Theme: C.C.C.W.~!
Words: 72 (missing H,J,Q,Z)
Blocks: 28
Another fine puzzle from our Crossword Corner Hostess~! She has been prolific with her constructions, having two in August, three in September, and four in October for the LA Times alone. I would like more time to work on my own grids, personally. Today's offering was a bit heavy on the proper names, but nothing that the perp(endiculars) couldn't help me solve. Triple 8-letter down corners, 9-letter across corners, two climbers of 10 letters and one spanner;
35a. Movie with the subtitle "Dawn of Justice" : BATMAN V. SUPERMAN - I am burned out on the whole superhero movie thing; I enjoyed the Batman Begins series, tho I did not care for #3, and I never got into "X-men", "Iron Man", or any of the others....just not my thing - here's the Wiki on this 2016 release
5d. Classic access provider : OPEN SESAME
30d. Sale restriction : ONE DAY ONLY
Words: 72 (missing H,J,Q,Z)
Blocks: 28
Another fine puzzle from our Crossword Corner Hostess~! She has been prolific with her constructions, having two in August, three in September, and four in October for the LA Times alone. I would like more time to work on my own grids, personally. Today's offering was a bit heavy on the proper names, but nothing that the perp(endiculars) couldn't help me solve. Triple 8-letter down corners, 9-letter across corners, two climbers of 10 letters and one spanner;
35a. Movie with the subtitle "Dawn of Justice" : BATMAN V. SUPERMAN - I am burned out on the whole superhero movie thing; I enjoyed the Batman Begins series, tho I did not care for #3, and I never got into "X-men", "Iron Man", or any of the others....just not my thing - here's the Wiki on this 2016 release
5d. Classic access provider : OPEN SESAME
30d. Sale restriction : ONE DAY ONLY
 |
| Want that delivered in one day~? |
ACROSS:
1. Money-saving characters : PROMO CODE
10. Complaints : BEEFS
15. Fade : LOSE POWER
16. Pitfall! platform : ATARI
17. Hunt object : EASTER EGG
18. For real : LEGIT
19. "Break Free" singer Grande : ARIANA - I don't know about her music, but I do know about her legs~!
20. Benihana founder Rocky __ : AOKI
22. USN officers : LTs - put in the "S" and waited
23. Early 20th-century first family : TAFTS - Ford was the only other 20th century four-letter name, and he came too late. As for President Taft, the truth about his bathtub
24. Wine commonly served chilled : ASTI - I pondered "NOIR", but since I am not a wine person, I left it alone
25. Institute in whose logo the first letter is a stylized question mark : SETI
26. Snorting scene : STY - some alliteration for us
27. Hosp. test : EKG - again, filled in the "E" and "G" then waited
29. Flier with a large bill : TOUCAN - Pelican was too long; the "---CAN" part filled via perps, and I started wondering....
31. Most Hong Kong Airport travelers : ASIANS
34. "Fab!" : NEATO - had it, took it out, put it back in
39. First-stringers : A-TEAM
40. Greetings from American Greetings : eCARDS - I did consider this, but let it slide
41. Showtime title vigilante : DEXTER - my buddy Mike keeps harping on me to watch this series - and I have the first season on DVD
43. BBC World Service alternative : VOA - this is "news" to me; filled via perps. The Wiki
44. Loyal follower? : IST - loyalist
47. Enemy of un ratón : GATO - Spanish rats and cats
48. Part of un drame : ACTE - Frawnche drama and acts
51. Grapevine planter? : YENTA - I thought it would be something along the lines of "rumor"
53. 2012 British Open champion : ELS - Ernie, the popular crossword golfer
54. Work on a bone : GNAW
55. "Time, Love and Tenderness" singer : BOLTON - I did not know he was the lead singer of a classic 70's hard rock band called "Blackjack" - the Wiki
56. More ready, in a way : RIPER
58. Weathering : RIDING OUT
60. Duck : EVADE - AVOID~? ELUDE~? Had to wait
61. Refreshing espresso drink : ICED LATTE - man, I toyed with putting "--LATTE" in, but hesitated
62. Software giveaways : DEMOS
63. Historic sewer : BETSY ROSS - the Truth about the US Flag
DOWN:
1. Kilt features : PLEATS
2. Find really funny : ROAR AT
3. Harden : OSSIFY
4. Used for a rendezvous : MET AT
6. "Around the World in 80 Plates" co-host Cat : CORA
7. Red state verb : OWE
8. Big name at the Musée d'Orsay : DEGAS - he had a thing for women's legs, too
The Ballet Class
9. Rye blight : ERGOT - oops, thought it was "A"RGOT
10. Denpasar's island : BALI - total WAG
11. Dog days in Haiti : ÉTÉ
12. Big bird watcher : EAGLE-CAM
13. Quiche cousin : FRITTATA
14. Audits : SITS IN ON
21. Parts for a model : KIT - I loved to build car kits when I was a kid; still have about 4 that I have not finished in a closet somewhere
24. Tequila plant : AGAVE
25. Court figures : SUERS
28. Blood : KIN
31. REO Speedwagon guitarist Dave : AMATO
32. Situation Room gp. : NSC - filled via perps
33. Sophisticated : SUAVE
35. Nagged : BADGERED
36. Completely dominated : ATE ALIVE
37. Cellphone annoyance : TEXT SPAM - new term for me, tho I have had one or two text messages that were essentially Spam
38. Expert : PRO
42. Took off : RAN
44. Completely : IN TOTO - and now we have Latin to add to the 'foreign' language answers
45. Dark drafts : STOUTS
46. Tours relatives : TANTES
49. Suriname native : CARIB
50. Now and again? : TWICE - har-har
52. "Enigma Variations" composer : ELGAR
54. Hurdles for srs. : GREs - Graduate Record Examinations
55. eBay action : BIDS - I was thrown by the plural/singular, but then if you think "action" as a noun, it works
57. Tokugawa shogunate capital : EDO - I suppose this would have been my guess, but it filled via perps before I even read the clue
59. Crime solver: Abbr. : DETective
Splynter
Note from C.C.:
Here is a message from Alex Boivert:
"We recently launched Crosswords LA 2016 - an online "tournament" entirely for charity. Fro a small fee, you can purchase a puzzle pack, solve the competitive puzzles within, and submit your times and scores (honor system!) for friendly comparison. Even if you choose not to submit your scores, you can purchase eleven fun puzzles - and know that *all the money* (minus PayPal fees) will be donated to the wonderful Reading to Kids charity.
The Five tournament puzzles were made by top Southern California constructors (Alex Boivert, Rich Norris, Doug Peterson, David Steinberg and Patti Varol) and the six bonus puzzles are from a variety of puzzle luminaries (Matt Gaffney, Joon Pahk, Brendan Emmet Quigley, Alex Boivert and Doug Peterson). One of the bonus puzzles (by Peter Muller) is a contest crossword - solve it and submit the answer to mail@crosswordnexus.com by December 15 to have a chance at winning a year's subscription to the Indie puzzle service of your choice.
Thanks and happy solving!
Alex"
38 comments:
Got the bottom 2/3rds done, with almost nothing at the top. Finally gave up and turned on the red letters. Only had 4 words in the top 1/3rd, and 3 of them went entirely red! Gack! The rest of the story was not pretty.
{C-, B, A-, A+.}
SUPERMAN liked a nicely chilled ASTI,
BATMAN preferred a glass of ICED LATTE,
The villain, El GATO
Drank RYE whiskey NEAT-O,
While DEXTER was content with hot coffee.
Said BADGER ED to the touchy TOUCAN,
"Please stop sending out that TEXT SPAM!
You'd do better, by yards,
To send out some E-CARDS
Of yourself photobombing EAGLE CAM!"
A TOKUGAWA SHOGUN from EDO
Was wearing an ASIAN tuxedo.
An obi-cummerbund
By silkworms was spun,
With the PLEATS reinforced by mosquito!
A dancer once migrated from BALI
To seek a career in the Follies!
The gents, to a man
Enjoyed her can-can,
While her melons made them all melancholy!
Morning, all!
*WHEW*
Had a real hard time getting started with this one, and for awhile there I thought it was going to be a disaster. Lots of names in the NW I just didn't know (CORA, AOKI, ARIANA), and I went with HOWL AT instead of ROAR AT, which had just enough letters that worked with the perps that I was sure it was correct. MONET for DEGAS, on the other hand, was just pain wrong.
Once I finally got out of that NW corner, however, things got a lot smoother. BATMAN VS SUPERMAN was a big fat gimme and the only other complete unknown I encountered was AMATO, but the perps took care of him with no problem.
Not bad for a Saturday. Lots of names I didn't know, but the perps made it possible to solve it.
Good morning!
I really struggled with this one. Let's have a big hand for Wite-Out! With LOSE COLOR, LOST THING and MONEY in the NW, nothing was working. "Situation Room gp." evoked Wolf Blitzer's CNN news program. I drew a blank on what the abbr. could be. TAFTS, ELGAR and BETSY ROSS were the only proper names I recognized. Things looked bleak for the longest time...probably five minutes. After Witeing-Out my iffy entries, I could see other possibilities, and then everything fell into place. Good one, C.C.
BADGERED made me think of AvgJoe for some reason. Oh wait, that was last weekend.
Where'd that Alpo go, Dorothy? IN TOTO
No, it wasn't MONEY, it was MONET. Thanks, auto-correct.
I am finding it frustrating doing the puzzle on the website: games.latimes.com
About two weeks ago on this site, the puzzle began to randomly cut to video commercials and then reset. This would happen multiple times in the course of completing the puzzle, Has anyone else experienced this and is there an alternate website where this does not occur? Thanks for any suggestions. Bill V.
Hello Puzzlers -
Not WBS! For me, a matchup between Batman and Superman makes no sense. I haven't kept up with superheroes since about, oh, 1967. So why would two crime fighters square off?
By the way, Barry, I'm surprised you didn't acknowledge C.C.'s accurate SETI clue. Hmmm, maybe you were in on it...
Didn't know the guitarist, had to wait for Degas and Riper. Got there eventually.
The unknown proper names made this one harder than it should have been. ARIANA, DEXTER, BOLTON, AMATO.
Never heard of before-CORA, AOKI, FRITTATA (all three were perps) and TEXT SPAM. I had to GNAW around the edges to finish the puzzle because there were so few gimmes- BETSY ROSS, TAFTS, ELS, & AGAVE. Didn't know the movie but after BAT was in place I just guessed the rest but was looking for 'vs' no 'V'.
BALI & ATARI were WAGS in the NE and the naval abbr. LT was the only officer that had only two letters. I had the CAM but the EAGLE was slow to fly in.
ONE DAY ONLY sales- with competition from Amazon, Wal-Mart and other discounters, I think Macy's needs to quit those annoying ads. They have one every week. Bed Bath & Beyond- I get a 20% off coupon at least once a week.
Splynter- I'm not a wine or coffee drinker so both the ASTI and ICED LATTE didn't fill easily.
Hi all!
A cheat-fest this morning... I had to lookup ARIANA, AOKI, BOLTON, DEXTER, and AMATO. Still FIW, I had "A" CARDS left in the grid. Thanks C.C. for a fun puzzle (and the link to the puzzle pack - I got one for me and MIL).
Splynter - great writeup. BOLTON's band looks like the embodiment of Spinal Tap (esp. the bassist!). Flag history link was cute too - the final pictured flag (on the moon) fell long ago when they took the M out of MTV.
WOs: Hand up - it took DEGAS to degauss the color-set to POWER. My two t's in FRITTATA came at the end...
ESP: None - I cheated my butt off
Fav: ATARI. I mentioned the garage-sale PONG game yesterday and today I get the 2600 we got for Christmas :-). NEATO!
Runner-up: c/a for YENTA. Nice.
{B+, A, C, B}
Re: BATMAN v. SUPERMAN
1. I read the comics growing up and gave up on all the superhero movies after Dark Night - they just got stupid and full of ever-increasing over-the-top fights and effects.
2. You don't cross Universes.
3. Worst lawsuit ever - Wayne v. Kent
Cheers, -T
Total tough run today. First fill-ins didn't happen until STY and EKG and the top stayed blank for a long time even with Red Letters. A true Saturday challenge from CC that didn't look that hard after it was all filled in. Neatly constructed CC.
To me the Dog Days are in August, but AOUT didn't fit. I thought Harden was SOLIDIFY, but it didn't fit, so I tried INURE, still didn't fit. Eventually perps filled it in.
I watched DEXTER for a few of the early seasons, but lost interest in it when his wife died. It just got to be too much to keep up with. Some shows outlive their story-line long before the networks kill them and some other shows never get the chance to rise to their full potential and are shut down too early. But that's just my opinion.
Again, another Saturday DNF.
Have a good day, everyone.
Fun, but fair. The bottom 2/3 was not difficult. I was chagrined to resort to a few red letters in the top. The main cheat was I red-letter checked LOSE COLOR which helped a lot. I knew FRITATTA, but it took too long to dredge up. On the tip of my tongue. So many wags today. Blood/kin was cute.
Font size is not a problem here. I use Ctlr with scroll wheel.
Another beef with Macy's is the huge assortment of overlapping coupons with different rules. It has put me off shopping there. I need a personal secretary to keep up with all of them. Also the weekly assault of magazine renewal notices months in advance puts me off. I ignore them until sometimes it is too late.
CC FTW - Wonderful, clever cluing. Learned a few things with the proper names. Great start to the weekend.
Good day to all!
Needed many trips to Mr. G. to get all the proper names--ARIANA Grande, Rocky AOKI, Cat CORA, DEXTER, BOLTON, AMATO. Hand up for Monet before DEGAS, and LOSEcolor before LOSE POWER in that pesky NW corner. But still an enjoyable outing, so thanks, C.C., for a fine puzzle, and thanks Splynter for being our faithful Saturday guide.
Enjoy the day!
Good Morning:
On the first pass, I thought my goose was cooked but, slowly but surely, I chipped away here and there and everywhere till I got the TADA w/o any help. Hand up for Lose Color/Lose Power and trouble with Frittata spelling. I appreciated the abundance of long, fresh fill.Wasn't familiar with Amato or Aoki but did know all of the other proper names. Miss Grande has quite a reputation as a Diva with a capital D but, then again, there are several self-created Divas in today's entertainment world.
Thanks, CC, for a challenging but highly doable Saturday stumper and thanks, Splynter for being our faithful and trustful guide.
YR, your gripe about early renewal notices reminded me of why I cancelled my AARP membership. My renewal date was November but the notices (and invoices) would start coming in June or July. I would receive 4-5 before I would finally renew. After several years of this annoying practice, I "unjoined." That was about 6 years ago and I'm still bombarded with car and health insurance solicitations which go straight to the recycling bin, unopened. ACK!
Have a great day.
I thought C.C. took a bit of creative license w/ TEXT SPAM. However, CVS just texted me that I can refill w/ a text! The c/a is LEGIT. C, -T
Good morning everyone.
When selecting font sizes to be used by older people, bigger is better.
Great puzzle today. Needed a little red ltr help but it was worth the trek. Favorite clues were for OPEN SESAME and OWE.
EKG - Ours are done in Dr's office.
SITS IN ON - Once audited a course in graduate school on Glacial Geology. Fascinating.
Denpasar on BALI was a learning moment. Worth a read on Wiki.
SUER - Years ago I had an occasion to contact the head of the Buffalo Sewer Authority, a Mr. Clark Suor, regarding L. Erie water data. He answered the phone: "Suor of Sewer".
LTS - O-3, equivalent to an Army captain. To me, the sweet spot rank in the Navy for a line officer. Served long enough to have earned the respect of the Chiefs and other enlisted, and also to have had enough schooling and technical experience to be of special value to the CO and XO. The burdens of rank and Command are, for the most part, still off in the future.
Have a great day.
Musings
-Every section was a delightful struggle. BATMAN… was a big help
-A fine and educational review as always, Splynter.
-Standing in line for Black Friday chaos is not an event for me
-This guy and his PROMO CODES seem to be everywhere!
-Mr. Roberts is my favorite movie USN LT(JG)
-All NFL teams this time of year have first stringers injured
-Our tomatoes stopped getting RIPER a few weeks ago
-Built this KIT, and then pitched it. Doh!
-SEWER and SUER were not homonyms today!
-Early 19th century Hercule Poirot and 21st century Sherlock Holmes DET’s are worth the Netflix subscription price
CC, the font was smaller today than in the previous days, but no worries - I just adjust the Google settings to enlarge the print. Have to do that when I'm reading some internet articles anyway so it's second-nature for me.
Thought this was going to be a Google Saturday after having only AGAVE, DEGAS (thought the money-saving characters were going to be "tightwads"), and FRITTATA (double t's first or last?), but slowly the southeast came together. I filled in AOKI (isn't he an oft-clued golfer?) after KIT appeared. Finally remembered Cat CORA from sitting in doctors' waiting rooms. Since I'm not a moviegoer, BATMAN took the longest to come up with; I had VSUPERMAN. Perps came to the rescue (my favorite kind of puzzle). Great job, CC, and doable, thank you!
And thanks, Splynter, for all the fun photos (loved opensesame) and links - VOA and Taft tub were interesting - never knew the history of either. That's why I love the Corner - always something new to learn.
Just chiming in to say great puzzle CC! A fun and fulfilling challenge for us Saturday solvers, coming together in the best Silky smooth manner. Thank you!
Tough going today, with some fantastic cluing and a lot of proper names. FIR, but after a longer time than usual. Thanks, C.C.
Nice job, Splynter..... loved the Password/User ID comic!
Great job, C.C.! I thought it would be a stumper since at first pass I had only GATO, ARIANA (it's hard not to know about her)and BETSYROSS. However, I kept pushing and little by little it blossomed, first in the SE which also gave me ONEDAYSALE.
Great fill in MHO: OSSIFY, BADGERED, ERGOT. CORA and DEXTER were pure WAGS.
Hand up for not recalling where the double T was in FRITTATA. But then ENS had to be erased since that's the most common fill and LTS took over. Also PELICAN didn't fit so eventually TOUCAN emerged. And SUERS not ATTYS.
Thank you, C.C. and Splynter! I have to come back and read the links you provided.
Have a super Saturday, everyone!
Tough going and the only reason I kept at it was plain stubbornness. Misleading but fair cluing.
I didn't even realize I was done, as I went from section to section when I got stuck.
I thought I was on CC's wavelength today when I got BETSY ROSS, RIDING OUT, ARIANA, OSSIFY and FRITTATA right off the bat. Then reality set in. Only one error - RIcER for RIPER (I knew something was wrong, but ran out of patience and looked at the completed grid. But by that time I had already Googled 9 clues.
I knew raton because we honeymooned in Boca 25 years ago. Beautiful place with an ugly name. I knew the Spanish for cat because I used to have meetings in California's Los Gatos. Beautiful place with a beautiful name. I knew ARIANA Grande because her annoying little brother was on the reality show Big Brother a year or two ago.
Thanks CC for a well-constructed Saturday puzzle. Even though it ATE me ALIVE, I still had a good time. Splynter's expo was great as usual.
Irish Miss - AARP lost me during the health care debate. I wanted them to be political, but to be political advocates specifically for senior citizens. The ACA was good for AARP's Medicare supplemental insurance business, but IMO it wasn't good for the vast majority of seniors.
My favorite clue today was "red state verb" for OWE. Least favorite was "2012 British Open Championship" for ELS. I was trying to fit in a tennis player. The major tournament ELS won that year was "The Open Championship" - no "British" in it.
This puzzle ATE me ALIVE. Like Anon-T I cheated a lot. Well, okay, not cheating, but plenty of look-ups in the "reference" materials (i.e. Google searches.) At least I knew BETSY ROSS, ARIANA, TAFTS, and AGAVE. Mistook the Spanish rat for a French rat, so entered CHAT at 47A, which ,of course, messed me up big time in that area. I gotta say, this was a damn good puzzle.
I agree with TX Ms: the font was smaller today than in the previous days. Yesterday the font for yesterday's blog was a small as today's, but now yesterday's font is bigger. To me, font size isn't usually a problem because I can make it bigger with Firefox's zoom feature if I need to (which is getting to be more and more often.) I still think it is silly that Google proclaimed the old template to be obsolete and forced C.C. to have to choose a different one. Again I say, I see absolutely no improvement.
Bill V. @ 7:16AM, I agree with you that those ads on the games/latimes website are annoying as heck. I commented on that a few days ago. I find the Mensa site (http://www.us.mensa.org/play/games/games/la-times-crossword/) to be very satisfactory, although it doesn't show circles. You might want to try it. I think the Chicago Tribune site used to be pretty good, but I haven't looked at it for over a year; it may very well have changed.
Best wishes to you all.
Jayce, TX Ms et al,
Can you refresh the blog front page and see if the font is bigger now?
I have trouble with smaller fonts, but I thought everybody had the Ctrl-while-you-scroll feature to resize the blog, smaller or larger, as I have on my computer, or the spread your fingers to enlarge as on my touch screen Kindle. Maybe not.
I just returned from a leaf peeping jaunt to the Delaware Water Gap with Alan, so lovely on this pleasant afternoon. Our foliage is at its best now and only a tad past it further west. We stopped at a diner there for lunch.
Two weeks ago we drove with my younger sister out to the Chicago area (850 miles each way) for my elder sister's birthday party. Much of the way the foliage was in its prime.
Driving long distances reminds me of Montana. I know she moved. Has she stopped dropping in or has she changed her name? I miss her.
Ouch!
Friendly fire got me!
I think today's pzl was payback for yesterday--when I bragged of solving a Wechsler toughie despite my initial misgivings. Today C.C. put me firmly back in my place with her brilliant all-but-DNF concoction. My only gimmes were ETE and ELGAR, not a very hopeful beginning. Eventually after some five or ten (I-dunno!) lookups I managed to squeak out a finish of sorts (although I still didn't understand SUERS until I sounded it out).
Just goes to show we mustn't get cocky. Not in Cruciverbaland.
C.C. yes the font is bigger now. (I also see you removed your note at the bottom.)
By the way, I tried to view the page in my iPad (latest iOS, 10.0.2) and all I can get is a solid green, blank screen. However, in "Reader View" I can see the text. On my old iPhone 4 (old iOS 6.1.3) I can see everything just fine. (Ta ma de Google!)
Now I can see Splynter's blog page just fine on my iPad. I must have tried looking at it at the same time you were fiddling with it.
C.C. The font seems bigger now except for the 'posted by' and 'labels' slots at the very end. Much easier to read now.
Dudley - Forgot to wish you well with the new puppy the other day. Cute picture.
Among the missing, haven't seen Swenglish Mom in quite a while, either. Was reminded the other day while reading an article about Wallenius Wilhelmsen auto transport.
Spitzboov,
The Post Footer can't be enlarged, but I can change its color. How do you like it now?
Jayce,
Thank you! Ta ma de Google!
C.C. @ 3:51. NEATO. Works for me.
Thanks Jayce, will try that site tomorrow. Bill V,
Oh my god, I said, I think I just finished it. Impossible as it seemed I decided to persevere. Right off the bat I saw CC's name and said"This won't be so bad". Even though all I had was TAFTS.
What was this famous SEWER? As in St Petersburg after Celine. I thought I needed VS but methinks the movie title did only have the V.
OPENSESAME. Popeye once said "Open sez me". Along with him we had VOA recently.
Finishing this one sans cheats(I got the languages all mixed up, btw) makes up for blowing THISISIT Fri.
Owen, I'm with the higher marks on 1,2. Especially, using so many xws.
Btw again. When ELS won in 2012 it hadn't changed from "British" to "The Open". If they'd asked me I'd've toldem "Keep it as it was".
Speaking of golf.. Huh,Na,Brown,Kaufman were all at the Vegas. But not in that order.
I will be so pleased with myself for finishing this baby. Thanks CC for being CC and thanks Splynter for the write-up.
WC. (I think they'll be other late finishers and it's actually only 12:39)
So maybe this will be read
First puzzle in quite awhile and was proud to finish without Googling...but had RILED for RIPER, rationalizing that GDES was a tortured abbreviation for "grades". With "more" starting the clue for 56A, should have known the likely answer would end with ER...
WC - The name "Open Championship" hasn't changed, only what the (American) PGA Tour calls it has changed.
I usually love CCs puzzles, but this one beat me up in the NW.
CORA and ARIANA were total unknowns (as was DEXTER and BOLTON, but the crosses saved those for me).
I had DISAPPEAR for fade.
Hand up for MONET or MANET before the aha of DEGAS happened. I was even at Musee d'Orsay last year! My work conference was in that neighborhood!
Denpasar/BALI was a gimme as I have been there. Airport code DEN which I would have thought Denmark would have snagged first!
This was a rare occasion where I resorted to red letters. Once I determined that the M in Monet was wrong... and the D in Disappear was wrong... I was able to figure out better answers.
Post a Comment