp. officer: CEO. (chief executive officer)

48. Gathered from the field: REAPED

49. Stuck in a hold: STOWED. As in, placed in the hold of a ship.

52. Acker of "Person of Interest": AMY. The show started off in one direction but ended in another. I'm not sure the writers had a firm game plan.



53. Castle protector: MOAT

54. __'acte: ENTR. An interval between acts.

55. Westernmost Aleutian island: ATTU


56. Jacob or Esau: TWIN

57. Taxi meter figure: FARE

59. Scorch: CHAR

61. Made fun of: APED

64. Make fun of: RIB

65. Vietnamese New Year: TET. Tết Nguyên Đán, which is Sino-Vietnamese for "Feast of the First Morning of the First Day".


Argyle

44 comments:

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks, Brock and Santa! This one flew by.

Doctor's appt. in the day.

Have a great day!

fermatprime said...

Have discovered a new female mystery writer, Diane Vallere. Really enjoying the first book!

OwenKL said...

{B-, B-, C+, B.}

A nice gent there was from RABAT
Who for ladies would oft tip his hat.
But no brim has a fez,
And that's why, he sez,
That he, in his hat, kept a CAT!

It's said near the CITY of CALI
The BEES feed from poppies, by golly!
The honey they derive
From the combs in that HIVE
Is sweeter than WHIP CREAM MOCHA lolly!

Whenever the SKY'S filled with SMOG
You can tell the gods aren't on the job!
If they were ON HIRE
The smoke would go higher,
Not WADE close to the ground in a wad!

Oh joy! I've been waiting this thrill!
At last it's come TIME TO KILL!
Should it be brother LARRY?
Cousin AMY is scary!
Well, these guys in white coats fill the bill!

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

This was a WHIPped CREAM puff. Tasty. Thanks, Brock.

Argyle, "I'm not sure the writers had a firm game plan." I'm not sure they had any plan. Root was an interesting character, though. Couldn't have named the actress if my life depended on it.

Anonymous said...

What's a "midge"?

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Fun morning coffee go-with. No errors or look-ups, but I did erase hew for LOP. Learning opportunities were RABAT, MIDGE, AMY Acker and ATTU. Favorite today was "tall story" for ATTIC. Least favorite was "available for the job" for ON HIRE. Seems to me that someone or something that is ON HIRE has already been hired, not available for hire. Kinda like people in the New York region saying "on line" instead of "in line" as a term for waiting in queue.

Thanks Brock and Argyle for a fun Monday offering.

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Brock Wilson, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for a fine review.

A little sticky this morning, but got through it. Liked the theme.

Had a problem in the SE corner with writing in SEAR for 59D. CHAR turned out to be the word. MOCHA was not in my wheelhouse. I do not drink coffee. Only Earl Grey tea.

I see my home lake made it, ERIE.

SICK DAYS are something I seldom used.

Person of Interest was my favorite TV show. Nice to see AMY in the grid.

Have to run. Crossing to guard.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

TTP said...

Thanks Brock. Thanks Argyle.
And thank goodness only one more day of political smear ads.

Dairy before HEAVY.

STRUT- Manac linked the video for 'Her STRUT' by Bob Seger a week or so ago. It featured many shots of runway gaits. I think that's what it was featuring.

MIDGE - the name comes from Margaret which also yields Maggie, Marge, Margie, Marjorie, Jorie, Meg, Peg and many more.

Kit KAT - what to do with all this candy ?

MIDI - to techies and esp. techie musical types (e.g. Geddy Lee), a protocol.

Argyle, I'll see your Amy Acker and raise you a Sarah Shahi

Anonymous said...

I thought practice, practice, practice were the directions to Carnegie Hall.

inanehiker said...

Quick Monday solve - always good for waking up the brain cells to head to work!

If you like Shakespeare, Amy Acker is one of the leads in Joss Whedon's "Much Ado About Nothing" - a modern version that Joss filmed at his own house with a bunch of his friends/ colleagues in between blockbusters over a 1-2 week period. Very fun!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUWlPjXvFZU

Thanks Argyle and Brock!

MJ said...

Good day to all!

A fun, Monday speed run. Cute theme. Never heard of AMY Acker--100% perpped. Didn't see some of the clues until reading the blog. Thanks for the puzzle, Brock, and thanks for the expo, Argyle. Interesting article about DRED Scott.

Enjoy the day!

Hungry Mother said...

Nice start to the week. I loved "Person of Interest." Root was my favorite character, maybe because of my UNIX background. I was lucky to be on sabbatical leave in 1977 at Duke in the Computer Science department. A great group of grad students was developing lots of UNIX networking tools. I was given full access to their UNIX lab and learned a lot about computing using a CRT. The leap from punched cards and TTY paper tapes was amazing. I bought my first personal computer while I was there.

unclefred said...

Terrific, fun CW, thanx, BW!! Very nice, fun, write-up, too, thanx, Argyle!! My only write-over today was LOPSIDED... to ONESIDED... Owen, nice limericks, you've bees in your bonnet today: B, B, B, B. Thanx for contributing your wit!!

Lucina said...

Only one write over, ONHAND before ONHIRE which doesn't make much sense to me. Otherwise I sailed smoothly with no problems. The clue for ATTIC was cute.

Nice job, Brock Wilson and Argyle, too.

Have a splendid day, everyone!

Tinbeni said...

Argyle: Nice write-up & informative links. Good Job!

C.C. I really like the "new" blog font. The write-ups are easier to read.

Brock: Thank You for a FUN Monday puzzle with an enjoyable theme.

Needed ESP to get AMY (my only "unknown") since I don't watch "Person of Interest."

Hope everybody votes ... I mailed mine in weeks ago.
(Gotta say, I am NOT going to "miss" the Political Ads on TV, etc. after tomorrow!)

A "Toast-to-ALL" at Subset.
Cheers!

Lemonade714 said...

No idea hr name was Amy, but it was easily inferrable. This is the link.

MUCH ADO ABOUT AMY

Which of Diane Vallere's series are you reading?

MIDGE is a generic name for some very small flies, I think.

Or maybe you prefer an ex-Charlie's Angel MIDGE

Yellowrocks said...

Midges include many species of tiny two winged flies. Some species such as no-see-ums, black flies, and sand flies bite. They do no use the blood for food, but for reproductive purposes. When in the woods hiking or camping, especially near water no-see-ums can be very annoying and hard to avoid.
ORIGIN
Old English mycg(e), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch mug and German Mücke, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin musca and Greek muia ‘fly.’
My mother called house flies a word that sounds like mick, from the PA Dutch.
I doubt the origin has anything to do with the name Midge.

Yes, I say we stood on line and we stood in line about equally 50/50. On hire, for some reason does not bother me, but in looking it up, I see it is not very common.

Spitzboov said...

Yellowrocks; midge is Mücke in German, Mück in L. German. (Would sound like mick to an English ear.)
A fly is Fliege; or Fleeg in L. German. My mom would call a fly that was difficult to swat: "E'n dumme Fleeg"

Easy solve today. Only small head scratcher was clue for ATTIC, but req'd answer was apparent.

CrossEyedDave said...

Ditto, on hand b/4 on hire...

However,

Perception

Teamwork

Um, er, both the above?

Awforget it, Just keep trying...

CrossEyedDave said...

P.S.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

P.P.S.

Anonymous T (from yest)
How on Earth were you able to print the exact

a href=" command without it printing as a blue link?

oc4beach said...


A very nice run through a lot of the alphabet by Brock and a nice tour on the trip by Argyle. Once across then down equaled done. Didn't see the theme until I was done, but didn't need it to get it done.

Argyle: I think meatloaf is a fine dining experience if it's good meatloaf. However, I have had some of my worst meals in some eating establishments that murdered their rendition of meatloaf. I guess Mom's meatloaf was always the best. It's comfort food along with Mac & Cheese and peas.

ATTU is the westernmost major island of the Aleutian Chain that is part of Alaska, but there are a number of smaller mostly uninhabited islands further west. Amatignak Island is the westernmost part of Alaska. Not a big deal, but I'm a "recovering" engineer according to my DW.

Have a great day everyone and "enjoy" the last day full of rancid political commercials. I'm going to watch the Weather Channel because they are promising absolutely no political reporting or ads tomorrow.

TTP said...

Hi Yellowrocks

I know Midge for the fly had nothing to do with the name.

I was just commenting about the name Midge. It's what my neighbor calls his wife. Her given name is Margaret. Most everyone else calls her Maggie, except her children, who call her mom. The young woman down the street goes by Meg. Another young neighbor goes by Peg. The deputy sheriff's daughter a couple of blocks away goes by Jorie. My Aunt Peg was a Margaret. My Aunt Mid ? That was short for Mildred.

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling Thoughts":

I thought it a weird coincidence that the solves MIDGE, ERIE, and CLE all appeared in today's puzzle. Don't know if Brock is a Clevelander, or maybe a CLE Indians fan, but if there are any among us who recall the 2007 ALDS Game 2, Joba Chamberlain, a relief pitcher for the NY Yankees, had to endure a swarm of MIDGEs on the pitching mound in the 8th inning. Look at the 0:56 - 0:59 mark, and again at 1:36 as you'll see the swarm of bugs not only around him but also attached to his face. MIDGEs are indigenous to Lake ERIE, and will appear in the fall when there's a warm day. I think they were enjoying a day of "Indian Summer" (pun intended) that October night

I had no problem with the puzzle; great recap, too Argyle, as I really enjoyed the Stray CAT STRUT video

In December we had a frost heave
On the roof of our house; had to leave.
Stayed with friends on our block,
So it comes as no shock
That we had to "hang" out, New Year's EAVE

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-The Huskers got all of these Saturday night after their QB got literally knocked out
-The ultimate treacly TEEN CRUSH song. (2:44)
-Netflix’s ruthless PARTY WHIP Frank Underwood with his “Scoreboard” in the background
-I retired with 110 unused SICK DAYS. Some treat them as vacation days.
-RAF - Never was so much owed by so many to so few
-Our neighbor gave us this BEE Hotel that I had NEVER seen before
-Halfback twin right open, swap 72 all-go special halfback shallow cross wide open, ON TWO!
-What an eyewitness SEES has been shown to be sometimes unreliable
-CLE Cavaliers – World Champs. CLE Indians – Runners up.
-That litter box looks pretty good when I see my dog owner friends out in a blizzard
-A PILE for everything and everything in its PILE
-Larry the Cable Guy (Dan Whitney) is a Nebraska boy who is not the rube he portrays and does a lot of charity work
-Manhattan city blocks can vary differently depending on what way you are going
-I stand IN LINE and tell kids not to say ON accident

CanadianEh! said...

Straight-forward Monday solve. Thanks Brock and Argyle. I enjoyed the sports theme with baseball 7D, 18D, football 62A, hockey 45A.

ERIE could be clued as an Ontario border lake also.
I debated between Sear and CHAR until perps decided. Smiled at clue for ATTIC and was not a huge fan of ON HIRE.

Initial reading of 46A clue had me thinking about Rich's product out of Buffalo called COffee Rich, a non-dairy creamer. Not my favourite as I prefer the real stuff but better than the powdered creamers IMHO.

Beautiful day here. Enjoy it!

Chairman Moe said...

Husker @ 11:15 ---> Dan Whitney (aka Larry the Cable Guy) shares my birthday, (Feb 17) though he is a decade younger than I. He also has the identical birthday (same year) as Michael Jordan. Quite some company I keep, eh?! ;^)

In reading Whitney's bio on Wikipedia, he is as you described. Was unaware that he finished high school in West Palm Beach, just up the road from where I now reside.

TX Ms said...

Usual Monday - didn't see the theme until coming here. Argyle, thanks for the great write-up. I enjoyed the Dred Scott article - but a bittersweet ending. Sad time in our history.

To CC, et al. - many thanks for your time and expertise! The Corner's format is back!!

Misty said...

Bit crunchy for a Monday, for me, partly because I didn't know LARRY or AMY, and, like others, had SEAR before CHAR for a while. At least I got DRED Scott. But, thank goodness, it all eventually fell into place and the theme made sense and all was well. So many thanks, Brock and Argyle.

Excellent explanation of MIDGES, Yellowrocks.

Nervous, nervous, nervous about the election tomorrow.

Have a good day, everybody!

Irish Miss said...

HI Everyone:

Late, late, late due to getting side-tracked and flitting from one thing to another! Well, this was a nice, easy-breezy start to the week with a fresh theme and some fun clues/answers. (On hire excluded!). CSO to Abejo with Erie and to Mr. Meow with 🐱! I loved the first couple of seasons of "Person of Interest" but then it went too far off the rails, IMO. Like DO, I knew Amy Acker's face but not her name. Now, Jim Cavezile (sp???), that's another story! 😈

I doubt there is a person in this country who will not be glad when tomorrow is over. Talk about sensory overload! 👿

Have a great day, what's left of it, anyway.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Right!
I'm in agreement with those who found this one a toughie - or, as Misty says, "a "bit crunchy."
I didn't need any look-ups, but I was tempted - sorely. And that's quite unusual for a Monday pzl. How I know this was tough is that I could not finish it in my usual Monday form, i.e., running a direct diagonal from 1-A to 71-A. I got stuck at 31-D MIDGE, and wasn't sure enough of the perps to continue in my wonted manner. Oh, I was able to get there by moving elsewhere in the grid and eventually filling in enough perps, but this has never happened before on a Monday.
I congratulate Brock Wilson for lifting Monday to a fresh level of respectability!

PS. Thank you, Tinbeni, for reminding us to VOTE. This is definitely not the election to sit out. I agree as to looking forward to an absence of political ads, phone calls, and emails. What a relief that will be!
(We sent ours in two weeks ago - and marvel at the stalwart citizens who stand in line for three to five hours in some places. BRAVO!)

Irish Miss said...

Sorry, I got carried away about tomorrow and forgot to thank Brock and Argyle for a fun solve and summary. Thank you both.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

oc4beach - Please have a little understanding about the variation in meatloaf quality when you dine out. After all, these fine food establishments have absolutely no control of what was struck by traffic overnight.

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

TX Ms,
So happy you like the current format. I'm done fiddling with the template. Alas, the "Bad Request" at the Comments section, Font/Font Size & Blank/Duplicate post glitches for my blogging team continue.

TTP,
Thanks again for showing me how to identity the text body size. You helped me get through another bumpy ride.

D-Otto, Argyle, Gary, Spitzboov et al,
Thanks for always giving me prompt feedback for each change. You're the best!

Anonymous said...

This was a nice, easy slide into the week. Thanks, Brock. It was a fun expo, Argyle; thank you.

Fav c/a 32d: Kit ___:candy bar. Here's a story about a stolen candy bar. Kit Kat

A few years ago a sister/BIL found a hand shaped mold for MEATLOAF at Halloween. Sliced almonds are the fingernails, cover it with catsup, layer cheese on it and use a small peeled onion for the wrist bone. After it's cooked it looks rather gruesome but it tastes delicious. It's gotten to be a tradition to have it sometime in October.

I like the new format. It's easier to read. Sorry it was such a PIA (pain in the ass).

Happy Monday.

Pat

Pat

OwenKL said...

I always assumed MIDGE in the Archie comics was given that name because she had been so small as a baby -- she was shorter than the rest, and her oversized boyfriend Moose made her seem even more so.

CED: typing the code < produces a "less than sign" left bracket that isn't interpreted as an HTML command.

Another trick (which may not work for everyone), adding title="what ever" to an <a href=""> command will give a pop-up tooltip dispaying what ever, even if you leave the the right side of html="" empty!

chin said...

Easy one but, it is only Monday. I might point out that MIR does mean "peace" in Russian but it also means "world" so when Khrushchev declared that they wanted peace, it could have also been translated that they wanted the world.

Anonymous said...

@ Husker Gary-- my motto has always been 'a place for everything and everything someplace'. Works well for me.

Anonymous said...

@ oc4beach-- mac and cheese and peas are real good, but for elegant dining, add mushrooms and a can or two of Spam. Yum!

Jayce said...

Speaking of flitting, LW and I went to get our annual flu shots and then she wanted to "run some errands." Wow, does she ever flit about! Sudden u-turns mid-aisle, numerous back-and-forths, etc. I finally decided to wait in the car. I drove her to 3 supermarkets and she took about 30-45 minutes in each one! I passed the time listening to NPR on the car radio.

So now finally I have time to post. I actually found this puzzle to be harder than I expected, and took a good 10 minutes just to work the SE corner. ON HIRE made me wrinkle my nose, and TEEN CRUSH just seemed like a made-up phrase for the sole purpose of making a theme entry. I understand the clue for ATTIC but didn't like it, because to me "tall" means a relatively large distance between the top and bottom of a thing, not how high it is in altitude. C.C. would scold me for such construction.

We also watched Person of Interest for no more than 2 seasons, as it, as Irish Miss said, went too far off the rails. It just got too weird.

My first personal computer was a Commodore PET. I liked it a lot.

Best wishes to you all.

TTP said...

Thank you CC. Glad to help where I can !

Anonymous T said...

Hi all!

Finally found a little TIME TO KILL to play the puzzle; CRUSHED it faster than a SNAIL's STRUT.

Lots of fun sparkle today - thanks Brock. Enjoyed the music and writeup Argyle.

WOs: wrong VILE; wrong JIBE. At least I got the right FARE :-)
ESPs: 36a, 37a, 52d, 55d.

Fav: WORKFORCE xing SICKDAYS gave me a giggle.

Runners up: I love HEAVY CREAM for my sauces. Then there's this MEATLOAF in the classic OPERA (Rocky Horror Picture Show).

{B, A-, C, B}

Hungry Mother - 1st box I owned was IBM-comparable 386-25DX w/ math-co. I still use a WinTel box but I have the GNU *NIX tools installed - I'm sure some are the same code base as what you saw at Duke.

IM & Jayce - Hand-up thinking POI MISS'd it after the first couple of seasons.

TTP - thanks for the RUSH SO :-). Yes, I think Musical Instrument Digital Interface at MIDI.

HG - The incentive is to use SICK DAYS 1st. 1) they don't roll over and 2) If you're Off-HIRE'd :-) (laid-off) you get paid for vacation days but not for SICK DAYS / floating personal days. With $45 oil again, it's a good strategy.

Jinx - funny roadkill MEATLOAF.
Pat - enjoyed the timely Kit KAT story.

CED - OKL beat me to the &lt; and &gt; text. Here's a fun one, to get an & you have to type &amp;

So what I typed... &lt;a href="http://www.ou.edu"&gt; BOOMER! &lt;/a&gt;

DW and I always VOTE together. Afterwords, we usually go for cocktails but tomorrow we have busy afternoons. So, it will be brunch (maybe one cocktail :-)) then work. Later, we'll play this game while watching the returns. It will be celebratory if our PARTY gets VICTORY or numb us to the new reality... :-)

Cheers, -T

TX Ms said...

Jinx @ 2:17 - LOL! Just now re-read your post and finally understand your "cultured definition" of roadkill - good one! I see that Anon-T was quicker than I at parsing
"establishments have absolutely no control of what was struck by traffic overnight." If you google "armadillo roadkill in Texas," you'll get lots of wacko images -[sigh]- such is the nature of Texas culture. But y'all already know that about Texas from reading the news. At least we have the the Texas Medical Center, MD Anderson, Energy Capital (hope it rebounds, Anon-T), and NASA (in its days-HG?) as positives.

Limerick Lenny said...

-T no "grade" for Chairman Moe's limerick today? I thought it was pretty clever.

Anonymous T said...

Limerick Lenny [are you sure it's not LARRY? :-)] - D'oh I forgot C. Moe, thanks. {A}

For folks that like Colbert's humour...
This weekend I heard on NPR's "Fresh Air" that Colbert will be doing live election-returns on Showtime. [MA- A TAD political]

I'M IN! In <10 min, for $10, Comcast turned on Showtime for 1 month. It should be way-better than watching the results on the networks - though the drinking-game IDEA is shot [pun intended].

Cheers, -T