google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday February 24, 2020 Matt McKinley

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Feb 24, 2020

Monday February 24, 2020 Matt McKinley

Theme: SKIP INTRO (65. Command to bypass a recap of prior episodes ... and what the puzzle circles do) - Each theme entry contains a split- up INTRO.

17. Keyboard chamber work: PIANO TRIO.

24. Shih Tzu or Chihuahua: MINIATURE DOG.

40. Authorize someone to represent you at the shareholder meeting: DESIGNATE A PROXY.

52. Personal unrest: INNER TURMOIL.

Boomer here.  

Here's my intro - My bowling started last Monday with a 254 game. After that?  The same old, same old.  I was watching the PGA Mexico tournament and I have come to realize that I am not far off from the pros.  They hit their drives around 320 yards, my drives travel about 320 feet.  NBC - do you really have to show 6 commercials every 2 minutes ??

Across:

1. On a peg, as a golf ball: TEED.  Yup. FORE!! 320 feet.

5. Panda Express kitchen items: WOKS. We do not have a traditional WOK at home.  C.C. does just fine with a frying pan.

9. Aerospace giant __ & Whitney: PRATT.


14. Pre-deal payment: ANTE.  Craps does not require an ANTE.  Just put some $$ on the pass line and see what happens.

15. Rapper/actor with a cool name?: ICET.  Law & Order SVU guy with a funny name.


16. Talk show host in the National Women's Hall of Fame: OPRAH.  On her way up, she used to show up on the Johnny Carson show now and then.

19. Pending state: LIMBO.  In the late 50s and early 60s, this was a funny dance walking backwards under a stick.

20. Go off-script: AD LIB.  This would be more accepted if it was liberation from ads.

21. Indian royal: RAJA.

23. Very long time: EON.  The time it takes me to work a crossword can be measured in EONS.

28. Wet just a bit: MOISTEN.  No longer necessary on postage stamps.

31. Airer of old films: TCM.  Turner Classic Movies.  I wonder if the Braves have them on in their clubhouse.

32. Kindle download: APP.

33. Norse royal name: OLAV.  Sometimes known as Olaf.

36. Was shown on TV: AIRED.  When winter is over, we may open a window or two for some fresh air.

44. Tea biscuit: SCONE.  Does Baskin -Robbins sell S CONES?

45. Sank, with "down": WENT. "Down down in the sea, far from the lights of town."

46. Fellows: MEN.

47. Pontiac muscle car: GTO. "Three deuces and a four speed, and a 289"  (Beach Boys)

49. Financed like many fleet cars: ON LEASE.  I do not like car leases.  When the term is up, you have to return it to the dealer, then how are you going to get home.  Plus you have no equity to trade.

57. __ Paulo: SAO.

58. Bruins star Phil, to fans: ESPO.  I don't watch much Hockey but I heard that Alex Ovechkin Knocked number 700 in the nets this weekend.  Phil had 717 goals in his career.


59. Eye surgery acronym: LASIK.

63. Singer Ronstadt: LINDA.

68. Make sure not to see: AVOID.  I try to AVOID leaving ten pins.

69. "Electric" fish: EELS.  Drop one "E" and you have an electric golfer.

70. Product preview: DEMO.

71. Like a bad breakup: MESSY.  Like my spare shooting some nights.

72. Deuce topper: TREY.  I thought it was called a three.

73. Smoochy love letter letters: SWAK.  "I'll send you all my love ... every day in a letter, Sealed with a Kiss."  (Bryan Hyland - 1962)

Down:

1. Cantina snack: TAPA.  They may have been in the concession stands at the Mexican Golf Tournament last weekend.

2. Oklahoma city: ENID.  The ninth largest city in Oklahoma which makes it smaller than Brooklyn Park, MN.

3. And others: Abbr.: ET AL.  High School Latin, it means whatever I left out.

4. Jeans: DENIMS.  I have not worn Jeans for 50 years.  If it were up to me, Levi's would be out of business.

5. Quipster: WIT.

6. Text digitization meth.: OCR.  What I had in my baseball card store.  An Old Cash Register.

7. Knightley of "Love, Actually": KEIRA.


8. Brown ermine: STOAT.

9. Frigid zone ice formation: POLAR CAP.  This is what I call our driveway in February.

10. N.Y. tech school: RPI.  Apologies to you grads.  I thought this stands for Runs Per Inning.  Spring training has begun.

11. Carrying a weapon: ARMED.  I have two golf weapons, attached to my shoulders.

12. It's forbidden: TABOO.  I have to be careful with some of my bowling and golf words.

13. Skimpy swimsuit: THONG.

18. Column that aptly includes the letters BIO: OBIT.

22. Stick (out): JUT.

25. Sign gas: NEON.  No doubt we viewed lots of NEON in Las Vegas.

26. Relative via marriage: IN-LAW.  Certainly is.  But how come criminals are called Outlaws.

27. Mideast bigwig: EMIR.

28. Magazines with Alfred E. Neuman: MADS.  I'll bet I bought 50 or 60 editions back in the 50s and 60s.  Not anymore, are they still Around?  I still remember an edition in the early 60s featuring Richard Nixon and sung to the tune of "Tit Willow".  "In a house by the ocean Dick Nixon sang out, singing TV, damn TV, damn TV.  And I said to him Dickie boy why do you shout, singing TV, Damn TV, Damn TV.  Is it westerns you hate so immensely I cried?  Do those private eye shows hurt you deep down inside? None of those its those lousy debates he replied,  Damn TV, Damn TV, Damn TV.
 
29. Intl. oil group: OPEC.

30. __ facto: IPSO.

34. Had lunch: ATE.  Two and two are four, Four and four are ??

35. Snake's poison: VENOM.

37. Capital of Italia: ROMA.  My sister visits Rome frequently. We still call it Italy and Rome.  I wonder what Italians call Minneapolis ??

38. They aren't together anymore: EXES.  Between Ws and Ys.

39. Unit of force: DYNE.

41. "Picnic" dramatist: INGE. William.



42. Prepare (for): GET READY.  Get set, GO.

43. __ extra cost: AT NO.  We already charge too much so you can have this at NO EXTRA COST !!

48. Tense NBA periods: OTS.  We had this last week, Timberwolves are still 30 points behind at the buzzer.

50. Taylor of "Mystic Pizza": LILI.

51. Largest living antelopes: ELANDS.


52. Muslim religion: ISLAM.

53. Hardly worldly: NAIVE. My sister always called me this. Then one day I looked it up in the dictionary and hit here.

54. They're forbidden: NO NOS.  After that, calling me NAIVE was a NONO.

55. Unexpected win: UPSET. See Timberwolves (above).  They made a few trades and now they win once or twice a month.

56. "Today" weather anchor: ROKER.  Remember him on the subway in Seinfeld ??


60. Crock-Pot dinner: STEW.  Yup, we have a Crock-Pot, and I make beef stew.  C.C. does not like beef, but now and then she will try a carrot.

61. Hogwarts librarian __ Pince: IRMA.


62. Screwball: KOOK.  KOOKIE, KOOKIE, lend me your comb.

64. Prefix with card or count: DIS.  or ney World.

66. Land in l'eau: ILE.

67. Future therapist's maj.: PSY.

Boomer



33 comments:

Hungry Mother said...

I saw the INTRO theme right away and filled them all in. MAD magazine and Playboy were favorites of mine in the teen years. A couple of years ago, I saw an ad for MAD and re-subscribed. The humor is the same. Nice start to the week.

Lemonade714 said...

Boomer, beginning my Mondays with your mind wandering across a puzzle has become addictive. Thank you. I am not a fan of puzzles where the theme is only gettable with circles, but the fill was fun. Many memories from my childhood especially PRATT and WHITNEY which had its factory 40 miles west of my home. They would bring busloads of people from Putnam and Danielson every morning starting at 5:30 AM.

The was MAD MAGAZINE , SWAK , GTO, and the thought provokin THONG

Thank you matt and Boomer

BobB said...

I worked for the telephone company as a PBX repairman. Two of my stops were P&W plants in Southington and Middletown Connecticut. P&W is now United Technologies.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Missed lots of answers in this one -- got 'em right, just didn't notice 'em. Same goes for the circles. Thanx, Matt and Boomer. (Congrats on the 254.)

Sorry to hear your tale of woe, PK. Condolences on the loss of your brother.

WOK: They don't work well, unless you've got a gas stove. The bottom surface is small and doesn't heat well on an electric burner.

RPI: CSO to Irish Miss, who is conspicuous in her absence.

ELAND: There was a family named Eland in our small town when I was growing up. There was also a town named Eland in the adjacent county -- big place, pop. 202 in 2010. Probably less than that today.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but had to fix aNGE, who I only know from CWs. Waited for TCM, olaf / OLAV, and rana / RAJA.

I thought of Mad as training humorous material until one was "mature" enough to appreciate National Lampoon's humorous material.

I don't often read the OBITs, but I don't remember seeing the letters "BIO" in any of the ones I have read.

At one time my DW had offices in SAO Paulo, Coral Gables(FL) and Irving (TX).

Thanks to Matt for the fun, easy puzzle. My favorite was the cluing for AT NO; it would be a periodic table reference on Thursday. My least favorite was IRMA because I find Potter cluing to be trite beyond excusability. And thanks to Boomer for the usual hilarity. The Braves haven't improved with the departure of Ted Turner and Bobby Cox.

desper-otto said...

Jinx, the letters B-I-O appear in the word OBIT.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Easy solve today. Thought the theme fill made it too easy by allowing pre-fill. Liked the long acrosses. Reasonable modicum of fresh fill. Liked the CSO at RPI. Youngest's alma mater, too. Thought of IM, too. She lives virtually in the shadow of it. Hope she is coping and getting better.

Have a great day.

billocohoes said...

TAco before TAPA. Took a while for crosses to change LASer to LASIK

Boomer, GTO had a Three eighty-nine, 289 was a small-block Ford V-8

inanehiker said...

I enjoyed the clever theme - once I realized that they weren't scrambled it made a fast Monday solve even faster! Like billocohoes I had TACO before TAPA , I also had SABLE before STOAT but corrected by perps!

Thanks Boomer for your always fun blog and Matt for the puzzle!

Jinx in Norfolk said...

DO - DOH! Thanks.

CanadianEh! said...

Marvellous Monday. Thanks for the fun, Matt and Boomer.
This was a quick straight- forward solve. No inkblots - I waited for perps to fill in the gaps in my knowledge, like IRMA, LILI, OCR, ROKER. But I have learned TCM here. VENOM solved the OLAF/OLAV dilemma.
ACH, I see that I actually FIWed. I had Rani for my Indian Royal and corrected the I to A when POLAR perped, but I left the N. I did question how Nut matched "Stick out". JUT makes better sense.

I Smiled to see TABOO and NONOS . . . and ICET to go with the POLAR CAP.
(IM always points these out too. Spitz, did I miss her saying she was ill?)
We get a SCONE to go with our spot o' tea from the other day (never with ICE T,)

Wishing you all a great day.



Husker Gary said...

Musings
-SKIP INTRO is very familiar to Netflix binge watchers like me
-We just ordered a table from Amish Furniture of Nebraska in Omaha and delivery will be in LIMBO for 60 – 75 days
-TCM movies are like a time machine for MIL
-Monday gives us a much less obscure LINDA fill but LILI and IRMA made up for it
-A fascinating, scary capture of a huge electric EEL (4:30)
-College basketball teams can get into the NCAA tournament with a good RPI (Ratings Percentage Index). Is your school on this current list?
-NAÏVE people mistake Free for AT NO Extra Cost
-I’ve never found DISney and DIScount in the same sentence
-What a fun read, Boomer! You mean C.C. has never eaten a burger?

CanadianEh! said...

If you haven't already heard the media hype about the Zamboni driver goalie who made his first NHL win on Saturday night, look at this link. Great story, but an embarrassing loss for the Maple Leafs.
EmergencyBackupGoalieStealsShow

Lucina said...

Hola!

Thank you, Matt and Boomer!

INTRO became obvious very quickly and I pre-filled them.

PRATT is unknown to me as is OCR. Otherwise it was smooth and easy fill.

I have a nice large WOK but use it only for a crowd.

If memory serves me, LILI Taylor was Fran's mother in The Nanny.

Like C-eh! VENOM determined OLAV instead of OLAF.

I also had NUT, not JUT with RANA so FIW and down below LASER before LASIC.

I must be severely out of practice because I did not finish yesterday's puzzle. It is frustrating to see so many obscure names and I hate to just look them up. Most of it is complete except for a few cells in the NW corner.

I must have missed the news about PK's brother so I'll go back to read that.

Have a happy day, everyone! Every day is a gift.

Lucina said...

Belated birthday greetings, Old Man Keith! I hope you had a wonderful celebration!

PK:
Please accept my condolences on the passing of your brother about which I just learned. It is really hard to lose one's siblings. So far I have lost two brothers and it hurts just to think about them. I'm sure it must be the same for you.

Misty said...

Delightful Monday puzzle, Matt--many thanks! I got the INTRO theme early on, and have to admit that I really like circles in puzzles (apologies to those who don't). They really helped me with the longer answers, and, of course, the solution at the bottom. I was happy to get the names OPRAH, INGE (I remember loving "Picnic"), LINDA, and also got
ICE T, even though I'm not into rap. Didn't know the Hogwarts lady, but across words filled in IRMA. Anyway, lots of fun, thanks again, Matt--and I always enjoy your Monday commentary, Boomer.

So sorry to hear of the loss of your brother, PK. I lost my sister when she was only 31 and still miss her, so I know how difficult this is.

Have a great week coming up, everybody.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Not an easy Monday but "what, me worry?"..not UPSET ,FIR finally.. many spaces left in LIMBO some filled out wrong with MESSY corrections so a lot of INNER TURMOIL. Old standbys like RAJA, EMIR

When will I ever resolve the OLAV/F debate? Needed perps like CAN EH as usual.

I always SKIP INTRO when binging streaming NETFLIX content.

ELAND: digital property

Naples from Napoli from Neopolis (new city) therefore assume the "water city" Minneapolis would maintain its Dakota root and in italia be known as "Minneapoli." There's a hamlet in our Adirondack park Herkimer county. Minnehaha, NY (laughing water)

With frigid weather our shih tzu more reluctant than ever to "go" outside. Why? When there's a perfectly fine new area rug in the living room?

Nice 40ish sunny day.

CrossEyedDave said...

The incomprehensible SWAK crossing a fictional character
gave me pause, are Mondays getting harder?

Skip intro?

Still learning how to use it though...

When I was 12, Mad Magazine was required reading.
Followed by National Lampoon...
Then I graduated to the 6 O'clock news...

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Thanks Matt for the Monday puzzle that I found a bit crunchy [In my defense, physical labor proceeded coffee - story to follow...]. SE was the crunchiest - IRMA, cOOK, and EIANDS xing SWAK(?). Oh, thanks Boomer (fun post-puzzle Corner kick-off, as always - thanks for all you (and C.C.) do).

WO: TAco @1d was AD LIB'd
ESPs: KEIRA, ILE (as clued), SWAK, Stick it out was gUT it out for a bit.
Fav: SCONEs - made me think of the ones Eldest bakes. Her Raspberry White Chocolate ones are incredible. (oh, and the lemon too!)

FLN - {B+, A}
FLN - I emailed IM. She's healthy(ish) but dealing w/ personal issues ala PK. Lets all just bow our heads and send God Speed to both ladies; this has to be a rough row to hoe for both them. #HeartsAche.

//Story
It rained hard this morning. DW called as she was leaving for work to say the water's rising / get Youngest's car off the street and in the driveway.
As Youngest & I were set to leave for the Dr. in 10 min, I thought "no worries."

While buttoning my shirt I said to Youngest (idle on the couch) "grab the paper so we can go [and I have a puzzle to play!]."
"Dad - My car!"
Oh, sh**. Water was rising. I advised her NOT to start the car, redressed into DENIMS, and got to removing leaves from the storm drain (not as easy as it sounds - 30 minutes of fighting [sure, it's not an Electric EEL (cool HG!), but] both my grate & the one across the street while getting soaked to my skivvies).
Car was saved but we were still marooned on the block because the open end of the cul-de-sac's intersection was completely flooded.

It's all over now (and Dr. rescheduled for 2:30) but...
My solving skills suffered for it. That's my story I'm sticking too :-)

Cheers, -T

CrossEyedDave said...

Just reread Irish Miss' last posts from February 11th & 12th,

Thinking of you,

Hoping this might brighten your day...

AnonymousPVX said...


A wee bit o crunch for this Monday grid..

Write-overs....RANI/RAJA, SKIPAHEAD/SKIPINTRO.

See you tomorrow.

AnonymousPVX said...


PK...sorry to hear of your loss.

Also....I had a nasal “bleeder” a couple years ago. Heck, I’d wash my face in the shower and it would start. Finally went in, they cauterized it. It’s been fine since.

I grew up in CT, P&W had a huge plant in North Haven. Not now.

Anonymous T said...

CED -
Last night at DW's Birthday dinner (a week late; but DW's averse to fuss re: the Big 5-0 #Denial #NotACairoRiver), MIL & I were discussing our Saturday win and how Mondays are getting harder and >3 grey-cells are required.
SIL is just starting the (maddening) journey of solving and I feel bad for her not having brain-dead Mondays to solve.

-T

Spitzboov said...

CanadianEh! @ 0852 - - re: IM's condition. This was posted on the blog about a month ago.: "Agnes also developed some eye issues. Constantly tearing. It'll probably take a few more days for the artificial tear to work its magic. "
I understand that is a lingering issue.

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle and zoomed through it quickly, especially when I realized, like inanehiker, that the word INTRO was not being scrambled.

I gotta agree with Jinx about Potter cluing being trite. We all have things we like and things we don't like.

Our son is on town on business and we took him out to a fancy, expensive, steakhouse last night. We all agreed the food was nothing to write home about. As they so often say on Yelp, we won't be going back.

As long as I'm complaining, I'll mention that I didn't like Mad magazine being pluralized as MADS. I suppose if it were later in the week it could be clued as "Actor ____ Mikkelsen."

Best wishes to PK and Irish Miss.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Thanks, Lucina! "Belated" is still very thoughtful!

A charming pzl today, reminding me how grateful I am for every streaming series that offers the SKIP-INTRO button.

Nice to see William INGE's name again. He used to teach in my department at Irvine.

Sorry to learn of your family loss, PK. I had a similar experience last year--and I offer my sympathy.
Thinking of Irish Miss too.
~ OMK
____________
DR:
A 3-way near at hand.
The central anagram is the name of a meadow reserved for Leprechauns, elves, and other little folk.
We call it a...
"MANNIKIN LEA"!

Abejo said...

Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Matt McKinley, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Boomer, for a fine review.

Agreed, 389 in a GTO.

Puzzle went fine except for the North Center. Took me a while to get KEIRA and STOAT. WOKS and ICE T took a while as well. PIANO TRIO saved me.

POLAR CAP. Just heard today that a friend of one of my nephews just died in Antarctica. No details.

LILI was unknown. Perps. Remembered RPI. We have had that enough that I know it now.

Warmer this morning while crossing the kids. 36 degrees.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Jinx in Norfolk said...

HG, my team (Kentucky) is #19 on your UPI list, but #8 in this week's AP poll. I think UPI is just number crunching, while the AP poll is just sports writers' and announcers' judgments.

Wilbur Charles said...

Boomer, I had to tape golf,NFL,MLB etc. Then ff through. Baseball I could tap three times for each half inning
.
Exiting Canada I just had to stop at Tim Hortons for SCONEs. Unfortunately, I'd blundered into tourist Niagara falls traffic. To escape I used something called "The International Bridge". I believe it was something Tarzan used to escape the Mau-Maus. Agrophobia* big time.

"I have to be careful with some of my bowling and golf words." If there's nae cursing, it's NAE golf

C-eh, did the article (Zamboni goalie) mention Lester Patrick coming out of the stands in the 1928 Stanley Cup to tend goal? He was the owner of the Rangers at the time. Rangers won.

XW went smoothly.

WC

** Or is it "ACRO"?

PK said...

Thank you for all the condolences. My brother was a brilliant man who furthered DNA research & helped set up lab guidelines for better standards nationwide. He was very impaired with Parkinsons, with complications from pneumonia, flu & a stroke. Death was a blessing for him, but hard on the rest of us. Born when mother was 43 & I was 13, he was like a first son to me.

As for my marathon nose bleed, I saw a doctor who had some helpful suggestions I will try. More tests. No repeat of the bleed so far.

Best wishes for Agnes' return to health.

Oh yes, liked the puzzle & Boomer's expo. Doing the puzzle & knowing you lovely people are in the world has been very comforting to me.

CanadianEh! said...

Thanks Spitzboov and AnonT for the update on Irish Miss. Thoughts and prayers are with her.

WC. - I had not heard the story about Lester Patrick; I LIUed. Imagine stepping in like that . . . and they didn't wear masks back then either.
In 2018, Scott Foster came into net for the Black Hawks.

AnonT - what a time you had today. I can't believe how fast the water must have risen!

Anonymous T said...

C, Eh! It wasn't just that it was coming down in buckets [1/2"/hr.(?)] but the storm drain is at the end of my front walk - it's where 80% of the water goes.
And (and this is a Houston thing - 'fall in spring') the leaves just left the trees and were amassed/blocking the drains. A stiff-fork'd rake and a lot of back to clear 'em out.

W.C. - I heard on the radio today your rant re: MLB's center field 'catcher cam.' The guy was defending the Astros only to the point that they got caught/fessed up. He'd traced it back many years and doth not thinketh the Red Sox will get the same hate for the same thing down the road.

PK & IM - I know you're out there. Love to both ya.

Cheers, -T

Michael said...

Looks like we have a Nigerian visitor.