google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday, June 16, 2019 Matt McKinley

Advertisements

Jun 16, 2019

Sunday, June 16, 2019 Matt McKinley

Theme: "Low-Tech Glossary"- Punnily rephrasing some computer software terms.
 
23A. Part of a parallel parking lesson?: BACKUP PROCEDURE.

46A. Cookie recipe?: BATCH FILE.

65A. Déjà vu?: VIRTUAL MEMORY.

87A. Spider-Man?: WEB MASTER.

112. What a jittery camera operator may be having?: TROUBLE SHOOTING.

32D. "I'll skip it, thanks"?: PASS WORDS.

35D. Poirot's note-to-self about locating the Orient Express murder weapon?: SEARCH ENGINE.

39D. Meteorologist's rainfall prediction measure?: CLOUD STORAGE.
  
57D. Tide table?: FLOWCHART.

I think there's no extra layer. Just software terms, right? TTP will explain the theme better than I do.

I like how the middle entry crosses two Downs. Often the ease up filling. Sometimes it creates expected knotty spots.

Across:

1. Next to nothing?: CENT. It's indeed next to nothing: 0.99

5. New newts: EFTS.

9. Trying to break a tie, briefly: IN OT.

13. Battle zone journalist: EMBED. Sebastian Junger stopped reporting on war after his partner died. Sebastian also wrote "The Perfect Storm" and "Tribe".




18. Courier alternative: ARIAL. Font.

20. Area below Greenwich Village: SOHO.

21. Equivalent of neener: NYAH. When repeated.

22. Weeper of myth: NIOBE. You can see her face at here at Turkey's Weeping Rock.


26. "I might": MAYBE.

27. Redundant modifier of "bit": TEENY.

28. Sealskin boot: MUKLUK.They don't look comfortable.



29. Castle defense: MOAT.

31. City west of Boise: NAMPA. Third-most populous city in Idaho.



33. "__ for Alibi": Grafton novel: A IS.

34. Sch. in Manhattan: KANSAS ST. Manhattan, Kansas.

38. One of Mary Stuart's people: SCOT.

40. When one might have a late lunch: AT TWO. We have lunch around 11:00am. How about you?

42. Pet store array: CAGES.

43. Lead-in for worm: EAR.

44. Hesitates: FALTERS.

48. 1977 Steely Dan album: AJA.

49. Pleasing application: ALOE. The fresh aloe juice stings.

50. Nonfiction piece: ESSAY.

52. Mayall of "Drop Dead Fred": RIK. Unknown to me.


53. Go right to the top?: PRAY. Ha.

54. Monetary promises: IOUs.

55. Pretty pitcher: EWER. Here is a Chinese ewer.



56. Starbucks order: DECAF.

58. Stats for NFL defensive linemen: SACKS.

59. Fishing __: ROD. And 45. Land with a 59-Across: REEL IN.

60. Tar Heel State campus: ELON. Our standard pre-Musk clue.

61. Corporate agreement finalizer: SEAL.

62. Basic security feature: LATCH.

64. USN rank: ENS.

68. Shore bird: ERN.

71. Graph's depiction: TREND.

73. Schulz's "psychiatric help" dispenser: LUCY.



74. Tot's scrape: OWIE.

75. New beginning: NEO.

76. Devious intentions: PLOTS.

78. Scrap: SET-TO.

80. Soft shoes: MOCS.

81. PC scrolling key: PGDN. Page Down.

82. Not often seen: RARE.

83. "What __ the odds?!": ARE.

84. Get clean: BATHE.

85. Board game with a lawsuit card: LIFE.

86. Org. with a two-leaved flower logo: EPA.





91. Best way to play, teamwise: AS A UNIT.

93. Wrinkly-faced dog: PUG.

94. Bars on the road: AXLES. Great clue. We have two more bars: 104. Springfield bar: MOE'S. "The Simpsons". Also 111. Bar order: BUD.

95. Actress Samantha: EGGAR.

97. Tax-evasion agts.: T-MEN. And 101. Not quite first-stringers: B TEAM. And 41. Skier's aid: T BAR. A few letter openers.

98. Deceptively convincing: SPECIOUS.

100. Bearded bovine: GNU.

103. Fords whose initials didn't actually stand for anything: LTDS.

104. West Coast surfing mecca: MALIBU.

106. Musical symbols: CLEFS.

109. Just not done: TABOO. In China, we never share a pear, homophone of "separation".

116. Candy heart words: I LUV U.

117. Barely made it, with "by": EKED.

118. Where Zeno taught: ELEA.

119. Cellphone group pic, in slang: WEFIE. Most still call selfie.

120. Military rookie: CADET.

121. Upbeat: ROSY.

122. Snippy return: SASS.

123. Macy's div., e.g.: DEPT.

Down:

1. Locomotive compartment: CAB.

2. Q.E.D. word: ERAT.

3. "Impressive!": NICE.

4. What most do in class: TAKE NOTES. Do kids still take notes by hand these days?

5. Medium power?: ESP.

6. Configuration: FORMAT.

7. Bank heist unit: THOU. Thousand.

8. Save, as money: SOCK AWAY.

9. Pakistan's longest river: INDUS. Originating in Tibet.

10. Stooge laugh: NYUK.

11. Row: OAR.

12. Travelers celebrated annually: THE MAGI.

13. How tour groups move: EN MASSE.

14. Mazda two-seater: MIATA.

15. Youngster: BOY.

16. Go out on the beach?: EBB. New clue angle.

17. Bad mark: DEE.

19. Crescent-shaped: LUNATE. Spell check does not like this word.

24. Poe title stowaway: PYM. Refers to "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket".


25. Jennyanydots' creator: ELIOT. Cats.

30. Turow memoir: ONE-L.

34. "The Trial" author: KAFKA.

36. "Solve or spin?" host: SAJAK.

37. Cafeteria staples: TRAYS.

38. Swinging-doors site: SALOON.

42. Gum source: CHICLE. Wiki says "The word chicle comes from the Nahuatl word for the gum, tziktli , which can be translated as "sticky stuff".


44. Renaissance __: FAIRE.

47. Like many shakes: CREAMY.

51. On its way: SENT.

53. Ms. __-Man: PAC.

56. Car battery pioneer: DELCO.

58. Apt rhyme for "eye": STYE.

60. Times to prepare: EVES.

61. Cooks in oil: SAUTES.

63. Happens: ARISES.

66. Michelob diet beers: ULTRAS.

67. Like arguments no longer worth having: MOOT.

69. European perch: REDFIN. With red fins.


70. A chamber work by Louis Spohr was the first to bear this title: NONET. No idea. Wiki says
"Spohr was a noted violinist, and invented the violin chinrest, about 1820."

72. W. Coast's 101, e.g.: RTE.

76. Jobs before the main job: PREPS.

77. Really enjoy: LAP UP.

79. Eponymous chair maker: EAMES. So low. Boomer won't be able to get up.


80. "CSI" actress Helgenberger: MARG.

81. Crashed: PLUMMETED.

84. Enchants: BEGUILES.

87. Bide one's time during, as a storm: WAIT OUT.

88. Bk. after Genesis: EXOD. Exoducs.

89. Much ado about nothing: BLUSTER.

90. Workout wt.: TEN LB.

92. As far down as it's been: AT A LOW.

96. Rule violations: ABUSES.

99. Garlic unit: CLOVE. Steve probably has tried black garlic.


100. Overly showy: GAUDY.

102. Prefix with tourist: ECO.

105. Composer Bartók: BELA.

107. Wind similar to a piccolo: FIFE.

108. Small cut: SNIP.

109. Involuntary habit: TIC.

110. Phrase on a menu: A LA.

113. "Top Hat" studio: RKO.

114. Already acquired: HAS.

115. Acquire: GET.
 

Here is the Pisa guy I was looking for last week. Once you meet Gary and hear his voice, you'll never forget him.

Husker Gary
Here is a picture of dear Bill G and his wife Barbara "at our favorite restaurant, Il Fornaio, celebrating our 54-year anniversary". Congratulations, Bill!

Barbara and Bill G

C.C.

28 comments:

OwenKL said...

DNF. One total natick: MAR? + EG?AR.
Did get the fun theme.

I'm always awed by ice-skate dancer's BACK-UP PROCEDURE.

Matchmakers keep extensive BATCH FILES.

St.Peter's ledger serves as a vice and VIRTUAL MEMORY.

A web-printing press makes copies from a WEB MASTER.

He broke a leg twice in jump school, because of his TROUBLE CHUTING.

The Weather Wizard condensed the stolen fog into CLOUD STORAGE, so it wouldn't be mist.

The Fellowship had problems entering the Passage at Moria because they didn't know the PASS WORD.

A listing of insurance commercials includes a FLO CHART.

For damsels tied across the train tracks, the Mounties kept on hand a SEARCH ENGINE.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Failed to read the puzzle title, but managed to get the theme anyway. Wanted EAT UP, but it had to be LAP UP. Not sure I've ever heard of NAMPA. Still, finished in good time with just that one need for Wite-Out. Thanx, Matt and C.C.

Summer must be here. We've reached that point in the year when at 6 AM it's already warmer outside than inside.

Congrats on the endurance run, Bill G.

TTP said...



Good morning. Happy Father's Day. Thank you Matt McKinley and thank you CC.

One bad cell. Needed an M at the intersection of PYM and NAMPA. Never heard of either one.

CC, no hidden layers so other explanation of the theme is needed. Just alternate low tech definitions of high tech terms. I found them amusing.

I did the puzzle at the MENSA site, and looked at the title after getting the first themer, BACKUP PROCEDURE. On MENSA, the title looks like Low-Tech Gloss. Decided that the overwritten word must be glossary.

TTP said...



Happy Anniversary to Bill and Barbara !

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Matt McKinley, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for a fine review.

I got up with the roosters this morning. Just could not sleep. Jumped into the puzzle and got through it. Took me about two hours. About normal for me.

Did not catch the theme until I answered a couple of the long words. BACKUP PROCEDURE and TROUBLE SHOOTING. OK, now I knew what I was looking for. Trouble Shooting was my middle name for many years installing telephone equipment.

Got EMBED at 13A via perps. Still do not know what that word refers to regarding journalists.

At 34A I was looking for something in New York. Then with a bunch of perps it hit me. KANSAS ST.

RIK and KAFKA crossing slowed me down. Finally I plugged in the K and it worked.

Tried EXIDE before DELCO became the battery.

Liked Spider Man and WEB MASTER. Good clue/word.

Anyhow. Off to my day. I hope to take another walk today. Maybe two or three. Trying to get the pain out of my abdomen. I think some exercise will help.

Happy Anniversary, Bill G., and many more.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning.

Thanks, C.C. and Matt. A good start to a busy day.

Happy Anniversary, Bill and Barbara.

Feel better, Abeyo. Walking will help. Don't overdo it. :-)

Have a great day.



Husker Gary said...

Musings¬
-¬I pulled PY(M) out of the ether and NA(M)PA was an actual city.
-Oops! I biffed on WEB(C)ASTER/EA(C)ES (no idea)
-SEARCH ENGINE and TROUBLE SHOOTING elicited big laughs
-Today I learned (TIL) where this tree got its name
-Patriot QB Tom Brady’s Brentwood house has an actual MOAT
-I’ve been to “that” Manhattan often but it took a while to get KANSAS ST
-The T-MEN got Capone not Ness’s G-MEN
-Student teachers are also called CADETS. I gave one of mine a non-ROSY assessment
-Moving EN MASSE is dictated by the slowest people
-iPhone weather radar tells us how long we have to WAIT OUT a storm on the course
-The most famous piece (descant) for a piccolo?
-Wow, nothing says tourist like a fanny pack!

Lemonade714 said...

Happy Anniversary Bill G., and many more.

Some real challenge to this Sunday with the NYM NAMPA crossing very tricky. NYM sounded familiar and I eventually got the tada but my knowledge of Idaho cities extends as far as BOISE and stops there. This was the third use of the fill in the LAT, but the first since 2008.

We had a gorgeous weeping willow in our yard as I was growing up. Weeping willow trees get their common name from the way that rain looks like tears when it's dripping off the curved branches.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! This whole thing was above my "play-grade" but I kept picking away at it. Thanks, Matt, for a real challenge.

Thanks, C.C., for making sense of the theme. I didn't GET it, although I thought the answers to the clues were amusing.

Owen: good ones made me chuckle today.

NW & E central sections stumped me. INDUS/INOT/NYAH/NYUK crosses were true naticks and had to be red-lettered to fill. In the NW, I had OAR & THE MAGI, but couldn't come up with CAB/CENT. ARIAL? LUNATE? What most do in class was not "sleep thru". Never heard of PYM or NAMPA and I've traveled from BOISE on west.

PRAY/PAC also needed red-letter help. Thought the clue for PRAY was very good. Didn't know there was a MS. PAC-man. Never played electronic games of any kind. Didn't know PGDN.

The lower section was easier for me to fill. Did not know actresses, but that's nothing new.

Happy Anniversary, Bill & Barb!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I thought this was a simple, yet clever theme, but the straightforward title took away from the solving difficulty. My only w/os were correcting an E to an A in both Sajak and Eggar. However, there were numerous perps needed for: Nampa, Rik, Elea, Indus, Red Fin, Lunate, and Pac, as clued. I loved the misdirection for the Kansas St answer but I didn't love Nyah, Nyuk, or Wefie.

Thanks, Matt, for a Sunday stroll and thanks, CC, for 'splainin' it all so well. I usually eat lunch between 1:00-2:00, depending on whether I get up early or late, as I don't eat breakfast. Dinner is between 6:30-7:00.

Happy 54th to Bill and Barbara and best wishes for many more.

Have a great day.

Anonymous said...

I've been to the Yampa river valley in Northern Colorado and had a stunning view of the river from the peaks of Steamboat Springs Resort. I assumed that it held some sort of relationship with NAMPA of nearby Idaho. Nope. Not at all. The name Yampa is derived from the Snake Indians word for the Perideridia plant while NAMPA may have come from a Shoshoni word meaning either moccasin or footprint. Per wiki.

PK said...

IM: KANSAS ST was about the only early fill I was sure of. A big chunk of my money went to that school with my son. Now one of my grandsons and two nephews are headed there.


Misty said...

Fun Sunday puzzle, many thanks, Matt. I got pretty much of the lower section before needing help to get back to the top. But that's usual for me on a Sunday. Liked getting LUCY and it was nice seeing KAFKA--I wrote a chapter about his work in one of my books. Took me a minute to get SAJAK even though I watch him on "Wheel of Fortune" every night. How nice to see those pictures of Husker Gary and Bill and Barbara, C.C.--many thanks for posting them. Happy anniversary, Bill.

Well, I am heading off to the Grand Canyon with friends for a short trip tomorrow and won't be back on the blog until late next week. Will miss you all, and have a great week coming up.

Yellowrocks said...

Clever puzzle. I sussed the theme early on, but was glad for the assistance given by the title. One bad cell, PYP and NAPPA, instead of PYM and NAMPA. I never heard of NAMPA. I probably heard of PYM, but it was buried too deeply.
Several great misdirections, like Go right to the top/pray.
IMO, Spellcheck is too finicky sometimes. Lunate is a legitimate word. In addition to crescent shaped it can refer to a bone in the wrist. Knowing lune for moon and trying different endings made this clue not too hard.
Happy anniversary Bill and Barbara and here's to many more happy years together.
Brilliantly clear morning, followed by a very brief shower and then gray skies. David is down the shore. I hope he has better weather.
FLN $700+ electric bill for AC? And I thought a one month bill of $400 for heat, hot water, cooking and all other electric uses was extraordinary. Most years the bill for the highest month is far less.

Big Easy said...

Good morning. Getting all the "low Tech" terms was easy. It was the unfamiliar terms, places, and people that tripped me up today.

Never been to LAMPA, heard of PYM, MUKLUK (I got that one), "Neener" or NYAH (nigh?), and filled YUCK for NYUK. I didn't get those so it was a DNF.

Unknowns that I got by erps were ELIOT, KAFKA, LIFE, LUCY, MARG, & SPECIOUS.

WikWak said...

Everything about as usual for a Sunday. Thanks to Matt and C.C.

I surprised myself by immediately plugging in NAMPA for the Idaho city. I did not know that it’s the 3rd largest city in that state.

Abejo, EMBEDding became a thing in the war in Iraq. Journalists were EMBEDded in various combat units; they wore a uniform and went everywhere the unit did... even into battle. They were not given weapons.

I liked the theme and thought the answers were clever. Favorite: Spiderman / WEBMASTER.

I did get a bit hung up in the northeast but leaving it for the south and then coming back to it did the trick. I forgot to check my time until I had already closed up the puzzle. It felt about normal for a Sunday.

AJA was a gimme.

Well, off to my son’s house for a father’s day cookout. Hope all your weekends are good.

desper-otto said...

YR, I thought Anon-T's $700 was excessive, too. I checked my electric bills for the past two years: Max $165, Min $70. Replacing all those incandescent bulbs with LEDs helps considerably. Of course, we live in a a small (<2,000 sqft) house. I'm sure Anon-T's is much larger.

Jayce said...

Happy Anniversary Bill and Barbara G, and many more.

Whew, this was a fun journey. Or perhaps I should say trek, because it was not easy. I am amazed at the skill of this construction. FORMAT goes along with the computer techie theme.

With no Tada after filling it all, I turned on red letters to find what was wrong. I had ETON and REETIN, and a faint glimmer from my MEMORY banks enabled me to remember ELON, and suddenly REELIN made sense. My second error was simply a typo; I had intended to enter LIFE and NONET, but I had typed the R instead of the E. Tada.

For "Battle zone journalist" I was looking for the name of a specific person, such as Ernie Pyle, but it turned out to be the generic term. Same story with DECAF; I was thinking VENTI or some other Starbuck's specific term.

I'm with Irish Miss in not liking NYAH, NYUK, and WEFIE.

I remember the terrific performances by Samantha EGGAR and Terence Stamp when they were young in the 1965 movie The Collector.

MIATA made me think of AnonymousPVX.

We usually eat lunch between 12:00 noon and 1:00 PM.

Good wishes to you all.

TTP said...

I was going to suggest to Dash T that he should have an energy audit done. But then I reconsidered. He probably has a full scale server farm running, and must have to pipe cold water cool past the heat sinks. Probably has a couple of commercial chillers like you see on top of hotels or high rise buildings.

Anonymous T said...

Sunday Lurk say...

TTP - It's not that elaborate but I do have a number of computers with m4d c0nfigurat1onz [MegaTokyo] doing my bidding :-) //Right now I'm putting Kali Linux on a Pi-0. The goal is to walk around and see WiFi & BlueTooth signals and display it on a 7" screen. The crème de la crème I'm shooting for is to put a Max Headroom video behind the real-time display. It'll be cute.

Our house is 3,250 sq.ft. with vaulted ceilings, etc. there's two units one for downstairs and one for upstairs. The upstairs unit they installed yesterday is a 3Ton replacing a 2.5Ton unit. None of that means nothing to me but it cost money. Let's hope AveJoe is right and the SEER rating improvement will lower my power cost.

Glad to hear you're up and around (just a bit) Abejo.

Have a wonderful trip Misty. I've only flown over The Grand Canyon - maybe this year during BlackHat I'll take a day to go out there.

Cheers, -T

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIW x 7. loved the theme, but not the fill. Felt like haute cuisine fill and I'm a burger-and-fries pencil wielder.

I know what a nooner is, but not a neener.

I love a lot of the albums of the 1970s, including "AJA". Derek and the Dominos' "Layla and Other Assorted Songs", Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon" and "The Wall", Carole King's "Tapestry", Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water, Van Morrison's "Moondance", Neil Young's "After The Gold Rush", The Eagles' "Hotel California", Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours", Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run", and Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On".

Thanks to Matt for the fun theme, and to CC for another fine review.

Lucina said...

Hola! Happy Fathers' Day to all who qualify!

Doing this felt like I was sloshing around in MUKLUKs. I slid down and worked upward from the bottom. With so much devious misdirection it took longer than normal and I was only about half way through it before going to church.

Finally with some TROUBLESHOOTING, I gained some traction and finished but drew a blank at PYM/NAMPA. If I had heard of Poe's work it's long forgotten but I'm sure I've never heard of NAMPA.

I'll take a CSO at LUCY, my nickname.

I liked the clue for PRAY.

I hope all you fathers are celebrating joyfully today.

Thank you, Matt McKinley for the challenge and C.C. for the insightful guidance.

Have a ROSY day, everyone!

OwenKL said...

Thought I was pretty familiar with Poe, but PYM was a wag. Only PYM I knew was superhero Ant-man. Also grew up west of Boise (Portland), but NAMPA didn't stir in my memory until 5 perps.
Anon@9:49 -- You did better than me. I looked it up on Google and got that NAMPA was the Japanese word for a man's flirtation with a woman. Skepticism set in.

Took two sessions for this puzzle.

Liked that NYAH and NYUK crossed. Two sorta nonsense words with similar usages: "nyanny nyanny nyah nyah" and Curly's "nyuk nyuk nyuk".
WEFIE is a nonsense word constructed for crossword puzzles, IMHO. Proper portmanteau process, but not in real usage.

Niobe wept because her 14 children were murdered in punishment for her haughtiness.

Yuman said...

Wouldn’t be Father’s Day without a Dad’s joke.
How do you spot a modern spider? He has a website!

When comparing AC bills there are many variables, for example climate, sq.footage, comfort level, age of unit etc.
We live in the desert in an 1800 sq, ft house, keep our air at 77 during the day and 74at night and our AC runs 24/7. We have yet to have a monthly bill over $300.00.

D4E4H said...

FIW by revealing several letters, but I did complete the beast.

Good evening Cornies.

It won't be long before Monday's CW will be available, but here goes.

Thank you Matt McKinley for this challenging Sunday CW.

Thank you C.C. for your excellent review, and the picture of HG. I haven't heard him speak, and yet I can almost remember his name some days.

Happy 54th anniversary Barbara and Bill G. Somehow "Il Fornaio" sounds much more romantic than "The Baker." Something is lost in the translation.

Ðave

Yellowrocks said...

Although I take neither selfies or wefies, I have heard of wefies, just substitute WE, as in the bunch of us, instead of SELF as in myself. You can look it up in Wictionary.
Happy Father's Day to all you dads.
Abejo, good to see you up and about. I pray for quick and thorough healing.
HG, I, too gave a cadet (space cadet?) a less than rosy assessment. Whenever I think of her I try to think how I could have saved her. I had a mixed first/second grade class with six reading groups and six math groups (mandated). The admin. thought the student teacher would ease my burden. But, of course she added to it. I was running like heck just to stay even with all these groups.
When ever a student falls down or is not fully motivated I look to myself. In know you can't rescue everyone, but it is sad not to be able to.

Lemonade714 said...

Well after the moving video of Gary Woodland and the young handicapped golfer surfaced and he was heralded; he has gone on and won the US Open. Congratulations.

I do recall my Thursday comment " Two of the "expert" picks - Ricky Fowler and Gary Woodland have started well. There are many hours before others tee off, though Phil is 1 under on the course where he won in January of this year

Good job Gary.

PK said...

Thank you for the video of Gary Woodland the other day. I've forgotten who posted it. I spent over four hours today watching that "local boy" make good. He got out of some predicaments to make the win even more exciting. I've never met him but the media has nothing but good to say about him. Bravo! Encore, Champ!