google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Elizabeth Duker-Gold

Advertisements

Showing posts with label Elizabeth Duker-Gold. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elizabeth Duker-Gold. Show all posts

Jun 19, 2026

Friday, Juneteenth, 2026 ~ Elizabeth Duker-Gold

CARYATID

 Or, if you want to get in touch with the Dread Pirate Roberts: Elwes, CARY@ID.com

I did a cursory Google search for Elizabeth Duker-Gold, and found her on LinkedIn and Facebook, but with no clear indication that I had the correct person; I can tell it's her LA Times debut, and if this is her overall first publication, then double congrats~!  I loved the clever theme of this puzzle - varied common words/phrases with a & t, or "@", in the middle, restructured to resemble an email address, and nothing related to today's bank holiday.  Very cool, but some of the people may not be that common - I did know all five of them, partly from doing crosswords.  There was some Friday fill, to be expected, and a few that had alternate answers - see below - plus one or two "meh" ones, maybe~?  Standard grid, no circles, 19 3LWs, just 6 names - excluding the ones intended for the theme.  The five themer email "addresses", no reveal [ BTW, the text format of the crossword screwed up my blogging due to the use of < and >, which are html code separators ];

18. To: Comedian Michael, bedding salesman [.com] - CHE(AT)SHEETS - Michael Che @sheets.com, which I think is a valid website . . .  yup

24. To: Athlete Jackson, lawn products salesman [.com] - BO(AT)YARDS - Bo Jackson @yards.com - Bo of both major league baseball and football fame, and 'yards' would be a good website/email address for lawn products - it does come up as a website, but no content

36. To: Broadcast journalist Anderson, surgical supply salesman [.com] - COOPER(AT)ORS - Anderson Cooper @ors.com - "Operating RoomS" but not a real site - and not my buddy Cooper the Australian Shepherd - see 58D.   Here's Anderson being interviewed by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog

I'd play the segment, but NSFW

50. To: Actor Cheadle, chemistry lab supply salesman [.com] - DON(AT)IONS - Don Cheadle @ions.com - I know Don from his role as "Basher" in the Ocean's Eleven, et. al. heist movies - and a valid website for the TV channel Ion


57. To: Singer Bruno, bulletin board salesman [.com] - MARS(AT)TACKS - my favorite break out ( if not my personal choice in music artists, but our host likes him 😁) - Bruno Mars @tacks.com - and this one led to a "non-secure" go back~! link ( I wrote this while still down on LI, so I was on my brother's network )

Hey Tom, it's "not unusual" to find Martians invading Earth . . . 
That's twice in a week for him~!

But W@ it theresmore~!.com


ACROSS:

1. Jaguar or Charger: CAR - I do the Downs first, had two wrong fills to start; I knew this was either NFL - two teams in the national football league - or two automobiles

Trevor Lawrence, and, uh, well, that's not Justin Herbert, and #19 ( on the helmet ) was retired
. . . thanks, A i ~!

4. Orchard basket: BUSHEL - so my "AMASS" at 7D was wrong . . .

10. Gillette brand: ATRA

14. Bullpen stat: ERA

15. "Reckon maybe, yeah": "I S'POSE..." - slang for "I suppose" - I am feeling ambivalent about this fill; it's valid, but is it a Twurd~? Is it 'meh'~?

16. Urge on: GOAD

17. Part of a journey: LEG

part of a "legs" journey

20. Jazz great James: ETTA - Crossword staple, name #1

22. Cropped up: AROSE

23. ThirdLove purchase: BRA - not that I "knew" this, but I had _R_, and it sounded like a lingerie website - so what are the first Two Loves~? I could take a guess . . . 

27. Like a best-case scenario: IDEAL

29. "Love it!": "SO GOOD~!"

30. Queerplatonic orientation, briefly: AROACE - short for aromantic asexual - the Wiki, if you care to know more - aah, Friday . . . 

31. Dirge: LAMENT - ELEGY did not fit

35. Bills replaced by coins in Canada and Australia: ONES - tell us more, CanadianEh!

39. Mil. no-show: AWOL - Absent WithOut Leave - oh, SNAFU - now that's FUBAR . . . 

41. Haberdashery purchase: TIE PIN

42. People in the background of a selfie, perhaps: RANDOS - Ah.  Right.  "random person" in 21st century-speak; I had the last two letters, so I went with WALDOS - hey, I could see that working . . .

I found him~!

44. Dillydally: LINGER

49. Juvenile eel: ELVER - Learning moment for me; more here

53. Pub pour: ALE

54. Beloved, in Bordeaux: CHERI - Frawnche

56. Set that might have an OLED screen: HDTV - Organic Light-Emitting Diode,  and High Definition; 'Set' threw me at first - a TeleVision set, which, now that I think of it, is kinda weird . . . it's a set of electronic tubes, circuits~?  And I did not know what the "O" stood for, even knowing what an LED was

61. Taste: SIP

62. Show opener: ACT I - Ha~!  Had this last Friday, too

63. Leash: TETHER

64. Part of a rock band?: ORE - Clever -  new way to clue the old fill - a 'band', or stratum in geology

65. Smart home system by Google: NEST - I bought a "smart" thermostat for my house, but the furnace uses just two wire leads - so it's useless; the furnace tech I needed to call two weeks ago told me not to bother with a smart device - he is if the mindset that the most efficient way to heat/cool one's house is to "set it and forget it" - thanks Ron Popeil~!

66. Grooms, as feathers: PREENS

67. Homer's neighbor: NED - Pffft - Ned . . .  Name #2



DOWN:

1. Red carpet VIPs: CELEBS - Dah~!  Not A LISTS

2. Defiant reply: "ARE TOO~!" - Dah~!!  Not I AM NOT

3. Motley: RAGTAG - I toyed with CALICO, which we had last Saturday

Definitely "ragtag" - Mötley Crüe

4. Pen name: BIC - another clever clue - literally, the 'name' of a pen maker, ergo, name #3

5. See to a seat, casually: USH - more 21st century-speak for "ushering"

6. Pickle serving: SPEAR - I guess in the 21st century, it's 'one syllable easier' than to ask for a pick-le

7. Stockpile: HOARD - Dah~!!! Not AMASS

8. These, in Spanish: ESTOS - and yet I nailed the Español word . . .

9. "__ is more": LESS - well, more or less, I guess . . . 🙄

10. Number that's always positive: AGE - Ah.  True.  Mine is getting further along on the spinny-wheel thing on websites these days

11. Cutesy name for paw pads: TOE BEANS


12. Unpleasant routine: RAT RACE

13. Media revenue source: AD SALES

19. Trust-worthy figure?: HEIR

21. From __ Z: A TO - three out of four two-word answers in a row

25. Texter's encouragement to try something new: YOLO - You Only Live Once - but maybe in multiple universes~? - ooooh . . . trippy

26. Assimilates: ADAPTS - I wanted adOpts

28. Portal: DOOR - into another plane of the multi-verse . . .


30. __ the Hun: ATTILA - he lived an "active, outdoor lifestyle", per George Carlin; name #4

32. __ fun: noodle dish: MEI - never heard of this - the "E" came from knowing the themer that crossed

33. Bard's before: ERE - poetic

34. Suede quality: NAP - Sleep quality; NAP time

36. New fans: CONVERTS - CON-verts, the noun, not the verb

37. Like a quaint shoppe: OLDE - ye olde quaynte shoppe

38. "I got this!": "ON IT~! - Dah~!  I had ON ME, like the check/tab

39. Local guy in The Onion headlines: AREA  MAN - this was a total unknown for me - an example

40. "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" poet Stevens: WALLACE - name #5, no clue - the poem, sort of a Zen-like "what is the sound of one hand clapping" mental exercise

43. Antarctic predator: ORCA

SE(ri)AL killer

45. Research org. with facilities in Bethesda: NIH - National Institutes of Health - filled via perps on my second pass - the website, if you care

46. Jake Gyllenhaal, to Jamie Lee Curtis: GODSON - huh.  I tried COUSIN, which sort of helped, as the "O", "S" and the "N" actually worked; name(ish)

47. Complete: ENTIRE

48. Answered, in a way: RSVP'ed - I like it, but YMMV

50. Put off: DETER - Not DELAY, and not DEFER, so I didn't understand the crossing themer at first

51. Provide an address: ORATE - the "speechify" version of address, like Lincoln's Gettysburg

52. Not wide-ranging: NICHE - ah.  Good one.  I knew what we were looking for, but needed perps

55. URL intro: HTTP - the "other" kind of address; http//www.crosswordcorner.blogspot.com

58. Gather dust: SIT - gather pet fur; dog-sit - Cooper is so bad in the summer, my clothes were covered

we stopped to "smell the flowers"

59. "KPop Demon Hunters" voice actor Jeong: KEN - no clue, name #6 - his Wiki

60. Former jrs.: SRs - school classes

Splynter

Grid Flow a low 25.8