google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, Jun, 11, 2024 ~ Jay Silverman

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Jun 11, 2024

Tuesday, Jun, 11, 2024 ~ Jay Silverman

Future Farmers of America?

No, today Jay offers four thememers each of which with four (4) Hs in the fill.

18. Like some boots: THIGH HIGH.
Stock Photo(?)

23. Jewish New Year: ROSH HASHANAH.

37. With 39-Across, considered carefully: THOUGHT.
39. See 37-Across: THROUGH.

48. "How do you tell them apart?": WHICH IS WHICH.


And the unifier:
57. Youth organization that 18-, 23-, 37-/39-, and 48-Across could be members of?: FOUR-H CLUB.

Across:
1. Highest point: ACME.
You can actually buy this book.

5. Sunup: DAWN.

9. App opener: USER.

13. "Arrested Development" actress Portia de __: ROSSI.
Portia w/ her wife Ellen

15. Vietnam's continent: ASIA.

16. Jewish wedding dance: HORA.

17. Conclude with: END ON.

18. [See: Theme]

20. Message on a rescue dog's kennel, perhaps: ADOPT ME.
 
Pop's rescue (Tinker) checking out the pizzelles

22. Continental coins: EUROS.

23. [See: Theme]

27. First __ kit: AID.

28. PDQ kin: ASAP. Pretty Damn Quick: As Soon As Possible.

29. Pekoe, e.g.: TEA.

32. Complete, as a PDF contract: ESIGN. Portable Document Format files can be eSign'd.

35. Large deer: ELKS.

36. Boys: LADS.

37. [See: Theme]

39. [See: Theme]

41. Word before crawl or cycle: NEWS.
Generic (#noPolitics) News Crawl at the bottom

42. Dismayed cry: OH NO.

44. Cosmetician Lauder: ESTEE.

45. Orthodontist's org.: ADA. American Dental Association.

46. Roasting rod: SPIT.

47. CT summer hrs.: EDT. Connecticut is on Eastern Daylight Time in the summer.

48. [See: Theme]

53. Skylit courtyards: ATRIA.

56. Focus of many a school fair: SCIENCE. Did I ever tell the story of when, in HS, I won 2nd-prize* for my work on Fibonacci numbers at the (LA) State Science Fair?

57. [See: Theme]

61. Lowest point: NADIR.

62. Went by car: RODE.

63. Teller's partner in magic: PENN.

I'm thinking about getting tix for their Rio show
 when I'm in Vegas for Blackhat|Defcon.

64. Pulverize, as peppercorns: GRIND.

65. Rubber-stamped: OKED.

66. x or y, on graphs: AXIS.

67. Clothing labels: TAGS.

Down:
1. Toward the back: AREAR.

2. Many a retirement unit: CONDO.

Weird Al

3. Windows predecessor: MS-DOS. Microsoft Disc Operating System.

4. Part of the digestive system: ESOPHAGUS. Learned this in Gulp.
Many of Mary Roach's books are
fun looks at "gross" things.

5. Calendar array: DATES
// Oy! This week the DATES are crazy. Youngest left yesterday for an internship in CHI. I leave Thurs for ORD and DW leaves two hours later for Japan. Eldest is set to land at MDW and we'll meet at CHI's Union Station for an Amtrak to SPI. Youngest will join us Sunday in SPI for Father's Day. Then we all disperse again the 17th (when the next blog is due [don't expect much folks :-)]).

6. Wood for many woodworking projects: ASH.

7. Nintendo game console: WII.

8. Remind constantly: NAG.

9. "Surely!": UH HUH.

10. French evening: SOIR. Root-word for a fancy soiree perhaps?

11. Logician's "In that case ... ": ERGO.

12. Stadium cheers: RAHS.

14. Latest trend: IN THING.

19. Jalopy: HEAP.

21. Furious: MAD.

24. Actor Holbrook: HAL. Mark Twain impressionist.

Some #Politics(?)

25. Invite for: ASK TO.

26. Two-time NBA MVP Steve: NASH.

29. Pulled tight: TAUT.

30. Border: EDGE.

31. Tennis icon Arthur: ASHE.

32. Active volcano on Sicily: ETNA.

33. Garden tool storage building: SHED.

34. Sioux City state: IOWA.

35. Code of conduct: ETHIC.

36. Gave up in despair: LOST HEART. Or LOSt THE ART. You decide parsing.

38. Pueblo people: HOPI.

40. Motor City NHL player: RED WING.

43. To the __ degree: NTH.

46. Former Iranian ruler: SHAH.

47. Key next to F1: ESC.

48. Jittery from too much caffeine: WIRED. Or, as we learned last week, a Conde Nast publication.
//Yes, I nerd, subscribe.

49. IDs on copyright pages: ISBNS. International Standard Book NumberS.

50. Mumbai's nation: INDIA.

51. Including on an email: CCING. Anachronistically, Carbon Copying someone on an email.

52. Roaming buffalo, e.g.: HERDS.

53. Natural hairstyle: AFRO.

54. Grabbed: TOOK.

55. Not at all polite: RUDE. Grabbing is RUDE.

58. Tax pro: CPA. Certified (Certifiable? ;-)) Public Accountant.

59. Luthor of "Smallville": LEX.

60. College, to an Aussie: UNI.

The Grid:
The Grid

The skinny:
WO: icon -> USER
ESPs: N/A
Fav: SCIENCE fair.
//I got that 2nd place at state in Louisiana's SciFair by deriving a formula that could tell if X was in the Fibonacci Sequence or not. The formula involved logarithms (which was apparently advanced for a HS kid :-))

Cheers, -T
*IIRC, the kid that won 1st hacked a dot-matrix printer to emboss Braille. 
 
 
 
Notes from C.C.:
 
Irish Miss (Agnes) and I made today's USA Today puzzle. Click here to solve. Congrats on your USA debut, Agnes!
 

43 comments:

Subgenius said...

Yesterday, the L.A. Times crossword site was too “buggy” to use, but this morning it worked fine. But it’s good to know that the Washington Post site is also available. I think I might keep using that one, at least, sometimes, as I really like their format.

Anyway, I didn’t find this puzzle very difficult at all. And the reveal was pretty clever, IMHO. FIR, so I’m happy, in more ways than one!

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

This one went quickly, but twice as long as yesterday's. Realized along the way that I was unsure of the spelling of ESOPHAGUS and ROSH HASHANAH. It all worked out. Wasn't long ago that I learned that the "news crawl" at the bottom of the screen is called a "chyron." You often see creative spelling there, too. Thanx for the exercise, Jay, and for filling in once again Dash-T. (Your life is far too complicated.)

Anonymous said...

Took 4:18 today for tHis Hack to finisH tHis one.

I knew today's actress (Rossi), but once again, I failed today's French lesson (soir). At this point, it's starting to feel personal. I did manage to get the Jewish words, though I was unsure of the spelling.

I'm not fond of the "uhhuh" and "ohno" type clues/answers.

I'll have to check out the USA Today's puzzle later, but meanwhile, congratulations to C.C. and Ms. Irish Miss!

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but erased icon for USER.

Us country folk used to say of corn "HIGH as your THIGH by the Fourth of July." Seems that bioinnovation has made that heuristic obsolete. That would be a runt crop these days.

I just came across a newspaper clipping of me winning first place in my junior high SCIENCE fair. Like the blind squirrel, I'd guess. I was also a member of the 4H Club. I still remember the four H's: Head, Heart, Hands, and Health.

Thanks to Jay for the fun, easy Tuesday puzzle, and to Bayou Tony for another solid tour. I especially liked that you paid homage to Splynter with the picture of those boots.

Tehachapi Ken said...

Holy Heck! That's my feeble attempt to locate H's. Jay found H's, on the other hand, effortlessly, and all at the beck and call of the 4H Club. Well done--and the rest of the puzzle was smooth and fun.

Thanks, Patti, for your assistance.

desper-otto said...

Jinx, in my ute the saying was "knee-high by the fourth of July." The crop was ready for harvesting in late August. Our little town (pop. 1118) would hold an annual Corn Roast. The town would purchase about 8 tons of sweet corn which would be soaked in beer and roasted in the husk by members of the Rotary and Lions clubs and passed out free to all. Church groups set up stands to sell hamburgers, hotdogs, and bratwurst. The seven taverns (yes, there were seven in that little town) did a big business that day.

KS said...

FIR. Today's puzzle was an almost walk in the park. I didn't know how to spell the Jewish new year so it took perps to fill it in. But beyond that everything was smooth as silk.
Clever theme. The themers actually aided with the reveal, not the other way around.
Very enjoyable puzzle for a Tuesday!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I saw the abundance of Hs but didn't count them, so the reveal was a cute surprise. I joined Jinx in the Icon/User error but no other w/os nor unknowns, which led to a quick and easy solve. I liked the Acme/Nadir duo and I chuckled at my silly parsing for 36D as Lost The Art! Where I found the extra T is anyone's guess! 🤣 I saw Hal Holbrook's portraying Mark Twain many years ago, but the acoustics were so bad, I missed most of the monologue.

Thanks, Jay, for a Tuesday treat and thanks, Anon T, for a nifty review. Your upcoming family travel schedule sounds hectic! Enjoy Father's Day with Pops! That Which Witch is Which cartoon was really cute and the Penn and Teller video was fun, too. My husband was enthralled with magicians, so much so that he hired one to entertain our guests at a dinner party! I would have preferred that he had hired a chef! 🤣

Thanks, CC, for the heads up and congrats on the USA Today debut. I remember the theme but most of the clues are not familiar.

Have a great day.

Parsan said...

Another easy, fun puzzle thank you JS. Anon T- wow, your family is really on the go! Wishing you good weather and all transportation on time.

Jinx and d-o — Hammerstein wrote “and the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye”. a line from a song in Oklahoma.

Loved this theme! A 4H Club member for several years and enjoyed going to camp for 2 weeks each summer. We were divided into Indian tribes - Seneca, Delaware, Cherokee and I was a Mingo. We learned about their food, clothing and family life. We made Indian crafts and sat around camp fires. That is probably not PC now, but it was done with respect, if not always accuratacy.

Congratulations to Our dear IM and CC for the USA Today puzzle, Bravo ladies!

Happy day, all!

RosE said...

Good Morning! My thanks to Jay for today’s puzzle. I thought I was seeing a lot of Hs but didn’t stop to count them, so 57A was a fun reveal. Nice!

One WO: nOIR -> SOIR. I TOOK 3 years of Latin so any foreign words I’ve learned have come from life and the CWs. 😄😄😄! Added to by its neighbor, I was confounded by the spelled sound UH HUH. So the NE was the last to fix/finish.

ROSH HASHANAH – I knew the holiday, but I had to rely on the perps for the spelling.
NASH – all perps.

Thanks, Dash-T, for a lively recap. Congrats on your SCIENCE prize – a whiz kid from the get-go!

ADOPT ME - I loved the picture of Tinker. I like to think 3 of my Labs were rescues, not from a shelter, but from difficult situations. They turned out to be pure joy, well… but Jessie was a handful. She was a willful girl. 🥰

CC & Agnes, my newspaper’s parent company is USA Today, so I’ll see you for my 2nd CW of the day. I look forward to it.

Monkey said...

For some reason the whole NW stayed blank, but the rest filled in so easily, I was surprised. I must not have had my coffee yet, because, when I went back to that area, things fell into place.

Anyway FIR, enjoyed all the h heavy clues and appreciated the reveal. Neat CW.

A-T. Your schedule gave me a headache. I’m surprised you could recap today. Best of luck on everyone getting to where they need to.

Congratulations to Irish Miss☘️ and C.C. I’m heading to USA Today now.

waseeley said...

Thank you Jay for a fun Tuesday puzzle. FIR, but it took the reveal for me to see all those HHHHs.

And thank you -T for pinch-hitting for our favorite Cat and for a fun review.

18A THIGH HIGH. Tony -- your first pic made me think that this was a Splynter review, but I knew it was you as soon as I saw Tinker eyeing the snacks on the counter.

28A ASAP. Actually the closest kin to PDQ was his famous dad, Johann Sebastian Bach. His dad didn't talk about PDQ very much, but the latter did make a lot of music, e.g. the famous Fanfare for the Common Cold.

3D MS-DOS. And before MS-DOS was CP/M.

32D ETNA. And it's very active in crosswords as well.

48D WIRED. I get this MAG too, but their articles are Sooh long! The most incredible one I've read was Inside the Bitcoin Bust That Took Down the Web’s Biggest Child Abuse Site. The perps thought their activities were untraceable, but they didn't realize that the "last mile" from the blockchain net to their PC's was in fact traceable. When the whole thing came tumbling down a multi-team task force tracked the operation to some kid in a basement in Korea.

Cheers,
Bill

Yellowrocks said...

I saw all the H's, but didn't count them. The first two themers had double HH's, but that was not it. Clever theme.
I, too, was a 4-H member. We never spelled out the 4. I especially liked the camping and sewing segments. Although our chapter was county-wide we only had sufficient numbers to pursue one theme at a time.
My sister and I tried Girl Scouts, but it lasted only one year. Our very small town (population about 700+) couldn't supply leadership, so we switched to 4-H. We dropped in at a 4-H fair a few years ago. It was so different from what we had.
Thigh high or knee high boots are not for me, too tight, too warm, too restricting. Even lower fashion boots to wear indoors are too hot for me.
We said of corn, knee high by the Fourth of July. All the sayings have varied heights. Some of that is due to different varieties of corn.
Dictionary.com says, "The chyron is named after the mythological Greek centaur named Chiron, who was a wise centaur. The company wanted to connect the idea of wisdom with technology. It was so successful that it changed the company name from Systems Resource Corporation to Chyron Corporation." Chyron has become generic, like Kleenex for tissue.
Tony, what a whirlind, fun but tiring. I hope all your connections are on time.

oc4beach said...


Noticed the H's but didn't get the theme til I read -T's expo. Easy enough puzzle though.

My only nit was ELKS. Although the "s" is occasionally used for the plural for ELK, it is a non-standard use. It just doesn't sound right. You don't see DEERs or MOOSEs.

We will be eating fresh corn on the cob by the fourth of July in Central PA. The Amish farmers in the area plant some corn early in the spring and cover it with plastic to protect it from the spring frosts. They then stagger more plantings into June/July so that they can harvest sweet corn into October. We're grooving on the fresh fruits and vegetables that we get at the farmers markets. Strawberries, blueberries and peas are in season now and we have been OD'ing on strawberry shortcake. Peach cobblers will be coming next month.

-T: I hope everything goes well for all of your travelers.

Charlie Echo said...

Zip, zip, and done! A fast and enjoyable skip through the daisies, with the only WiteOut needed to change ALAS into OHNO. AREAR seemed a tad off to me, sounding like something regarding an overdue bill, but I can live with it. In my yute, we called those boots something else that started with an "H"!

CanadianEh! said...

Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Jay and AnonT (safe travels for your family in this busy week).
I FIRed, noticed the plethora of H’s, (actually I had noticed the GH, SH, TH, WH, CH combos that were relatively consistent in each themer) and smiled at the reveal (DH was a 4H member).
I had also noted ROSH HASHANAH crossing NASH.
The only H’s that were outside the themers belonged to HORA (but created a 3H with UH HUH,) and OH NO/ETHIC (almost smack dab in the middle of the CW!)

One inkblot to change END at to ON.
I wanted LOST Hope, but HEART fit. (Our SCIENCE lesson with ESOPHAGUS,)
DH and I have judged for more than a decade at SCIENCE Fair. It is always gratifying to hear of students who have continued on with their projects to university and beyond.

Did anyone else crying at AREAR?
We had Cognito ERGO Sum yesterday.
RAHS not Oles today ( the H was needed!).

Wishing you all a great day.


CanadianEh! said...

Aha, Charlie Echo thought of Arrears too.

Congrats IM on your USA CW debut.

waseeley said...

oc4beach @10:36 AM I'm with you on ELKS. It should have been clued something like "Benevolent and Protective Order"

RosE said...

(Spoiler Alert!) CC & IM, I loved how you worked the LA Times into 1A – LAT! Your theme was very clever and well placed, but I had to go to the analysis to reveal it. All-in-all, a fun puzzle. Thanks, and congrats on your debut.

Malodorous Manatee said...

Thanks for that "bonus" puzzle IM and CC! In addition to the reference RosE cited just above, I liked "reading" the second CSO to my hometown.

Acesaroundagain said...

I enjoyed this puzzle and the bonus USA Today puzzle. Well done Irish Miss and CC. GC

Picard said...

Enjoyed the FOUR H theme. Off to a running start with ROSH HASHANAH as a gimme. AREAR seems to be classified as an obsolete spelling.

In regard to my travels, did I mention I have been to the moon? At DAWN?

Not quite. Haleakala Volcano on Maui, Hawaii at DAWN. Have others had this other worldly experience?

Lucina said...

Hola!

Nice work, Jay Silverman, thank you. ROSSI was my first fill. When Ellen was on TV she often spoke about her.

REDWING is also a brand of shoes.

Occasionally I've had to E-SIGN documents.

NASH. Steve NASH lived in Phoenix for many years as part of the Suns basketball team.

We have the highest point, ACME and the lowest, NADIR.

Something is going on with my printer. Sigh. I'll have to see about getting it fixed. It won't come out of shutting down mode.

Have beautiful day, everyone!

Prof M said...

Yep, more than one ELK is a group of ELK.

Lucina said...

Picard
I have been to Haleakala but not at DAWN. It was quite windy the day we went and I was wearing a dress with a flared skirt and the wind blew it upwards. It was a free show for all!

My DH took many photos of our trips and I believe they are all slides. I should see about having them converted to a more visible form.

Tony, I forgot to thank you for your excellent subbing and reporting. Have fun with your family.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-My relationship with my former car salesman did not END ON a good note. He just called and I told him how disappointed I was and that we took our business elsewhere.
-Luckily, I had my first AID kit for my friend who got bonked on the head with a golf ball last week
-I’d like to see your flow chart for all that traveling activity, Tony!

Vern said...

I am a long time reader of the Corner, first time posting a comment. I have progressed to solving Monday and Tuesday puzzles, the rest of the week is still a challenge. I have been encouraged and learned a lot from your comments, explanations, and postings. Just wanted to say thanks.

NaomiZ said...

Welcome, Vern! Step by step!

Did not love ELKS as a plural for large deer, and DNK RED WING, but FIR. I did love ISBNS; all those years as a cataloging librarian finally proved useful.

Thank you, Jay, Patti, and -T. Congratulations to Irish Miss, and to C.C., who makes crossword dreams come true.

Parsan said...

Vern@1:03 - Welcome!!! Not all of us can finish the puzzle right each day (FIR), and people are honest when they finish it wrong (FIW). And many of us can’t finish the late week puzzles at all, but that is OK. As you probably know, some are speed demons and finish in minutes and some perhaps take hours, but no one is judging. So glad you decided to jump in and join the blog!

Monkey said...

Vern@:1:03. Welcome. Hope you’ll try Wednesday’s CW.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Lucina, unless you have some special printing needs or you get free tech support, you might want to consider replacing the printer rather than fixing your current one. Walmart has the HP DeskJet 2852e Wireless all-in-one color inkjet printer for $54. If color isn't important, they have an HP LaserJet MFP M139w Wireless laser all-in-one for $149. I didn't check other outlets like Amazon, Best Buy and Newegg - there may be even more attractive deals there, especially if scanning isn't important to you.

Ink is expensive, and so is toner. Ink will go bad after being installed for a while (also just sitting on the shelf for too long,) and you may have to replace color cartridges even if they haven't been used much, even if you only want to print in black and white (my pet peeve.) Toner will eventually go bad, but it takes a much longer time.

Anonymous said...

I just solved the USA Today puzzle. Brava, C.C. and Ms. Irish Miss. I hope to see more from you two. I think I finished it in 6 minutes-something, but I closed out of it before double-checking.

Picard, great picture. I immediately recognized Mt. Haleakala. I've been to Mt. Haleakala National Park on two trips, and both times I saw the sunrise there. Seeing the dawn break through the clouds is one of my favorite experiences, and I recommend it to anyone going to Hawaii. Also, one of my favorite hikes is in Haleakala National Park, but accessible near Hana (which means you've got to travel some of the Road to Hana). I loved the bamboo forest, waterfalls, and the Seven Sacred Pools (also known as a 'Ohe'o - a very crossword-friendly name). If you go back, be sure to get tickets in advance. As with other National Parks, the entrance tickets are getting much more regulated.

Me, from 6:22 a.m.

waseeley said...

I'll add my thanks to the chorus thanking Agnes and C.C. USA puzzles don't have reveals, but in this case it was pretty easy to SKIN the MOLE.

Vern @1:03 PM Welcome aboard. The Corner is a very friendly place to hang out.

Lucina @12:48 PM TSK TSK TMI!😀

Malodorous Manatee said...

Vern@:1:03. Yes, welcome to the Corner. I am constantly learning something here (most of it good to know 😃).

sumdaze said...

Thanks, Jay, for His Hypothetically Huge Happy puzzle!
FAV: ESOPHAGUS and Highest point + Lowest point
Hand up for being a 4-Her back in the day.

Last week a retired nurse in France tended to my scrapes with her First AID kit after I slid out on my bike. I simply walked up to a group of strangers and pointed to the blood. Everyone looked at her, knowing her background. She went right to work and fixed me up ASAP. All I knew how to say was "Merci!" There are so many good people in this world!

Thanks to -T for another fun rundown! I bow to your Weird Al catalogue knowledge! Safe travels to you and your loved ones!

Hi Vern @ 1:03!

IM. Congrats on your USA Today debut! I'm going to check it out next.

Jayce said...

"It was a crisp and spicy morning in early October. The lilacs and laburnums, lit with the glory-fires of autumn, hung burning and flashing in the upper air, a fairy bridge provided by kind nature for the wingless wild things that have their home in the tree-tops and would visit together; the larch and the pomegranate flung their purple and yellow flames in brilliant broad splashes along the slanting sweep of woodland, the sensuous fragrance of innumerable deciduous flowers rose upon the swooning atmosphere, far in the empty sky a solitary oesophagus slept upon motionless wing; everywhere brooded stillness, serenity, and the peace of God." Mark Twain

Sandyanon said...

I have lurked on this blog for years, posting only very occasionally. But since, as others have said, this is a very friendly place, I am emboldened to mention an opinion of mine that is not in sync with most here. Actually it's really more of a feeling than an opinion.

So many clues in any crossword have a level of ambiguity, ie., more than one possible response, which is, I guess, a desirable quality up to a point, as it adds to the fun. But I welcome proper names, since if you know them there's no ambiguity; you can be sure you're correct. It's not that I always know them, since I certainly don't, but I do welcome their appearance as a moment of relaxation when I do.

So, contrary to what seems to be the general opinion, I like proper names!

Lucina said...

Jinx
Thank you for your advice. When Mark comes over tonight he will look it the printer and if he can he will fix the problem as he usually does. But if he can't I may have to start looking for another one. Since I no longer work I don't use it nearly as much as in the past but it's handy to have it.

waseeley
I'm sorry if you thought it was TMI. It happened many, many years ago, about 45 I think, before our daughter was born. It was embarrassing at the time but so much time has passed that I file it under "indiscretions of youth".

Lucina said...

Vern, welcome!

Malodorous Manatee said...

Sandyanon @ 5:32, you are correct about the dual nature of proper nouns in puzzles. For me, I find the inclusion of more and more proper nouns with which I am unfamiliar to be an issue. As I have mentioned previously, here, this reflects my lack of interest in (and, therefore, ignorance of) current pop culture as much as it reflects a trend in crossword construction. YMMV.

Picard said...

Lucina Glad you also enjoyed Haleakala, even if not at DAWN. I love the imagery of your wind blown exposure. Not at all TMI.

I agree with Jinx about printers. I have always used laser printers. Cheaper in the long run, very fast and very reliable.

Mystery Person at 4:07PM Thank you for your comments about Haleakala at DAWN. Yes, it is quite magical how everything is fogged in. Then it is clear. And then the fog returns. I had the same experience at Machu Picchu at DAWN.

Glad I had those experiences before they became too popular!

waseeley said...

Lucina @6:46 PM Boy I really blew that one! There was an implied smiley face, which I'll now supply. I'm sure it was kind of cute! 😀

Lucina said...

waseeley
No problems. No issues. We're all friends here.

I've been binging on Netflix and have found some outstanding movies.