google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday, Feburary 19, 2017 Derek Bowman

Advertisements

Feb 19, 2017

Sunday, Feburary 19, 2017 Derek Bowman

Theme: "Between the Covers" - Seven magazines are inserted into familiar phrases. The first two words in each theme entry form a familiar phrase as well.

23A. Some pool English? : SIDE SPIN EFFECTS. Side spin. Side effects. Spin is now a web magazine.

27A. Ballet phenom? : BREAK OUT DANCER. Break out. Break dancer. Out is focused on  LGBT.
40A. Regular stockings, as opposed to fishnets? : GARDEN VARIETY HOSE. Garden variety. Garden hose. Variety.
 
63A. 8 or 9, e.g.? : PRIME TIME NUMBER.  Prime time. Prime number.  Time.

70A. Snowfall during the Olympics? : WINTER GAMES COAT. Winter Games. Winter coat. Both Will Shortz and Mike Shenk worked for Games magazine at one time.

94A. Doghouses and scratching posts? : PET PEOPLE PROJECTS. People is inserted into "Pet projects". What are "Pet people?" though.  Pet owners?

112A. Goal for a teacher's pet? : GOLD STAR RECORD. Gold star. Gold record. I leafed through Star from time to time. In Touch and US Weekly have better paper quality.

119A. Subscription deal promos ... and a hint to this puzzle's seven other longest answers : 
MAGAZINE INSERTS

Despite eight long theme entries, this puzzle only has 138 entries. The top and bottom pair have a 8-letter overlap and the fill do not suffer. Amazing.

Our blog label suggests that this is Derek Bowman's first Sunday LAT. He did have a NYT Sunday in 2010.
XWord Info photo

Across:      

1. Mouth Healthy org. : ADA

4. Lineal beginner : MATRI. Got via crosses.

9. Gibbons, e.g. : APES

13. __ palm : BETEL. Not ITCHY.

18. Long and drawn-out, say : TORTUROUS. Describes my tooth trouble aptly.

20. Meredith Grey's half sister on "Grey's Anatomy" : LEXIE. Also got via crosses. She looks sweet.


22. 14th-century Russian ruler : IVAN I
 
25. "Save Me the Waltz" writer Fitzgerald : ZELDA

26. Vote in : ELECT
 
29. "The Fountainhead" author Rand : AYN

30. More agile : SPRYER. Spelling check prefers SPRIER.

33. Two by two : IN PAIRS

34. Shoebox letters : EEE

35. Chess pieces : MEN. Do any of you play chess? My Dad loved Chinese chess.

37. Holds (up) : PROPS'
 
49. Old DJs' assortment : LPs

51. Same, for starters : EQUI

52. Military wear, for short : CAMO

53. Courted : WOOED

54. Logan of "60 Minutes" : LARA. Brave girl.

55. One in a rib cage : LUNG

56. Sends out : EMITS

58. Shone : GLISTENED

61. "Fuller House" actor : SAGET (Bob) I wonder why the Olsen twins declined the opportunities.
 
66. Word for a lady : SHE, Nice new clue.

68. PC file extension : EXE

69. "Wish Tree" artist : ONO

79. "It's the Hard-Knock Life" soloist : ANNIE

83. Vulcans, for one : ALIEN RACE. Solid fill.

84. Biker's invite : HOP ON

86. Skip it : PASS. Not OMIT.

87. Gentle : KIND. So many kind souls in our blog.

88. Territories of a sort : TURFS

91. Writer __ Neale Hurston : ZORA

92. Samarra's land : IRAQ

93. Use (up) : EAT
 
98. White choice, familiarly : CHARD. Chardonnay. Not a wine drinker, This & CAB always stump me.

100. Deli option : RYE

101. Texting qualifier : IMO

102. Nickname in satirical music : WEIRD AL. Grid-friendly name.

106. Transferred to computer memory : READ IN

109. __ tai : MAI

116. DVD player option : EJECT

118. Paragon : IDEAL. Here is a picture of JD and Bob taken during their vacation a few weeks ago. So sweet.


122. Punk, e.g. : GENRE

123. Bologna bride : SPOSA. Learning moment for me.

124. Cry from Poirot : SACRE BLEU! We often see SACRE or BLEU. Nice to see the full exclamation.

125. Jane Austen specialty : IRONY

126. Cabinet dept. with an atom on its seal : ENER. And 127. Cabinet dept. first led by Hamilton : TREAS

128. Op-__ : EDS. Not ART.
 
 Down:
  
1. Hopelessly lost : AT SEA

2. Tatted covering : DOILY. Nothing TATTOO-related.

3. Eve who played the principal in "Grease" films : ARDEN

4. Exuberant review term : MUST-SEE

5. Dadaist Jean : ARP

6. Paris pronoun : TOI

7. Show for quick feedback : RUN BY. When in doubt about certain themes/fill,  I ask Argyle, D-Otto & Boomer.

8. Val d'__: French ski resort : ISERE. I recognize one name: ALPS.


9. Two before Charlie : ALFA. NATO alphabet.

10. Sneak a look at : PEEK INTO

11. Former pen pal? : EX-CON. Never tired seeing this type of clue.

12. Exercise done from a supine position : SIT-UP

13. Unusually strange : BIZARRE. Another sparkly fill.

14. Yet : EVEN SO

15. Powder source : TALC

16. Köln closing : ENDE. Just German for "End".

17. Defense attorney's challenge : LIAR

19. Gumshoe : TEC (Detective)

21. "¿Cómo __?" : ESTA

24. Eponymous physicist : FERMI (Enrico). Wiki says he is called "architect of the nuclear age",


28. Potluck fare : DIPs

31. What "p" may stand for : PENCE, OK, British Pound parts.

32. Completely make over : REVAMP

36. "TMI!" : EEW

38. Hatched backup : PLAN B. I lost a piece of extremely hard-to-remove old caulk strip to the wall on Thursday. It slipped inside and I could not get it out. I had no PLAN B. Just ignored it and re-caulked the whole bathtub with TTP's detailed instructions. Also chose the Vinegar option from this article. The bathtub looks great right now. There are still a few stubborn spots between the wall tiles that refuse to come clean. I'll try the Baking Soda option next Tuesday. Maybe it can remove the rust spot on our kitchen sink faucet as well.

39. Jag : SPREE

40. Comes together : GELS

41. Cyan relative : AQUA

42. Tolled : RUNG

43. Took in : DIGESTED

44. "The Kite Runner" boy : AMIR. Thank God for this boy. Otherwise, we'll need a "Var." mark.

45. Unleavened Indian flatbread : ROTI. I bet Steve makes his own at times.

46. Hindu mystic : YOGI

47. Place of control : HELM

48. Jon Arbuckle's dog : ODIE

50. __ City: Baghdad suburb : SADR

54. Tangy treat : LEMON PIE

57. Pirate shipmate of Starkey : SMEE

59. __-Cat : SNO

60. Sushi offering : TUNA. Thought of ROLL.

62. At that point : THEN

64. "All My __ Live in Texas": George Strait hit : EX'S

65. Support pro : TECH

67. Blunder : ERR

70. Waterskiing hurdle : WAKE

71. Hipbone-related : ILIAC

72. Closers often open it : NINTH. Inning.

73. Post-WWII commerce agreement : GATT. Replaced by WTO in 1995.

74. "... __ o' kindness ... ": Burns : A CUP

75. Only : MERE

76. Exude : OOZE

77. Each : A POP

78. Like some love affairs : TORRID. Normally don't end well.

80. DEA agent : NARC

81. Attends : IS AT. I prefer partial for this fill.

82. Law office abbreviations : ESQs

85. Supermodel Campbell : NAOMI

89. Empty storefront sign : FOR LEASE. Fresh fill.

90. Secret agent : SPY

94. "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" singer : PRESLEY

95. Blue-pencil : EDIT

96. "Vive __!" : LE ROI

97. Generic trendsetters : JONESES. Keeping up with the Joneses.

99. "Oh, shucks" : AW DARN. Another fresh fill.

103. Super Bowl XXXIV champions : RAMS. 1999. I was still in China.

104. Hang : DRAPE

105. Incandescent bulb gas : ARGON

107. Young partner : ERNST. Oh, Ernst & Young.

108. "Be __ ... " : A DEAR

109. Haggard of country : MERLE

110. Didn't procrastinate : ACTED

111. Chorused "Who's there?" response : IT''S US

112. 1958 winner of nine Oscars : GIGI. This many? I watched the film a while ago. So so. 

113. Polish-German border river : ODER

114. Fallon's predecessor : LENO

115. Kingpin : CZAR

117. Bush in Florida : JEB

120. Curling surface : ICE

121. Second Amendment org. : NRA

C.C.


39 comments:

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks to Derek and CC!

This one was harder than usual. I had perp help from LEXIE, SAGET, ANNIE, ISERE, AMIR, ROTI, GATT, RAMS and GIGI. Sure took a while!

No rain tomorrow (well, today), they say.

Have a great day!

OwenKL said...

Wow! That ta-da surprised me! I was sure I had a bunch of WAGs that would need replacing, like bulbs on a Christmas tree!
The full theme also escaped me until I got to the reveal. The inserted word was obvious right from the first entry, but what the criteria was for the selection, or if they were just phrases that could be split like infinitives, I hadn't figured out yet.

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

The BREAK DANCER worried about SIDE EFFECTS.
Did a SPIN on the spine lead to BIZARRELY bent necks?
Would needing TRIPLE-E shoes
Come from the ILIAC OOZE?
Would TORTUROUS flips bring OUT medical TECHS?

There was a hunky VULCAN from an ALIEN RACE
Who never let lust PASS cross his face!
He never was crude
With the ladies he WOOED.
But alas, certain parts were in the wrong place¡

There was a rude rumor about IVAN THE FIRST
That he was terrible after cloud bursts¡
When rain-drops GLISTENED
He'd put on WINTER mittens
And claim to be CZAR of all TIME and TURFS!

Between ZELDA and ZORA a feud arose
About the IDEAL size for their toes¡
ZELDA's toes needed PROPS
They looked ready to POP!
ZORA's feet were so skinny, she wore GARDEN HOSE!

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Hand up for missing the magazine aspect of the theme until reading the reveal. Without CC's explanation I wouldn't have known some of those names. Overall, a clever construction - well done, Derek!

TTP said...

Good morning. Thank you Derek and thank you CC.

CC, I got many answers via crosses.

No TADA today. Wasn't all that surprised when I didn't hear it. Was surprised that I had FIW in a few places.

I get that 8 and 9 PM are PRIME TIME for tv broadcasts, but don't get how 8 or 9 makes sense for PRIME NUMBER.

Many corrections on the way to the FIW. Took in clue ? Had ArrEStED for a while. My water skiing hurdle was at first jump. Proved it with the cross of MILD. Then changed it to WAvE with ALIEN RACE. WAvE stayed there. That was one of the causes of the FIW.

Another area where I did not recheck the perps was CAMO. I ended up with CAMI. I had CAMO at first, but entered PITA downward. Then didn't check when I filled in VARIETY and later when I got PRIME. D'OH !

GATT and Burns also got me. Not familiar / didn't recall GATT, and should have taken a moment to consider Burns' quote. I had tATT and iCUP for those two, and a reasonable WINTER TIMES COAT going across. I do have a couple of long lasting coats that I use only in the winter times. But alas, the magazine is TIME, not TIMES.

PLAN B took forever to get. Hatched backup made no sense to me.

Generic trendsetters was cute.

Drive by FERMILab quite regularly. Interviewed there after school. Got better offers.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Couldn't finish this one unassisted. The water-skier's hurdle was a RAMP and that gave me MILD for "Gentle." It fit too well to be wrong. Wrong! Took out CAMO and EMITS so I could put in NAAN for the flatbread -- I've only seen RÔTI as French for a roast. Expected a singer for the soloist, until the character Annie showed up. Are Out, Spin and Star really magazines? Coulda fooled me...actually did. Enjoyed the challenge...the DNF, not so much. Thanx, Derek and C.C.

Big Easy said...

I'll just say that this was a TORTUROUS (never heard this word before) puzzle, right below MATRI-lineal (never heard of that either) but I finished because MATRI made more sense than MARMI. As for the 'inserts' the magazine names were BIZARRE- never heard of SPIN, OUT, GAMES or STAR magazines either. I only subscribe to Nat Geo, Golf Digest, and Forbes.

I had a little trouble around BIZARRE, not knowing ZELDA or IVAN I (which I guessed) I had DISH and STOPS before DIPS and PROPS took their places.
DIGESTED?? I think INgested would be 'Took in'; You 'digest' it after you 'ingest' it.

Add ZELDA, ZORA, ANNIE, LEXIE and the Italian bride SPOSA and that's a crowd of ladies I didn't know but got from perps. Along with ROTI and AMIR. At least I knew WEIRD AL Jancovich.


Das ENDE.

Yellowrocks said...

I really liked this. I got that the first word and the second word in the fill made a good phrase, and also that the second and third words made good phrases.It helped a lot in the solve.
TTP, in re "don't get how 8 or 9 makes sense for PRIME NUMBER" I believe that only the entire three word fill fits the clue.
I didn't get the magazine part, until CC explained, but that didn't hinder the solve. Very clever theme.
I had trouble with GAMES. I red lettered SOLO, then changed it to GAMES, after which I turned the red letters off and got games, race, turf and gatt.
I hate magazine inserts which making the magazine unwieldy. I start by tearing them out and throwing them away without even glancing at them because I so resent their interference with my reading.
CSO to fermatprime with Fermi and prime.
I can accept pet people because I am a cat person, a cat lover.
Do you ever notice how many people say prone, lying face down when they mean supine, lying on one's back?
CC, I insist we all use body wash instead of soap to keep the scum at bay. I do need to scrub my glass shower doors with vinegar. It works great.
I was sure of BRAUT for bride/sposa, before I finally gave it up. I was recalling the opera DIE BRAUT von MESSINA, the bride of Messina.

Bill G. said...

Hi everybody. This has been a week with tougher themes for me, a little too clever for me to grasp easily. I would have gotten this one easily with TIME, GAMES, PEOPLE, VARIETY but I had never heard of magazines named SPIN and OUT and they came first. Another glitch came when I saw TORTUROUS and mistakenly thought of Tortuous which means full of twists and turns. But I got 'er done and enjoyed the effort.

I don't adapt easily to the time change. My body and brain get used to a schedule and don't adapt well to changing things by an hour. Pick either one and stick to it say I.

Thanks Derek and CC.

billocohoes said...

Some of us are dog people, some are cat people, some don't like any pets, but the rest of us are PET PEOPLE.

Went thru GLImmErED and GLItTErED before GLISTENED

I've often seen AMIR clued as a Mideast prince, no "var." needed, as something different from EMIR, a Mideast ruler.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-A fun and challenging offering whose gimmick was helpful but avoided me
-Wanna scare yourself? Look up possible SIDE EFFECTS of your meds on WEBMD
-My neighbor’s daughter wrote for this Minneapolis LBGT magazine
-Lily has seven scratching posts. Daughter gave us this for Xmas
-Emptying out the MAGAZINE INSERTS is my first chore
-Russian ruler wasn’t a CZAR. Wait, there it is.
-My grandson is a chess champion. He made one boy cry and caught another cheating
-I was taken aback when I got to hear SAGET’s filthy standup act
-Funny alternate singers of It’s A Hard Luck Life (:51)
-Gentle with _ I _ D. Anyone else put MILD?
-TURF marking
-I more often hear Poirot say “Précisément” when MERE mortals finally catch on
-A fascinating comparison to TREAS secretary Hamilton and the man in the play
-All news today seems to be OP-EDS in disguise
-I’ll bet I’m not the only one who remembers this Eve ARDEN

Husker Gary said...

Musings II (Don’t worry, I won’t get to XXXIV)
-No church today because I sang last night and so I have more time
-I’ll bet C.C. loved the CLOSER cluing as much as I did
-Wait! I just learned NAAN and now there’s ROTI!
-When Jim Croce had that big hit, did he say “Vive Bad, Bad LE ROI Brown”?
-Tech sarcasm
-Super Bowl XXXIV’s MVP Kurt Warner’s son just signed with the Huskers
-How CYAN is formed in paint and in light
-This cluing from yesterday “42. See 48-Across : POLAND - partial referential clue to; 48. __-Neisse Line, western border of 42-Across : ODER” came in handy today. Maybe I’ll remember this?
-Even the MATRIarch of JEB’s family could help him
-The Word Jumble, which is right next to my puzzle everyday, is about a PLAN B

Yellowrocks said...

Bill G do you have DST already? Most of the US changes on March 12. An hour either way doesn't bother me. I absolutely love the long afternoons and evenings on DST. However DST in the winter would make for very, very late sunrises. So I prefer to change with the seasons.
I don't experience jet lag coming and going from Europe and very little to and from Israel. I had none going to Japan, but was exhausted after the return trip. I think part of that was because I hadn't slept for 36 hours. I cannot sleep on a plane. I read yesterday that to get your equilibrium back sooner after suffering jet lag you should eat all your meals on the new time, instead of when you are hungry.

My grandmother used to TAT beautiful doilies and lace edges on hankies, knotting and using a small shuttle. Lovely, but I am a confirmed tissue user. Disposable is more sanitary. My first thought today for TAT was the old fashioned antimacassar. They can be pieces of cloth, doilies or lace used on the arms and top of the backs of furniture. Some are crocheted, embroidered or tatted. You find antimacassars on the backs of some bus and train seats. New furniture comes with extra pieces of matching material to protect the arms and upper back portions of the seat. Anti means against and macassar means oil.

tawnya said...

Good Morning!

Thought I was having a hard time with the puzzle today but ended up finishing in normal Sunday time. Just took a little more thinking than I'm accustomed to, I guess. Either way, besides all the French, I enjoyed the experience and appreciate the write-up.

DH and I are PET PEOPLE - our current numbers are four dogs and one cat. Our lowest in many years. We always say we won't get anymore, but then there's a sad story and I have to go save it. I can easily ignore cute puppies and kittens, but if it's hairless, sick, broken, missing a limb - I'll take it. There's a 11.5 year old female golden retriever available through the rescue group I help and I'm hoping someone else will adopt her before my heart gives in.

Hoping all is well with everyone, sorry I've been crazy busy lately and have missed out on all the updates. Almost finished with this 8-week block of insanity so I should be able to check in more often.

PUNK! My favorite!
NOFX,
The Vandals,
no, this Vandals,
Sex Pistols,
Suicidal Tendencies...

Baseball is coming! Got the NINTH right away. Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen turned down more money to stay with the Boys in Blue. Should be a fantastic year for us...

Sad to read about Lisa Marie PRESLEY in the news.

Love this Word Crimes by WEIRD AL. You all will giggle, I promise.

Wishing you all the best on this lovely Sunday. Hope the SoCal people aren't floating away.

t.

Bill G. said...

Well, don't I feel silly. I read an article on CBSNews.com about Daylight Saving Time. It led me to change most of our clocks ahead an hour last night. So I woke up an hour early today with my usual grumping about the time change. Another small step further into geezerdom...

Yes, I play chess. My father taught me and I've taught Jordan. I've never been much good though. When I play against the computer, I can do OK with it being set on its dumbest mode. Otherwise, I will be cruising along plotting my tactics to deal the computer a crushing blow when BLOOP, my queen disappears. Rats!

Yellowrocks said...

HG, Thanks for the article about Hamilton. I have been wondering why the facts in the play have not received more serious criticism from scholars. I looked up Hamilton's bio some time ago to see whether I remembered it incorrectly. The Hamilton I studied is quite different from the one depicted in the play. Yes, I believe most people accept the Hamilton in the play as the real thing.
When I taught fifth graders at church the kids were quite sure that the movie, Moses, was literally perfect and that the Biblical version couldn't be correct. This discussion, of course, as well as the movie version, had nothing to do with deep Biblical scholarship, just complete trust in mass media.

I remember loving Our Miss Brooks on radio, also The Shadow Knows,Fibber McGee and Molly, Judy Canova, Father Knows Best.

Scary side effects? What to worry about? The ads for meds on TV sound dire. And I had to sign a consent form for dental work to say I knew I could die!

maripro said...

Yes, Our Miss Brooks was unforgettable. And Mr. Boynton sounded so handsome!

I sussed the first themer right away. When I saw SPINE I thought "aha, parts of a book are between the covers!" I was also right for the wrong reasons with CHARD: I decided that there must be a white Swiss Chard variety. Worse, my first thought was VANNA.

Hand up for MILD

However, with all this muddled thinking I was able to finish with a lot of write-overs, but no errors.

Thanks C.C. and Derek. The puzzle was clever and a lot of fun.

Steve said...

Very slick puzzle, I couldn't figure out the theme until the reveal. I always enjoy that. Thanks for the expo, C.C. ROTI - I "cheat" when it comes to Indian breads - they're impossible to make authentically unless you've got an oven that heats to 800F or a tandoor. I buy my roti pre-cooked and frozen from my local Indian market.

Irish Miss said...

Hi Everyone:

This was a FIW due to having a White Chord (whatever that might be) and an Oh My which gave me a Heird Al, whoever he might be. I just wasn't on the constructor's wave length but I did have wave before wake, if that counts! I had an inordinate number of write-overs which slowed things down. I did get the theme but several of those magazines are unknown to me. In any event, it was a clever them with some nice C/A's, as Anonymous T would say.

Thanks, Derek, for a Sunday stumper and thanks, CC, for making sense of it all.

Most of my late morning was spent watching my handy man set up my new TV which was as complicated as all get-out to me. He got everything connected easily enough but had to call Samsung support to run through the initial setup. Then had to call Time Warner to program my Universal remote. Both calls were lengthy because of the heavy accents of the service people who were in the Philippines (sp?). But, all is well and I have a gremlin-free TV again. (I hope!)

Forgive me, Bill G, but I almost fell out of my chair laughing at your DST disaster! Don't worry about geezerdom, we're all headed in the same direction!

Have a great day.

Bill G. said...

Here are two articles from today's 'Sunday Morning.' I hope you like them.

Will Shortz; Crosswords and Ping Pong

Honesty pays off big

Misty said...

Well, after my Saturday triumph yesterday, this was a bit of a Sunday toughie for me, although I got much of it before I had to start cheating. Part of the problem was that I didn't get the reveal until late, and, like others, didn't recognize many of the words as MAGAZINE names (except TIME, VARIETY, AND PEOPLE, but that's about all). Still, fun puzzle, Derek, many thanks. And thank you for explaining CHARD as Chardonnay, C.C.--I would never have understood that clue and answer otherwise.

So, a good Sunday morning, with sunny weather and an internet working again. Our cleaners are working here this morning, and on thinking about our past, we realized one of them has been with me for thirty years! No wonder we feel like family!

Have a great Sunday, everybody!

Anonymous T said...

Sunday Lurk Say...

[B+, A-, C-, groan}

Bill G - And I just reassured DW the Cornerites weren't all geezers! :-).

Mom sent DW a pink DOILY for Valentine's Day. She made it herself and it looks nice under the roses.

HG - LOL LE ROI Brown.

Tawnya - love me some PUNK... The words 'Incandescent Gas' make me think Why Does the Sun Shine?. [TMBG]. Thanks for Weird Al link... I hate those Word Crimes, esp. when I'm the one doin' 'em. :-)

//total aside - I really screwed w/ my kids' heads -- I'd sing them "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, How I know just what you are. A fiery ball of burning gas, making elements with higher mass,...." They got made fun of in Kindergarten. I'm a bad dad.

C.C. - I don't know what Chinese Chess is (I know Go) but I love Chess.
I learned chess at my dad's knee whilst he play'd my uncle. Uncle beat dad, dad beat me, I beat both of 'em by the time I was 14. Then I met Lance - a formidable opponent [And voted most likely to take over a 3rd-world country] who beat me everyday after class. Until he didn't 2/3 times. We never played after that. Don't think I'm some Bobby Fisher, I'd likely lose my shorts to any ranked player. I do love the game patterns and to play over a beer or three.

Re: 9d - 2 below Charlie may be ALFA but 15 up is ROMEO! :-)

Have a wonderful day y'all. Cheers, -T

Jayce said...

Welp, I messed this one up badly. Had FSCOT instead of ZELDA, NAAN instead of ROTI, and NOVEL instead of IRONY as well as other false starts, which, of course, caused lots of trouble. I couldn't get out of the hole except by turning on red letters, and WHAMMO there were acres of yellow-magenta that made the grid look like a parking lot full of brake lights. So I erased all those red letters, turned the red letter help off, and worked harder at thinking about what I was doing. After that I actually solved it without additional help. Still didn't get the magazines (Spin? Out? Star?) until reading the explanation by C.C. A worthy workout!

Northwest Runner said...

Took a while for theme to click, but a good way to relax on a stormy Sunday. Polling all English majors: Is Weird Al's work really satirical? I have always considered it parody. Like irony, this seems be a word for which the prescriptivists don't get their props.

TX Ms said...

Had several ink blots: naan for roti (?!-Curious as to the etymology-will google-as D-O mentioned, that's French for roast); wanted ramp rather than wake for water-skiing hurdle (I guess from watching water sports), which led me to mild rather than kind (ninth fixed that). Magazine inserts was my first long fill, and so then it was a fun run. Derek Bowman, great construction! And thanks much, CC, for explaining the magazines: Out, Games, and Spin - never heard of them.

BILL G, thank you re Honesty Pays Off Big: Saw the interview on last night's news. I had several chuckles during her interview; Charlotte McCourt stated her opinions, innocently and matter-of-factly, with no humor intended, but they were hilarious in the delivery. What a sweet child - her parents should (and will) be so very proud of her.

Bobbi said...

Thnx much for all the " cheat" defs. I'm glad that I'm not the only one without an encyclopedic repository in my head! Today's installment was WAY beyond my skill level. Too many quirky defs - "clever" only in the mind (?) Of the constructor. Case in point: where is there a teacher who still gives GOLD STARS?? I taught for 40 years and never gave one! After two hours of struggle, I tossed the paper. Don't even want to see the ultimate solution - which was, in my case, recycling. At least this puzzle will have some value there!

CanadianEh! said...

Well, I got the theme, even if I didn't know all the magazines. Thanks for the fun, Derek and C.C.

Hand up for Jump before Ramp before Wave, which I never changed to WAKE (thus a FIW)since I was completing in the newspaper and had no red letters. Also had the associated Mild instead of KIND.
Another hand up for Chord before CHARD (and not understanding the answer until I came here, duh!). Also moved from Glittered to GLISTENED.
At first, I thought we had a CSO to Lemonade but it was LEMON PIE.

I smiled at the baseball NINTH clue, and the IVAN I and CZAR answers. I didn't know my Zed writers, ZELDA and ZORA. Tolled led me to Rang before RUNG.

I cheated to find GIGI, and EVEN SO had difficulty because the clue said "1958 winner" but the Oscars were presented in 1959 to honour the movies of 1958.

Beautiful sunny, mild (or KIND?!) day here.
LOL re ALFA ROMEO AnonT! Took me a minute.

JD said...

Thanks C.C. And Derek for a fun puzzle... that I could not complete without cheating.😩 The theme was very clever but had no idea , as several of those magazines are unfamiliar to me. SUndays, although long, are usually fun, but not being able to finish this on my own made me feel pretty dumb. I do drink wine, but I've never referred to Chardonnay as chard. The popular one in this area seems to be "Butter"... it is supposed to taste the same as a more expensive chard.
Bill, I enjoyed both articles, especially about the honest Girl Scout.
We are on the verge of more wind and rain tonight. I know the south is getting it too. Too bad none of the dams were taken care of during our drought. Now we are dealing with horrendous pot holes in all of our streets. Ah, but I still love this rain.

Dudley said...

Northwest Runner 4:12 - I'm glad you posted that. I was thinking along the same lines, parody over satire, but assumed I was just getting it wrong.

Girl Scout Cookies: yesterday I happened by a cookie sale table at a department store parking lot. It was staffed by two adult women, no actual Girl Scouts were anywhere to be seen. A neighbor with two young daughters, both of whom are involved in scouting, explained to me that the parents are on the hook for the price of all the cookies the girls start out with. There exists considerable incentive to get those cookies sold even if it means the parents have to do all the work. I didn't learn the exact figures, but the local troop keeps only a slim percentage of the cookie price. The rest goes up the Girl Scout chain, and to the bakeries, of course. I suspect the bakeries are not losing money on the deal. The whole thing looks a little unwholesome to me.

Husker Gary said...

Musings III
-Just back from celebrating our 50th with Joann’s twin Joyce and her husband whose 50th will be in July.
-I don’t care for DST especially when you have to wait for firework shows until 10 p.m. on the day so close to the first day of summer!
-GOLD STARS? Today everybody gets one on no one gets one. Most schools have even eliminated valedictorian recognition. The wheat separates from chaff soon enough I guess.
-Tawnya, the Weird Video was wonderful and I just emailed it to every English teacher I know.

Lucina said...

It's so late and the good shows are starting on PBS so I'll just say, thank you, Derek Bowman and C.C., for today's amusement. Thank you for explaining the theme, C.C. as the magazine titles were news to me except TIME and PEOPLE.

No major problems and was surprised to see that SPOSA is German for bride. In Spanish it's esposa. Usually German and Spanish are not remotely related.

I hop everyone had a great day. Rain here all day off and on.

Michael said...

Ah, but Tawnya, the rest of your music was, well, er, um, ah, maybe a tad too ENERGETIC for us old fogies on a lazy (and wet, again, here) Sunday afternoon....

Bill G. said...

I find that I would rather watch an enjoyable old movie than most new ones. To wit, I just found one of my favorites, Groundhog Day, and am watching it for maybe the fourth time. A few days ago I stumbled across Rudy, one of the all-time feel-good movies and enjoyed it all over again.

The rain has brought forth the beautiful yellow blooms of a weed that grows along the bike path. My friend calls it Sour Grass but I looked it up and found the name Oxalis. It is the brightest yellow and is spectacular on a sunny day. By the way, I'll bet the wild flowers in Death Valley will put on a great show in a couple of months.

Tawnya, how about using your influence so that we local LA folks can watch the Dodgers and Kenley on TV this year. Apparently, they will be blacked out again. Rats!

Spitzboov said...

SPOSA - The clue referred to Italian. Braut is German. There's a polka:
Meine Braut heißt Edeltraut - (My bride's name is Edeltraut.)

Anonymous T said...

Dudley - It is a scam!!! I've written checks every year between $120 and $400 to cover the Cookies then more $$ for summer camp that selling cookies was supposta cover! Both girls are / were Scouts and they finally learned the lesson I did as a Scout. Nobody is never home when it's time to deliver cookies (candy bars in my case*) & collect $$.

C, Eh! - Glad someone caught the my attempt at ALFA humour :-). I hafta laugh 'cuz the damn thing won't start!

If anyone cared - Here's the full song I'd sing to the Girls to warp their little heads:
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,
How I know just what you are.
A fiery ball of burning gas,
Making elements with higher mass.
Burning brightly far away
Fusing elements night and day.

[Seriously - that's how they thought the song goes... And 17 years later they still sing it like that. I'm a real wank.]

If that didn't put them asleep, I'd do my best to sing Tiny Dancer and cradle / dance w/ my future ballerina(e(?)). They'd be snoring in my arms shortly thereafter. [there's something soothing for Michael too :-)]

And Eldest is now headed to college [Boomer!]... And I'm getting sappy...

Bobbi go Blue and play w/ us. Everyone else - stay dry.

Cheers, -T
*One year my brother and I ate ~$80 in Boy Scout candy bars I was supposed to sell. There went two months of throwin' papers.

Lucina said...

Re: bologna bride. Believe me, I don't know what I was thinking since I am aware that bologna is Italian. For some reason my mind registered it as German. Thanks, Spitz.

BillG:
As you know I record Sunday Morning and it was interesting to see Will Shortz in a scenario other than crosswords.

I am so enjoying Victoria on PBS and read a little about her and Albert. Apparently the story line follows the facts though the actress is much better looking than the real Queen.

OwenKL said...

Yellowrocks: I never noticed it before, but FERMI (Enrico, Italian 1901-1954) and FERMAT (Pierre, French 1601-1665) are pretty close to homonyms. aren't they!

anti-macassar (n.)
also antimacassar, 1848, from anti- + macassar oil, supposedly imported from the district of Macassar on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, which was commercially advertised from 1809 as a men's hair tonic "infallible in promoting an abundant growth and in maintaining the early hue and lustre of the HAIR to the extent of human life" [1830]. The cloth was laid to protect chair and sofa fabric from men leaning their oily heads back against it.

I've wondered about that!

Misty said...

Lucina, glad you like "Victoria." I'm hooked on it too.

Picard said...

I searched out and solved the reveal long before I successfully solved any of the theme answers. FIR, but it was a slog to the end. Clever theme idea and I am sure it was hard to construct.

Hand up for never having heard of SPIN, OUT, GAME or STAR magazines. This made it a bit unsatisfying to solve.

And what Fermatprime and others said: LEXIE, SAGET, ANNIE, ISERE, AMIR, ROTI, RAMS and GIGI were unknowns. I did remember GATT from the time of the WTO protests in Seattle.

I was sure NAAN was correct. Learning moment about ROTI. Hand up for LEMONADE before LEMON PIE.

WEIRD AL is an amazingly clever and energetic musician and performer. If you have never seen him perform, please find his next tour and go see him. You won't believe how many costume and set changes he does.

spacecraft said...

I hardly ever come here, but I had to for this one. This may be the line-by-line toughest grid I've ever completed. Worked on it off-and-on for parts of five days! Everywhere there was resistance. First of all I couldn't make out exactly what the theme was going for, with an off-putting title like "Between the Covers." I was thinking, maybe, SHEETS of something? It took a while to see MUSTSEE; of course MATRI was a total WOE. MATRIlinear? Must be a genealogy term. "On my mother's side." So, I am a seventh-generation MATRIlinear American. Is that it?

Eventually, even after unearthing the MAGAZINE thing, pockets and corners fought hard to stump me. Rating this on an easy/medium/challenging scale, I put it at full-bore challenging. I don't think any of the clues were actually unfair, but they certainly didn't lay out the red carpet either. I don't know the name Derek Bowman, but we're all gonna know it much better before long. This guy is good. Definitely not GARDENVARIETY; more like PRIMETIME. Give the man a GOLDSTAR!