google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday, February 27, 2017 Gail Grabowski and Bruce Venzke

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Feb 27, 2017

Monday, February 27, 2017 Gail Grabowski and Bruce Venzke

Theme: Give me some skin, bro - One word that can be patched to the start of the entry phrases.

66A. Medical adhesive strip ... and a hint to what can precede the first word of 17-, 25-, 40- and 52-Across: SKIN PATCH

17A. Filled light pastry: CREAM PUFF. Skin cream.

25A. Gronk's position on football's Patriots: TIGHT END. Skintight.

40A. Magician's hand movement: FLICK OF THE WRIST. Skin flick.

52A. Like some pizzas and apple pies: DEEP DISH. Skin deep.

Argyle here, plus Gail with Bruce today. No "B" in this naughty blue Monday. The pics I could have posted boggles the mind but you already have been boggled enow if you watched the Oscars.

Across:

1. Seaweed wrap resorts: SPAs

5. Peaceful: CALM

9. Dozed: SLEPT

14. Small chess piece: PAWN

15. Baseball's Moises: ALOU

16. Flooring specialist: TILER. A tiler earns his pay putting tiles around pipes and the edges of the room.

19. Like good gossip: JUICY

20. Expand, as a collection: ADD TO

21. San __, California: MATEO


23. Comic Margaret: CHO. "I love drugs, but I hate hangovers, and the hatred of the hangover wins by a landslide every time." - Margaret Cho

30. Spiro ran with him: RICHARD. Late-’60s Maryland governor, Spiro Agnew, served as Vice-President under Richard Nixon.

34. Baby's bodysuit: ONESIE. Standard baby shower present.


35. Comm. system with hand motions: ASL. (American Sign Language)

36. Slowly withdraws: WEANS

39. Tablet downloads: APPs

44. RPM gauge: TACH

45. Unifying idea: THEME

46. Pierced body part: EAR

47. Moral values: ETHICS

50. Mob witness' request: AMNESTY, and entry into the witness protection system.

55. Purported UFO fliers: ETs. (Extra-Terrestrial)

56. Bond portrayer Daniel: CRAIG


58. "__ directed": medication warning: USE AS

62. Magna __: CARTA. Runnymede, 1215. It will be on the quiz.

68. Graceland idol: ELVIS


69. Military medal earner: HERO

70. Ivy League school: YALE and 11D. 70-Across collegian: ELI

71. Hosiery thread: LISLE

72. Hullabaloos: ADOs

73. Upright wall timber: STUD

Down:

1. Pet lovers' org.: SPCA. (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals)

2. Western chum: PARD. 1840-50, Americanism; by alteration and shortening of partner.

3. Left dumbstruck: AWED

4. Grab quickly: SNATCH

5. Bottle topper: CAP

6. University supporter, briefly: ALUM. An alumna or alumnus.

7. Lite, dietwise: LO-FAT. Both words are adspeak.

8. Civilian attire: MUFTIOrigin.

9. Virgin Islands isl.: ST. JOHN


10. Lucy of "Elementary": LIU. Holmes and Watson


12. Ab neighbor: PEC. Muscles, abdominals and pectorals.

13. Give it a whirl: TRY

18. Mostly shaved-head style: MOHAWK

22. Bigheadedness: EGO

24. Double Delight cookie: OREO

26. Hazmat suit problem: TEAR

27. Glimpses: ESPIES

28. Tries to bite, puppy-style: NIPS AT

29. "__ Rides Again": 1939 Western: DESTRY


30. Shot the rapids, say: RAFTED

31. Arrives after the bell: IS LATE

32. Overused expression: CLICHÉ

33. Bonkers: DAFT

37. To the __ degree: NTH

38. Mets' old stadium: SHEA

41. Greenside golf shot: CHIP

42. Plus-size supermodel: EMME

43. Ascended: WENT UP

48. Jewel box: CD CASE


49. Title for Connery: SIR

51. Emerson works: ESSAYS. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882)

53. Recent White House daughter: SASHA. Malia Ann and Natasha Obama.

54. Walked in the woods: HIKED

57. Early whirlybird, for short: GIRO. Autogiro, originally a trademark of Cierva Autogiro Co., is also known as gyro, autogyro, gyroplane, gyrocopter, or rotaplane.

59. Coup d'__: ÉTAT

60. Bill of Rights-defending org.: ACLU. (American Civil Liberties Union)

61. Lawn mower holder: SHED

62. Animation still: CEL

63. "Aladdin" prince: ALI

64. Homes on wheels: Abbr.: RVs. (recreational vehicle)

65. Shop __ you drop: 'TIL

67. Discouraging words: NOs

Owen inspired addition.




Argyle

46 comments:

Argyle said...

Sorry I was late posting this; I had the wrong envelope.

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks to Gail, Bruce and Santa!

Cool puzzle. everything straightforward.

Thanks CC for quick puzzle!

Have a great day!

OwenKL said...

Wilbur says depression is the mother of great art. Well, depression certainly is a Muther! I don't know if it's my "great art", or just that today's puzzle was as dirty as a political ETHICS lawyer, but all licks today are X-rated!
{B*, B, C**, B+.}

T'was a time when for a boy to see a SKIN FLICK
Took planning and chutzpah to avoid getting nicked!
To SNATCH airy a peek
At a SNATCH hair peak
Took more than a FLICK OF THE WRIST and a click!

I've heard it said, so I've been told
(Too ask, I never would be so bold!)
To a certain predilection
A choice ESPIED detection
Of a cute TIGHT END is a sight to behold!

LUCY was a nerd, though JUICY as a knish!
A CREAMPUFF aptly called a DEEP DISH!
Every STUD at YALE
Tried to get her tail,
But she only SLEPT with a virtual swish!

EMME had a figure that AWED the town,
But her ESSAYS only brought a frown.
So she had the dean
Review her THEME,
And her grades WENT UP, when she went down!

(* Wrote airy, but then decided to check it. Tried dictionary and slang sites with no results, but found under vulgarisms and dialect airy=any and nairy=none as an antonym pair. ** Swish as an effeminate gay is so out of use it probably doesn't even rank as vulgar any more.)

Argyle said...

Owen, I added a little something for you at the bottom of the post.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Thanks for the CREAMPUFF, GG and BV. And thanks for the tour, Argyle. No, I didn't get the theme; didn't need it. C.C. will probably never forgive me -- my sole writeover was CRANE/CRAIG.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

DO stole my CREAM PUFF thanks, but thanks indeed to Gail, Bruce and Santa. My one erasure was GyRO, and I'm still not conceding that one.

Didn't know Daniel CRAIG, but I'm pretty sure that the real Bond, James Bond is Sean Connery. Also didn't know MUFTI or DESTRY. I also didn't know EMME, but I think plus-sized models are more PC BS, and don't understand how fashion models can be super in any case (other than super-ficial).

CSO to me today. I still have about 3 weeks left in my home on wheels. It will be good to get back to the bricks-and-sticks abode.

OwenKL said...

Got it! Thx!

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Zipped through this without noticing Destry, which I didn't know. Paused at Gyro versus Giro, as usual. Never heard of Skin Patch in this context, as far as I recall.

Morning Argyle, you steady hand at the helm, you!

Hand up for thinking Sean Connery really defined James Bond. That said, I think Daniel Craig makes a good runner-up.

Jinx 7:29 - I tend to agree. Somehow we fell into the habit of applying the super prefix too easily. I wish we could drop "supermarket" and return to "grocery" or similar.

BunnyM said...

Good morning all

Thanks Gail and Bruce for an easy Monday- good theme with a few learning moments. Thanks to Argyle for the fun write up ( despite the envelope mixup, lol) and the link for MUFTI- I had never heard of this.

Only write over was LOFAT- I had Lo- Cal at first. DESTRY was a perp but does sound vaguely familiar as was LISLE.

Just saw a new flavor of OREO cookies: Peeps marshmallow filling in a vanilla cookie for Easter. Not sure about that combo but I do like Peeps if they're fresh. I know a lot of people prefer to let them sit out and get stale before eating them. They always look cute in Easter baskets :)

Liked the cross of SIR Sean Connery and Daniel CRAIG. I agree Connery is the best Bond but have enjoyed Craig. He plays the character more seriously but the storylines now are not as light hearted as the older Bond films. DH does a great Connery impression and one of his nicknames for me is Miss Moneypenny:) Of course, Bunny is another nickname- I actually have several.

Several actors were wearing blue ribbons in support of the ACLU at the Oscars last night. I actually stayed awake until the end of the show and boy, was that an ending! I would imagine someone is in big trouble for mixing up those envelopes!

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Argyle, your opening post made me chuckle. And, yes, I am still "boggled" about that Oscar fiasco. I've never seen anything so clumsy and embarrassing in my life and I can't understand how it could have happened.

Well, Gail and Bruce reign again and, as always, give us a nice, smooth start to the week. I had no clue where this was going until the reveal which, speaking for myself, of course, is part of the fun in solving. I started to enter Sleight of Hand before Flick of the Wrist but the downs ixnayed that. Hand up for giro which just looks odd. Other than that, off to the races.

Thanks, Gail and Bruce, for a fun romp and thanks, Argyle, for guiding us along.

Jinx, does Zoe have more than 6 steps awaiting her at your permanent abode? If so, you better stock up on those treats! 😉

Have a great day.

oc4beach said...


Thanks Gail and Bruce for a nice Monday puzzle that I finished in a single tiptoe through the Across Clues and on the Down Clues. Argyle gave me the Ah Hah moment with the theme which I didn't even see.

I only hesitated for a second at GIRO vs GYRO. Other than that it was a No-Brainer.

Since today is National No Brainer Day the puzzle was a perfect fit. By definition, a "No brainer" is dong something that is simple, easy, obvious, and/or totally logical. Therefore, today is the day for you to do all those "no brainer" tasks and activities. If a project requires thinking, study, or analysis of any kind, then its not the chore to do today.

I didn't see any of the movies that were nominated, so I didn't bother watching the Oscars. Apparently I missed some major screw ups.

So, enjoy the day and don't overtax the grey matter.

Tinbeni said...

Argyle: Nice write-up ... what happened to the SKIN FLICK link ???

Gail & Bruce: Thank you for a FUN Monday puzzle.

My fave today was clue/answer at 45-a, THEME.

Cheers!

JD said...

So nice to start the week with a CW from Gail and Bruce. Just a few really needed perps to fill: Destry and mufti. I had many answers in mind before flick of the wrist settled in.

I wonder who caught that awful mistake...how would someone from that group know that it was a HUGE error? Speaking of mistakes, adding more time to the already long show by bringing in a bus load of people might not have been Jimmys best idea. Dropping snacks was silly, but fun.

Hope spring comes soon for everyone. Have a lovely week.

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Gail Grabowski and Bruce Venzke, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for a fine review.

Well, I really got stuck on Sunday's puzzle. It was tough. Never finished. It was a Gail puzzle too. Saturday's I was making headway. I took it to a meeting I was going to, so i could work on it off and on. Then I left it at the Temple when I went home. Oh well.

Got through today's puzzle just fine. A few tough ones, but perps fixed those.

The MOHAWK haircut we called a Don Eagle when I was growing up in Erie.

Tried LO CAL for 7D. Fixed that to LO FAT. Only inkblot.

Remembered MUFTI. Might have been tied to the British somehow.

Is a SKIN PATCH something like a band aid?

Remember Spiro Agnew well. His father's name was Anagnostopoulos, originally.

Off to my day. See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

CrossEyedDave said...

I did the puzzles Saturday and Sunday,
but was unable to post.

I made a post on Sunday from the beach
on my Iphone, only to have it freeze up.
Interesting that there have been so many credit card
scams reported by our Bloggers.
It was not until I returned home that Google advised me
that my communications were blocked because someone was trying
to use my sign on in a strange location.

(That was me trying to post! Dagnabit!)

Todays paper had a Bamboozled article about a couple
who had done nothing wrong, yet lost $9,000-
Scammers sent a change of address request to the Post Office,
then requested their bank send replacement debit cards.
Then with the newly arrived replacement cards, called the bank
& changed the pin numbers.
$9,000 later, the bank refused to credit the theft because
the scammers had used a chip enabled card and pin numbers...

(it's enough to make your skin crawl...)

TTP said...

Good morning all.

Slept late, and then sped to a FIW in record time. Spelled it GYRO, and that was my last fill. Just missed the sub 5 minute mark, but it didn't matter. No TADA.

Lucina said...

EMME? ESME? What's in a name? That was my big error today in this otherwise fun romp. Thank you, Gail and Bruce.
DESTRY seeped out of some long forgotten corner of my brain and two saints, San MATEO and ST. JOHN blessed today's grid.

Thank you, Argyle; so I guess shavers are not on your wish list.

After coming home last night I watched the recording of the Oscars and I had even okayed the extended time but the recording stopped just before best picture was announced! Imagine my surprise when I went to the internet to find out what happened and discovered I had missed all that drama. Usually the envelope with the winner's name is handed to the recipient, but obviously someone erred on that.

Have a beautiful day, everyone!

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-I’m hip-deep in MS kids so I can only say Hi.
-Am I the only person who had GYRO and SOS and had no idea on SKYSPATCH before the mental seas parted?

Spitzboov said...

Hello everyone.

Easy peasy Monday. The SKINny is that no searches or erasures were needed, but solving a Gail/
Bruce puzzle was fun as always.
DESTRY Rides Again - First saw it at the Sunday nite movies on the RPI campus back in '57 or '58.

Did you ever stop to wonder:
……why "phonetically" is spelled with a "ph"?

Misty said...

What a weekend! Gail puzzle yesterday, Gail and Bruce puzzle this morning, and the weirdest Oscar ending in history! Lots of excitement leading up to an incredibly gloomy day here in So Calif this morning. But no matter--the puzzle was great fun, Santa's pics were neat, and all is well. I especially liked the Sherlock and Watson "Elementary" pic.
Seeing both ELVIS and RICHARD Nixon together in a puzzle isn't half bad either.

Have to take the 2004 Subaru in to get it serviced today--one of the the tires is getting a little flat. A C.C. puzzle will keep me happy there.

Have a great week, everybody!

Hungry Mother said...

I spent my first 12 years in San MATEO. Very nice puzzle today.

john28man said...

Applying Occaam's Razor as to how the mix up occurred:

1. PwC has to keep the winner secret right up to the moment of revelation.

2. So prepare a wining envelop for all nominees.

3. The holder of the envelops picked the wrong one.

OwenKL said...

Spitz, re phonetically: it's a mnemonic syzygy.

CanadianEh! said...

Fun Monday puzzle after a late night watching the Oscar fiasco. Thanks Gail (and Bruce today) and Argyle.

Officially a FIW today because of the NW. The cross of the unknown Gronk and DESTRY, coupled with misspelling as MUFTA and St JUAN gave me TAGUTEN? which only resolved into TIGHTEND with red letters. I'll blame it on lack of sleep.

I noted 71A CSO to Splynter, and smiled at the crossing of HERO and GYRO (my original misspelling). I also noted ACLU and the blue ribbons last night.

We had TACH-RPM in reverse cluing the other at. I am more familiar with Take As Directed than USE AS. Like Irish Miss, I wanted Sleight of Hand first. My Hazmat problem was Heat before TEAR.

YR, is ALUM (vs. Alumnus/Alumni) one of those non-gender alternatives that have come into more common use??

Canada was represented at the Oscars and won in Sound Editing and Animation (Barillaro is a Niagara Falls (actually small burb of Chippewa) native.
Arrival
Piper

Have a great day.

john28man said...

It looks like I was wrong. Washington Post says:

The presenters were given the Best Actress Award Envelop which was already announced.

CrossEyedDave said...

Skin cream?

Skin tight?

This looks like an interesting Skin Flick....

There's what's on top, And what's underneath...

Brand new! Tats for your skinpatch!

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful Monday gift! Like others, my only w/o was GyRO/GIRO. Thanks, G.G. and B.V.!
Thanks, Argyle, for the fun write-up!

I rarely post but something from Thursday caught my attention. There was the c/a Enchant/Beguile which reminded me of Charley Harper and one of his books, Beguiled by the Wild. His interpretation of nature and wildlife is a tad bit different from most people, but very enjoyable.

It looks like winter is over. I miss getting at least one good snow fall.

Have a great week.

CanadianEh! said...

john28man@2:10 - Apparently, there are 2 copies of every winning envelope in 2 separate briefcases (which travel to the Oscars with 2 separate people from PwC in 2 separate cars in case one gets tied up in traffic). These 2 people alternate in giving out the envelopes from one side of the stage to the other. It is thought that perhaps the new red envelopes with gold lettering might have been harder to read and might have contributed to the wrong envelope being given.
Some stories have blamed Leonardo DiCaprio for putting down his red envelope after presenting Emma Stone's Oscar but Emma Stone says she had her envelope. This lends credence to the duplicate envelope possibility.
Whatever happened, PwC takes a credibility hit.
OscarMistake

Lucina said...

Spitzboov:
Re: phonetic spelling of same, blame it on the Greeks! Our ph sound is Greek. In Spanish it is fonetico.

Wilbur Charles said...

True art is the fine line between R rated and X. All I could come up with was cream on puffs, a FLICK OF THE WRIST and a point where I'd never get AMNESTY from the Mods.

Loved that first one. HG I answered "The Sting" from yesterday.

RIFTED was a reach. Isn't GRONK everywhere these days.

Misty. Are you going to do F Scott Fitzgerald next?

WC

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling thoughts":

Kinda late to the board today. Busy times

Not much else to add about the puzzle and recap, other than to echo that they were both enjoyable. Like Tin, I'd have liked to have seen a SKIN FLICK link ... 😜

IIRC, I had all answers correct - no write overs today. I filled the puzzle first, from NW to SE, and then did a 180 and filled the rest. The theme filled in itself via perps, but I would not have seen it prior to reading the clue. Maybe I'm an "outlier" of sorts, but I rarely look for a "theme" when I solve these puzzles

I watched maybe a half hour of the Academy Awards show yesterday - fortunately it was LAST half hour, so I got to see all of the chaos, set up by Warren Beaty and Faye Dunaway pulling off yet another "heist". It actually inspired this limerick:

At the Oscars they struck up the band,
When they said the best show's La La Land.
But old Bonnie and Clyde
Didn't hear the aside;
So instead they used more sleight of hand

TTP said...

Chairman Moe or OwenKL

Do something with:

Dunaway was nowhere in sight
When it was announced it was really Moonlight
And from their hands was Oscar plucked

MJ said...

Lucina--I, too, had recorded the Oscars to watch at a later time, and like you had okayed the extended time yet missed the ending. When I shared this with one of my sons, he said that I should have simply recorded the show that was to follow. Maybe the flub will be shown on the news tonight.

Chairman Moe said...

TTP:

With a face that looked like faded clay,
And a head with limp hair, mostly gray,
"Clyde then gave her the card,
Which caught "Bonnie" off-guard,
And soon after Faye just ran away.

So as La La Land cast took the spot light,
As they had several times that strange night,
Clyde and Bonnie were gone,
Weren't seen til the next dawn,
While the stage became lit by Moonlight.

And now, from their hands Oscar was plucked,
Nearly everyone gasped, said it sucked.
Price Waterhouse Coopers
Takes the cake for big bloopers,
As the La La Land group felt they got f*cked.

How's that?!

Misty said...

Thanks for asking, Wilbur. No, my next novel is going to be D. H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover." But one of my students suggested that I should think of doing "The Great Gatsby" sometime, so I'm thinking of Fitzgerald for next year, if I decide not to go back to James Joyce for a while.

TTP said...

Excellent Chairman Moe !

OwenKl, your rejoinder ?

trubrit said...

I found todays a little harder than most Mondays. Knew "Destry" immediately, I realize how old I am, I saw that years ago when I was a kid, at Saturday's matinee.
I read that there are always two envelopes prepared, as they are not sure which side the presenter comes on, one on each side.
The one not used was given to the presenter by mistake. Hence the goof at the Oscar's

Ol' Man Keith said...

Keeping up the new standard - another very nice Monday pzl.
Not too hard, not too soft, but ju-ust right....
Bravo!

Chairman Moe said...

TTP:

Here's another couplet I found on another blog:

Please do not blame yourself, Jimmy K.
And don't worry, dear Warren and Faye,
For how could you have known
When you read "Emma Stone"
That her movie had not won the day?

Since some guy from Pricewaterhouse Cooper
Has been debited now for the blooper
Let's give credit instead
To one hit on the head,
Auli'i - what a star, what a trouper!

Wilbur Charles said...

So that's how you get away with it, C-Moe. ***. I'll still stay away from the PUFF.

Whoa Misty, speaking of rated R*. In Boston one couldn't even say Lady C not to speak of her "Lover".

If I were going to give Exhibit A for "Depression is the mother of Art" it would be DH Lawrence. Although I forget the details.

I was a Dostoevsky guy; really identified with "The Idiot"

My father, a B24 pilot, thought the Giros
would be ubiquitous in the 50s.

Loved all the poetry today.

WC

JD said...

Bravo Chairman Moe!!

TTP said...

Excellent CM. This one and I'm out.

'twas at the Academy Awards
attended by the ladies and lords
the best and the brightest
of tinseltown's finest
gasped at the untowards

Chairman Moe said...

TTP: 👍👍

Misty said...

Nice poems today, everybody!

Lucina said...

Very nice poetry by all. What an inspiring muse is a blooper!

OwenKL said...

At the best of times, I don't watch award shows, so missed the brouhaha. And others have done enough quite well, so I'll sit this challenge out. :-|