google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday December 15, 2019 Robin Stears

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Dec 15, 2019

Sunday December 15, 2019 Robin Stears

Theme: *Black Magic"- Both words in each theme entry can follow "Black".

23. *Landmark near Waikiki: DIAMOND HEAD. Black diamond. Blackhead.

29. *Down time on Wall Street?: BEAR MARKET. Black bear. Black market.

47. *It's larger than a littleneck: CHERRY STONE. Black cherry. Blackstone.

50. *Where land and ocean meet: SEA BOARD. Black Sea. Blackboard.

66. *Cowhide accessory: LEATHER BELT. Black leather. Black belt.

81. *Negative-studier's aid: LIGHT BOX. New phrase to me. Black light. Black box.

83. *Kozy Shack dessert: RICE PUDDING. Black rice. Black pudding.

104. *Fancy decoration particles: GOLD POWDER. Black gold. Black powder.

112. *Former Queens home of the US Open: FOREST HILLS. Black Forest. Black Hills.

I don't often see a title with an asterisk mark. This type of theme often has a reveal.

Don and I did this Black Monday puzzle ages ago. It was a hard work then. I'm just so amazed at the number of entries in Robin's theme.

Across:

1. Pulitzer-winning Ferber novel: SO BIG. 1924 novel.


6. PC key not used by itself: CTRL.

10. "Joy to the World," e.g.: CAROL.

15. Costa del __: SOL.

18. Mocedades song covered by Eydie Gormé as "Touch the Wind": ERES TU. It's You.

20. Riskily off base: AWOL.

21. All-inclusive adjective: EVERY.

22. Peak pique: IRE.

25. Carafe size: LITER.

26. Opposite of trans: CIS. Cisgender. Transgender.

27. Comes down with: GETS.

28. Printer supply: TONER.

31. 67.5 deg.: ENE.

32. Junior: SON.

33. '80s soap rebooted in 2017: DYNASTY. Looks intriguing.


35. __ podrida: Spanish dish: OLLA. Pork and beans.


36. "Sweeney Todd" tool: STROP.

38. Mary __: KAY.

40. One-named Deco artist: ERTE.

41. Sick to the max: ILLEST. Odd form.

43. What prospective borrowers compare: RATES.

45. Discipline with poses: YOGA.

46. 2015 Best Actress Larson: BRIE. "Room". I don't remember the film at all.



54. Cascades peak: SHASTA.

55. Bethesda medical agcy.: NIH.

56. Cut: SEVER.

57. Society page word: NEE.

58. Duck named for the long-feathered part of its anatomy: PINTAIL. Helpful clue.


60. Stand-up quality?: POSTURE. That duck has good posture.

63. "Straight Up" singer: ABDUL (Paula)

65. Bad road condition?: RAGE. Minnesotans are generally polite drivers.

69. One often has ticks: LIST.

70. "Consequently ... ": AND SO.

72. Snuggled, in a way: SPOONED.

73. Broad Eurasian region: SIBERIA. Remember this Siberian family?

75. GATT successor: WTO.

76. Plain __: obvious: TO SEE.

78. Gist: NUB.

80. Recall targets: LEMONS.

86. MTV sci-fi show "__ Flux": AEON.

87. Quick run: DASH.

88. Tough tests: ORALS.

89. 1964 Nobel Prize decliner: SARTRE. Here with Simone de Beauvoir.


92. Tenth: Pref.: DECI.

93. Narc's org.: DEA.

94. Best way to leave the casino: AHEAD. Boomer loves nickel poker.

98. "A Death in the Family" writer: AGEE.

99. Land adjoining a mansion: DEMESNE. New word to me.

101. "Miss Saigon" setting: NAM.

103. TiVo predecessor: VCR.

107. Come to pass: OCCUR.

109. Phony (up): HOKE. Is "hoke up" a common phrase? Never heard of it.

110. The "E" in BCE: ERA.

111. Alaskan native: ALEUT.

114. Not of the cloth: LAY.

115. Victoria, to William IV: NIECE.

116. Computer __: USER. Never used a computer until 1995. How about you?
117. Gets to the bottom of: SOLVES. I just wait for D-Otto.

118. Cry of success: YES.

119. Unloaded?: SOBER.

120. Submerged threat: REEF.

121. Art of verse: POESY.

Down:

1. Papyrus plants, e.g.: SEDGES.


2. Get situated: ORIENT.

3. Jalopy: BEATER.

4. Things to believe in: ISMS.

5. '60s song car with "three deuces and a four-speed and a 389": GTO.

6. "Call Me Irresponsible" lyricist: CAHN (Sammy)

7. Outdoorsy, taste-wise: TWEEDY. Another learning moment for me.

8. Detroit Lions' mascot: ROARY. Big Easy and I used this word in our CHIEF JUSTICE puzzle a few years ago.


9. Honorary degree for attys.: LLD.

10. Sugar Plum Fairy's instrument: CELESTA.


11. Fly: AVIATE.

12. Take another shot: RETRY.

13. City on Utah Lake: OREM.

14. Vega's constellation: LYRA.

15. Tool with a curved blade: SICKLE.

16. Protruding windows: ORIELS.

17. "The Vampire Chronicles" vampire: LESTAT. Tom Cruise.


19. Word that may precede itself: UNTO. Unto itself.

24. Shrek's bestie: DONKEY.

29. River transport: BARGE.

30. Loggers' contest: ROLEO.

32. Peloponnesian War victor: SPARTA.

34. Noble gas: NEON.

37. Electra's brother: ORESTES.

39. PGA part: Abbr.: ASSN.

41. "Dies __": IRAE.

42. Early fall baby's sign: LIBRA.

44. Are losing: TRAIL.

45. Talk Like a Pirate Day refrain: YO HO HO.

46. Cuts at an angle: BEVELS.

47. Red wine: CHIANTI.

48. Sad sack: HANGDOG.

49. Walk quietly: TIPTOE.

50. Desertlike: SERE. Fixture in our old Tribune Media days.

51. Hearth item sometimes called a firedog: ANDIRON.

52. Extending the life of: REUSING.

53. Mouth formations: DELTAS.

54. Urban planner's concern: SPRAWL.

56. Pin in a ring, say: SUBDUE. Verb "pin".

59. Textbook section: LESSON.

61. Six-yr.-term pol: SEN.

62. Ditch: TRENCH.

64. Complexion spoiler: BLEMISH.

67. High point: APEX.

68. Actress Swinton: TILDA. She's in "Burn After Reading".


71. Weasel relative: OTTER.

74. Madhouse: BEDLAM.

77. Shawm descendant: OBOE.

79. Fraternal gp.: BPOE.

82. Despised: HATED.

83. Indy entrant: RACER.

84. Egyptian fertility goddess: ISIS. And 87. Harvest goddess: DEMETER.

85. Voyager 2 destination: URANUS.

89. How Yoda spoke: SAGELY.

90. Trading places?: AGORAE. They wouldn't believe how we shop today.

91. Track events: RELAYS.

92. Figure out: DEDUCE.

93. Formal order: DECREE.

95. Advance in the race?: EVOLVE. Human race.

96. "Supernatural" co-star Jensen __: ACKLES. No idea.


97. Beyond "business casual": DRESSY.

99. Dimwitted "We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story" dinosaur: DWEEB.


100. Rope loop: NOOSE.

102. Liberal __: ARTS.

105. Chef's collection: PANS. Have you tried Tuscan chicken before?


106. Potpourri: OLIO.

108. Random House co-founder: CERF.

109. Hawaii County seat: HILO.

112. Pelt: FUR.

113. Kangaroo move: HOP.



41 comments:

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Paper hadn't arrived, so I tried solving online. Ick! Somehow my AND SO changed to AND SS, so the weasel relative became a STOAT, except TO SEE made that STTAT. As I said, Ick! I'll stick with pen and paper. Got it all straightened out, but tweren't pretty. Thanx, Robin and C.C. (If you wait for me to solve it, you're likely to be waiting a l-o-n-g time.)

CIS: Yup, seen it before. Did I remember? No. Will I remember tomorrow. Doubtful. I'll be doing good just to remember "they."

DEMESNE: Yup, seen it before. I think of it as a misspelled "domain."

DRESSY: Chez d-o that means a new pair of Levi 505s.

Lemonade714 said...

Thank you C.C. and Robin. I found this more work than most Sundays with gaps in my memory making to solving slow. The theme was fun and well thought out and I would not have finished without it.
DEMESNE is a word I know only from real estate law; ROARY like the days of winning football in Detroit, left me completely; PINTAIL , CIS and on were all struggles.
I have not been recalled yet but thank you for the CSO, ROBIN.

OwenKL said...

FLN -- d-o: Thank you for the song lyric! Haven't thought of that one in years, and remembered just enough to recognize it!
Actually, I remembered too much. There were lyrics missing, even when I looked up more complete lyrics on Google. At last, at 5 o'clock this morning it hit me! I'd been conflating it with

Come on along, come on along, let me take you by the hand
Up to the man, up to the man who's the leader of the band
And if you care to hear the Swanee River played in ragtime
Come on and hear, come on and hear Alexander's Ragtime Band!

Now I want to hear a medley of those two together with 76 Trombones!

FIW. Got all the letters right, but transposes POESY to POseY. Didn't notice EVOLVs misspelling, and the unknown name seemed just as bizarre either way.

The theme escaped me today. I finally remembered the Sunday puzzle has a revel/title. Aha. Black DIAMOND, some sort of gemstone (only later did I remember it's a dangerous ski slope). Black LEATHER? it's not really a phrase. (later I remembered Mrs. Peel/Diana Riggs, and "black leather" had meaning!) Black rice? Never heard of that, still don't know what it's referring to. I thought the second word might go with Magic. A few did -- fantasy stories have magic stones, board (Ouiji), belts, boxes, powder. But the rest didn't. And I just didn't register black with the first few second words. Black Stone and black pudding still don't.

Had to Google to find out cherrystone is not a fruit pit, but it and littleneck are sizes of quahog clams.

Have to do poems for 2 Jumbles on Sunday, so l'icks here might be late, if I ever get to them at all.

BobB said...

Slow going at 59 minutes. Had demesne from the perps but had to Google it to see if it was a word.

Carlos said...

I hope you y'all don't mind if I add some tuneagement to this puzzle's discussion.

I was thinking that the old crossword standby, AC/DC, would be apropos but it's not in this crowd's milieu, so I went with the obvious.

Day Ravies said...

Give the people what they want?

Paint It BLACK

Eddie Vedder said...

Is it 3 for Thursday? No? Oh well, here's another...

BLACK

desper-otto said...

Here's the one I remember.

TTP said...

Good morning. Thank you, Robin. Thank you, C.C.

I'll take the one bad cell and move on. DE?ETER and DE?ESNE.

Otherwise, pretty smooth solve.

First started using computers about June or July of 1976. That was in the Army. I ran an NCR system that was housed in a tractor trailer. Midnight to 8 AM for about a year. There were actually four trailers backed up to each other at right angles, forming what looked like a plus sign from the air. Designed to be quickly mobile, but it never moved.

Anonymous said...

Overall a nice puzzle, but there were a few places where I wasn't familiar with either entry and didn't know what to put for that last letter:

xEMESNE/xWEEB (I wish DWEEB had been clued as a synonym for geek rather than an unguessable proper name)

RxLEO/xLLA (knew it was a vowel but didn't know which one)

NUx/xPOE (thought "gist" could be NUB or NUT, and xPOE was an abbreviation so could be anything)

I hadn't heard of gold powder or black powder before, but POWDER was easily guessable from the crosses and clues, and I was impressed that there were 9 theme answers (and 18 "black" phrases).

Concerned Citizen said...

What happened to Fermatprime?

Lucina said...

Hola!

Thank you, Robin Stears for the "Black Magic" though I didn't parse all of them.

Over all this was somewhat easy but a few places had me baffled: ACKLES, LIGHTBOX, DEMESNE, TWEEDY until DYNASTY emerged. Also, I left a blank where I forgot to return and finish SEVER/SUBDUE.

HOKE is another term I've never heard and I recalled LESTAT from a few days ago. Last night in a re-run of Jeopardy, ORESTES was mentioned in an "O" category.

I did not see the movie ROOM, but read the book with our Book Club. It's very sad about the abduction and imprisonment of a woman. I won't provide other details in case someone wants to read it. It is well written and riveting.

BLACK RICE? That's unfamiliar.

I thought the clue for RAGE was apt.

I'll take a CSO at YOGA though it's been a while since I practiced.

AGORAE and C.C.'s remark about how we shop recalled an experience from yesterday; I had to exchange the gift I bought for the Secret Santa from church and I don't recall ever seeing so many people walking around. Usually the sidewalks are empty and I can't even mention the traffic. Luckily I know my way around well enough to find a shortcut.

Thank you, C.C. for your always impressive write-up and especially impressive news that you have used computers only since the 90s.

Have an awesome day, everyone!

jfromvt said...

I grinded through this one. A few too many people and places answers for my liking. The theme was pretty obvious so that helped with the fills. Wasn’t one of the more enjoyable Sunday puzzles, but others may like it more than I did.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I was remiss in checking the title until I was almost finished, so the solve was harder than it should have been. I must admit that I missed the double Black word phrases until CC explained, and I was surprised there was no reveal, until I fully understood the theme.The Sunday plethora of proper names strikes once again: Eres Tu, Abdul, Demesne, Celesta, Orestes, Demeter, Ackles, and Aeon, as clued. Illest is a real nose wrinkler and Hoke isn't much better, IMO, although It is a word, just one I've never seen or heard before. CSO to Lemony (Lemons) and to CC at Olio, one of her favorite words.

Thanks, Robin, for a Sunday challenge and thanks, CC, for filling in the blanks on what went over my head. I'm with you on computer use; I think I was first introduced to a PC around 1995-96 by a neigbor and then we bought one in 1997. We were so clueless that we had to hire someone to teach us the basics. That Chicken Tuscan looks very appetizing; how was it prepared?

Have a great day.

Anonymous said...

Garbage puzzle. Got the theme right away but way too many unknowns to fill in the grid. Stop using so many abbreviations and proper names if you aren't going to cross with more visible answers to aid in solving. Not well thought out or constructed at all.

Lucina said...

I thought this puzzle was well constructed and found enough obvious answers to help fill in the unknowns. Some puzzles require a lot of good, judicious guessing and this is one of them.

I liked seeing HANGDOG though it took me too long TO SEE it. Bennet CERF was a prolific author of short stories, books and articles. I have to admit that AEON and LIGHTBOX were hard but I sussed them.

TILDA Swinton is memorable to me for her unusual name.

DITTO that this was difficult in some areas but ultimately gettable.

Misty said...

Well, I started with CAROL and SOL on top, but then got very little until the bottom, which, thankfully, filled in for me without any problem, and helped me work my way back up. Nice to see SARTRE in the puzzle--thanks for that, Robin--and thank you for posting that neat picture, C.C. ERTE helped me get NEON which helped me get YOGA, and then YO HO HO (for a bottle of rum?) which cracked me up. But there were also lots of unknowns--for example, never heard of CISgender. Anyway, Sunday morning fun--many thanks again, Robin and C.C.

Have a good day, everybody. Am thinking of watching "The Sound of Music" on TV tonight.

Wilbur Charles said...

First, I get two xwords in my TBTimes. I got ½ way through the (Evan) Birnholz when I switched to latimes.

I thought this would be easier but it was very difficult. I hokeyed* all over and got some footholds in the middle and south and moved slowly north. I thought Wall Street would have the BLACK BOARD and I was stumped.

Then I realized that Robin had already used BOARD. BEARMARKET-duh. So I almost got it all. The OMK rule coulda saved me because I had OBIE/OBOE and AEON made much more "sense". And.. I thought BRIE was Brit.

I think IM, D-O etal are more experienced with battening down the hatches. Ironically, I feel better about this near miss than yesterday because I had so much white.

I finally realized that Shrek's "buddy" was an ASS** ; The duck's tail had a PIN not a fan; SIBERIA not steppes and others.

I guessed right on HOKE and ACKLES.
Yes, Naticks abounded but I grok'ed nearly all
CHERRY STONES are a gimme for this ex- Bostonian. I recalled that Sweeney was a barber,too.

WC

*New crosswordese for meandering about the white spaces looking for "hokey" fill
** Robin's word (or was it Evan's?) for DONKEY

Wilbur Charles said...

PS, I've been xword-ing sine 8 am

Wilbur Charles said...

Misty, SoM, right up your alley

Jinx in Norfolk said...

DNF, looking up DEMETER, LESTAT and ACKLES. Didn't really enjoy this one - too many obscure names, obscure terms, and obscure theme answers.

Maybe we should have two terms that apply to a person's sexuality. For "gender", go wild with as many preferences or assignments that are needed for people to feel good about themselves. Then for "sex", come up with terms that describe how you came equipped from the factory, maybe "plug" and "socket". Or vice versa. I think it is important for society to recognize that personal sexualities don't fit neatly into two categories, but I think we are making a huge mistake if we refuse to acknowledge that there are biological differences between XY and XX individuals. Among other things, ignoring this fact will result in nearly all records in women's sports being held by trans females.

Oh well, on to Monday.

Yellowrocks said...

This took longer than Saturday's puzzle . I would have FIR, but I accidentally hit the button for the CC shortcut when I was checking my email and saw BEAR MARKET. Drat! I had most of the letters before I saw the answer, so I will take a DNF. I missed the theme until CC explained it.
Busy, busy day. Gotta run.

Picard said...

I was impressed with the challenge of constructing such a theme where both words in the theme answers had to fit. But it was spoiled a bit for me with way too many obscure crosses. Managed to WAG DWEEB/DEMESNE, OLLA/LESTAT, CELESTA, ABDUL/ANDIRON.

But AC?LES/HO?E gave me a FIW.
CC no one I know has ever used the word HOKE and I never heard of "Supernatural" or ACKLES. Thanks as always for your writeup and dedication.

Since we have seen NIH twice recently I made an effort to find these photos of me visiting NIH back in 1996.

Judy is the sister of one of my best friends growing up in the DC area. I did not know her well in high school as she was two years younger. But she went on to attend MIT and she became good friends there with my MIT girlfriend. They both went on to medical school. And Judy went on to work at NIH, though she now lives in Chicago. I just wrote to her two days ago.

You will notice that Judy is a "Little Person". Family "friends" told the parents that this was punishment for the fact that one parent was Christian and the other was Jewish. They said that Judy would be disabled and would be a burden for life. Nice. Of course, Judy went on to be the most successful member of the entire family.

From Last Thursday:
Thank you for all the kind words about my BANANA SLUG photos!
CanadianEh I hope they don't start leading hikes or we would be very late coming home! I very much look forward to receiving your email when you have a chance!

Wilbur Charles I can't believe I totally forgot to comment that day on the brilliant and charming UHURA from Star Trek. Creator Gene Roddenberry had to fight hard to get her that position. NBC officials could accept alien beings on the bridge. But a black person? And a female?

Whoopi Goldberg said UHURA gave her inspiration to succeed in life. The very idea that black people would be around in the future energized her! Whoopi Goldberg offered to perform on the show for free! Roddenberry was happy to pay her!

Anonymous said...



Uhura was played by Whoopi Goldberg ?

Wilbur Charles said...

Nyota Uhura is a fictional character in the Star Trek franchise. The character was portrayed by Nichelle Nichols through the sixth Star Trek film. Since 2009, a younger Uhura has been portrayed by actress Zoe Saldana. Wikipedia"

Irish Miss said...

Concerned Citizen @ 7:56 ~ I don't think anyone knows the answer to your question. Maybe Ferm will drop by soon.

Lucina @ 8:02 ~ I didn't read the book, "Room", but I saw the movie. I thought it was intense and suspenseful with excellent performances by both main actors. I believe Brie Larson won an Oscar for her role as the mother.

Picard @ 1:38 ~ Your reference to MIT reminded me that I forgot to mention the other day that a niece of mine is employed there as Director of Development, Physics and Mathmatics.

Jayce said...

Started off wrong, putting in GIANT as the Edna Ferber novel. Made several other wrong entries that later had to be changed, eg. MT HOOD instead of SHASTA, ADELE instead of ABDUL, AS DAY instead of TO SEE, MINE instead of REEF, and ASYLUM instead of BEDLAM. P&P eventually paid off. I especially loved the clues for LIST (which took me a while to "get"), POSTURE, SOBER, EVOLVE, and AHEAD. It wasn't until reading C.C.'s explanation that I figured out it wasn't UNDO UNDO. All good stuff.

I did not know TILDA Swinton nor Jensen ACKLES, although I have heard of the surnames Eckles which is sometimes spelled Eccles. One of my aunts is Elizabeth Eccles.

Nope, never heard the phrase HOKE up. I have only ever heard the adjective "hokey."

I just got a nice OTTERbox case for my iPhone. Incredible, isn't it, that something as small as an iPhone has thousands of times more computational power than that original IBM PC and Commodore PET I used back in the early 80's.

Happy Sunday to you all.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Picard I hope Judy's parents had the guts to cut off those so-called friends cold. That is just pure evil, IMO, and associating with them could only hurt her parents. It might just be ignorance to think such a thing, but expressing it to her parents takes it to another level (or as the kids say, to a whole nother level).

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Engrossing puzzle, Robin! Great expo, C.C.!

Title? There was a title? Theme was BLACK? Whoa, nellie, missed that! Well, CIS boom bah! and do the HOKEy pokey -- the only relatable words for those two entries.

Persisted & filled it despite many unknowns. Thank you red-letters. I don't have the patience to work without them.

I was doing free-lance writing on a 1940's vintage typewriter in the early 1980's. The newspaper that printed my stuff computerized the ad department. I went in and worked ads for no wage to learn the computer, then purchased my own about 1984. Then I could carry my stories into the paper on a floppy disc for printing. When I went in full-time, they still had typewriters in the editorial department, so I still composed main stories at home at night until they bought computers for us. So much easier to rewrite and be concise.

Snowing here for the past 12 hours. With all this white, no wonder I didn't get the BLACK theme.

WikWak said...

Whoo. This’n tired me out! (Must be nap time, eh?)

As others mentioned, it was hard to get a foothold at the top, especially in the northeast, so I went down South where I had more success. I didn’t look at the title, so the theme eluded me completely. Persistence and a several hour break finally paid off and the North came together (mostly). Hand up for not getting UNDO itself; I too thought “undue undue?” I did finally have to resort to red letter help for the last few spots. Tough puzzle! Tough, but fair.

I haven’t used the phrase “HOKE up” but I (and others I know) often call something hokey. Maybe it’s a regional thing.

There were some names I didn’t know (TILDA, ACKLES) but the perps took care of them—finally.

Hope your week will be happy and productive.

CrossEyedDave said...

Too hard for me,
I lost count of how many clues had more than one answer.
I.e.: 67d high point was not acme, but apex...

Sedge trivia;
You know that clump of grass that grows three times faster than the grass around it?
If the stem is triangular, it is most likely nut sedge.
The reason we do not eat grass seed is that it is prone
To a fungus called Ergot.
Sedge however does not carry this fungus, & it's seeds/nuts can be made into a flour.


a recipe for blueberry crumble can be found at the bottom of this bushcraft website.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-The hardest Sunday puzzle I can remember. I loved it! I tried to do it in MIL’s skilled care room where it was 80˚F and very dimly lit but still…
-Now I have to tune up my NASA presentation for tomorrow.

Robin Stears said...

Hi, everyone! Thanks for your great comments.

DEMESNE is a word I learned from Piers Anthony's "Apprentice Adept" series; it's wonderful and weird.

Black rice was an ingredient on a "Top Chef" challenge. I haven't actually tried it myself, but it made quite an impact with the judges. I bet it would be very cool around Halloween.

I learned ERES TU in high school Spanish class, where I also learned "¿Dónde están las flores?" ("Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"). My Spanish teacher was very progressive for the '70s.

Happy holidays!

Robin

OwenKL said...


I love the sound of a celesta. I think it sounds similar to a glass harmonica, singing bowl, or harp, so thought it was similar to one of those. Surprised to see today that it's a keyboard instrument.

I started on a computer at a high-school summer camp at Oregon State. That would be around '65. Big room sized thing had 4K bytes, IIRC. We taught it to play tic-tac-toe and checkers.

demesne (plural demesnes)
(dəˈmān/ dɪˈmeɪn/ di-MAYN)
1. A lord’s chief manor place, with that part of the lands belonging thereto which has not been granted out in tenancy; a house, and the land adjoining, kept for the proprietor’s own use.
2. A region or area; a domain.

De place was my DEMESNES,
I hasten to explain:
De house and land
Dat was at hand
Was my domain, in de main!

Abejo said...

Good evening, folks. Thank you, Robin Stears, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for a fine review.

Got off to a bad start with the theme. I read *BLACK MAGIC. In a short time I had BEAR MARKET. I figured that was it. All the theme answers started with B. M. I went through the entire puzzle plugging a B for the first word of all *Clues. After all that I realized that I was barking up the wrong tree. So, I erased them all. Then I got DIAMOND HEAD. OK for that gut shot.

Got through most of the puzzle OK. Had a few tough ones. DEMESNE was a new word for me. Finally had enough perps to wing it. Then had DEMETER crossing.

CELESTA was tough as well.

GTO was the easiest answer in the puzzle.

ACKLES was unknown. Perps. Did not know CERF. Perps.

Took me about an hour and a half. That is good for me.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Big Easy said...

A DNF due to the cross of two unknowns- DEMESNE & DEMETER- never heard of either and a ABC run wouldn't solve it. No letter made sense. TTP & BobB- I won't use Google to look up for fills. Other unknowns were easy to figure out, though I'd never heard of either 'littleneck' or CHERRY STONE; ditto for 'Kozy Shack'. CIS (boom bah?), STROP, BRIE, AEON Flux, SARTRE, TILDA Swinton, Jensen ACKLES, TWEEDY, DWEEB- all perps. Black Rice & Black box are two terms new to me.

HOKE, an easy fill but I've never heard of 'hoke up'. Same as Lucina.

ROARY- C.C. is giving me credit for that fill but until we did the puzzle, I was unfamiliar with the Lions' Mascot.

Anon-T, FLN, when I went to F.P. (66-68), Capt. Shreve and Northwood opened in the fall of 1967 and the students who started at Byrd or F.P. had the option to finish at Byrd or F.P.

Jinx- you are correct.

Jayce said...

Wait a minute. Wouldn’t 67.5 degrees be NNE?

Michael said...

Dear Jayce:

No, NE is 45º, so 67.5º is ENE and 90º is east (or 3 o'clock if you're a pilot)

Bill G said...

Jayce, I wasn't too sure about that either but I think the standard approach is to start at due north as zero degrees.

Bill G said...

Speaking of typewriters, I have two nice ones; a Royal portable and an LC Smith full size (dunno what they're supposed to be called). My father was a civil servant working for the Navy Department as an Internal Auditor. He got me a summer government job as a clerk typist. I really enjoyed the experience. I got up to 40/50 or so WPM. I had an aunt who was well over 100 WPM.

I've seen, on TV, a little fun experiment where a young person tried to manage a typewriter. She couldn't do it. They couldn't figure out how to make a call on a rotary phone either.

Bobbi said...

Tree decorating party yesterday - everyone brings an unusual ornament and tells about it's history/ purpose. Most are hand made. Finally got to Sunday LAT at noon today. Fun challenge! I caught on the the "BLACK" theme quickly but was amazed it worked on BOTH words! Kudos to Robin for a really clever puzzle! Now, back to finishing Christmas Cards (I know, I know! Late as usual ...but I make my own cards and write my own poem. Been doing it for 40 years!).