google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday, October 17, 2021 Robert E. Lee Morris

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Oct 17, 2021

Sunday, October 17, 2021 Robert E. Lee Morris

Theme:  "Scrapper's Delight" - Anagrams of 9 metals are hidden inside each theme entry.

23A. Attorneys' firm offering: LEGAL SERVICES. Silver.

29A. With no one behind you: DEAD LAST. Lead.

38A. Potential soldier: ARMY RECRUIT. Mercury.

54A. Drumstick: CHICKEN LEG. Nickel.

72A. Provider of much change: COIN RETURN. Iron.

87A. Chatty Cathy is one: TALKING DOLL. Gold.

95A. Mid-20th-century First and Second Lady: PAT NIXON. Tin.

37D. N.W.A's debut single: PANIC ZONE. Zinc.

50D. Coal train component: HOPPER CAR. Copper.

Reveal:

104. Scrapyard commodity ... and what's hidden in the nine other longest puzzle answers: RECYCLED METAL.

No circles in this grid, not that they're needed to solve the puzzle. 

Anagrammed themes seem to be popular these days, esp with LAT and Universal. Quite impressive to have MERCURY and COPPER anagrammed.

Across:

1. Check alternative: PAYPAL. My PayPal account is just my email address. So simple.

7. Sacred beetle: SCARAB. The Egyptian beetle.

13. Tijuana pair: DOS. Two in Spanish.

16. It can be natural: GAS.

19. Creed in Rocky films: APOLLO.

20. Winter melon: CASABA. This is what Chinese "winter melon" looks like. Popular soup ingredient in winter.


21. MPG-testing org.: EPA.

22. Wordsworth work: ODE.

25. "Day __": 1965 hit: TRIPPER. The Beatles.

27. Way out: EXIT.

28. Put on a pedestal: DEIFY.

30. Capital NW of Boston: OTTAWA. Let's see.


33. Secure at the pier: LASH. New meaning to me.

34. Pooch in pictures: ASTA. "The Thin Man" .

35. Backtalk: LIP.

42. Storage unit: BYTE.

43. In hot water: UP A TREE.

45. Prefix with gender: TRANS.

46. Sorento or Soul: KIA. Minority owned by Hyundai.

47. Cocktail party snacks: CANAPES.

48. Tommy who teamed with Cheech: CHONG. Cheech & Chong

49. Queen's "__ One Bites the Dust": ANOTHER.

53. "Cool, dude!": I DIG IT.

56. Buckeyes of the Big Ten: OSU.

57. Handy sack: COT.

58. Sham sawbones: QUACK. And 81. Snake oil, allegedly: PANACEA.

59. Lubricate: OIL.

60. Church recess: APSE.

61. Bird voiced by Rowan Atkinson in "The Lion King": ZAZU.  The 1994 film. Voiced by John Oliver in 2019 remake. Google shows Zazu means "Movement" in Swahili.


63. Road annoyances: BUMPS.

64. Complete: TOTAL.

66. Navy NCOs: CPOS. Also 84. Veteran on the briny: OLD SALT.

67. Oodles: A LOT.

68. Thor Heyerdahl craft: RAI. Old regular.

69. Auspices: AEGIS.

70. Pool tool: CUE.

71. "Little Birds" author Anaïs: NIN.

75. Cracker-__: homespun: BARREL. I only know the restaurant Cracker Barrel, where I first heard of catfish.
78. Everlasting: ETERNAL.

80. Deliver a stem-winder, say: ORATE.

82. Multivolume set in the reference sect.: OED.

83. African capital: CAIRO.

85. Green Bay Packers coach LaFleur: MATT. No idea. Lots of Packers fan in Minnesota.


90. Deli choice: RYE. Our local Asian store sells freshly made bánh mì. I like their pickled carrots & daikon.


91. Many opera highlights: SOLI. Solos more common.

92. "National Velvet" author Bagnold: ENID.

93. Site of a major part of the Bible?: RED SEA. Oh, parting of the red sea.

97. Shoulder wrap: SHAWL.

99. Snippet of dialogue: LINE.

103. Hold back: INHIBIT.

108. Charge: FEE.

109. Infant suffix: ILE. Infantile.

110. Alphabetically first U.S. national park: ACADIA.
 
111. Catholic devotion: NOVENA. Nine-day ritual.

112. OTC drug agency: FDA.

113. __ Plaines: Chicago suburb: DES.

114. Homer, in baseball lingo: GO DEEP. Tiny dupe with 16. Overtake: GO PAST.

115. Tarzan, e.g.: APE MAN.

Down:

1. Ashen: PALE.

2. High point: APEX.

3. "Smarter than the average bear" bear: YOGI.

4. "Republic" philosopher: PLATO. "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle". He said.


5. Word with caps or clear: ALL.

6. Spanish article: LOS.

7. Off-the-wall: SCREWY.

8. Pricey delicacy: CAVIAR. Have you tried caviar on toast?

9. "Keep dreaming": AS IF.

10. Risqué: RACY. So odd about Blogger/Google algorithm. They send you to spam if you mention EROTIC in the comment. Thankfully TTP noticed that. Thanks to those who helped us test last Monday.

11. Former Japanese prime minister: ABE. Universally disliked in Japan.

12. __-relief: BAS.

13. Abhor: DETEST.

14. Part of OWN: OPRAH.

15. Common word in a novel's dialogue: SAID.

17. "__ Fideles": ADESTE.

18. Maker of iComfort mattresses: SERTA.

24. Mingo portrayer on "Daniel Boone": ED AMES. He's still alive. 94 years old now.


26. Dabble in: PLAY AT.

29. Where many speeches come from: DAIS.

31. La Brea attraction: TAR PIT.

32. Brand similar to Spam: TREET. Never had this or Spam.

33. Fencing maneuver: LUNGE.

35. '60s White House daughter: LUCI. Heard of her only because Boomer likes to sing Luci Baines. He's been having a sore throat since last Monday. He could hardly talk yesterday. He's not coughing. Just feeling weak.

36. Apple offering: IPAD.

39. Focus of some committees: ETHICS.

40. Bit of stoneware: CROCK. Not sure if you guys know about the kimchi wars between China and South Korea. When I grew up, we called pickled napa cabbage/daikon as "pao cai", and we called Kimchi as "Korean pao cai".


41. Arrange in sequence: RANK.

42. Library sect.: BIOG. Biography.

44. Retire at home, say?: TAG OUT. Home plate. Also 75. Calls at home: BALLS.

46. Solemn sound: KNELL.

48. Lad: CHAP.

49. Bit of checkpoint deception: ALIAS.

51. Exxon, once: ESSO.

52. Feels bad about: RUES.

54. Seasoning in Indian cuisine: CUMIN. Also key ingredient in Xinjiang (Uygur) lamb skewers, popular street food in Xi'an. Lots of Muslim food. Lots of Korean food in our neighborhood. As I said before, they're just two of the ethnic minorities in China.

55. At lunch, say: NOT IN.

58. California state bird: QUAIL. Ours is Loon. The nickname for our soccer team Minnesota United is "The Loons".  Guess what, PK, their mascot is called PK.


60. TLX autos: ACURAS.

61. Western writer Grey: ZANE.

62. Came down: ALIT.

63. In __ daylight: BROAD.

64. Ancient German: TEUTON.

65. Storybook fiend: OGRE.

69. Vintage video game name: ATARI.

70. Symbol of a year, perhaps: CANDLE. Boomer turns 74 on Oct 27!

72. Tech news site: CNET.

73. Explorer Amundsen: ROALD. Norwegian explorer. I only know Dahl, who was named after the explorer, according to Wikipedia.


74. Estrada of "CHiPs": ERIK.

76. Hard to grasp: EELY.

77. Running behind: LATE.

79. Helix-shaped pasta: ROTINI.

81. Curly-haired pet: POODLE.

83. Genesis brother: CAIN.

85. Sounded like the wind: MOANED.

86. Tennis great Gibson: ALTHEA. First Black Grand Slam winner.


87. Govt. securities: T NOTES.

88. __ Mansion, NYC mayor's residence: GRACIE.  Current mayor and his wife.


89. Lizard feature: DEWLAP.

91. Calvin's spaceman alter ego, in comics: SPIFF. Unknown to me.


92. Force to leave: EXILE.

94. Motrin alternative: ALEVE.

96. Footnote abbr.: IBID.

97. Whole bunch: SCAD.

98. "Nothing lived in him but fear and hatred": HYDE.

100. List member: ITEM.

101. Family nickname: NANA. We call "nei nei" in Chinese.

102. Flair: ELAN.

104. Common cleaning supply: RAG. 107. Common cleaning supply: MOP.

105. Tourism opening: ECO.

106. Target of a cheek swab: DNA.

A few extra notes:

1) When I emailed Agnes on Thursday, she's still coughing and she just could not get a good rest in the evening. Poor Agnes also can't tolerate Robitussin, which relieved my coughing ordeal a few years ago. Get back to us soon, Agnes! Been too long.

2) Happy birthday to Wilbur Charles! When did you join our blog, Bill?  2014?


C.C.

27 comments:

OwenKL said...

FIRight with no more difficulty than a typical mid-week puzzle, but the theme was a total stopper! Once I gave in and looked at the reveal, I saw I never had a chance. At least not without circles! Even after I saw the trick, it was still a significant puzzle, as I searched for ALUMINUM, CHROMIUM, GALLIUM... And ironically, the last two I found, considerably after the rest but almost simultaneously, were GOLD and SILVER!
The puzzle title, BTW, was no help at all. It had me looking for hidden words related to fighting!

There are some who think ETHICS is a CROCK.
They'd as soon go to a QUACK as a doc?
They think a snake-OIL PANACEA
Is as good as a vaxx that's rea'?
Their I.Q.s must be as high as their socks!

YOGI and PLATO, together at last!
Two smart critters from our past!
Plato wrote books on our minds,
Yogi steals pic-a-nic baskets he finds!
Which gives modern thinkers a blast?

{A+, B.}

YooperPhil said...

Fun puzzle today as the challenge was not only to complete the grid but to suss out the nine metals anagrammed in the words. Nice that the key letters are not circled, forcing the solver to go back and figure them all out! Had a few bumps before FIR as I had curry for cumin and evict for exile before the perps helped me out, as they did on “rai”, as I’d never heard of that. Thank you for your efforts in putting that one together Robert 👊🏼

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Got 'er done. Totally missed the theme. Some things never change. Feel into the MOOR and CURRY traps. "BURPS in the road" didn't sound right. Also misspelled GRACIE with an EY. Thanx for the challenge R.E.L.M., and for the tour C.C.

Happy birthday, Wilbur. Don't spend it in the W.C.

desper-otto said...

Feel/Fell -- thank you, otto-correct.

Lemonade714 said...

My autocorrect irritation is when I type WELL the computer thinks I am saying WE'LL . Why, the context is always wrong...

My unknown was TEETER but I don't do SPAM either. PANACEA appears so soon after my Friday write-up and NOVENA as a CSO to dear Lucy Dale.

We will continue to pray for better health for Boomer and Agnes. Be well all, and thank you RELM.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Not hard today. Got it all in due course. Not big on anagrams, but did uncover 3 of them. Glad to see CPOS; key people on a warship. Unknowns like CHONG and ZAZU perped in.

Happy Birthday to WC.

Best wishes for improved health for IM and Boomer.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but erased cure all for PANACEA, gray for PALE, acme for APEX, semper for ADESTE, lais for DAIS, lucy for LUCI, imac for IPAD, sort for RANK, and oily for EELY. Notable unknowns were ZAZU, RAI and NOVENA. Forgot to look at the theme, but since it was anagrams I feel like I didn't miss anything.

My favorite restaurant in all of Chicagoland was Romano's in Des Plaines. I think there is an imposter using the name now.

For "brand similar to Spam" I really wanted ALPO, but it didn't have enough letters.

I guess if we can have SNAFU and FUBAR, its OK to have NWA. Doesn't mean I have to like it.

I mainly knew ZANE Grey because he was Colonel Sherman Potter's favorite author.

Thanks for the fun, REL Morris. And thanks to CC for the interesting commentary.

Big Easy said...

The General constructed the easiest Sunday puzzle to FIR I've seen lately. The RECYCLED METAL was in place before I read the clue so I never looked for the hidden elements. Just a few unknowns filled by perps including two pairs- PANIC ZONE & ZAZU and RAI & QUAIL- crossing each other. Didn't know SPIFF, NOVENA, MATT LAfleur, or Cracker BARREL (just the restaurants that I don't like but DW does; I hate the potpourri smell in their store section, which give me a headache).

Had to change OILY to EELY; HOWLED to MOANED.
ACADIA- more Acadians in S. LA than in Maine. ULL's sports teams are the Ragin' CAJUNS.
Never heard the term UP A TREE, just UP A CREEK without a paddle.
I never knew that one of the four LBJs was LUCI (not LUCY) Baines; others are Lady Byrd, Linda Byrd, & POTUS LBJ.

"32. Brand similar to Spam: TREET. Never had this or Spam." C.C., Neither have I.

Bob Lee said...

I wasn't a fan of the number of names in the West section (Luci, Zane, Nin) but otherwise a fun Sunday.

I wonder if La Brea TARPIT is in here because of the new TV Series on NBC "La Brea" where a giant hole opens up in L.A. and swallows a bunch of folks.

CrossEyedDave said...

Pretty much filled in the entire puzzle all the
Way down to the recycled metals reveal, but
When I went looking for gold and iron I could
Not find them as with nine choices I was overwhelmed.
( maybe circles aren't so bad after all)

Never heard of treet, so I did some research.
Which led me me to something else unheard of, /a>potted meat?

Happy birthday Wilbur Charles,
what will they think of next?

Malodorous Manatee said...

Never did see the theme/anagrams but twasn't necessary to complete the puzzle. Another hand up, here, for SEMPER before ADESTE and for not knowing the Packers' coach's first name...VINCE? It helped that I had read a lot of Calvin and Hobbes back in the day.

Happy Birthday, WC, and please feel better soon I.M.

Misty said...

Neat Sunday puzzle, many thanks, Robert. And your Sunday write-ups are always a treat, C.C. Thanks, too, for the update on Agnes--we miss her.

I know my Latin and so got "ADESTE Fidelis".

Always nice to see CAVIAR in puzzles--makes me hungry.

ASTA sure shows up a lot in puzzles, doesn't he? she?

Still remember attending NOVENAs in my childhood.

Have a lovely Sunday, everybody.

jfromvt said...

Typical Sunday. Nice puzzle. The theme was secondary, as the long answers didn’t require knowing the recycled metal.

I remember the first Cheech and Chong album back in the late ‘60s. It was hilarious. Basketball Jones and several other funny tracks.

CanadianEh! said...

Stupendous Sunday. Thanks for the fun, Robert and C.C.
I FIRed in good time and saw the theme, but DH was waiting for lunch and I did not go back to find all the metals. Circles would have sped that up (but also removed some challenge).

Hand up for Moor and Curry.
I had Adore before DEIFY; Esau before CAIN (whoops, wrong chapter of Genesis), also Eery before EELY and was scratching my head trying to figure out how that was “hard to grasp”.
I smiled to see PAYPAL today, after Ray-o’s take on our Saturday constructor’s name.

My kids loved The Lion King, and I remembered ZAZU.
But TREET was unknown.

Even this Canadian had trouble going far enough NW from Boston to get across the border to OTTAWA. At least Americans can cross to the north; Canadian Day TRIPPERS (and Snowbirds) must wait until Nov. 8 to drive south and cross to USA. Plane travel was never restricted- go figure!

Favourite clue today was for RED SEA.

Wishing better health and rest for Irish Miss.
Happy Birthday WC.

Wishing you all a great day.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-I needed the reveal for the horizontal and vertical gimmicks
-Only a J short of a pangram to complement the anagrams
-HOPPER CARS full of coal are now seen much less frequently here
-I cannot detect any flavor in CASABA melons
-After four years @$5M/yr, the Husker FB coach is definitely in hot water
-Queen’s Another One Bites The Dust and We Are The Champions are big tunes at athletic events
-We of a certain age remember ZAZU Pitts
-NIN’s works are RACY
-Library section is BIOG and not BIOS?
-Somehow SPIFF became an adjective for neat and tidy in this house
-Happy Birthday, WC!

Anonymous T said...

Sunday Lurk say...

Is RELM a fan of early Rap?
Scrapper's Delight makes me think of Sugar Hill Gang's Rapper's Delight [14:45 - just get to :30 :-)]. Note: At :18 is a sample of (49a) Queen's Another One Bites the Dust.
Coincidence?

Happy Birthday WC. Nice to put a face to the name; fine picture my ALCS nemesis :-)

C.C. - Had a bánh mì yesterday for lunch. They're my favorite sandwich after Rubins.

{A, B+}

Spaceman Spiff / Calvin & Hobbes - makes me think of BillG reading to Jordon. You still reading us Bill?

Get well soon Irish Miss.

Cheers, -T

Lizlee said...

I very rarely comment but just had to today! This one was astonishingly easy for a Sunday, at least for me. There were no silly clues or silly answers, as is sometimes the case. I flew right through it. Usually a Sunday involves a lot of thinking, mulling, and time, lots of time. As usual, I was clueless (haha) about the theme, until it was explained here. Very satisfying all round.

Jayce said...

I enjoyed this puzzle but did not see or look for the jumbled metals. For some reason I filled GAS right away, which gave me ADESTE, so no changes needed there. I did have to change TBONDS to TNOTES, MOOR to LASH, and PATRICIA to PAT NIXON. The last letter I filled was the U in ZAZU. Loved the clue for RED SEA.

I Robot. I Ron. I Digit.

Take care, all.

inanehiker said...

This was a nice steady solve - perfect for solving while watching football. That also helped during the solve as I was watching Matt LaFleur coach the Packers to a victory!

Thanks CC and REL for a fun afternoon.

Happy birthday WC/Bill!

Just finished a well written mystery, legal thriller, "Miracle Creek" by Angie Kim. It is her debut novel.

Unknown said...

Fun puzzle today. Didn't need the "secret" to finish! Actually, mixed up anagrams never crossed my mind! Thanks for an enjoyable afternoon ... Now I need to get to the house cleaning ...drat! No more excuses!!

TTP said...


Fun puzzle. Didn't look for the metals as my typos undermined the perfect score, and that made me sore :>).

Happy Birthday, Wilbur Charles ! You would have had even more HBD wishes if it wasn't Sunday, when readership and commenting is low. Why don't you have your birthday on Monday next year, when everyone is here ?

Today's puzzle was by Robert E. LEE Morris, and Bob LEE and LizLEE were both complimentary. I was waiting to see if Sara was going to post a comment, but not yet.

Vidwan827 said...

Thank you Rob E Lee Morris for a long ( its, Sunday folks ) and challenging puzzle and CC for a charming review. I did complete the crossword, but I didn't try to get the metal anagrams, which I would have loved since I have samples of all these metals and more in my little collection.... I also have Yttrium, Palladium, Tungsten, Gallium and Niobium...


There were many things I didn't know, and I put it to a Learning moment, and enjoyed the experience. Things like NWA ( Thanks, Jinx for NWA and Fubar ...) and OWN ( Whaaa ).

68 A ... Thor Heyerdahl's balsa raft -craft was .... RA I ... as in RA the first.
Wiki informs that there was the original RA and then .... RA 2 ,.... but no RA the first ...

BTW, per the latest research, based on DNA analysis, Thor's migration/ immigration theory has been proved wrong, or mostly incorrect... But, it was exciting and interesting while it lasted, and didn't hurt nobody none...

Have a good day, and a good week, ahead, all.


Vidwan827 said...

Sorry ....
Happy Birthday Wilbur Charles, and many more ahead. Hope you had a great day, and a fine dinner.

Best wishes and prayers for Irish Miss, Agnes. Hope you continue to improve.

CanadianEh! said...

Inanehiker - I too just finished a “well written mystery, legal thriller”! Mine was Denial, the second novel by Beverley McLachlin, former Chief Justice of Canada, now retired. Great read! (and of course the courtroom drama is authentic).

SwampCat- I am just waiting to get my hands on the Clinton/Penny novel, State of Terror, that was just released the other day. Penny’s recent The Madness of Crowds was terrific.

Chairman Moe said...

Puzzling thoughts:

HBTY, Bill - I just finished the puzzle before lights out. It’s still your birthday here in AZ, WC

Wilbur Charles said...

Thx CC re. Part(ing) of the RED SEA

A (round)TRIPPER is another term for a homer. R.E.L. was looking for the verb term. I tried yesterday's DINGER

The original ZAZU
Not to speak of this original
GRACIE

I got 8 but missed SILVER. I saw Slag and stopped

Thanks everybody for Bday wishes. C-Moe, you may still be up, eh? Nice cake, C-eh,eh?

Got a very late start as this was a travel day. We stopped at Fort Island Beach. Been there, Jinx?

WC

CanadianEh! said...

WC- the thanks for the cake goes to CED@11:52 (who always helps us celebrate). Thanks to AnonT for finding a cake for CED on his birthday recently!