google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, October 25, 2019 David Alfred Bywaters

Advertisements

Oct 25, 2019

Friday, October 25, 2019 David Alfred Bywaters

"Jack and the Beanstalk"

17. Bingeing on chicken pieces?: WING FEEDING.   - Wing Ding
 

26. Roman naturalist's baseball-playing namesake?: PLINY THE FIELDER.  - Pliny the Elder
 
43. Prize coveted by competitive trees?: BEST OF THE FOREST.  - Best of the rest

57. Sports Officialdom Illustrated cover image?: PHOTO OF UMPS.  - Photo ops

 "Ari, get the press ready for photo ops in the White House lawn.  I'll be pardoning the Thanksgiving turkey."   And then this happened:

37. Source of the fairy-tale sequence that creates four long puzzle puns: GIANT.



Across:

1. Bewildered: DAZED. and confused. - Led Zeppelin.

6. Public row: SCENE.

11. Friend: PAL.

14. Missouri tribe: OSAGE.

15. Lake that ultimately feeds 8-Down: HURON.    And... 8(D):  Lake ultimately fed by 15-Across: ERIE.

16. "__ we good?": ARE.

19. Meadow: LEA.

20. Vote against: NAY.

21. Employee's request: RAISE.

22. Tale of Achilles and Agamemnon: ILIAD.

24. Tasting room container: CASK.

25. Soon, to a bard: ANON. This was the prevalent definition way back when.
In the age of internutland, it's the abbreviation for a poster that writes under the cloak of anonymity.

33. Climbing and passing places: LANEs.  For any flatlanders:  "Large vehicles can present problems for other traffic on hilly terrain and may lead to risky passing behavior with limited sight distances. Climbing lanes provide additional capacity on uphill grades to allow faster traffic to pass slower traffic without the increased risk of making the passing maneuver in the opposing traffic lane."  US DOT 

34. Preserves, in a way: CANs.

35. "Hooray!": RAH.

36. Inch, e.g.: UNIT.

39. Interlaced: WOVE.

40. Executive gp.: MGT.

41. Chart entries: HITs.

42. Tailed orbiter: COMET.

47. Negotiate a green: PUTT.  One thousand one,  one thousand two,  one thousand three...
Never a doubt !

48. Echelon: RANK.  Yeoman is not a rank.

49. Airport conveyors, or what are sometimes placed on them: BELTs.

51. Wispy clouds: CIRRI.  

53. Spanish she-bear: OSA.

56. __ Today: USA.

60. Apple product: MAC.

61. Superficial: OUTER.

62. Boredom: ENNUI.
 63. Take to court: SUE.

64. Is crowded (with): TEEMs.

65. Falls from the sky: RAINs.

Down:

1. Low: DOWN.  Glum.  Melancholy.

2. Nearly 9% of Earth's surface area: ASIA.

3. Half-baked: ZANY.

4. Chicken producer: EGG.

5. Pays a share of: DEFRAYs.  Paul Coulter used defray in last Tuesday's puzzle.

6. Arab leader: SHEIKH.

7. Subjects of bovine mastication: CUDs.

9. Denial from Denis: NON.

10. Auto mechanic's concerns: ENGINEs.

11. Pop or tot, e.g.: PALINDROME.  Evil olive. 

12. Bailiwick: AREA.

13. Heavy metal: LEAD.   Listen to the band cited at 1A for an example.   Rolling Stone's ranking of the 40 Greatest Led Zeppelin Songs

18. Right on the map: EAST.

23. Web prefix with cat: LOL.

24. Tech review website: CNET.

25. "__ Nobody's Business": blues standard: AIN'T.    Always liked the clue "Is not wrong."

26. Assess the depth of: PLUMB.   This word was also in last Tuesday's puzzle. 

27. "Blue Sky" Oscar winner: LANGE.   Tommy Lee Jones and Jessica Lange starred.

28. Where everything should be: IN ITS PLACE.

29. Online money: ECASH.

30. Ventilation source: FAN.

31. Roof edges: EAVES.

32. "I can't go all my life waiting to catch you between husbands" speaker: RHETT.   "Where shall I go?  What shall I do?"    "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

37. Donation: GIFT.

38. Big comm. company, once: ITT.     ITT_Inc.

39. __ load: WORK.  

41. Trendy nightclub: HOTSPOT.   The best hotspots in '80s Houston were in the Galleria area of the West 610 loop.    Gilley's wasn't bad, but it was a long drive from the NW side.


42. Pine, e.g.: CONIFER.

44. Son of Akhenaten: TUT.    By an undetermined wife.   His stepmother was Queen Nefertiti.   Nefertiti and Akhenaten had a daughter that Tut married.  So he married his stepsister and his stepmother was his mother in law. - Summarized from a NatGeo reading.

45. Box score statistic: ERRORS.  2 by the Nats and 1 by the Stros in this game:

46. Gambling game involving matching cards: FARO.

49. Borrows without returning: BUMS

50. Jacob's brother: ESAU.

51. Dove home: COTE.


Sheep and pigeons also live in cotes.

52. List part: ITEM.

53. Hyatt competitor: OMNI.

54. Like a web: SPUN.

55. Sale warning: AS IS.

58. Tint: HUE.

59. Duessa's foe in Spenser's "The Faerie Queene": UNA.   The Faerie Queene - Characters


Check you entries against this grid:


Notes from C.C.:
 
Look who are here: Lemonade,  his wife Oo and Jeffrey Wechsler. Lemonade said "We had a very nice long visit, the only benefit of a long layover on our way home from visiting Oo’s mother and son".


43 comments:

OwenKL said...

DNF/FIWrong. A natick at LAN_E + M_T, and a double error with fAZED +fOWl + lAY. Still way better than yesterday.
And for the second day in a row, I'll do a Thumper on the theme.
In fact, I'd say this theme was a two-Thumper.

Should this CONIFER we have before us
Be selected BEST OF THE FOREST?
It stays always green,
So no colorful SCENE,
Like tree leaves when they get a divorce!

Do you feel DAZED and in the way
Just because your hair is gray?
You're not AS IS,
You've still got fizz,
It's these ZANY kids who have ENNUI!

When a CASK of wine is nigh
We RAISE our spirits to the sky!
The RAINS give grapes
Their juicy shapes
That make fine wine for you and I!

{A-, B+, B+.}

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Easiest Friday ever. I knew there was a theme lurking in those long answers, but had to wait till I'd finished to go back and find it. Nicely done, D.A.B. and T.T.P. (Did you mean, "Siri, make the sky seem bluer."?)

Cold front swept in overnight. It won't really get cold (ie: below 50) until tomorrow, but it's too rainy for walkies.

Anonymous said...

Saw the theme with feeding and fielder in place. 12 minutes, 45 seconds.

Didn't know Pliny, Blue Sky, Faro, Una, or the correct spelling of sheikh. It's probably been 10 years since I last heard/seen "hot spot" used when not referring to wifi.

-Anon

Big Easy said...

FEE, FI, FO, FUM- I smell the blood of an Englishman. Wait, Steve's on Thursday's.

Good morning. I'm a slow starter and had trouble getting DEFRAYS & SHEIKH on the grid. And I still don't know what LOL and 'Web prefix with cat' have to do with each other. But it fit. The rest of the puzzle was too easy for a Friday.

Faerie Queen- vaguely remember having to read some of it in College just to remember enough for the test. UNA was perps along with FARO.

Too bad Debra WINGer wasn't WING FEEDING in Urban Cowboy.

TTP said...



Desper-otto, yes, but it obviously didn't land, so I just edited it out.

BigEasy, take the blue "Know Your Memes" link under the image at 23D and you'll see a brief explanation of LOLcat, as well as any other memes on the web.

jfromvt said...

Was chugging along pretty well, but it still took a while to get the theme. Fun puzzle, I like creative puns like these.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but data--->HITS, cargo--->BELTS, tier--->RANK, nae--->NON, and the key fix was at sea--->DAZED.

I like that preservers use jars to CAN.

Not being part of the faculty lounge crowd, I caught hell here at the Corner for linking a Far Side cartoon. Not for the content of the cartoon, but for the politics of the cartoonist. Let's see what happens today.

I'm sorry to inform Lemony that we look a LOT alike. You have a little more hair and look a little thinner, but I have dimples. We could easily be brothers. Do you know whether your dad took a trip to eastern Kentucky in July, 1950?

So TUT was born of an undetermined mother? Remind me of the story about the Aggie co-ed. She went to the doctor and was told she was pregnant. She said "OMG doc - is it mine?" (Told to me by a Longhorn grad.)

Gilley's was a nice little bar. They had a mechanical bull. Billy Bob's in Ft. Worth has live bull riding.

Thanks for the fun Friday, DAB. Plenty of false steps, buy finally doable. And thanks to TTP for the tour.

Lemonade714 said...

Welcome back to the Corner. Oo and I made a quick trip to Thailand to help her 97-year-old mother, her son and meet the 5th generation in their family. C.C. posted a pic we took at the Newark airport yesterday. We had a great visit with Jeffrey, who shared lots of insights into his puzzle-making history as well as his many successes as a curator. We had very spotty connectivity and it was wonderful to see her family ranging from her mother to the great-great-grandson who is nine months old. I will get some pictures to C.C. soon, but the return trip was tiring with long flights and layovers. One really odd thing was we were talking about some new fill in puzzles lately and PLINY THE ELDER was part of the conversation. Boom, here he is today.

Fun puzzle from DAB and more skillful entertaninment form Tom. Thanks guys.

Lemonade714 said...

Jinx, I cannot give you an honest answer as my father has been gone for almost 50 years, but I had my DNA in the system. If you don't want certainty, at least send a pic.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Wow! Adding 'FI' to PLINY THE ELDER; how cool is that? Neat theme-age today. All was right with the world when RHETT fell in nicely. Got it all in FIne FEttle. FIR. No help was needed; unusual for a Friday.
Loved the HURON / ERIE cross. Lake Michigan-HURON stands about 8 feet above Lake Erie.

"Fee! Fie! Foe! Fum!
I smell the blood of an Englishman.
Be he 'live, or be he dead,
I'll grind his bones to make my bread. "

Hi Steve.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I really liked solving this even though I was totally unaware of the theme. Even after I finished, I just sat there, staring, and wondering what the heck was tying these odd phrases together. Then, BAM, the light bulb went on and I was pleased that I solved the mystery and impressed by the cleverness and freshness of the theme. My only nit would be some off-kilter cluing, but that's subjective, so no harm, no foul. Was unfamiliar with Una and Rhett, as clued. The C/A that had me scratching my head was Web prefix with cat=LOL. Fortunately, TTP.'s link explained it nicely. I liked seeing Teems side by side with Rains, Huron crossing Erie, and the Asia ~ As Is duo. The spelling of Sheikh threw me with the second H, but I guess it's correct. Ennui is a favorite word of mine, even though I never say it.

Thanks, David, for a fun Friday and thanks, TTP, for an entertaining and enjoyable summary. I always learn something new from your reviews.

Lemony, welcome back to you and Oo. How nice that you were able to spend some time with Jeffrey W, as you and he seem to be kindred souls. Nice photo, too.

FLN

CanadianEh, belated congrats on the new grand baby. Hope everyone is doing well.

Jayce, so glad that your dental procedure was pain and trouble free. As far as I can tell, no wisdom was lost, only the teeth!

Have a great day.

oc4beach said...


Tough Friday puzzle until the Fee, and Fi became evident, then the theme fell into place. Great Expo by TTP.

Like others, I needed perps for a number of answers like UNA, OMNI and COTE. I knew RHETT right away along with his ending line "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

TTP: If TUT married the daughter of his father and stepmother, wouldn't she be his half sister also?

DW canned (in jars) 25 pints of what she calls Christmas pickles which has cauliflower, onions, cucumbers, red and green peppers and carrots in them. If you add corn and a few other veggies into the mix, it would be what the Amish call Chow-Chow. Really good side dish for beef or poultry.

Fall weather is here. Enjoy.

Hungry Mother said...

Cool theme and, without seeing the reveal, it helped with two entries. Seems like PLINYTHEELDER has been on my mind lately. In my family, I'm Bill The Eldest.

Lucina said...

Hola!

For some reason I love seeing DAZED in the puzzle. Of course, ATSEA came first but that soon changed.

Thank you, DAB, for an easy Friday fill. And thank you, TTP, for bringing it to life.

PALINDROME was fun as were PLINY and UNA. The arts are always a treat for me.

RHETT's words are familiar to me as I've seen Gone with the Wind several times.

What a nice PHOTO Lemonade.

Enjoy a beautiful day, everyone!

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, David Alfred Bywaters, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, TTP, for a fine review.

Puzzle was sticky. I, therefore, bounced around a lot. Did not catch the theme until I was done and looked more closely. Great one!

Tried RIGHT PLACE until IN ITS PLACE worked much better. PLUMB, we just had PLUMB Bob the other day. I used a PLUMB BOB on most jobs I worked in telephone exchanges, especially if it was a new exchange. We laid out the floor to be have perfect square corners using a 3-4-5 triangle. Then used a plumb bob to make sure the overhead ironwork was square with the floor. It was a really simple process.

HURON and ERIE were easy. Some of Lake Michigan flows into Lake Huron, but sometimes they are equal. However, some of Lake Michigan flows into the Chicago River, and then via the Illinois River, flows into the Mississippi. There are locks in Chicago to allow boats to get from the Chicago River into Lake Michigan and back.

Did not get LOL (the meaning).

I have heard of FARO, but not sure how it is played.

Anyhow, I have to run. No crossing this morning since there was no school. One morning I was not aware there was no school and went to the crossing. After about 15 minutes I realized something was not right. I asked someone that came by and they told me. So, I went home.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Yellowrocks said...

Fun theme and puns, David. FEE and FI gave me FO and FUM. So then GIANT went into the center. TTP I enjoyed your summary.
LOL cat was new to me. Funny picture of the laughing cat.
CASK filled itself.
Canadian Eh!, congratulations on your new grandbaby. I hope everyone is doing well.
oc4beach, as I was reading your list of pickle ingredients, I immediately thought of chow-chow and then you mentioned it. 25 jars? Were some of them intended as gifts? My mom used to make chow-chow. Hers was not as sweet as some made by other PA Dutch cooks.
Alan had a sleep study done last night. He was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea and will need to use a cpap machine.
Yesterday I signed up for the Y, after a six month absence. I can tell how much better I felt when I used to go there. I will go at 7:00 AM five times a week (two or three times to the warm water pool and the rest of the time to the gym.) I am taking PT right now to strengthen my shoulder and to ease my neck pain caused when I fell down the stairs six weeks ago.
Sheik can be spelled with or without the H.
Old saying, "We eat what we can and we can what we can't."

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Not Far Side, it's Dilbert, Jinx. Sometimes my hand just won't write what my brain is thinking.

Lemony, I've been meaning to get an account on one of the free photo sharing sites. Thanks for the encouragement to get off the dime.

Misty said...

Well, as usual, I was able to start this puzzle in the small northeast corner, which then slowly spread out below and continued. Delightful Friday puzzle, David--many thanks. Nice to see RHETT Butler in the puzzle--and the clue sure made it clear who had to be the speaker. Had E COIN before E CASH but fixed it quickly when I realized we needed a GIANT to figure out those fairy tale noises in each of the theme answers--very clever and fun. I got ITT, but would have liked a reference to cousin ITT and the Morticia family more than a commercial money company clue. But a fun way to start a Friday--thanks again, David, and you too, TTP.

Cold is better but still tired and not in great shape. But at least I was able to do the puzzle--Yay!

Lucina said...

Misty:
I'm sorry to learn you are still ailing and hope you are taking beneficial medication.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-60F and sunny! A spectacular fall day on the prairie.
-Cluing, fill and TTP made for Friday fun and then ferreting out the amazing theme was a hoot too!
-After discipling a student, I talk to him (it’s almost always a him), explain what happened and ask, “Are we good?”
-A teacher’s quality has no effect on what RAISE he/she receives
-UNITS in my science lab – always centimeters. Comparable units outside – always inches
-The CHART hits in my senior H.S. year had lots of Beatles tunes
-Hopefully our nursing home insurance will DEFRAY much of the cost when Joann has to ship me out
-The image FARO brings up to me
-Nice Jeffrey, Oo, Lemon picture. How did that come to pass?

Jayce said...

"What do you do with all those tomatoes?"
"Well, we eat what we can and what we can't we CAN."

Jayce said...

Yellowrocks beat me to it.

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle and thought the gimmick was pretty doggone brilliant. The only thing that confused me about it was that the FUM part was also part of the UMPS answer, whereas the other three answers could stand alone when the FEE, the FI, and the FO were removed.

I really liked how ERIE and HURON crossed.

Not sure I like Half-baked as a clue for ZANY, since to me ZANY connotes "Silly crazy" or "Off the wall funny," as in zany comedy, but okay, it's Friday.

Gotta run. Seeya.

Misty said...

Thank you, Lucina, for your kind concern. Sadly, my doctor on Tuesday said there is really no medication for a viral cold, although I sure feel I could use something. I do have one cold medicine over the counter pill set, but they pretty much knock me out for the day. This may be one of those days.

I forgot to thank C.C. for posting the lovely picture of Lemonade and Oo and Jeffrey Wechsler. So nice when Cornerites can visit.

Yellowrocks said...

PHOTO O(F UM)PS leaves PHOTO OPS.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Another happy Friday pzl, the kind that's really not so hard but fun all the way. Thank you, D.A. Bywaters--and Ta~ DA!

I grew up in San Francisco, a very hilly city, notorious for drivers of cars. I do not recall passing LANEs on the steepest hills.
But like every San Franciscan I sure learned to Curb Your Wheels! when parking.
It's the Law.

Glad you are on the mend, Misty. I trust our hot, dry weather is of some help to you.
Lord knows it should be good for something--besides igniting wild fires.

I thought our residential enclave was relatively safe from fires until I saw the video coverage of the brush fires in Pacific Palisades.
It looked remarkably like our neighborhood with our wonderful, "decorative" shrubbery and trees.
~ OMK
____________
DR:
One diag on the far side.
Today's anagram celebrates the patron deity of light repetitive percussionists. I’m talking about…
SAINT RATATAT”!

Big Easy said...

TTP, THANKS. I didn't know what a meme was and now that I know, it still makes no sense.

Jayce said...

Yellowrocks, thanks for illuminating PHOTO OPS. I failed to see it.

Lucina said...

Misty:
I hope you are drinking hot tea with lemon and perhaps a few drops of spirits such as brandy, rum or whiskey.

TTP said...



oc4beach, I think so. I've always equated step sister and half sister.

Big Easy, perhaps this will help. Or not:

"With the commercialization of the internet in 1995,[6] modern memes gradually became more strongly associated with internet memes. Internet memes are associated with media, catchphrases, and more general trends that spread throughout various outlets on the World Wide Web like chat clients, blogs, social networking sites, email, forums and image boards. They're often used to point out how trends online evolve and change over time, creating various new derivatives."

I think it means when a topic or image goes viral. :>)

Alice said...

FLN
YR, I stand corrected.

Today's puzzle, while hard in places, was fun to solve. I liked the theme, but it took time. FIW initially -- had cirus (don't ask!) for CERRI and PLINY THE ELDER did not completely emerge until TTP's reveal. I knew Erie and Huron immediately since I grew up in the Great Lakes region and know how the lakes drain into the St. Lawrence Seaway and on Into the Atlantic.

TGIF! Have a great weekend everybody.

Lucina said...

Half-sister and step sister are not equal. Half-siblings share one parent and so are related by blood but step-siblings do not; they are related by the marriage of their parents, not by blood.

My youngest sister is our half-sister; our mother is the same but her father is different from ours.

TTP said...


Thank you, Lucina. I had no idea ! I am embarrassed to say that I have used the terms interchangeably through the years. D'OH !

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Long day at the office..my excuse for a DNF. Northeast corner my downfall. Stubbornly stuck to "at sea" for the first clue.

Also didn't recognize the spelling of "sheik." Guess it's more chic spelled "sheikh"

Our paper doesn't print the theme. Not sure would have picked up on it anyway. And let's face it Jack was basically using a genetically modified plant to commit grand larceny.

Next time I'll ask "cirri" for help

Wilbur Charles said...

I managed to grok the FEE,FI,FO,FUM but not the stand-alones.

Yep, I often engage in PLINT THE ELDER talk when I have an unexpected encounter, say, at the airport...

"Did you hear what that ZANY Pliny did the other day? I hear the kids just as bad"
.
. WC

Jayce said...

Sheesh, I have been really scatterbrained today.

Picard said...

Some challenging unknowns like BLUE SKY and FARO but got the theme and FIR. The theme helped.

Last Saturday October 19 Husker Gary included a STAR TREK image for the answer DULCET. It involved the parody song "Every Little Breeze Seems to Whisper Disease". I commented that I remembered this from the Mad Magazine takeoff of the movie MASH.

As promised, I ordered an ancient set of CDs of Mad Magazine from the original issue up to 1998 which was meant to run on an ancient version of Windows. Amazingly, I got it to work with a bunch of tricks.

Sure enough, in the October 1970 issue of Mad Magazine there it was. Just as I remembered.

In the middle frame you can see "Shlepper John" singing "Every Little Breeze Seems to Whisper Disease".

I may not remember what I need at the grocery store today, but my brain was filled with this memory from 49 years ago when I was a child reading Mad Magazine!

OwenKL said...

Eay-o-sunshine and other newbies: Your paper didn't print the name of the theme because there wasn't one. Only the Sunday puzzle has an explicitly stated title. The Monday-Friday puzzle titles are made up by our essayists here and/or the reveal hidden within the puzzle.

I didn't like the inconsistency today. FEE FI FO were at the start of a word, and only FUM crossed between words. Also it should be either FE FI or FEE FIE, which would leave either WING EDING or PLINY THE LDER.

Wilbur Charles said...

Picard, good ol' MAD Magazine. Playboy had some wacky comics too. I remember Jack the Ripper trying to welsh out the "Ladies of the Night.

Well I can't find that cartoon but I did find this (G)ripping Tale

WC

Wilbur Charles said...

Picard, good ol' MAD Magazine. Playboy had some wacky comics too. I remember Jack the Ripper trying to welsh out the "Ladies of the Night.

Well I can't find that cartoon but I did find this (G)ripping Tale

WC

Misty said...

Lucina, I may give your tea suggestion a try tomorrow.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Late, late, late. 1st work went into overtime because [REDACTED] and then DW and I had a date for Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen's show here in Sugar Land. The former was a PITA and the latter cute but, sadly, most of the audience was more into the "Reality" TV of Andy than the Reality TV of Anderson. At least Andy was a baseball fan (STL) and kept the audience abreast of the score. Overall, we had a good time.

The puzzle; DAB got me at 27d. I was thinking SkyFall for some reason and entered ADELE. Couldn't unlock nuttin' until a glance at TTP's grid (poor-man's Red Letters) to assure myself I was correct. D'Oh!

Thanks DAB. TTP, I love me some Fractured Fairy Tails & Dilbert; nice expo!

WO: hen b/f EGG, wrong Hew, ArId b/f ASIA.
ESPs: FARO, UNA.
Fav: I PALINDROME I [TMBG]

{A, B+, A}

Misty - some honey in Maker's Mark is a perfect 'tea.' Get well.

Picard - Finding that MAD M*A*S*H* is yeoman! You went above and beyond.

Pop's second wife gave me two half-Sisters and "a Brother from another Mother."
//I love them just as much as my "natural" brother.

Astros just need three more wins!

Cheers, -T

Wilbur Charles said...

I see this never got pasted from docs

Generous ½ dozen RHETT Butler imitators? With House... Answer on Saturday

Dove gone. SLID

Astros need to win one in DC. I'm parochial in my rooting: first ALEast(Yankees), now AL. Bregman needs to break out.

WC