google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday, August 15, 2021 Dylan Schiff

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Aug 15, 2021

Sunday, August 15, 2021 Dylan Schiff

Theme: "Just Desserts" - Cakes with the same letter count are layered on top of each other.

21. *Poet who influenced T.S. Eliot: EZRA POUND.

25. *Flattering words before a request: BEAN ANGEL.

26. *'90s nickname for pop's Mel C: SPORTY SPICE.

31. *Pre-TV performance genre involving arias: RADIO OPERA. Unfamiliar with opera cake. Wiki says it's French cake made of " layers of almond sponge cake soaked in coffee syrup, layered with ganache and coffee (or Grand Marnier) French buttercream, and covered in a chocolate glaze."

50. *Pancake order: SHORT STACK.

60. *Fish that doesn't taste like its name suggests: LEMON SOLE.

72. *Killjoy, in modern lingo: FUN SPONGE.

77. *Kraft offering, casually: MAC N CHEESE.

98. *Sushi fish: YELLOW TAIL.

104. *Fruity fountain offering: BANANA SPLIT.

106. *Drywall material: SHEET ROCK.

Reveal:

111. *Dessert literally represented in six pairs of answers to the starred clues: LAYER CAKE. Functions as a reveal and the lower layer of SHEET.


I did a "Layer Cake" for the Crossword Club ages ago. One of the theme entries is long, the other is just short cake word. Similar to the Double Day I did for the LAT.

This makes me appreciate Dylan Schiff 's puzzle that much more. It's hard to layer a short word on top of another. It's incredible to layer two long entries. And the grid has very few gluey entries.

Across:

1. Defeat: TOP.

4. Miniature vehicle that uses a remote, briefly: RC CAR. RC = Radio-Controlled.

9. 1956 hot spot: SUEZ.

13. Seafarer's direction: THAR.  "Thar she blows!"

17. Biker's ride: HOG.

18. "__ roll!": I'M ON A.

19. Cavalry weapon: LANCE.

20. Provide an address: ORATE.

23. Hold-up man?: ATLAS. Atlas was one of the Titans.

 

24. Brought down: RAZED.

28. Regarding: AS TO.

29. Cut: AXED.

32. Of course, in Cannes: BIEN SUR. Mais bien sur!

35. Swerved at sea: YAWED. Yaw, Pitch, Roll.

37. "Sister Act" role: NUN.

38. Fa follower: SOL.

39. Terminus: END.

40. To boot: ALSO.

42. Seriously outrun on the track: LAP.

43. Price-qualifying word: PER. Do you guys still have Grape Nuts shortage in your area?

44. Packaging meas.: NT WT.

45. Bath tissue packaging word: PLY. You won't catch us running short on toilet paper again.

46. Santa Monica landmark: PIER.

48. Class assignment: ESSAY.

54. Baker's dozen?: EGGS. Cute clue.

56. '50s TV innovation: CABLE. Wow, this early.

61. Numbered work: OPUS.

62. "Fantastic Four" villain, briefly: DR DOOM.

63. Brown brew: ALE.

64. Row of seats: PEW.

65. Joltless joe?: DECAF. "Joltin' Joe" would have liked this clue. 


67. AFL-__: CIO.

68. GOP org.: RNC. Republican National Committee.

69. Unidentified flying radar blips: BOGIES. New term to me. Is the singular Bogey or Bogie?



71. Salsa order: MILD.

75. It may take a licking: STAMP.

76. Went down: SANK.

78. Old Turkish title: PASHA. Learned from doing crosswords.

80. Blubber: BAWL.

81. Hip: MOD.

82. Stuns: WOWS.

85. Common URL ending: COM.

86. Spot for suds: MUG. OK, shaving mug.

87. Very little: A DAB.

89. Twin, say: SIB.

92. Here, in Jalisco: ACA. Jalisco map here. Its capital is Guadalajara.


93. "As __ to breathe were life!": Tennyson: THO.

94. Silently understood: TACIT.

96. "Encore!": ONE MORE.

101. Formally surrender: CEDE.

103. Novelist Waugh: ALEC. Brother of Evelyn Waugh.

109. Busy: IN USE.

110. "101 Dalmatians" protagonist: PONGO.


112. Soda measure: LITER.

113. Solo: ALONE.

114. "The Jungle Book" wolf: AKELA.


115. "M*A*S*H" set piece: COT.

116. Highlands miss: LASS.

117. Arguments: ROWS.

118. Fresh: SASSY.

119. Blasting stuff: TNT.

Down:

1. 1992 baseball biopic: THE BABE. Babe Ruth is played by John Goodman. Have you guys seen "Little Big League?"  The little boy is the owner of the Minnesota Twins.
 

 

2. Enters slowly: OOZES IN.

3. Like many Pixar movies: PG RATED.

4. Kelly of morning TV: RIPA.

5. "Let's go!": C'MON.

6. BYU team nickname: COUGARS. Barry G graduated from BYU.


7. Make part of a larger state: ANNEX.

8. "To Kill a Mockingbird" recluse Boo __: RADLEY.

9. Course for H.S. exam takers: SAT PREP.

10. Empty, as a U-Haul: UNLOAD.

11. Digital greeting: E CARD.

12. Zing: ZESTINESS.

13. "The Sound of Music" name: TRAPP. Von Trapp.

14. Least distinct: HAZIEST.

15. Was humiliated: ATE CROW.

16. Handed out fresh cards: RE-DEALT.

19. Head for Vegas?: LAS. Boomer will love this clue. Every year after our Vegas trip, he'll start saving money in a jar for the next one.

20. Director Welles: ORSON. "Citizen Kane".

22. Presently, quaintly: ANON.

27. Letter closer: YOURS.

30. Destructive "Doctor Who" creature: DALEK.  Another learning moment.


33. "Push It" hip-hop trio: SALT-N- PEPA.

34. Tennyson work: ULYSSES.

36. Target of some Bob Dylan songs: WAR.

41. Birthstone after sapphire: OPAL.

43. Cribbage pieces: PEGS.

44. Long-distance swimmer Diana: NYAD. So inspiring.

45. MLB player, e.g.: PRO.

47. Trapped, in a way: ICED IN.

49. Scottie in Hitchcock's "Vertigo," for example: ACROPHOBE. Fear of height.


50. Concrete hunks: SLABS.

51. Spartan serf: HELOT. Wiki says "Tied to the land, they primarily worked in agriculture as a majority and economically supported the Spartan citizens."


52. __-3 fatty acids: OMEGA.

53. Pull behind: TOW.

54. Greener Living org.: EPA.

55. Hearty laugh: GUFFAW.

57. Conveyed: BORNE.

58. Yearns (for): LONGS.

59. Run from a stage?: EMCEE. Great clue.

61. Med. condition with repetitive behavior: OCD.

62. Old Sony CD player: DISCMAN.


66. Lodge member: ELK.

67. Anderson Cooper's network: CNN.  Cute Wyatt.



70. Little devils: IMPS.

71. Polite address: MA'AM.

73. Mayim Bialik alma mater: UCLA. Jeopardy!



74. Voluminous ref.: OED.

76. Has a mediocre round ... for a pro: SHOOTS PAR. Boomers plays a 9-hole executive course on Monday mornings. Had a birdie a few weeks ago.

77. Copperfield field: MAGIC. David Copperfield.

79. Neutral vowel symbol: SCHWA.

80. Tampa Bay NFLer: BUC. Buccaneer.

82. Shipping document: WAYBILL. Unfamiliar with the term.

83. South Pacific region: OCEANIA.

84. Waldorf salad morsels: WALNUTS. Good for your brain, supposedly.

86. Speaks badly of: MALIGNS.

88. Stereotypical ingenue facial feature: DOE EYES.

89. Beyoncé, since 2002: SOLO ACT. Previously with Destiny's Child.



90. "S'pose so": I RECKON.

91. "Waiting for Godot" playwright: BECKETT (Samuel)

93. Cosmetics liquid: TONER. My favorite.




94. Up to this point, informally: TIL NOW.

95. Model 3 autos: TESLAS.

97. "Walking in Memphis" singer Cohn: MARC. He was married to Elizabeth Vargas for a while.


99. Cuts with a beam: LASES.

100. Ohno on skates: APOLO.

102. Bangladesh capital: DHAKA.

105. Low digit: TOE.

107. Snaky swimmers: EELS.

108. Cafeteria fixture: TRAY.

C.C.



41 comments:

OwenKL said...

I matriculated to BYU for my freshman year. Started on the honor roll, left when my GPA threatened to go negative. I didn't know it then, but my bi-polar disorder prevented me from keeping up with a class for a whole semester. Ended up spending roughly 8 years in college without ever getting a degree.

How is SALT-N-PEPA a trio? There's only two of them, isn't there?

Coincidence, I just finished reading a bio of Anderson Cooper today.

There was a LASS from Donegal
Who built a laser six feet tall.
The beam it sent
Is so intense
It LASES sunspots on old SOL!

I love to drive an R.C. CAR
Although it doesn't travel far.
But a foreign signal
Will sometimes mingle,
And in a RADIO OPERA my car will star!

A WAR-weary man from DHAKA
Claimed the Taliban has a flaw.
As they strive to ANNEX
Each town and the next,
They've no bureaucrats to serve as PASHA!

{A, B, C+.}

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Managed to get through this one without seeing the layered cakes. Opera cake? Really? Realized I have heard of Opéra gâteau, just never in English. Also puzzled over RC CAR. D-o finished in good time, so life is good. Thanx, Dylan (are you related to Adam?) and C.C.

CABLE: In the early days there was no cable "company." Communities would erect a tower to receive over-the-air TV stations, and would route an antenna cable through town to hook up the houses. It was called CATV -- Community Access Television.

MUG: They're not just for shaving anymore. I used to drink my beer (suds) from a mug.

COUGARS: Also the mascot of the University of Houston.

TONER: I keep a box under my desk...for my laser printer.

DALEK: Looked like an angry salt shaker, screaming "Exterminate." Not too threatening -- a stairway would stymie them.

TTP said...

Good morning.

No coffee yet this morning, but a cup or two would have been nice with all of this cake. Alas, no coffee cake was found in this fun puzzle.

Another one letter miss. Inexplicably, Tennyson's work was eLYSSES.

D-itto D-otto with the same thoughts about MUG and suds spot. Brew foam.

After my stint in Germany, I heard of the QUBE cable service that had launched in Columbus. Basically, interactive (two-way) TV. CBS NEWS December 2, 1977 with Walter Cronkite. Seems rather quaint now. Both Nickelodeon and MTV evolved from their starts on QUBE.

Dylan S said...

Hi, all-- today's constructor here :)

Thanks, C.C., for your write-up and for all you do for this site!

This was a fun crossword to design; it started with my wanting to include a revealer entry in a puzzle that also contributed to the theme itself. The idea "Layer Cake" came to mind rather quickly, and I thought it would be fun to try stacking long theme entries even though I had never tried stacking theme answers of any length before! It turned out to be quite the challenge to get the rest of the grid to cooperate with the 6 pairs, but after a lot of trial and error it all came together well enough. I hope you all think so, too!

Enjoy!
Dylan

billocohoes said...

Thought it was BOGeyS. Mostly I've heard it in movies by fighter pilots warning of approaching (possibly) enemy aircraft e.g. "Bogies at one o'clock"

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIW, missing my wag at the Natick DAHlA x AlELA. But I got my wags right at BIENSUR x ULYSSES and THO x TONER.

Erased bar, then pub, for MUG, so I'm in line with DO and TTP. My TV was color before it had CABLE, I was RAD before I was MOD, SPORTY awes me and more correctly WOWS me, but I was humbled before I ATE CROW. My airBILL became WAYBILL, and I ate endive before WALNUTS. BTW, I ate tons of walnuts in my ute, mainly because we had four black walnut trees in our yard. So much for them being brain food.

In high school I was a board operator / announcer at the local college radio station. As "the kid" I got stuck with The Texaco Metropolitan OPERA RADIO Network, narrated by Milton Cross, IIRC. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Do they still issue lickem-and-stickem stamps?

SCHWA is fun to say (and to write).

I really liked this one, Dylan, even though I had the bad square. My favorite was "hold up man" for ATLAS. And thanks to CC for all you do.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Enjoyed doing the puzzle. $ red ltrs in the near mid-east, but I'll take it, DHAKA / AKELA got a bit messy because DHAKA was also spelt "Dacca" in the past.
ACA - French is ici.
TESLAS - My son loves his TESLA 3.
suites him for the length of trips he takes, mainly in eastern MA.
SCHIFF means ship in German. Note the following puzzle entries that are sea/ship related:
YAWED
SANK
OCEANIA
ICED IN
TOW
SUEZ
THAR
As to YAWED and C.C.'s Motion of the Ocean sketch, I would add "hogged" and "sagged".

Nice of Dylan to check in.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-It seems there is an OPERA cake, a correct guess got ALE_/SE_KETT and SOLO twice? Fun!
-RAZED/RAISED – Other near homonyms with opposite meanings - Aural/Oral, Whole/Hole…
-Dang! RADLE_/_AWED – Heaven knows why I chose an H
-Last night’s Garth Brooks concert in Lincoln was the terminus for his current tour. It was the biggest ticketed event in his career as 90,000 turned out
-My DW persists with checks, envelopes and STAMPS to pay bills
-Grandson has an assigned time to be in front of his new dorm tomorrow to UNLOAD for his freshman college year
-Dylan – “How many times must the cannon balls fly before there forever banned?”
-Seeing the PROS play baseball surrounded by cornfields last week was so cool
-Thanks for the puzzle and comments, Dylan. I suspect your dollars PER hour spent working on this would A DAB low

Picard said...

Wow. I am in awe of this LAYER CAKE construction. Had to pause for proper name crossings APOLO/PONGO and DHAKA/AKELA as well as BOGIES/HELOT. RADLEY also unknown.

Learning moment that CABLE was a thing in the 1950s. I had CABLE here in Santa Barbara for many years, but Cox Cable got too greedy for its own good. We just watch the few channels that are available in our isolated (by mountains and ocean) little town using an antenna.

Tried TIMEX before STAMP. Anyone else remember that?

Here are my photos of DIANA NYAD when she spoke here in 2015.

One thing I remembered was her training philosophy. If she set herself to swim a certain distance each day, she would do whatever it took to meet that distance. If she was short even one meter, she would go back and do that extra meter.

Here was my article about her inspiring and amazing talk.

CC Thanks as always for the illustrations and explanations. Good to know that you were also impressed by this construction.

Bob Lee said...

Yeah, I also had BOGEY at first.

Eventually gave up on the East section. CABLE invented in the 50s?! And forgot Dr. Doom since I had PINES instead of LONGS (for).

D-Otto - yeah, they realized that, so they gave DALEKS the ability to fly. BTW...I read somewhere that over 95% of UK kids know what a Dalek is. I also have a book on Doctor Who. Did you know that back in the 1960s they reused the tapes they recorded on because tapes were expensive and they never expected reruns or syndication? The book has a list of all the lost episodes because of that. (Some recovered from fans recording the broadcasts at the time, but about 1/3 gone forever).

Anonymous T said...

Sunday Lurk say...

{B+, B, B+}

Dylan - I've co-constructed one (1!) Sunday puzzle - 'twas (became) a chore [it's a lot of words!]. That you stack'd the theme? Oy! You have Job's patience.

BobLee - Thanks for confirming that DALEKS could fly. I thought I remembered they could at D-O's (LOL salt-shakers!) stair-case comment.

HG - I remember (vicariously through Eldest (DW & I had an apartment 1st year of college)) Move-In day from both the student and RA side of it. Done right, it's poetry in motion. Where's your Grand attending (or do I need to ask, Husker? :-)).

As I read (lurk'd) C.C.'s fine expo of Dylan's puzzle, TED Radio Hour was on... Here's a Martian that introduces yesterSOL.
//The radio program was re: slowing time; TED Talker is a JPL scientist pontificating on working Mars' time.

Anyone still have their Sony Discman? Jinx, you electronics whore-der*, I bet you do.
Mine are in a box in at the storage unit.

Which brings me to Crap: A History of Cheap Stuff [...]". I found the book at City Lights in SFO and am reading it now.
//Girls are still in Norman so I have some '-T time' to myself just to be.

Cheers, -T
*did someone (HG) mention homonyms? ;-)

Malodorous Manatee said...

Erased BAR and then TUB for MUG. A longer solve than "normal" for a Sunday. Finished in the east central where I an still pondering EMCEE / Run From A Stage?

Lemonade714 said...

MM, the concept is that the Master of Ceremonies actually runs the show while he is on stage.

This was not easy for a Sunday for me, but Dylan stopping by made the day sepcial. Thank you and as always - thank you werowance.

waseeley said...

FLN

These are just my prejudices about Italians, but like all such stereotypes they contain elements of truth:

Italians are GREAT architects, painters, sculptors, musicians, composers and orchestra conductors. They are the GREATEST composers of the GREATEST art form, that is OPERA. And they are among the best stand up comics on the Corner.

Cheers,
Bill

Anonymous T said...

Waseeley - Sabato Simon Rodia [12m - gotta love the Twilight Zone(ish) music inro] checks 3/5ths of the genus-Italian genius boxes.
//Eldest is nailing the OPERA thing :-) Enrico should be proud.

Cheers, -T

ATLGranny said...

WOW! A rare FIR on Sunday! Plenty of trouble spots, but my WAGs worked and I saw in time the meanings needed for others. R C CAR and WAYBILL were my last entries since I saw other possibilities for the perps. The clever themers were fun. OPERA cake was new to me too. Lots of learning and enjoyment today. Thanks, Dylan. Glad you stopped by.

Thanks, C.C. for your helpful and interesting review. Nice to hear from you today, Picard. I will celebrate my sweet success today, and I hope you all have a grand day too!

waseeley said...

HG @11:37A "The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind" and it's blowing through KABUL as we speak.

PICARD @11:45A Hand up for first thinking of "It takes a licking and keeps on ticking". And thanks for the pics of Diana NYAD and your inspiring article on her talk. She is a remarkable woman.

------------------------------
Thanks Dylan for sharing your impressive baking skills with us. I found the theme quite helpful and none of my cakes were RAZED, but I did have a little trouble getting the SPONGE cake to RISE. It did in the end and I was rewarded with a delicious FIR. Oh and thanks for stopping by with a little background about how you cooked this puzzle up.

And thank you C.C. for slicing the pieces, arranging them neatly, and making them all make sense!



31A All all things, I'd never heard of OPERA cake. Before the theme emerged I wanted GRAND. BTW the live Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts have been around 1931, although due to the pandemic they've recently been rebroadcasting some of the great performances of the past.

61A OPUS - the plural of this is OPERA, as the genre had its beginnings as just a series of loosely connected dramatic ARIAS.

65A Fav clue/fill: "Joltless Joe" : DECAF

69A My dad always used to tell us the "bogey man" might get us if we went out at night, never really telling us what one looked like. I guess BOGIES sounds scarier than "Unidentified Flying Radar Blips" (URFBS?) Maybe the DOD thought they needed better PR?

78A The PASCA who appears in Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio is a villain at the beginning, but shows mercy to his captives in the end.

86A I prefer to drink my 63A ALE in stoneware MUGS.

30D DALEKS I heard a story once that these creatures (they do actually contain protoplasm) were inspired by a production of the ballet La Bayadere by Ludwig Minkus, attended by one of the Dr. Who writers. The dancers were all costumed in conical dresses that covered their feet and they seemed to just float across the floor. As comical as they appear, their raspy cries of "Exterminate, Exterminate!" do seem to have the desired effect of terrifying British school children.

36D WAR - was that your clue Dylan, or was that a CSO to the constructor from Rich?

Cheers,
Bill

Jinx in Norfolk said...

-T, pay up! I've never had a Diskman, but I only recently took a cassette Walkman to the recyclers. I had left the batteries in and they corroded all over the compartment, plus I think I've tossed all of my tapes (except for the ones that run on the Apple. BTW, one such cassette is a chess game that plays a decent game on a 16 kilobyte machine. However, the graphics make Pong seem advanced.)

PK said...

Hi Y'all! WOW! Dylan, thanks for the yummy theme. Thanks, C.C. for the expo.

MUG could also mean the face that is being sudsed.

Got a warning from my cyber security co. that this site is unsafe because it is being used by hackers. Do tell!

waseeley said...

-T @2:11 PM A remarkable story about a remarkable human being. Ananda Coomaraswamy once said "An artist is not a special kind of person. Every person is a special kind of artist". Rodia was both a special kind of artist and a special person.

Baltimore has a museum devoted to the work of such people called "The American Visionary Arts Museum". The exhibits are all by people with no academic art background, who were seized by some inner need to make art with what they could find at hand. Here's their website.

I'm sending the link to the Rodia video to AVAM in the offchance that they've not seen it. I'm also it to my best friend, an Italian I've known since the 7th grade. He's a retired IT guy who is slowly writing a multi-volume autobiography. I'm in it and I've told when he gets to the 60's I might have to censor some parts!

Cheers,
Bill

ATTENTION ALL CORNERITES: take some time and view the remarkable video that -T posted about SABATO SIMON RODIA.

waseeley said...

-T @2:11 PM OPERA is an acquired taste, but once you've acquired it, you start to LONG for it :-) Any relatives of ENRICO (the GREATEST tenor of all time) in your tree?

Jayce said...

Loved this puzzle and savored all 55 minutes it took me to complete it. I confess to doing one lookup, namely Mel C. I kept thinking Mel B and Scary Spice, but scary is one letter too short and I kept trying to stretch into Scarey Spice. 50% right, anyway.

Loved the layered cakes. I think I have tasted them all at one time or another. My wife makes a killer LEMON cake from the lemons produced by the tree in our back yard. She makes several of them which we give to the neighbors.

So, it wasn't DRONE; it was RC CAR. It wasn't SABER; it was LANCE. It wasn't MAIS OUI; it was BIEN SUR. It wasn't COLOR; it was CABLE. It wasn't AWES or ZAPS; it was WOWS. It wasn't YALE; it was UCLA.

I knew Boo RADLEY from the book and the excellent movie. He was played by Robert Duvall, which I believe was Duvall's very first movie role. Of course I also knew ORSON Welles. I did not at all know DALEK, MARC Cohn, DR DOOM, or PONGO.

Good wishes to you all.

Anonymous said...

My local paper had 119A clued as "Dynamite stuff." Glad that got fixed somewhere along the line.

Malodorous Manatee said...

Thanks for explaining, Lemonade. Another hand up for John Cameron Swayzee and the Timex commercials.

Lemonade714 said...

It is impressive if anyone understands me as the dyslexia takes firm control...

Dyslexia Mystery said...

LEMONADE what did you mean by "thank you werowance" ?

Husker Gary said...

Musings 2
-Anon-T – Grandson got accepted at a lot of colleges and really wanted to go to USC but Covid prevented his visiting and so he wound up at University of Nebraska where he will go for free with so many scholarships. Our granddaughter graduated from UNL three years ago and we will also have another grandson, a grandniece and grandnephew in Lincoln as well. Lincoln has really worked on making itself a very fine institution of higher learning.

Misty said...

Fun Sunday puzzle, many thanks, Dylan--and thank you for stopping by. C.C. I always love your Sunday commentaries, and am already looking forward to Boomer's tomorrow.

Nice to see EZRA POUND, first and last name, in a puzzle. Also Samuel BECKETT and ALEC Waugh. Also a Tennyson quotation--lots of literature--Yay!
STAMP for "it may take a licking" cracked me up--but I got it.

Have a great end of the weekend, everybody.

Wilbur Charles said...

After I filled everything I tried to recheck. But I'd foolishly inked Mormons until I had to remember COUGARS. Said mess obscured isON and RiCAR. FIW

I slogged through and eventually came up with ALEC not Evan, ADAB not AtAd and not TWO of the DOE EYES for those ingenues.

ULYSSES could have been a CSO to Misty if Joyce was in the clue.

Took me awhile to get BIEN SUR and MUG,MOD. For once the P&Ps were familiar.

Not too much LHF today.

WC

Ps, just read the wiki on POUND. Clue could have read "Highly controversial poet"

TLA Mystery said...

WILBUR CHARLES WTF LHF? Long Haired Freaks? Letter Head Fonts?

Spitzboov said...

LHF - - Low Hanging Fruit

waseeley said...

WC @6:40 PM Pound was lucky he didn't get hanged for treason.

Big Easy said...

It's been a run of FIW & DNF lately. I got all the CAKES, (never heard of OPERA or SHEET CAKES) but the CABLE, LONGS, BORNE, ACROPHOBE, & DR DOOM area got me. I've never seen Vertigo, Dr. Who, or Fantastic Four. I wanted either ACHES or PINES but LONGS never gave me a toehold.

DALEK joined the perp list. I have seen "101 Dalmatians" but PONGO wasn't remembered- perps. Luckily I correctly perped ACA & BIEN SUR-no idea on those two.

RC CAR- I filled it by perps but only left it because the perps were so solid.
BOGIES- if the singular is BOGEY (not BOGY) you would think the plural would be BOGEYS, not "IES".

SHOOTS PAR- you need to be a super golfer to even get close to shooting par on a decent course. I ONCE shot par for eight straight holes and then the wheels fell off.

SOLO ACT- C.C., your photo reminds me of the Sonny & Cher costumes from the mid 60's. Cave man.

One MISTAKE from both Dylan and Rich. SHEETROCK is US Gypsum's brand name for GYPSUM BOARD. It is not the material. The 'material' inside the two sheets of paper is mostly gypsum.

Picard- Cox Communications is the most annoying company I've ever dealt with in my entire life. They must hire the rejects from used car lots. That goes for customer service, sales, and the installers & repair personnel. But from what I've heard every CABLE company is the same.

waseeley said...

TLA @6:55 PM It'll show up as the fill for a Cwd clue before you know it.

Lucina said...

Hola!

Though the day is almost done, I am here to report! It has been a long day and I worked on the puzzle off and on, was on the verge of finishing, when Steve Reeves appeared on PBS with his travelogue through the Alps. My attention was riveted! Even if I don't travel I like to hear about, learn about and watch about travel. Then dinner time arrived.

So finally I finished the few blanks I had left. BOGIES (yes, should be BOGEYS)/HELOT, a work I learned from CWDS and had almost forgotten. Then DOE EYED and CABLE. I had COLOR.

Of course, or should I say, BIENSUR, I loved all the CAKES! Like some of you I have never heard of OPERA CAKE. I will taste any CAKE, though. I, too, have a wonderful recipe for LEMONCAKE.

Also, I have been dealing with the person who has been trying to defraud me claiming to be from PCH and was forced to change my credit card. When the new one arrives it will cause all kinds of havoc until I change information on several sites which draw from it.

I am reminded that my DISCMAN is sitting in a drawer somewhere.

Loved the clued for EMCEE. As far as I know, all STAMPS are self-stick. No more licking.

Of all things to err on, PEW! I can't believe it. But then, I did not know SALTNPEPA. REALLY? Is that a thing?

GUFFAW is fun to say.

I hope you have all enjoyed your day!





Picard said...

ATLGranny Thank you for the kind words!

WA Seeley and Malodorous Manatee Thank you for validating that you also thought of TIMEX before STAMP.

WA Seeley Thank you for the kind words about my DIANA NYAD photos and article. She indeed is inspiring.

Big Easy Glad you agree about the evils of Cox CABLE. When I went to cancel service five years ago I could not even find a single person who cared to know why I was cancelling. I found one woman there who said it is only "old people" who watch TV anymore and she expects it will all go away soon anyway.

AnonT Thank you for posting about Simon Rodia and the Watts Towers. I have visited there twice, most recently with DW and her sister. Perhaps I will gather photos another time.

WA Seeley Thank you for the information about "The American Visionary Arts Museum" to expand on what AnonT said. I had a hazy memory of being there. I just found a few photos from July 2009. But they are all of the outside of the building. Maybe it was closed or maybe they didn't let me take photos inside.

I also forgot to thank Dylan Schiff for stopping by today. The more I review this puzzle the more I am in awe. I did notice that the theme reveal was also part of the theme answers. Very pleased to have FIR.

Lemonade To echo the Mystery person, what was that odd string of characters in your post supposed to be?

I never owned a DISC MAN. Out of my price range at the time. But I did have a WalkMAN which I used on my bike ride to work for a few years. I learned that it was OK when I was on the protected bike path. But very dangerous even riding on a quiet street. I think I still have it, though it is quite obsolete.

Wilbur Charles said...


Re. LHF, us P&I* guys need solid fills to work from. Ironically I knew RIPA and given the Central Florida CSO of BUCS we could have had NBA in the MAGIC Clue.

I "knew" most of BigE's list but dredging the stuff up from the recesses of this aged brain was another thing. Ex. HELOT,BECKETT,COUGARS.

If YR were here she'd point out that BOGIES, Bogeys are both OK

WC

*Pen and Ink guys.

Michael said...

Dear Anon -T : Thanks for the Rodia video. Not only was it interesting, but it started with a shot of a Pacific Electric streetcar. Before LA was seduced by Chevron and GM into the freeway delusion, my mom told me you could get from Pasadena to Santa Monica in half an hour on the PE (even on a good day now, you're looking at an hour plus by car). Of course, this was in the 1940s, but it's costing billions to replace the rail system that was.

Misty said...

Wilbur, you're right--if the clue had been Joyce's work, I would have gotten 'Ulysses' right away.

Anonymous T said...

Just got off the phone with my (CEO) brother... He's going to make the trip to SPI for (Army) Bro's retirement bash! But it's a secret; please don't tell a-nobody.

HG - Nebraska is a fine school (I think I eKnow an Average professor there ;-)). I had buddies from LSU and only learned negative connotations of your Great-Plains school. (I think that's 'cuz you Huskers were pretty dern good at football and LSU was jelly).
Your Grandson will get out what he puts in [and, with you as his North Star, he'll do great].

Jayce - all my [Radio Shack] RC-CARs got really hurt after jumping makeshift ramps. My model rockets didn't fare much better (I swear it's still up there - launched it in '81, I did. Put in 3 D engines and never saw it again)
//P.S.: I'll send you top dollar for a _real_ lemon POUND cake. [email me]

Picard - Please! dig out those photos. I've never been to Watts -- the towers are on my bucket list.

Waseeley - thanks for the link to ACAM. I spent ~1hr clicking about. Very nice.

Michael - you sent me down another rabbit-hole. Didn't know of PE's cars (but did know Chevron is CA based). Thank you for the fun.

Jinx, my man. I'm sorely disappointed... <insert wonky face >
Was it the lack of CD's fidelity that kept you away?
//Don't get me started on all the CDs I ripp'd to MP3s. The highs are clipped and the lows either fade out or blow the woofers.

Hoping y'all a grand (I like that, ATLGranny) tomorrow,
C, -T

TTP said...


Lucina, Steve Reeves or Rick Steves ? I'm not familiar with Steve Reeves but really enjoy the travel shows of Rick Steves. I like his relaxed, easy going style. And that he touches on the basics that would help one get acclimated.

I think I relate to him because when I was in Germany and traveled in Europe, I had too few dollars to spend so I learned to travel on the cheap. You don't have to stay at a world class hotel in London or Paris to see the sights. You don't have to dress to the nines for a meal in a 5 star restaurant to enjoy the local foods.

The Discovery Network's "The Travel Channel" used to air some good travel programs. It's anything but travel now.