google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, May 13th, 2017, Roland Huget

Advertisements

May 13, 2017

Saturday, May 13th, 2017, Roland Huget

Theme: None

Words: 70 (missing F,Q,Z)

Blocks: 30

Mr. Huget is cranking out the Saturday puzzles for the LA Times this year - today we have #3; number two was last month at Easter.  I did not see the triple stack when I started on this one - and then I saw the 15-letter climber in the DOWN later.  With a few crossings, I was able to fill them in with little trouble, and the net result of a grid with stacks is a higher small word count, too - which usually helps.  Lots of proper names, but none that didn't "self-solve" through perps; other answers came to me from doing lots of crosswords.  The long fills from the middle;

32a. Metaphor for high speed : PEDAL TO THE METAL - see 64a., 24d, 26d.

39a. Sacrificed considerably : PAID A STEEP PRICE

You can send money to my PayPal account. Thank you.

40a. Fixers : TROUBLESHOOTERS

7d. Awkward moment makeup : ABSOLUTE SILENCE

OnwRRRRd~!

ACROSS:

1. Old man, in Mannheim : ALTE - I vaguely remembered the German word, but filled in ALDE at first.

5. Key with five sharps: Abbr. : B MAJ - oops, put in "E" first; "E" is one of the two non-sharps in the key; the other is "B" - all the black keys of a piano get used


9. Mess up : BOTCH

14. Unavoidable : MEANT TO BE- the irony with some of the answers in the puzzle....

16. Oocyte producer : OVARY - my DOWN crossings messed up this corner to start

17. Relaxed to the max : MELLOWEST

18. Name probably derived from scat singing : BEBOP

19. Like Orson, on a '70s-'80s sitcom : ORKAN - along with Mork from Ork

20. Band with a self-named 1978 debut album : TOTO - my personal favorite song from this band;

188,112,538 views; I think the story presented in the 
video is stirring

22. "Lady Jane Grey" playwright : ROWE - filled via perps

23. Queen of Thorns portrayer on TV : RIGG - filled via perps

25. Floaters in a Japanese ceremony : LANTERNS

Cool

27. Turkish title : AGA - got it from doing crosswords

29. Cassowary cousin : EMU

31. Dog in the Reagan White House : REX - the "X" was an educated guess

41. Sign of summer : LEO - astrological sign

42. Leb. neighbor : ISRael - oops, not SYRia

43. Low mark : DEE

44. 1942 Hayworth/Mature musical : MY GAL SAL - I suppose the "G" offered some solvers a Natick with the vague Greek name crossing

48. Neutral shades : TANS - ah, such a lovely shade....


51. Surface application : COAT - I figured it was this, or "FILM"

52. Overly precious, in Portsmouth : TWEE - I need to start using this word at UPS; it's hiring season, and most of the people coming in don't last more than two days; I'll have seven years in June, and I am getting the "itch" - especially since the newest ruling from above no longer allows us to listen to music on the job.  Really~?

54. It makes everything taste better, they say : BACON - I have to agree


57. Child with dishes : JULIA - clever, but I got it - do you think she likes bacon~?

59. Talus : ANKLEBONE - I pondered BIRD'S FOOT

61. Classic theater : ODEON

62. Glaze causes : ICE STORMS

63. __ Doon, Bay Area community named by a Scotsman : BONNY

64. One may be taken on the road : TEST - I was just reading Road & Track while waiting to get my hair cut, and in this issue they test drove a McLaren along with 9 other 'supercars'; one of the authors crashed it.  Ouch.  I like the McLaren

65. Sugar source : BEET

DOWN:

1. Clip contents : AMMO

2. Lascivious look : LEER

3. Broadcast genre : TALK RADIO

4. Zhou __ : EN LAI

5. Start of a modern afterthought : BTW - By The Way

6. Chandon's partner : MOËT - champagne

8. Beetle cousin : JETTA - ah, the car, not the insect

9. Short do : BOB - dah~! Not 'FRO

10. Exhaust (oneself), as in a workout : OVEREXERT

11. Drum with a fife : TABOR - Dah~!! Not SNARE

12. Symbol of sovereignty : CROWN - I had this, and took it out because it did not jibe with SNARE

13. Strong pitches : HYPES

15. Grab, as at a smorgasbord : TONG

21. Restricted pending disciplinary action : ON REPORT

24. Takes a turn for the worse? : GETS LOST

I couldn't resist

26. Pace : TEMPO

27. Cal. entry : APPT.

28. Driver's choice : GEAR - could have been IRON, as in golf, but rarely does one use an iron as a driver; maybe from the tee of a par three....?

30. Speck : MOTE - not IotA, but that's 100% 50% correct

33. Sycophant's specialty : ADULATION - a Kiss A**

34. Record trademark : LABEL

35. Sneaky chortles : HEHs

36. 50-50, say : TIED SCORE - seemed unlikely, but I filled it in, and it stayed

37. Real estate buy : ACRE

38. Suffix with Congo : LESE - Congolese; hey, it's Saturday

44. Teen's source of funds : McJOB

45. "Really?" : "YOU DO~?"

46. Ancient Greek physician : GALEN - the "N" was my last fill

47. Anticipate : AWAIT

49. Help on the job? : ABET

50. Big shot : NABOB

53. Scratches (out) : EKES

55. "Your money's no good here" : ON ME

56. First flight launch site : NEST - I pondered N CAR, for the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk; nope, just the home of the animals God intended to fly....

58. Partner of all : ANY - any & all

60. D-Day craft : LST - crossword staple

Splynter

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

Easy puzzle for a Saturday.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Whew, this was a good workout. Thanks, Roland. Good job, Splynter.

The NW was the last to fill, I worked my way down filling what I could and had a lot of white left showing. I had to fill the bottom and work back up. Took some red-letter runs to get that NW.

I had OVER long before I got EXERT. Tried several things, like "doing". Nope.

TenOR drum before TABOR. Thought of "bongo" but who plays a fife with that? Maybe a flute?

ADorATION before ADULATION.

Didn't know GALEN.

Hand up for N Car before NEST. I've been to Kitty Hawk's Kill Devil Hill.

Splynter: of JULIA, you asked, "Do you think she likes bacon." Answer is, not any more. She died in 2004.

john in michigan said...

along the same lines, i thought of filling OHIO for the first flight since the brothers wright hailed from dayton...hope everybody has a nice weekend, especially the moms

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Wow, that old man is a HERR and the stuff in the clip is HAIR. This one's gonna be a snap! Bzzzzzzt! It all worked out in the end, but Wite-Out was involved. That Volkswagon wasn't a JEDDA. Who knew?

While in Japan back in '69, we witnessed a lantern ceremony, but this one involved lanterns floating on a lake. Very pretty. My photos of it, not so much.

NEST reminds me that those three little guys are getting a lot bigger and a lot more active.

OwenKL said...

FIR!!! I did NOT think I was going to do it! I guess it was MEANT TO BE! Very few words filled in on the first pass, a very few more the next, and the next, and the next, and so on.

I see some newbie named William Clinton did today's NYT, and it's his second puzzle there. First a con in prison and now this guy. No standards whatsoever!

desper-otto said...

OwenKL, that was yesterday's NYT.

TTP said...


Good morning all. Thank you Roland and Splynter.

Too tough for me today. Got most of it.

I knew ALTE was old, but did not know that as a noun form it also means old man. As an aside, I was stationed in Mannheim (Sandhofen) and Mannheim-Vogelstang for about my first sixteen months in Germany. Then on to Karlsruhe for the duration. Great times in Germany.

Got my wooden shoe and old marching drum mixed up. At least the middle three letters were the same.

GETS LOST - great clue. As was awkward makeup moment.

Pretty sure Congo suffix was going to be LESE, but had LEUM waiting on the bench.

Hungry Mother said...

Not too bad today. A few writeovers, typical for me on Saturdays.

Big Easy said...

I had a slow start and fast finish today; I guess it was MEANT TO BE. B MAJ and ORKAN were the only fills in the north on my first pass. The south had LST and that was about it. I made matters worse by filling HERR and SNARE for the old man and drum before ALTE and TABOR got the ball rolling

I didn't read the clues to the three long fills on the first pass and should have; they were easy. That opened up everything. I wish my newspaper would use a different font. The clues for 23A & 58D looked like 'Queen on Thoms' and 'Partnier of all' insteat od Thorns and Partner.

BONNY, TWEE, RIGG, MY GAL SAL-unknowns filled by perps. First flight launch site- I wanted NCAR but there was no abbr.

ADULATION- Kiss A**- How do you think someone gets a 'brown nose'?

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Well, no sitting in the corner wearing a dunce hat today! Like last Saturday, I was on the constructor's wave length right from the get-go. Any hiccups were soon remedied by perps and the long answers sort of filled in by themselves. Personally, I like a Saturday to be more of a challenge; mind you, not a hair-puller, teeth-gnasher, but a "I'm not giving up until I finish this" challenge. (I'm talking to you, Barry Silk!)

Thanks, Roland, for an enjoyable solve and thanks, Splynter, for your breezy write-up.

Whenever I see "nabob" I think of Spiro Agnew's "nattering nabobs of negativism" penned by William Safire. Mr. Safire had an enviable way with words.

Have a great day.

Lucina said...

Saturday glee as I finished this challenge from Roland Huget but no joy as I had two errors. Like the rest of you, my first pass left mostly white but a little at a time, with patience and some out of the box thinking, I finished it.

Since I don't watch Game of Thrones, RIGG was unknown to me in that role, and I had SWEE instead of TWEE. But the long fill was easily sussed once a few letters emerged. Like PK I also think of Spiro Agnew at NABOB.

Thank you, Roland and Splynter! Today is a busy day; I'm hosting a party for my daughter's 40th birthday so there is lots to do.

I hope fermatprime is all right. She usually posts first and very early. Thinking of you, !

Have a sensational day, everyone!

Lucina said...

Oh, I'm sorry, that was Irish Miss thinking of Spiro.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-My wrong guesses would fill a tome and my Mt. Natick was tabOr/rOwe but I summited that too
-I recently watched this great movie about PAYING A STEEP PRICE
-ABSOULTE SILENCE is hard for me to tolerate when I’m with someone
-I still see the lovely Emma Peel because I’ve never watched Game Of Thrones
-Those flying lanterns are illegal in Nebraska and 28 other states
-EMU unlocked a big section for me
-Here’s my list of foods BACON would not make better - ______, ________, _______, _______, etc
-I remember ODEON from the second line of this 1950 song (3:20)
-When does a look become a LEER?
-TONG as a verb, I can learn
-At our school, the sycophant always got the better assignments
-These first flights(:23) will soon occur outside my window

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling Thoughts":

Thanks Roland for the engaging puzzle, and Splynter for the excellent recap.

WLS (what Lucina said), I too am not a Thrones watcher so RIGG was a lookup; also had SWEE > TWEE in 52a. Not sure I "get" that one, and Splynter's comments didn't make it any clearer! Oh well ...

Other BOTCHes: SNARE > TABOR; REST > TEST; IDOLATION > ADULATION; IOTA > MOTE. Other cheats: MY GAL SAL (used Google).

JETTA clue was quite clever.

Had a late breakfast today, and was eating a slice of 54a while doing the puzzle.

Moe-Ku:

Chai Tea at Starbucks:
$4.25 for Grande.
You PAID A "STEEP" PRICE

Owen:

There's a cop that I'd like you to meet
Who's a remedy for his sore feet:
The solution, of course,
Is to stomp in cold Borscht.
Refers to it as "walking a BEET"

PK said...

I have at least 3 tiny squirrels chasing each other around the big maples in my yard. I'm not sure how many there are because they dart around so fast and are hidden by the tree trunks and bushes. The abundance of winged maple seeds in the yard make good eating for them. They hold the wing part and gnaw on the seed end like a lollipop. Too cute.

My son and grandson are coming soon to take me to lunch for early Mother's Day. I'm glad he was able to work me in between mowing the lawn and taking his 11-yr.-old boy to play baseball at 3:00. Wish I could do bleachers so I could watch the boy play. Oh, the agony of de feet!

Bill G said...

Gary, I was (am?) a big fan of Mrs. Peel. I found some Avengers reruns on an oldies cable station. Patrick Macnee was fun too but still...

Spitzboov said...

Hello everyone.

Toughie, but got most of it unaided. Many well-worded mis-directing clues. Had adoration before ADULATION, too. Favorite clue was that for NEST.
I won't bore you again by recounting my 4 days of circumnavigating Catalina Island while training on
the USS Greer County (LST-799) in the summer of '58.
TWEE - TWO in Dutch and L. German. (The W is pronounced. The EE sounds like A in LATE.)

Misty said...

Well, as I expected, my glorious speed run through all five puzzles this week ended this morning with a Roland Huget toughie. I had to start cheating pretty early on, but then things did start to fill in and I enjoyed many of the clues and found it fun. So, many thanks, Roland (I almost wrote Rowland, my sweet late husband's name), and you too, Splynter, for a fun write-up.

My favorite clue was "Child with dishes"--I can still picture Julia Child on TV. I was sure that "First flight launch site" had something to do with NASA and had to laugh when NEST fell into place. Speaking of that, your "agony of de feet" cracked me up, PK.

We have a lovely sunny day today, and I wish everyone a Happy Mother's Day tomorrow (I miss my Mutti--Austrian for Mom).

Anonymous said...

Ok, the pros have finished early and posted. When I finally got the NE I spotted some leftover blanks in the SW and filled MCJOB. Cute. I do a lot of xwording there with my unsweetened iced tea. Known as "The Usual".

Unfortunately, I don't know a lot of bands is _ O _ O could only mean BONO. I actually considered JETTA - Duh.

And my cheat was asking Phil about ___SILENCE. One quick look and he says "What does AB sound like? AAARRRGGHHH!!!

So great xword Roland per usual. I was sure I had a disaster but wouldn't give up. Those V8 cans hurt. And did.

Splynter, great write-up also per usual.
BTW(Do I get a QOD for that one) I got some heavy METAL Wednesday with XXXVIIII inscribed.

Happy mother's day to our lovely femmes with the exception of Hungry Mother.

JETTA!!! I had a Passat not so long ago.

WC

Oops, I meant Apres Wilbur here come the amateurs. Including moi.

Ps2. Moe, very clever stuff today.

Wilbur Charles said...

How'd I become anonymous? As if it wasn't obvious from the gitgo.

Misty, I thought of you whilst in the heavy slogging that the honeymoon was over.

BTW, I recognized ALTE from the esteemed Der ALTE. Adenauer the West German head of state.

WC

AnonymousPVX said...

Wow, lots of white space after the first pass, then Just Like That, I'm on the wavelength.

I did have NCAR before NEST, EVENscore before TIED - and that was it.

Jayce said...

Doggone good puzzle.

Misty said...

Wilbur, I too thought of Adenauer with that first answer of Der ALTE.
Honeymoon?

MJ said...

Good day to all!

A Saturday puzzle I could complete without help. Yea! Lotsa fun! ROWE and RIGG arrived via perps. Didn't know the Reagans had a dog, but the "X" made sense after getting RE_, like Splynter pointed out. Thanks for the expo, Splynter. No music on the job? What's the rationale behind that.

Enjoy the day!

Splynter said...

Hi again~!

WC - is that 3-9 or 3-8~? It looked like four "I"s at the end.

Way to go. ODaaT

Splynter

Wilbur Charles said...

Misty, I meant all the tadas you achieved this week with no cheats. I refuse to Google, well almost, but will use Betsy and Phil.

But as someone said earlier, the long acrosses were gettable which eased the pain somewhat.

And strange to say, I knew GALEN and ODEON but not TOTO.

WC

Misty said...

Thank you, Wilbur!

Argyle said...

Galen is very popular as a fictional character:
Galen (Babylon 5), a technomage in the Babylon 5 universe

Galen DeMarco, a character in the world of Judge Dredd

Gal'en Kord, a character in the Transformers universe

Galen Tyrol, a character in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica TV series

Galen Doc Adams, a character of the lead cast of Gunsmoke, a long running radio and subsequent TV series.

Galen, the assistant of Dr. Zaius in the 1968 film Planet of the Apes and subsequent TV series

Professor Richard Galen, a character in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Chase"

Galen Marek, a character in the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed project

Galen, a character in the TV Series "Roar"

Dr. Galén, a character in a play The White Disease by Karel Čapek and in its movie adaptation Skeleton on Horseback

Dr. Galen Erso, a character in the movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Argyle said...

Prince Galan, son of Prince Valiant, was , I believe, named after GALEN. Ill-adept at the pastimes of a warrior, Val's bookish son, Galan, seeks instead the life of a scholar.

Ol' Man Keith said...

This one took several sieges before it went down. I think this was because I had to fit it into an unusually busy Saturday schedule rather than for its own complexity. The cluing was awfully cute at times. "Child with dishes" was rather TWEE, as was "First flight launch site." Both combined misdirection with charm in the clue or answer.

The several grid-length challenges had it looking harder than it was, but all in all Mr. Huget led me a merry chase, right up to my Ta-DA!. I'm grateful for the pleasant workout.

Wilbur Charles said...

I'm a big Prince Valiant fan too.
Yes 39, 5/9/1978. Ironically, we had a river in Karthoum the same day my group discussed deNILE.

And...no sports gimmes today. I could have used a chestnut like

Eponymous St Louis Brown hitter

HEH HEH. Only Hondo would get that one.

I'll come back later. Btw,. I mean BTW, his first name was Matt

WC

Wilbur Charles said...

One of my favorite baseball names was Matt Batts a catcher from 1947-58. He played for a bunch of teams. I mentioned STL Browns to date him.

Rock groups like TOTO are as obscure to me as sports names would be for many. Dorothy's little dog was clued awhile back. I'm not sure if the Admiral ever made it.

Of course when Mr H uses Max in a clue and you have the root and can't come up with the superlative then ... Well IM's dunce cap is in the mail.

WC in the gloaming

WikWak said...

Downloaded today's puzzle and saved it to work on the plane (MDW-MHT). Finished it somewhere over New York, but only by doing a red letter run in the SW. This was a tough one for me.

Hand up for DER ALTE and EMMA PEEL.

So long from New Hampshire's White Mountains. Beautiful!

Lucina said...

My daughter's birthday party was a lot of work but worth it. Everyone enjoyed it and most spent the afternoon at the pool as it was a nice, warm 98 degrees.

Ditto on recalling der Alte Adenauer.

Picard said...

Crossing of TONG and ORKAN was the last fill for me. Hand up for never hearing TONG as a verb. I did not own a TV during the Mork and Mindy time and would not have known who Orson was.

Hand up for knowing Diana RIGG as the luscious and daring Avenger. I know she has done other roles since, but that is how I always want to remember her! I bought the whole series on DVDs and am introducing my DW to them!

JULIA Child used to live here in Santa Barbara, but I don't think I ever actually saw her. Have never seen Oprah here, either. Some people like Jeff Bridges, John Cleese and John Travolta are out and about often. Others seem to hide!

Abejo said...

Good Tuesday morning, folks. Thank you, Roland Huget, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Splynter, for a fine review.

This puzzle was easier to me than most Saturdays. Getting the three long ones in the middle early on helped.

Tried SNARE for 11D. Soon became obvious that that was wrong. Slowly got TABOR, then I remembered it.

Tried LORNA for 63A. BONNY won that battle.

GALEN did not come easily.

Tried REST for 64A. TEST became the answer.

Totally messed up the North. Did not know MOET or TOTO. Missed on JETTA due to the first unknowns. Came here to get straightened out.

Have to run. Three newsletters to write, one lawn to cut, and 30 letters to stuff and mail. Then I head to Waukegan for a meeting.

Abejo

( )