Thursday, October 5, 2023,Barbara Lin

 

 The Wood Wide Web

In 1995 ecologist Suzanne Simard discovered that trees communicate with one another via a vast underground network of FUNGI.  Recently cruciverbalist and engineer Barbara Lin* has discovered that trees actually have FUN while they're doing this. Apparently they exchange PUNNY homophones to amuse themselves while they carry out their essential work of world-wide photosynthesis.  Their real favorites of course are Stupid Ent Jokes 😀.  
 
To construct this puzzle Barbara simply pressed her ears firmly to the ground and picked up these four themers -- exchanges of tree root straight lines and pun responses ...

17A. Evergreen seedlings?: FIR BABIES.  I announced recently that one of my grandchildren's cats had seven kittens.  I believe some are still available for adoption ...

New mom Fizzy and two of her
FUR BABIES

27A. Shade tree that's been pruned too severely?: TOPLESS BEECH. 

Topless beach voting

46A. Fruit tree in the royal orchard?: PEAR OF QUEENS.

A trio actually
with her 2nd and 3rd runner up

62. Recently developed conifer cultivar?: THE NEW YEW.

So how far are you going to take
this new year, new ewe resolution?

Here's the grid, sans reveal, sans stars, and sans circles (I hope at least one person is happy 😀) ...
 

Here's the rest ...

Across:

1. Marketing target for K'nex Mighty Makers: GIRL.  Targeted toys to get girls interested not just interested in STEM, but STEAM, with the inclusion of ARTS.  I'd add to that ENGLISH and ETHICS.  Creation is after all, a multi-disciplinary endeavor.

Intro to Structures
K’NEX Education

5. Mass transit option: RAIL.

9. Immature beetles: GRUBS.

14. Notion: IDEA.

15. White-bellied mammal: ORCA.  ORCAS love to gobble up the cruciverbalist's other favorite white-bellied mammal, the Sea OTTER.

Sea Otter

16. Send in: REMIT.  In addition to sending in a payment the word REMIT has several other meanings.  To the British it means "the task or area of activity officially assigned to an individual or organization", e.g. "the committee was becoming caught up in issues that did not fall within its remit".  Here are some others ...

17. [Theme clue]

19. Meaningless, as a gesture: EMPTY.

20. Tangled: SNARLED.

21. Scratch (out): EKE.

23. __-Mex: TEX.  My best friend lived in Texas for over 20 years and we visited him often.  It was there that we first had Fajitas (yummy!).  Here's a recipe ...

Steak Fajitas

24. Nearly invisible pest: GNAT.

25. Medal metal: BRONZE.

27. [Theme clue]

32. Accords, e.g.: CARS.  The CARS was also the name an American new wave band formed in Boston in 1976. Emerging from the new wave scene in the late 1970s, they consisted of Ric Ocasek (rhythm guitar), Benjamin Orr (bass guitar), Elliot Easton (lead guitar), Greg Hawkes (keyboards), and David Robinson (drums). Ocasek and Orr shared lead vocals, and Ocasek was the band's principal songwriter and leader.  Here's My Best Friend's Girl (lyrics):

35. Irish __: SEA.  A CSO to Agnes.

36. Writer Dillard: ANNIE.  ANNIE Dillard (née Doak; born April 30, 1945)[1] is an American author, best known for her narrative prose in both fiction and non-fiction. She has published works of poetry, essays, prose, and literary criticism, as well as two novels and one memoir. Her 1974 work Pilgrim at Tinker Creek won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. From 1980, Dillard taught for 21 years in the English department of Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut.  Here's some of her advice on writing.

Annie Dillard

37. Pie __ mode: ALA.

38. Cook quickly: STIR FRY.  A year or so back a picture in one of C.C.'s reviews inspired me to come up with this recipe of a :Pine nut and Corn stir fry.  It cooks quickly, but the prep time is about an hour.  The recipe is still available on C.C.'s Ginger Roots blog.

Pine nuts and Corn Stir Fry

41. Smidgen: TAD.

42. Part of a network: MODEM.  A MODulator-DEModulator or MODEM is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for analog transmission over a medium such as telephone, radio (WIFI), coaxial cable, or fiber optic cable (see 8D).  They are most often used at the end-points of router networks (i.e. the Internet backbone) to connect to local area networks (LANS) in offices and homes.  The first time I ever accessed a remote computer from my home was via an acoustically coupled MODEM, connected directly to the earpiece/speaker of an analogue phone.  It was running at speed of 300 bits/sec (approximately 33 bytes/sec with parity checking).

Acoustically coupled
MODEM

44. "What are you doing!?": HEY.

45. Stern greeting?: AHOY.

46. [Theme clue]

50. Easy-to-wash carpet: RAG RUG.

51. Gumbo pod: OKRA.

54. Ctrl-__-Del: ALT.

56. As well: TOO.

57. "How We Do (Party)" singer: RITA ORA.  Girls just want to have fun ...

Lyrics

60. Clean out: PURGE.

62. [Theme clue]

64. Checkups: EXAMS.

65. Help when one shouldn't: ABET.  Not all such help is criminal, but it may still be harmful, e.g.when playing a game of  I'm only trying to help you!

66. Proactiv target: ACNE.

67. Last stop, often: DEPOT.

68. "Star Wars" film starring Alden Ehrenreich: SOLO.  Han looks a lot different since I saw him last, but Chewbacca hasn't changed a bit ...

69. Pro choices?: YEAS.

Down:
 
1. Some embedded images: GIFS.  The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; /ɡɪf/ GHIF or /dʒɪf/ JIF, see pronunciation) is a bitmap image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released on June 15, 1987.  This one makes the World go round ...

2. Checking the age of, say: IDING.  Three syllable word.

3. Aired again: RERAN.

4. Research subjects with whiskers: LAB RATS.  MICE didn't perp.

5. Garment that may match slippers: ROBE.

6. Like Death Valley: ARID.  But not as ARID as the Atacama Desert in Chile and the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica, at least according to this article about all things dry.

Chalbi Desert, North Kenya
(not the driest)

7. Old fashioned rocks?: ICE.  A CSO to our friend Tinbeni

8. Elements of fiber optic communications: LASERS.  An acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.  Fiber optic communications make use of fiber optic modems  to transmit digital information via light pulses.  I think Barbara is showing her engineering chops in this clue and 42A.

9. NFL city with the smallest population: GREEN BAY.  GREEN BAY, Wisconsin, with a population of 107,395, home of the NFL Green Bay Packers.  And here's where they play (looks like the whole town was there that night) ...

Lambeau Field

10. Sleep cycle: REM.  Also a rock band.  R.E.M. was from Athens, Georgia, and was  formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia.  Here's Everybody Hurts from their 1992 album Automatic for the People ...

11. Indefinite ordinal: UMPTEENTH.  I think this is the UMPTEENTH time we've had REM in an LAT puzzle.

12. Sharp quality: BITE.

13. "Mr. Roboto" band: STYX.  Here's their Come Sail Away ...

 

18. Quartet member: ALTO.  Here's ALTO Barbara Streisand all by herself with The Music That Makes Me Dance (lyrics) ...

22. Levels, briefly: KOS.

25. Tight squeeze: BEAR HUG.

26. __ garden: ZEN.  What are they and how can you create one?
 

Zen Garden
No Koi allowed

28. Rose Parade setting?: PST.  Pacific Standard Time.

29. Island floral arrangement: LEI.

30. "Later!": CIAO.

31. Lamarr in the National Inventors Hall of Fame: HEDY.  Austrian actress HEDY Lamarr and her musician friend George Antheil were awarded a patent for an early form of encrypted radio communication that led to their posthumous induction in the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.

Hedy Lamarr

Antheil's music was modernist and he liked to style himself as The Bad Boy of Music (the title of his memoir) -- e.g. at solo performances he would pull a revolver out of his pocket and lay it on his piano!.  Here's his Airplane Sonata, which doesn't sound all that bad compared with much modern music ...

32. Sleep in a tent: CAMP.

33. Lotion additive: ALOE.

34. Where a zipper may get caught?: RADAR TRAP.  Clever clue!

38. Exhaust-ive check?: SMOG TEST.  The SMOG coming out of your car's tailpipe during an emissions TEST? 

39. Charge: FEE.

40. Whiskey choice: RYE.

43. MLB stat that's good when it's low: ERA.

45. "Glad to take questions": ASK AWAY.  But please wait until after the review is finished ... 😀

47. To counterpart: FRO.

48. Target numbers: QUOTAS.

49. Bill: NOTE.

52. British automaker who partnered with Charles Rolls: ROYCE.  How Rolls met Royce.

53. Olympic venue: ARENA.

54. Mirrored: APED.

55. Fancy-schmancy: LUXE.

57. Film spool: REEL.

58. Excited about: INTO.

59. Floors: AWES.

61. Frankenfood initials: GMO.  Genetically Modified Organisms.   The clue implies that foods containing GMOs are monsters.  There is considerable controversy over GMOs, especially with regard to their release outside laboratory environments. The dispute involves consumers, producers, biotechnology companies, governmental regulators, non-governmental organizations, and scientists. Many of these concerns involve GM crops and whether food produced from them is safe and what impact growing them will have on the environment. 

I'm not taking sides on this issue, but I'm reminded of this refrigerator magnetic that one of my granddaughters gave us ...

63. "Curb Your Enthusiasm" network: HBO.  I'm not enthusiastic about this show.
 
That's it for the clues, but you're not out of the woods yet ...
 

Cheers,
Bill
 

And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.

waseeley

*I once subbed for חֲתוּלָה for a Barbara Lin puzzle.  She's a constructor to keep an eye on.  There is a very brief bio on Barbara you can search for on the Inkubator site.

Tuesday, June 14, 2022, Barbara Lin

This is Barbara Lin's second visit to the LA Times.  Her first was published on Tuesday, May 5, 2020 and was blogged by the little lady, whose big shoes I'm trying to fill today.  At last count Barbara has also had seven puzzles published  in the New York Times, including one on a Sunday. 

We often have fill for individual parts of the body's visual system, but today Barbara treats us to a comprehensive

EYE EXAM

This puzzle was actually quite easy to solve, but it was a bit of a camera obscura when it came to the theme: no stars, no circles, no explicit reveal, and only a peppering of question marks in a couple of short Down clues: a real AnonymousDNLC delight. 

However following the rule that themers are generally the longest fill in the puzzle, we discover the five following words and phrases, which have literal meanings, but also a trailing word that is a component of the EYE.  These are  highlighted below in RED:

17A. Spring flower painted by van Gogh: PURPLE IRIS.  Vincent van Gogh made several paintings of purple irises.  This one, called simply Irises, hangs in the Getty Museum in Los Angeles:

Les Iris

The IRIS is also that part of the visual system the gives your eyes their color:

 

Iris

25A. A-plus student: STAR PUPIL.  You know, the smartest kid in the room.  She knew all the answers. And I'll bet she's having a great time in Europe!  The PUPIL is a black hole located in the center of the iris that allows light to strike the retina at the back of the eye, the gateway to the brain.
 

Pupil

34A. Hard-to-open cap: CHILD PROOF LID.  I'm convinced that packaging engineers consider themselves a failure if you can actually open their product.  If you have this problem, try this product.  It has made a world of difference for us.

An EYELID is a thin fold of skin that covers and protects an eye.  Also the location of this common crossword puzzle disease.
 

Eyelid

48. Coffee order similar to a latte: FLAT WHITE.  A barista often uses cream to create a swirly design on top:

"You wish".

The Sclera is commonly referred to as the WHITE of the eye, as in "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes":
 

Sclera

56A. Scold harshly: TONGUE LASH. 
 

I'm clean! I'm clean!

An eyelash (also called LASH) (Latin: Cilia) is one of the hairs that grows at the edge of the eyelids.  It's principle function is to protect the eyes from dust and other debris:
 

Eyelash

As a part of her review of this review, Teri suggested that 64A Cry: WEEP, be considered a themer, as tears are a function of the eyes' tear glands, a.k.a. the lacrimal glands:
 

Here's the grid:
 

Before proceeding to the rest of the clues, you need to complete this test:

Across:

1. Peruvian people who cultivated potato varietals: INCA.  The real word on Incan potatoes. Also a clecho to all the theme clues:

5. Channel that covers Capitol Hill: CSPAN.
 

10. Puzzle that may have dead ends: MAZE.
 

Hahtoolah and her hahtoolah

14. More than a snack: MEAL.

15. Words to live by: CREDO.  Today's Latin lesson: "I believe".  Living by those words is a lot harder than merely believing them.

16. Emotional request: PLEA.  I'll bet Hahtoolah has heard a lot of pleas in her time.

19. Feminine pronoun: HERS.

20. Like one's back during cat pose: ARCHED.

21. Throw shade at: DIS.

23. Finger food at luaus: POI.

24. "Mossy, bossy" Seuss character: LORAX.  There really was a LORAX you know.  Also did you know that the Lorax was actually banned in California in 1989?

Lorax

28. Amtrak sta. times: ETAS.  The operative word here is "estimated".

29. Slot in a cash drawer: ONES.

30. Twisted humor: IRONY.

31. Female sib: SIS.  I have four, plus Teri, whom the others consider the fifth  sister.

32. "East of Eden" director Kazan: ELIA.  Elia Kazan, born Elias Kazantzoglou (Greek: Ηλίας Καζαντζόγλου);  September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was an American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by The New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history".  Plus 3 out of 4 letters in his first name are vowels!
 

Elia Kazan

33. Docent's deg.: MFA.  A docent is a museum tour guide who actually knows what she's talking about.

39. Air gun shot: BBS.  So what is a BB?  Since Hahtoolah isn't here to explain the legal issues, here are the go to guys.

40. Jazz singer Anita: O'DAY.  Oh goodie, music!  Anita Belle Colton (October 18, 1919^[1] – November 23, 2006), known professionally as Anita O'Day, was an American jazz singer and self proclaimed “song stylist” widely admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, and her early big band appearances that shattered the traditional image of the "girl singer".  Here she's singing "Honeysuckle Rose" by Fats Waller (Lyrics):

41. Op. __: footnote abbr.: CIT.  More Latin. 

43. Diet based on the eating habits of early humans: PALEO.  The ultimate in retro:
 

46. Business attire: SUIT.  Also a satirical name for a business man.

47. Mexican coin: PESO.

50. Not quite foggy: MISTY.  A CSO to our Misty.

51. Post-op area: ICU.  Intensive Care Unit.  I had a minor operation recently, after which I was cared for in the PAU,  "Post Anesthesia Unit".

52. __ card: smartphone need: SIM.  The subscriber identification module.

53. Lively dances: POLKAS.  The polka is originally a Czech dance and a genre of dance music familiar throughout all of Europe and the Americas.  This one originated in Scranton, PA, about an hour and half from Teri's home town of Shamokin.

54. Novelist __ Neale Hurston: ZORA.  Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s American South and published research on hoodoo. The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937. She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays, and essays.  For a woman who died in 1960, it is unusual to have to have her own Facebook page and an active website, clearly evidence of a dedicated following.  Her last novel, Barracoon, was published in 2018.

Zora Neale Hurston

59. Like 8 or 88: EVEN.  Nice misdirection. 

60. Gabrielle of "Being Mary Jane": UNION.  Being Mary Jane is an American drama television series starring Gabrielle Union, that debuted January 7, 2014 on BET.  The series followed the professional and personal life of successful TV news anchor Mary Jane Paul, who lived in Atlanta, Georgia and New York City. The series concluded on April 23, 2019.

Gabrielle Union

61. Filmmaker Preminger: OTTO.  Otto Ludwig Preminger (5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austro-Hungarian-born theatre and film director, film producer, and actor.  As his given name has only two vowels, he's not as well-known as ELIA.
 

Otto Preminger

62. Depend (on): RELY.  "You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later RELY on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.*" a British cop's recitation to a person being arrested:  their equivalent of the Miranda Rights.

* we hear this 3 or 4 times a week.  I've got it memorized.

63. Trivial, as a complaint: PETTY.

64. Cry: WEEP.

Down:

1. Sticks a stake in, as a vampire: IMPALES.
 

2. Overly anxious: NEUROTIC. 

3. Dramatic end of a cinematic chase scene: CAR CRASH.

4. Socially dominant figures: ALPHAS.

5. Kept in the email loop: CCED.  Or an LAT Sunday puzzle review.

6. __ Lanka: SRI.  Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia.  It's also a stand-in for the film locale of the series The Good Karma Hospital, supposedly set in India.  Season 5 can't get here soon enough for us.  Here's the trailer for the first season:

7. A pop: PER.  EACH.

8. Athletic brand with a three-stripe logo: ADIDAS. 

9. Deferential denial: NO SIR. 

10. Dashboard abbr.: MPH.  Miles Per Hour.

11. Pepper named for a Syrian city: ALEPPO.  The Aleppo pepper is a variety of Capsicum annuum used as a spice, particularly in Turkish, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine.

12. Focus (on): ZERO IN.

13. With very little effort: EASILY.  This puzzle was solved EASILY.

18. Luthor of the comics: LEX.  Everything you want to now about Lex.

22. Looking swell: SPIFFY.  The Oscar and Felix of the toon world.
 

25. Short cut?: SNIP.  The Windows clan of the blogger team uses Snip and Sketch for screen grabs.  The Apple clan probably uses something similar.

26. Save, as a newspaper article: TEAR OUT. 

27. Eurasia's __ Mountains: URAL. 

29. Alero automaker, informally: OLDS.  Years ago I had a gig working in Normal, Ill (imagine that) and I always got stuck with the last car on the rental lot (reserved especially for me I'm sure), a purple Alero, which I took to calling BARNEY.  Looks like it's still there:
 

Barney

32. Macaroni often used in cold salads: ELBOWS. 

33. Zoo trench: MOAT.  Not the Crossword Gary Larson:
 

35. "Yeah, sure": I BET.

36. Dog that licks Garfield: ODIE.  Couldn't find one of ODIE actually licking Garfield, but this one was close:

37. Enjoy the lake in winter, perhaps: ICE SKATE.

38. Aversion: DISTASTE.

42. Place to buy gifts for kids: TOY SHOP.  Teri can tell you all about this.

43. Vaccine manufacturer: PFIZER.  So yesterday.  Here's the latest on the new Novavax vaccine.

44. Tucked-away recess: ALCOVE. 

45. Bay leaf source: LAUREL.  Here is some Mountain Laurel growing in the woods behind my son's home:

Mountain Laurel

Years ago we lived in the town of Laurel, MD and we used to find beautiful Mountain Laurel drift wood in a mangrove around the edges of a nearby lake.  Apparently you can now buy it over the net.

46. Gymnast Biles who won four gold medals in Rio: SIMONE.  Simone Arianne Biles (born March 14, 1997) is an American artistic gymnast. Her seven Olympic medals tie Shannon Miller for the most Olympic medals won by an American gymnast. She is considered one of the greatest and most dominant gymnasts of all time:

Simone Biles

47. Cushion: PILLOW.

49. Ask for a donation: HIT UP.  My favorite radio station HITS UP its listeners for donations two or three times a year.  During their on-air fund drives, you can remain anonymous when they announce your contribution.  They literally get donations from all over the world. In fact you can donate any time  by clicking on this link: www.wbjc.com (tell them Bill sent you).

50. "Calvin and Hobbes" bully: MOE.  Not our Chairman!  But this troll:

Not our MOE

53. Measly: PUNY.  All it would take is for some PUNY kid to deck him and he'd be out of the strip forever.  Well I guess he actually IS out of the strip.  Forever.

55. "__ takers?": ANY.  "C'mon, gimme your best shot!"

57. Trivial complaint: NIT.

58. Received: GOT.  Hand up from anyone who GOT any other 3 letter fill for "Received"?

That just about wraps it up ...

 וויליאם א סילי  

It seems that it's difficult to translate proper names into Hebrew.  If you take the trouble to translate that back into English you'll find an adjective that people have been calling me for years, but it's certainly not the worst.

waseeley

And as always special thanks to Teri for proof-reading and for constructive suggestions. 

Cheers,
Bill

  

Note from C.C.:

Boomer and I made today's Universal crossword, edited by David Steinberg. You can click here to solve on line.