google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Madeline Kaplan

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Showing posts with label Madeline Kaplan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Madeline Kaplan. Show all posts

Feb 6, 2024

Tuesday, February 6, 2024 Madeline Kaplan

A Whole Lotta Shaking.  The word Whole can be added to the last word of each theme answer to give a new concept.  

200Across. *  Customer support line, typically: TOLL FREE NUMBER.  Whole Number.  A whole number is simply any positive number that does not include a fractional or decimal part.


25-Across. * Male minister: MAN OF THE CLOTH.  Whole Cloth.  The term "whole cloth" is something that is entirely fictional or utterly false; completely fabricated and not based on reality at all.  The term is a reference to tailors who would falsely advertise garments being made "out of whole cloth," when, in reality, they were pieced together from different cuts.

45-Across. *  Rolled meaty entree that may be served "wet": BEEF ENCHILADA.  Whole Enchilada.  According to Webster's, the Whole Enchilada means "the entire thing : everything".


And the Unifier:

50-Across. "Too complicated to explain," and a way to describe the end of the answer to each starred clue?: IT'S A WHOLE THING.

Across:
1. Tree covering: BARK.
5. Put up, as wallpaper: HANG.


9. Tabloid couple: ITEM

Rumor has it that these two are an item.

13. Margarine: OLEO

14. Emotionally distant: ALOOF.

16. Weigh station rig: SEMI.

17. Four Corners state: UTAH.



18. Ancient Greek region: IONIA.


19. Settled on a perch: ALIT.



23. Barbecue chef's spice concoction: RUB.

24. "Barton Fink" director Joel: COEN.  The Coen Brothers, Joel (né Joel Daniel Coen; b. Nov. 29, 1954) and Ethan (né Ethan Jesse Coen; b. Sept. 21, 1957) have made numerous films together.  [Name # 1.]

Ethan (Left) and Joel (Right) Coen

31. Step before a "big kid bed": CRIB.



33. December decor: WREATH.


34. Compete: VIE.

35. "Morning Edition" medium: RADIO.

37. Raggedy __ and Andy dolls: ANN.  The backstory.  [Names # 2 and 3, fictional.]




38. Venue for a major 1-Down: ARENA.  //  And 1-Down:  1. Boxing match: BOUT.

40. __ de Triomphe: ARC.  It's been in Paris, France since the 1830s


41. Mottled horses: PINTOs.


44. Airline that doesn't fly on Shabbat: EL AL.  A crossword staple.


48. "You've Got Mail" director Ephron: NORA.  Nora Ephron (May 19, 1941 ~ June 26, 2012) makes frequent guest appearances in the crossword puzzles. [Name # 4.]


49. Short albums, for short: EPs.  As in Extended Plays.

57. Big birds of Australia: EMUs.  We often see Emus in the crossword puzzles.

58. Greek fable writer: AESOP.  You can find a list of his fables at the Library of Congress.  [Name # 5.]

59. Mental flash: IDEA.

60. Apple Watch assistant: SIRI.  [Name adjacent.]



61. Email option since 1997: YAHOO!
62. Harvest: REAP.

63. Brief "Chat soon": TTYL.  Textspeak for Talk TYou Later.

64. "__ Yankees": DAMN.  The only thing I know about this 1950s era film is in the video below. 


65. Sugar amts.: TSPs.  As in Teaspoons.  Why the measurement is called a Teaspoon.

Down:
2. Voice range higher than tenor: ALTO.

3. Tangible: REAL.

4. Vegetable also called a German turnip: KOHLRABI.

5. Blue accessory for Maggie Simpson: HAIRBOW.  And her mother, Marge, has blue hair.  [Name # 5, fictional.]



6. __ vera gel: ALOE.  A crossword staple, as is this cartoon.


7. Sold-out amount: NONE.  Cute clue.

8. Enter: GO IN.

9. "The House of the Spirits" novelist Allende: ISABEL.  Isabel Allende (née Isabel Angélica Allende Llona; b. Aug. 2, 1942) is a Chilean novelist who makes frequent appearances in the puzzles.   [Name # 6.]


10. Latin American soap: TELENOVELA.  As in a soap opera, not a bar of soap.

11. Gulf States ruler: EMIR.

12. Research univ. near Harvard: MIT.  As in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

15. Tap: FAUCET.


21. Enjoyable: FUN.

22. Chocolaty coffee drink: MOCHA.  Yummers!

25. Era associated with modern furniture: MID-CENTURY.  Everything you wanted to know about Mid-Century furniture but didn't know to ask.

26. Senegal currency: FRANC.



27. First extra inning: TENTH.

28. Home of the Vietnam National Museum of History: HANOI.  There is also a memorial in Hanoi honoring John McCain.



29. "Proud Mary" singer Turner: TINA.  Time for a musical interlude with Tina Turner (née Anna Mae Bullock; b. Nov. 26, 1939 ~ May 24, 2023).   [Name # 7.]


30. Mend: HEAL.

31. Grump: CRAB.


32. Deeply un-well?: RARE.


36. Covent Garden performance: OPERA.

39. Keep out of college sports for a season: REDSHIRT.  Redshirt refers to a year in which a student-athlete sits out for a playing season, but still maintains his/her four-year eligibility.

42. " ... Kind of?": IN A WAY.

43. Consider overnight: SLEEP ON.


46. Paleontologist's discovery: FOSSIL.


47. Fitting: APT.

50. "You found the right person": I'M IT.

51. Leader: HEAD.

52. Workplace-focused workplace: Abbr.: OSHA.  As in Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

53. Weaving machine: LOOM.


54. __ of March: IDES.  Did you know that every month has an Ides?  Ides of March is famous / infamous because it is the day that Julius Caesar was supposedly assassinated.


55. Spring's opposite, in tides: NEAP.

56. Intervening spaces: GAPS.


57. Approximate fig.: EST.

Here's the Grid:

חתולה





Oct 24, 2020

Saturday, October, 24, 2020, Madeline Kaplan and Erik Agard

 Saturday Themeless by Madeline Kaplan and Erik Agard

Today's puzzle is another collaboration featuring our friend, Jeopardy winner and USA Today Crossword puzzle editor Eric Agard. This time his partner is Madeline Kaplan. She was kind enough to write this about their entertaining creation:

Hi Gary,

I just saw your message on Twitter -- happy to share a little bit about this puzzle.

I was relatively new to constructing when Erik reached out and asked if I wanted to collaborate on a themeless. That was about a year ago, I think. At the time, I had just discovered the Fill function in Crossfire which made my constructing process about 100x faster...
I started with ZAZIEBEETZ in the NW corner and AMERICANAH in the SE, then finished the rest of those stacks through a lot of trial and error. Hammering out the clues was a lot of fun -- I think my favorites are 15-A and 47-D. 

I learned a whole lot about good construction and clue-writing from Erik throughout this process. I'm very grateful to him, and to Patti and Rich for publishing this puzzle. And psyched for it to be out in the world!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,

Madeline

Erik added: The gratitude is mutual! Madeline is a brilliant, vital constructor, and I'm thankful she took the time to collaborate with me. Very proud of the result - hope you enjoy!

Across:

1. Not fresh anymore: GETTING OLD.


11. Sixth Greek letter: ZETA - Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, ZETA...

15. To a ridiculous extent: AD ABSURDUM (with Italian subtitles)


16. Decamp, e.g.: EXIT.

17. Emmy nominee who plays Van on "Atlanta": ZAZIE BEETZ - One of Madeline's seed entries. I needed letter-by-letter help. 


18. Give a "G," say: RATE.

19. "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie" emotion: AMORE  - Start of the second verse of this Dean Martin hit - "When the stars make you drool just like a pasta e fasul, That's AMORE

20. Apple co-founder's nickname: WOZ.


21. Olympic city whose opening ceremony included a "Swan Lake" performance: SOCHI - The 2014 Olympics there cost $51B after being budgeted for $39B. Corruption and waste led to a very shoddy Olympics 

22. Heaven-sent: DIVINE.

24. Sometimes controversial message: TWEET - I found Madeline on Twitter with no controversy  

25. "The Alienist" network: TNT Here 'ya go

28. Small container: TIN 

29. Pickle serving: SPEAR.

31. "Where __ you?": WERE - Right at the top of this poster for a great movie (Rotten Tomatoes - 96%)


33. __ loss: AT A.

35. Sappho's island: LESBOS and 
49. Tyrrhenian Sea resort: CAPRI - An ~7 hr flight between these islands


38. One concerned with appearances: IMAGE CONSULTANT - "One who puts lipstick on a pig?"

41. Organic food label term: NON-GMO - Genetically Modified Organisms are made with DNA from organisms that normally don't breed. Hybrid seed companies have made corn from different varieties by simply removing tassels from certain plants and leaving others to shed pollen to make a better variety much like has been done for centuries.


42. Hoover, for one: DAM - Author Michael Hiltzik speculated that without the Hoover Dam, Seattle and San Francisco might the only big cities west of the Rockies.

43. Stage accusation: ET TU.

44. Trickster: SCAMP.

46. Pro __: TEM - Chuck Grassley is the current President Pro TEMpore of the Senate and third in line for presidential succession behind Pence and Pelosi.

48. Hyperbolic wait time: EON - I haven't seen you in EONS!

51. Responds to, as intelligence: ACTS ON or 40. Did nothing: SAT THERE 


54. Agrarian: RURAL.

55. Masked drama: NOH.
 

56. __ Macedonia: NORTH A fascinating story



60. Polish, in a way: EDIT.

61. June 11 Hawaiian honoree: KAMEHAMEHA - On that day his statue in Honolulu is adorned with leis


63. Rugby team: SIDE - You can tell them apart in this scrum


64. Adichie novel that won the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award: AMERICANAH - A story of a Nigerian woman who comes to college in the U.S.


65. Ring sites: TOES.

66. Most-visited British art museum: TATE MODERN - In London



Down:

1. Disputed Mideast strip: GAZA.

2. Cheese named for a Netherlands town: EDAM - A cheese market in our favorite crossword cheese town of EDAM, Netherlands 


3. Former Starbucks tea: TAZO - Starbucks sold that brand to Unilever for $383M

4. Classic Ford: T-BIRD.

5. "They DO look alike": I SEE IT and 
25. Matching: TWIN - Steve Bridges is on the right


6. Pencil, barely: NUB.

7. Caught up with, sizewise: GREW INTO - Didn't your mother do this to test for growth allowance?


8. Ancient theater: ODEON - I've posted images of ancient open-air ODEONS. Here's a modern one in London


9. Skating jumps: LUTZES.


10. Boundary at the 38th parallel, for short: DMZ - The division between North and South Korea at the 38th parallel is very obvious from space at night


11. Garbage disposal goal: ZERO WASTE.

12. Compound: EXACERBATE.


13. Charitable gift: TITHE.

14. Took the loss: ATE IT - What a sacked quarterback is said to do to the football 

Aaron Rodgers taking a loss

21. Big name in romance fiction: STEEL.


23. Nickelodeon parent: VIACOM - Not a character on a kid's program but the owners

26. Captain or a fish: NEMO.

27. It's celebrated with a blue-, pink- and white-striped flag: TRANS 
PRIDE - Blue (male) and pink (female) stripes with white in the middle that represents gender neutral. Here the flag flies at the Philadelphia City Hall on Trans Pride Day.


30. Feathers: PLUMES.

32. Containers for some fragile goods: EGG CRATES.

34. "Yes?": AND - The first rule of improv is "you have to keep it going"


36. Cognizant of: ONTO.

37. Floor: STUN.

39. Inbox pileup: E-MAIL.

45. Site of a historic 1914 waterway opening: PANAMA - 28 years later my dad started his WWII duty there 


47. Country with a 26-year Grace period?: MONACO - This is a fabulous clue/fill!

Princess Grace of Monaco

49. Pinnacle: CREST.

50. Sound: AUDIO.

52. Threat in 1998's "Deep Impact": COMET - Meh...


53. Wayfarer: NOMAD.

57. Actress Russo: RENE - She is a really good actress but she played a very weak woman in this horrible movie that lost $15M. I shoulda walked out.


58. Whaler's direction: THAR.

59. "Transparent" actress Kathryn: HAHN - Where she played Rabbi Raquel 


61. Kit __: KAT - One of our Halloween handouts

62. Word for a guy: HIM - Professor Higgins Hymn To 
HIM. He soon realized he had Grown Accustomed To Her Face.







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