google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, June 9, 2020; Kurt Mengel and Jan-Michele Gianette

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Jun 9, 2020

Tuesday, June 9, 2020; Kurt Mengel and Jan-Michele Gianette

Don't Talk with Your Mouth Full!  The first word of each 3-word phrase pertains to the initial act of eating.

18-Across. Chat leisurely: CHEW THE FAT.

28-Across. Refrain from saying something unpleasant: BITE YOUR TONGUE.


46-Across. Fall into a trap: SWALLOW THE BAIT.


61. Have some humble pie: EAT YOUR HAT.

Today's puzzles had lots of names, which will probably make some solvers unhappy.  But, let's just carry on and see if we can find some new friends we may meet again in the puzzles.

Across:

1. "Funny!": HA HA!

5. Sea of Cortez peninsula, informally: BAJA.  The Sea of Cortez is also known as the Gulf of California.


9. Some Apples: iMACS.



14. Very much: A LOT.

15. Employs: USES.

16. Carne para un taco: POLLO.  Today's Spanish lesson.  I prefer fish tacos, but Chicken is good, too.

17. Worshipped object: IDOL.

20. Suffer a power outage: GO DARK.  I hope Cristobal didn't cause a lot of people to Go Dark this week.

22. Greek known for paradoxes: ZENO.  Zeno of Elea (495 BCE ~ 430 BCE) is the first of our many names in today's puzzle.  He is also the earliest, time-wise in our collection of names.  He was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher best known for paradoxes.

23. They often pop up in windows: ADs.  Adverts.

24. Appear to be: SEEM.

26. Hagen of Broadway: UTA.  Uta Hagen (née Uta Thyra Hagen; June 12, 1919 ~ Jan. 14, 2004) has become a crossword staple.  In fact, I "met" her doing the puzzles.  She was born in Göttingen, Germany.  Her family emigrated to the United States when she was 5.  She also became a well-known acting teacher.


35. Tennis replay: LET.

36. Hotelier Helmsley and singer Lewis: LEONAs.  Leona Helmsley (née Leona Mindy Roberts; July 4, 1930, Aug. 20, 2007) was known as the Queen of Mean.  Leona Lewis (née Leona Louise Lewis; b. Apr. 3, 1985) is a British singer.

Leona Helmsley
Leona Lewis
37. Start of Hamlet's question: TO BE.


38. Works at, as a trade: PLIES.

It's advertised as 3-ply.

40. Is able to: CAN.

41. Fur tycoon: ASTOR.  A reference to John Jacob Astor (né Johann Jakob Astor; July 17, 1763 ~ Mar. 29, 1848), the German-born American businessman who made is fortune in gaining a monopoly in the fur trade.  He was the first multi-millionaire in the United States.


42. Second to __: unbeatable: NONE.

43. Patrol vehicle: COP CAR.


45. Lao Tzu's "way": TAO.

49. Prefix with plus or pass: SUR-.  As in Surplus or Surpass.

50. African antelope: ORYX.  They are beautiful animals.


51. One more than bi-: TRI-.

54. U.S. Army E-3s: PFCs.  As in Private First Class.

57. Words spoken laterally?: ASIDES.  My favorite clue of the puzzle.

64. Seep: OOZE.

65. "Goldengirl" star Susan: ANTON.

Susan Ellen Anton (b. Oct. 12, 1950)

66. First-rate: A-ONE.

67. "Look, amigo!": MIRA.  More of today's Spanish lesson.

68. Broadway composer Jule: STYNE.  Jule Styne (né Julius Kerwin Stein; Dec. 31, 1905 ~ Sept. 20, 1994), was a British-American songwriter and composer best known for writing  the music for such musicals as Funny GirlGentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Gypsy.


69. Lads: BOYS.

70. ER "Hurry up!": STAT.  Stat is a medical abbreviation for the Latin word Statum for Immediate.

Down:

1. Reagan secretary of state Alexander __: HAIG.  General Alexander Meigs Haig, Jr. (Dec. 2, 1924 ~ Feb. 20, 2010), held many positions in the Federal Government.  As the clue tells us, he served as the 59th United States Secretary of State during the Reagan administration.  During the Nixon and Ford administrations, he served as White House Chief of Staff.


2. Designer Gucci: ALDO.  Aldo Gucci (May 26, 1905 ~ Jan. 19, 1990) was the eldest son of Guccio Gucci (Mar. 26, 1881 ~ Jan. 2, 1953), who was the founder of the fashion House of Gucci.

3. Car engine cover: HOOD.


4. Finally: AT LAST.

5. Ohio State athlete: BUCKEYE.  It doesn't look overly intimidating.


6. Bat wood: ASH.  Think baseball.

7. "Oh, man!": JEEZ!

8. "Even __ speak ... ": AS WE.

9. Old Apple app for pics: iPHOTO.  Apparently the iPhoto was discontinued in 2015 and was replaced with the Appel Photos app.

10. Homer's bartender: MOE.  A reference to The Simpsons.


11. NATO alphabet "A": ALFA.  This appears with some frequency in the puzzles.
12. Dressed: CLAD.

13. Boozers: SOTS.

19. Letter-shaped fasteners: T-NUTS.

21. Film units: REELS.


25. Milk giver, in totspeak: MOO-COW.

27. Busy crawlers: ANTS.  The ants go marching one by one ...


28. "Look out __!": "Heads up!": BELOW.

29. Memoir featuring Ike Turner: I, TINA.  Tina Turner (née Anna Mae Bullock; b. Nov. 26, 1939) is 80!



30. Not appropriate: UNAPT.

31. __ Cucamonga, California: RANCHO.  A city probably known to our California contingent.

32. Gangster dubbed "The Teflon Don": GOTTI.  Crime finally caught up with John Joseph Gotti, Jr. (Oct. 27, 1940 ~ June 10, 2002).  He ultimately died in federal prison.


33. German WWII sub: U-BOAT.  Short for Unterseeboot, which translates as Undersea boat.

34. Gateway Arch designer Saarinen: EERO.  Our old friend Eero Saarinen (Aug. 20, 1910 ~ Sept. 1, 1961) is back.  He was born on the 37th birthday of his father Eliel Saarinen (Aug. 20, 1873 ~ July 1, 1950), who was also an architect.  Eero designed many iconic buildings, including the beautiful chapel on the MIT campus.


35. ICU caregivers: LPNs.  As in Licensed Practical Nurses, who may be found in the Intensive Care Unit.

39. Slender fish: EELS.  A crossword staple.

41. Chain known for roast beef: ARBY'S.


43. Greek isle: CORFU.


44. Fizzes up: AERATES.

47. Patti who won a Tony as Evita: LUPONE.  Patti Ann LuPone (b. Apr. 21, 1949) make occasional guest appearances in the crossword puzzles.  I saw her perform in Evita years ago.

48. Math postulates: AXIOMS.

51. Afternoon socials: TEAS.

52. Go ballistic: RANT.

53. __-bitty: ITTY.

55. Complain like a shellfish?: CRAB.


56. "Begone!": SHOO!

58. "Stop wasting time!": DO IT!

59. "Fantastic Beasts" actor Miller: EZRA.  I am familiar with neither Fantastic Beasts nor Ezra Matthew Miller (b. Sept. 30, 1992).


60. Chair or sofa: SEAT.

62. Partner of hither: YON.

63. "__ questions?": ANY.  Great last clue for the puzzle!



Here's the Grid:



QOD:  I’ve always believed human blood is red because it really needs to draw attention to itself.  ~  Patricia Cornwell (née Patricia Carroll Daniels; June 9, 1956), American crime writer

59 comments:

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Kurt Mengel & Jan-Michele Gianette, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Hahtoolah, for a fine review.

Again, could not sleep so I got up and started the puzzle. And i finished it after a short break.

RANCHO was easy. I lived in RANCHO Cucamonga while in California. The Alta Loma section of that city.

Zipped through the puzzle for the most part. My toughest part was the area of LUPONE, CORFU, SUR. Figured it out by trial and error.

Some unknowns that needed perp help: STYNE, MIRA, ORYX,

Tried MOOMOO before MOOCOW worked better.

Liked the theme. Simple and it did help some with the puzzle.

Anyhow, I am going to lay down for a while and see if I can catch a couple ZZ's.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Yellowrocks said...

Quick solve today, there were a lot of names, but only EZRA was unfamiliar. I guessed the theme with the first long answer and the next one proved it. I did use a perp or two to jog my memory. Some answers were already filled before I got to them.
Thank you, Kurt Mengel & Jan-Michele Gianette. Thank you, Hahtoolah, for all your links.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Got the mouthy theme early on and zoomed to victory. Just one stumble: 4-letter Greek beginning with ZE, gotta be ZEUS. (Read the entire clue, d-o!) Sorry, but I don't see "SUR" as a prefix for Plus or Pass. Thanx for the outing Kurt and Jan-Michele and for the explication, Hahtoolah.

IMACS: There's still a bad taste from that experience.

HAIG: As Chief-of-Staff, he figured he was second in line to be president.

ANTS: Learned yesterday of the Saharan silver ants -- the fastest ants in the world. How fast, I hear you cry. "A blistering 855 millimeters per second," per WIKI. They are hairy, and the silver hairs reflect sunlight, helping them keep cool in the hot desert.

RANCHO: Who could ever forget Jan and Dean's Anaheim, Azuza, and Cucamonga Sewing Circle Book Review and Timing Association. I won't link it. You're welcome.

Wilbur Charles said...

Re. Taking the bait, this is what immediately came to mind
This Charlie

"Lady" ASTOR would have gone well with Leona H.

CORFU not Crete. That was messy.

I solved this yesterday but I do recall the proper, somewhat obscure, names. I'm guessing ZENO was a poser.

WC

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning.

Thank you Kurt and Jan-Michele. Fun and my lucky day. CHEW THE FAT set my on a track to find the theme. Hooray! Finding the others made this an easy puzzle for me.

Thank you Hahtoolah for a terrific tour. I appreciate the work you put into your explications.

Jayce--Yes, indeed that was a lot of ice. (I hope this doesn't scare Tinbeni.) I filled a large bucket and threw it under a fir tree. It melted pretty fast as it was quite warm yesterday. Since the freezer is so small, I freed up quite a bit of space. Plus no more secrets. I can see what I'm looking for!

Have a sunny day. Be well.

Wilbur Charles said...

It's a slow day and poser and
SOT reminded me of the old limerick contest, circa 1974

WC

inanehiker said...

This was a fast run which I needed - since getting to work will be a bit slower with Cristobal inundating us with rain most of the night and into the morning!

Rich is still fixed on putting LPNs into the ICU when only RNs work there- at least in every hospital I've been in in 6 states - maybe in California, where he is, they have difficulty getting enough staff for the ICUs!


Thanks Hatoolah - another fun blog!

OwenKL said...

Bah! DNF on a Tuesday! Done in by a double natick I couldn't even take a WAG at! LUSO_ _ + AGTO_ + SEYN_.
Urk! Just hit the red button, and found out I one additional letter wrong in each of those three natick words! sPCS (specialist) instead of PFCS, and RAge instead of RANT. Boy, did I mess up that corner!

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-I really, uh, ate this puzzle up
-Some will know what nefarious TV character ran POLLOS Hermanos restaurant
-I love seeing Schrodinger’s cat become more popular
-Golf league in a half-hour

Hungry Mother said...

FIR, but had some hesitations here and there. Never heard of LUPONE; does the constructor know my mother-in-law’s middle name?

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Finished without incident. Had to change to MOO COW; same as Abejo.
HOOD - Believed called a 'bonnet' by the Brits.
LPN - Wondered about their ICU use. Thanks Inane for the comment. Guess I'm wondering about Ray -O's take.
REELS - As a junior Ensign, I had collateral duty as my ship's Movie Officer. When going to sea, the ship would draw Sea Prints which could be exchanged directly between ships. One time we exchanged Prints directly with a submarine by highline. As luck would have it a wave carried away the Print transfer and the movie (~ 3 REELS) went to Davey Jones' Locker. Of course this generated additional paperwork, but I don't remember any other negative ramifications.

Tinbeni said...

Hahtoolah: Wonderful write-up and links. Good job!

Yup, this was an "Easy-Peasy" Tuesday puzzle.

Well the Sun came out (finally) yesterday.
I don't mind the "rainy-days" but after 4 days without the Sun I get a little down.

At least my "Watering Holes" are open.

kinda nice seeing and talking to other people again.

A "Toast-to-ALL" at Sunset.

Cheers!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I had a rare Tuesday FIW because of the Mira ~ Axioms cross. I had Axions and, not knowing much Spanish, Nira looked fine. I think beginner solvers would find this on the difficult side, what with Oryx, Ezra, Rancho, and the aforementioned Mira and Axioms. My Pollo started out as Asada but was soon corrected. I liked the childish Moo Cow and the abutting duo of Ha Ha and Baja. I also liked the O Parade: Pollo, Zeno, Aldo, Photo, Rancho, Eero, Shoo, and Tao. CSOs to Tony at Alfa and Bill G at Jeez.

Thanks, Kurt and JM, for a fun, if not successful, solve and thanks, Hatoolah, for the colorful commentary and photos. Susan Anton’s appearance reminded me of seeing her during intermission of a Broadway show. She was with Dudley Moore. Talk about Mutt and Jeff!

FLN

Thanks to Kurt for dropping by.

Stay safe, all.

oc4beach said...


Didn't see the theme until Hahtoolah explained it, but I did get everything filled in in a reasonable time.

I hadn't heard EAT YOUR HAT before. I tried to put in EAT CROW, but it didn't have enough letters. There were a few other words I didn't know like MIRA and STYNE so perps to the rescue.

I remember LEONA Helmsly but never heard of singer LEONA Lewis. But knowing one was close enough.

If it wasn't going to be FUJIS, GALAS, ROMES etc. then it was going to be one of Jobs' products. I put in the I and S and let perps determine if it was a MAC, PAD or POD.

Up early to go to the Amish farm market for strawberries. DW asked if I wanted strawberry pie or strawberry shortcake. I opted for shortcake made with Bisquick sweet biscuits. FLN: Sorry YR, I'm not a fan of angel cake or the sponge cake cups for shortcake.

Supposed to be in the 90's here in central Pennsylvania today. I hope it's nice where you are.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Another FIW: ORiX crossing ARBiS. Also inkovers crete/CORFU. (like WC) Scat/SHOO (You just couldn't wait for the perps). And even parsed the theme early. I'm on vacation this week, my brain must be as well.

Remember Susan ANTON gorgeous and super tall.

Broadway forced to GO DARK (no performances).. In normal times shows GO DARK usually on Monday. Also can mean to opt for the "sinister" side. My understanding of the term. Not a loss of power.

Patti LUPONE was a main character in a recent Netflix miniseries "Hollywood". Highly recommended.

Thither wouldn't fit next to hither.

Do movie theaters reely still use REELS?

Jack Benny's California train to Anaheim, Azusa, and CUCAMONGA . One of many places he encountered Mel Blanc's Sy with the sister Sue...Si!!

Copper story I heard was that their uniform buttons were made of copper. BUT HU NOSE?. In grade school we were taught that referring to a policeman as a cop was disrespectful/derogatory. Thymes change.

Speaking of UNAPT....

Physical reaction to boredom.......YON.
What Jack Sprat could not do....CHEW THE FAT.
Hear, speak, and ______ evil. ...ZENO
Cost to transport by plane _____ ....AERATE.

On to ODINs day.

Yellowrocks said...

I remember studying axioms in geometry class. We moved when I was 14 and the geometry class in my new school was many weeks behind my former class. It was so boring the second time around. But the the word axiom stuck in my brain.
I think MIRA is related to mirage and mirror.
Patti Lupone won Tonys for the Broadway shows, Evita and Gypsy, and was nominated for others. She played in Les Miserables, Anything Goes, Sweeney Todd and many more. I am listening to her lovely voice on YouTube as I type.
My sibs and my parents didn't agree with me about shortcake. I know my version of shortcake is not the real thing, but whenever I brought it to the square dance it was scarfed right up with oohs and aahs. The best compliment is an empty plate to take home.
Leona Helmsley reminds me of the Streep character in The Devil Wears Prada.

Wilbur Charles said...

I just had to link
Jack Benny (You only need the first minute

Talk about STALE* humor

IM, to refresh: The shortest distance …. Is an AXIOM
The square of the hypotenuse is equal to…
Is a theorem.

WC

*Oops that's another xword

OMaxiN said...

FIR today after Monday's fail.
As others note.. perps to the rescue
Had to change Stein to STYNE
H.S. Spanish did not help with MIRA. Only remember POLLO from menus.
Tempus Fugit. It was news when John GOTTI died in nearby federal medical center prison, but I didn't realize it was almost 20 years ago.
EZRA LUPONE = unknown
Thought CORFU was Egyptian, but that pharaoh was Khufu
Complain like a shellfish was a fun clue
Thanks JMG,KM & Hatoolah
MO

Wilbur Charles said...

Btw, RayO, was Mel the ticket master?

OMaxiN said...

California has several RANCHOs. My favorite is Mirage.
MO

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Re: LPN ..assume regardless of where they are utilized must remain within scope of practice. Direct supervision by an RN etc.

WC: Your Jack Benny clip wouldn't load.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

WC..just LIU Frank Nelson was the ticket agent and like most cast members played multiple roles.

Lucina said...

Hola!

MIRA que bonito! (See how pretty)

Thank you Kurt, Jan and Hahtoolah for today's entertainment! Fun stuff.

I whizzed through this in a flash not bothered by ANY names. We have seen ZENO in prior puzzles and I recall Susan ANTON. EZRA and STYNE as clued are unknown but easily filled.

RANCHO Cucamonga is where some of my cousin's children live and I have visited them.

On a visit to NY I saw Patti LUPONE in Gypsy.

I winced at LPNS because of having read that only RNs are allowed in the ICU and I see that Inanehiker agrees.

Our zoo has a herd of ORYX which provides visiting children a first hand view of those exotic animals with their strangely twisted horns.

Hand up for Crete before CORFU.

In my tacos I prefer beef to POLLO.

Have a beautiful day, everyone!


PK said...

Hi Y'all! Enjoyed the puzzle KM & JMG! Always enjoy your write-ups, Hahtoolah!

SW corner had to be red-lettered. DNK: LUPONE/ANTON/STYNE crosses. Crete before CORFU.

Also unknown: MIRA, POLLO, ZENO, ALDO. Knew HAIG, but not how to spell it on first try.

Forgot "I TINA" but "What's Love got to do with it." didn't fit. ESP

Learning moment: After coming here, I realized I didn't know what paradoxes were so LIU. I realize that much of my life has been a paradox -- not what was expected.

Yep, I learned RANCHO Cucamonga listening to Jack Benny. One of those words my sis and I went around saying, followed by lots of giggling.

I agree with Inanehiker & Ray-O: RN's only in ICU here. Sickest patients need most educated nurses.

Fond memories of days on BAJA peninsula.

NaomiZ said...

Many proper names were filled by perps for me, but FIR and enjoyed it. Especially loved the Boynton cartoon that Hahtoolah shared to illustrate CRAB. Thanks for that!

Wheels42 said...

DNF: didn't know ANTON, STYNE, LUPONE, COFFU, and with RANT/rage/rave all possibilities for 52-Down, I couldn't suss out the missing letters.

Back to the old "obscurity" vs. "tough but fair" question: would any of these four fall into the category of obscure, or do I just have a blind spot in my knowledge? I readily admit I don't know much about Broadway; should these names be part of a solver's repertoire (like our friend EERO)?

AnonymousPVX said...


No real,issues with this Tuesday go.

No write-overs today.

Almost filled in CRETE when I had the C....glad I waited.

And on to Wednesday.

Stay safe.

CrossEyedDave said...

you may want to chew on these...


However, in recent days,
I may have bitten off more than I can chew...

Wilbur Charles said...

Let's have another go at
Cucumonga

Misty said...

Delightful Tuesday puzzle, many thanks Kurt and Jan-Michelle. And as soon as the first neat pictures popped up, I knew that today's comments would be Hahtoolah's! Thank you, Susan, for all the cartoons and fun.

Enjoyed starting off with HA HA which helped get HAIG right away. When I first came to California, I loved driving down to BAJA with friends. U BOAT shows up a lot in puzzles these days, doesn't it? And the only EZRA I know is EZRA Pound--but OOZE helped out with this one right away.

But most of all, it was a pleasure to see those cool CHEW, BITE, SWALLOW, and EAT theme answers fill in. Lots of fun.

Hope you got some sleep at last, Abejo.

Have a good day, everybody.

Picard said...

Hand up with Wheels42 unknowns ANTON, STYNE, LUPONE and RANT/rage/rave seemed rather unfair for any day of the week, let alone a Tuesday. I did manage to WAG this to FIR.

Otherwise I enjoyed the theme and fill. Always happy to see a math person like ZENO whose legacy endures after thousands of years... instead of the usual torrent of obscure people who will soon be forgotten.

Hahtoolah I loved the Schrödinger's Cat cartoon for TO BE!

I have shared some of my BAJA videos and photos before.

Here are photos of my cousin's wedding in RANCHO CUCAMONGA.

That was the only time I have been there. Most of my family lives back East and these cousins moved back East after the wedding, too.

From Yesterday:
PK, AnonT along with OwenKL, IrishMiss and Wilbur Charles thank you for the kind words about my UNICYCLE performances!

Wilbur Charles since you asked about me Juggling on the UNICYCLE, did you get a chance to see my photos of that?

Here again are photos of me Juggling while UNICYCLING in the Solstice Parade in the 1990s

Thanks for asking!

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Scoot over OKL... I too had SPCs @55a. I know better for E-3 but perps were not kind enough to make me re-read the clue.

A Monday & Tuesday FIW does not bode well for the week...

Thanks Kurt and Jan-Michele for the puzzle and thank you Hathoolah for the fine review.

WOs: GaTTI, SUR -> SeR 'cuz LusONE didn't look pronounceable
DNK: UTA, ZENO, MIRA, EZRA, ORYX, STYNE, LUPONE, CORFU, ANTON -- amazing only 3 wrong squares :-)
ESP: EERO
Fav: GO DARK - that's dropping comms during an operation. //it's also what I tell boss-man when it's nap-time.

LEONA confused me 'cuz I kept thinking Huey Lewis [and the News - 5m] for the singer.

Play later!

Cheers, -T

CanadianEh! said...

Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Kurt and Jan-Michele, and Hahtoolah.
I found the satisfying theme, and managed to WAG the SW corner to FIR today. But I agree with others about the possible Naticks with all those names.
One inkblot when SOTS changed Polla to POLLO; another when BITE one's TONGUE changed to the less formal YOUR. (I did not make the same mistake with EAT YOUR HAT.
I believe 28A would involve invoking the Thumper rule.

I have no idea what E-3s are, but we have had PFC in CWs before.
I smiled to see IPHOTOS crossing IMACS.
In Canada, we have RPNs (Registered Practical Nurses)and they do not work in ICU here either.

Beautiful June day here. Wishing you all a great day.

Wilbur Charles said...

Picard, yes I watched you juggling on the unicycle. The Marine Corps had a designation for E-3 of Lance Corporal. He operated the automatic weapon on the Fireteam. The old M14 had a selector switch which allowed automatic fire.

I believe the designation remains the function is obsolete.

The E1-E-9 are paygrades

WC

Yellowrocks said...

Picard, I always peruse you delightful pics. I especially enjoyed those of the festival and the unicycle.

Razz said...

Just a drop in hello from the past. Still see a lot of names I recognize and many I don’t. I enjoy C.C.’s work regularly on USA Today app. I’ll try to get back to more regular visits. Y’all take care now, ya hear. ;~)

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

WC @ 11:58..."and Cuc******amonga!". Had to travel to a closed village library near my ADK place to get wifi in the parking lot to watch the clip. LOLing in my car. (BTW Mel Blanc was the eloping groom.)

🤣🤣🤣

Ol' Man Keith said...

Hey, Hahtoolah! I saw Patti LUPONE in Evita on Broadway too.
I wonder if we were at the same performance.
I was wearing a dark green sport coat.

Misty ~ I used to get a kick out of driving down to BAJA as well. I loved staying in Rosarito Beach, well below the craziness of Tijuana and right on the water. This was in the mid-'80s.

Cool pzl today. Almost ran into a bit of trouble when I couldn't decide whether to go with XENO or ZENO. I lucked out in the end.
~ OMK
____________
DR:
A 3-way on the front end.
The middle diagonal celebrates how the world came to love that wonderful little Chinese nut. It won us over via...
"A LYCHEE RIOT"!

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Unless I missed it no west coasters mentioned the BAJA HAHA cruise race. 1 and 2 across. Found it googling info on Baja California.⛵

Irish Miss said...

Wilbur @ 10:21 ~ I wouldn’t know an Axiom or a Theorem if I fell over one.

Wheels @ 11:23 ~ We all have blind spots. (See my comment to Wilbur.) I don’t consider an answer obscure unless it is something that a large number of solvers are unfamiliar with. Not knowing a particular person, place, or thing doesn’t make it obscure, it just means you don’t know it. We can’t know everything about everything, can we? That’s why we call these puzzles! Happy solving! 🤡

CanadianEh! said...

Thanks WC for explaining that E-3 is a pay grade. I didn't have a chance to LIU.

SansBeach said...

Good Afternoon, All. Always fun to read the comments when the xword isn't a gimme. I was happy to learn I FIR, but didn't know it until I read the 'splainin' by Hahtoolah, Thank you, Susan. I didn't know Pollo, Zeno, Oryx, Mira but was able to use the perps and wags to success. Rant was a wag but it made Anton/Styne look pretty solid. Thanks for the challenging puzzle Kurt M & Han-Michele G. Agree with the other comments about LPNs but it fit. Rain finally eased up today. Hasn't been much sun in Florida this last week.

RCC said...

I enjoyed this puzzle but would nitpick all the proper names in a Tuesday. However, one thing jumped out at me: I thought the sequence of the themers was wrong! You bite, then chew, then swallow to eat. Not chew, bite, swallow! :-)

-Rick C

PK said...

Keith: my friends had a time-share on Rosarito Beach, BAJA. We went down there on a day trip. Ate seafood on a rooftop with a fabulous view and could hear mariachis playing. Perfect weather.

CrossEyedDave said...

I actually enjoyed that Jack Benny link!
(I may go back & look for more, tho it was before my time...)

& nobody ate the Turkey!

Picard,
I am down to watching old stuff, as I ran out of newer
stuff I don't have to pay for...
Watched Fireball XL5 episode one yesterday...
(yeah, it made Jack Benny look real good!)

Re: The Prisoner,
"I Think" I watched every episode way back when,
but I am not sure, as I do not remember any conclusion.
(did he ever get out?)
Anywho, now I can watch it again & find out.
What I do remember, is that a great premise for a movie
was dragged out beyond rhyme or reason in a series
that I may have given up on before the end...
(like so much other stuff since...)

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle and the theme. I also had a bit of difficulty with some of the proper names, but not to the point of being stymied.

The LA Times crossword page seems to be messed up. The crossword "area" was all narrow as of 2:00 PM Pacific time, so that only the left half of the puzzle could be seen. I had to go to the Washington Post page to get a workable display.

Also, I don't recall the crosswordcorner.blogspot.com page being in sans-serif font before. Has something changed there? I'm not complaining; it looks nice, but different. ... Okay, I just clicked on "Older Posts" and sure enough, yesterday the font was a serif font, like a Times Roman or equivalent. "Palatino Linotype", to be precise. Today it is "Helvetica Neue."

Good wishes to you all.

Wilbur Charles said...

There's a series in Netflix called Burn Notice. Like prisoner the guy is dumped by his Spy masters (in Miami) and has to fend for himself.
No explanation given. But it has a lot of humor and plot twists to keep me(a little) interested.

When I'm done with Monk I may go back.

WC

Anonymous T said...

OMK - Is Lychee not a fruit or am I the Nut?

WC - DW & I watched Burn Notice [trailer] when it originally ran on USA. The mom of the burned Spy is from Cagney and Lacy -- She's funny|cute as heck in the role. We stuck with the show up to season 4 or 5 then it got silly trying to stretch it out.

Cheers, -T

Terry said...

Oh right, they are puzzles.

Hahtoolah said...

Old Man Keith: I think I did see you at Evita. How rude of me not to stop and say Hello! LOL.

Jayce: I selected a different font just for a change.

CrossEyedDave said...

Burn notice
(Not,to give anything away)
Has a GREAT ending!

D4E4H said...

Good evening Cornerites.  

Thank you Jan-Michele Gianette, and Kurt Mengel for your enjoyable Tuesday CW. 

Carol and I FIR in 19:49 min.

Thank you Hahtoolah for your excellent review.

Ðave 

Jayce said...

Ah, Hahtoolah, good to know.

Wilbur Charles said...

CED, how many seasons all together for Burn Notice. ? Now I have to return

Anonymous T said...

WC - The Internet says Burn Notice ran for 7 seasons. Since I trust CED, as soon as DW is better we're going to pickup where we left off.

So, I've been trying to get my offspring to watch one of the greatest movies ever made. It certainly has one of the best COP CARs in it...
It has a 440 cubic inch plant, cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks [...] and it can run good on regular gas.
//we've not had movie-night since it became my turn to pick :-(

Cheers, -T

Ol' Man Keith said...

Anonymous T ~
You are correct, Tee!
But it is one of those curious on-the-fence items, with the fruity center inside a shell, and so often called a nut.
I first encountered them in a Chinese restaurant, where the menu listed them as "Lychee nuts."
~ OMK

CrossEyedDave said...

Yeah, Burn Notice:

Daughter#1 turned me on to it...

The previews are all action/bombs/fights, but that's not why I liked it..

1st, Fiona, The Irish Lass, is an Emma Peel Incarnation...
(& handy with explosives too...)

2nd, The poor %$#@* was broke, & needed money, & what did he do?
He helped every poor %$#@& in the neighborhood with his skills as a Spy.

3rd, it started out as an Ex Spy helping the poor folks,
but around season three, things got deep,
I mean Soap OPera Deep...
MOthers/Brothers/Nephews...
The list goes on & on (& I didn;t mind...)
The only thing that turns my nose,
is when "McGiver" acts stupid to get what he wants...

Well, towards the last season, even that does not work anymore,
& it gets INTENSE!

It ends as a nailbiter,
Really bad shit goes down...
but , there is a rainbow over the septic tank...

& as a plus, if you really love the characters,
you must see the 2 hour special of Sam (Mojito Joe)
in the TV prequel with his exploits in South America.

Anonymous T said...

CED - I saw the Sam Show too. Fun stuff.

Razz - I'm guessing I came in late to The Corner 'cuz I don't recall you [I'm bad w/ names - if you changed your avatar, well, there you are.]

Hahtoolah - what's w/ the new avatar?

OMK - Thanks for the education on Lychees. I know Eldest loves 'em but I'm not sure I've ever had one.

D4 - Keep postin' brother. Always good to read you.

Cheers, -T

becky said...

Susan/Hatoolah, thank you for the explanation for STAT. I have asked many medical personnel, including my sister who is a nurse, and no one knew. I was thinking the initials stood for something, like ASAP as soon as possible. Short for statum.

Picard, I, too, enjoyed your prowess on the unicycle. Watch out for those potholes.

We are in Park City, UT now where things seem a lot less locked down than LA. We're still being very careful. It snowed five times in two days!