google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Peter A. Collins

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Showing posts with label Peter A. Collins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peter A. Collins. Show all posts

Sep 12, 2013

Thursday September 12, 2013 Peter A. Collins

Theme: TOSSED SALAD (62A. Light lunch (and a hint to this puzzle's circled letters)) - Six different kinds of salads are anagrammed (Or jumbled, to be exact) in the grid. TOSSED is an anagram indicator in Cryptic puzzles.

17A. Scrooge's underpaid clerk : BOB CRATCHIT. Cobb salad.

23A. Frighten off : SCARE AWAY. Caesar salad.

37A. Reading in an unruly class? : RIOT ACT. Taco salad.

56A. Forest shade : DARK GREEN. Greek salad. I see a "Green salad" too.

11D. Divas have them : BIG EGOS. Egg salad.

42D. Beach acquisitions : SUN TANS. Tuna salad.

C.C. here again. Cruciverb did not have the puzzle ready at their regular time last night, so Marti could not blog the puzzle. She'll be back next week. Please email her (HeartRx@me.com) if you want to join the Corner New England gathering next Monday.

Peter Collins never ceases to amaze me with his creativity & craftsmanship. Notice all the salad words span across two words? And there are 7 theme entries. I'd be happy with 5. That's why Peter is Peter, and there's only one Peter Collins.

Across:

1. Meter site : CURB

5. After Chicago, the most populous Illinois city : AURORA. Gimme for our Chicago crowd. In case you missed, TTP posted this hilarious ad yesterday. Jordy Nelson is from Kansas.  Wisconsin is indeed pretty in fall.

11. Cave dweller : BAT

14. Atlas section : ASIA

15. Adds excitement to, with "up" : SPICES

16. Syr. neighbor : ISR

19. Fed. property manager : GSA (General Services Administration). GSA, GSA, they need to have some kind of scandal for me to remember it.

20. Lotto-like game : KENO. Saw it at Treasure Island.

21. Take down a few pegs : DEMEAN

28. First host of "America's Got Talent" : REGIS. Look here, the box on the right. Another Simon Cowell creation.

29. __ the cloth : MAN OF

30. Senseless : NUMB

32. Piano concerto highlights : SOLI. Plural of Solo.

33. Not impressed : UNAWED. Never used this word in my life. Unimpressed, yes.

35. Lab subj. : SCI

36. Entry-level pos. : ASST

40. Morse's rank: Abbr. : INSP. Inspector Morse.

44. 30-day mo. : APR. Very general clue.

45. Combed (through) : SIFTED

50. Toi et moi : NOUS. In Chinese, Ni + Wo = Women (We). Strange, isn't it?

51. Time, in Germany : ZEIT. No idea, though I do know Zeitgeist, literally "spirit of the time"

53. North of Mexico : NORTE

54. Hit __: run into trouble : A SNAG

58. Shape of Michigan's Lower Peninsula : MITTEN. OK, please link in the Comments section. Let me see the MITTEN.

60. Reversals, slangily : UIEs. Or UEYs.

61. Memorable period : ERA

68. Hill VIP : SEN

69. For hire to sire : AT STUD

70. Tibetan priest : LAMA. Tibetan's main dish is Tsampa, roasted barley flour. The accompanying drink is of course Yak butter tea. You won't survive there, D-Otto.


71. His, to Henri : SES

72. Bottom-of-the-line : CHEAPO

73. Learning experience? : EXAM. This is hard for me.

Down:

1. Part of a pickup line : CAB. Great clue.

2. Troupe for troops: Abbr. : USO

3. Bone in a cage : RIB

4. Auditorium late-comers' seating : BACK ROW

5. Yoga pose : ASANA. This refers to any pose, right, Marti, Lucina and J.D.?

6. Above Manhattan's 59th Street, say : UPTOWN

7. Ocasek of the Cars : RIC

8. Glaswegian's "Gee!" : OCH

9. Tim or Tara of Hollywood : REID. I only know Tara Reid.

10. Fall flower : ASTER

12. Goes after : ASSAILS

13. It may be rapid : TRANSIT

18. Illegal smoke, quaintly : REEFER

22. Southwest sight : MESA

23. Rice rival, briefly : SMU

24. Axe : CAN

25. Collection of literary odds and ends : ANA

26. "The Sound of Music" setting : AUSTRIA

27. Interactive party song : YMCA

31. Some lighters : BICs. Pens too.

34. "In Her Shoes" co-star : DIAZ (Cameron). In the movie, her workaholic sister has lots of expensive shoes in the closet. Shirley MacLaine is the grandma.

38. Page with views : OP-ED

39. Trace amounts : TINGES

40. Really botched up : IN A MESS. Speaking of mess, thanks for the link on "important" in CSS,  TTP. I was just fiddling with various Advanced buttons in the new Template to make the blog color and layout more like the old Template. All was fine until I decided to mess with the Header. Boom! Everything cascaded and I couldn't see. All was just blank.

41. "Not on your life!" : NO SIREE!

43. Hurdle for a jr. : PSAT

46. Lawn sign : FOR SALE

47. Roman numeral? : TRE. OK, I know it has a ? mark, but TRE is a number, not a numeral.

48. Le Tour de France time : ETE

49. Kit's home : DEN

52. Make even, to a carpenter : TRUE UP.  Marti is a Carpenter, of course.

55. Pass, but not with flying colors : GET A C. Crossing A SNAG. This is a tough area for Peter: stacked 6's connected with stacked 7's.

57. Buddy : KIDDO

59. Chris of "The Good Wife" : NOTH. The guy in black suits. Gimme for JD.  She likes the show. NOTH is Jerry Orbach's first "Law & Order" partner, if I remember correctly.


63. Flint-to-Detroit dir. : SSE

64. Depot: Abbr. : STA

65. SoCal destination : LAX

66. Marcus Welby's gp. : AMA. Marcus Welby, M.D..

67. Block : DAM. Verb!



C.C.

1) There are still tickets left for "An Evening with the Puzzle Master" tonight. Click here for details. Her is a Minnesota Daily interview with Will Shortz, editor of NY Times crossword. Please come and join us. It'll be fun.

2) Happy Birthday to dear Steve, our witty and efficient puzzle sherpa. Steve is always ready to pinch-hit whenever one of our blogging member needs help, despite his heavy traveling demands. Thanks for your time and commitment, Steve!




Jun 8, 2013

Saturday, Jun 8th, 2013, Peter A. Collins

Theme: None

Words: 70 (missing F,Q,Z)

Blocks: 32

  Alas, I was done in not by the proper names in this one, but by phrases I have never heard before.  For the second week in a row, we have had a "non-Saturday" grid, with the long answers "inside" the edges.  Some 'eye-rolling' fill today, I thought, and some words just don't look right, either.  Eight 10-letter and two 11-letter fills, so we have:

26A. To the max : AS ALL GET OUT - well, it makes sense, I guess, but I have never heard or said this - might be regional

41A. Horseshoes, e.g. : LUCKY CHARMS - I tried "TOSSING GAME", since it fit; there's a horseshoe taped up over the 8line sorting station at UPS

31A. Sleight-of-hand swindle : PIGEON DROP - I "know" of this con, but never its name

38A. Shot protection : GOALIE MASK - mine's on top of my head here


Od Warn~!

ACROSS:

 1. General transportation? : JEEP - ah - I did try "TIRE" first, since there is a General Tire company, and a LOT of transportation rides on tires....

5. Like some whiskey : IRISH - can you get an alcohol "buzz" from smoking an Irish Whiskey cigar~???

10. Accident initials : EMS - Emergency Medical Services

13. __-Free: contact lens solution : OPTI

 

14. Bollywood princess : RANEE - clued as "Indian" in the week; Bollywood is a step further

15. Passes, in a way : LAPS

17. 2000s Korean compact : KIA SPECTRA - I don't know why I put in "Electra" at first

19. Hip to : IN ON

20. Transcendent joy : ECSTASY

21. Focus of a historic New Orleans museum : VOO-DOO - once the ---OO was there, I got it

23. "__ shall live your epitaph to make": Shakespeare's Sonnet 81 : "OR I..."

24. Worrying about : SWEATING - ah, not FRETTING

30. Teachers' degs. : BEs - Bachelor of Education, but it's usually B.Ed.(s)

32. Start to charge? : SUR - surcharge, which strangely means the cost AFTER the initial

33. '70s TV character name whose original Broadway spelling had an "a" instead of an "e" : UNGER - That would be "The Odd Couple"

34. Kenan's TV pal : KEL - all perps, no clue on this show

35. Item under glass, perhaps : RELIC - when I started working at Winn-Dixie in Fla 1n 1995, I was the oldest person on the grocery staff (at 24yrs old) - so the kids called me "Relic" - and I liked it

37. Spot warning : Grr - yeah, "ARF" seemed a bit weak

40. The Tribe, on scoreboards : CLEveland - The Indians, and featured in "Major League", and I still dig the movie

42. 1980 hit with the lyric "It took a long time to know him" : 'HE'S SO SHY' - The Pointer Sisters, and a music link

44. End for Caesar : EAN - CaesarEAN, as in Section

45. Scrub in, say : ASSIST - I watch "House, M.D." in syndication, from my DVR

46. Service providers : PASTORS - ah, that service; and a semi-clecho 8D. Father's talk: Abbr. : SERmon

50. Where to find an expiration date? : OBIT - HA~!  I tried TOMB first, 'cause I was on that wavelength

51. Curator's event : ART EXHIBIT - I had ---BIT, and that seemed wrong, then the light bulb....

54. Put on a thumb drive, say : SAVE

55. Frost bit? : VERSE - Poetry from Robert Frost - didn't fool me, either

56. Name in a footnote : CITE

57. Bench, once : RED - A-ha~!  I got this one, as well - I knew Johnny Bench was a Cincinnati Red
 

58. Splits : EXITS

59. Strike one as being : SEEM

DOWN:

1. Routine element : JOKE - In a stand-up comedy routine

2. Many a miniseries : EPIC

3. DFW postings : ETAs - Dallas/Ft. Worth, the airport

4. Wild Bill Hickok, notably : PISTOLEER - this does not look right

5. Parting words : "I RESIGN"

6. Ribald : RACY - ribald; "vulgar", from the German "riben" to copulate - and  a chance for Splynter to post a gratuitous leg image

7. S&L figure : INTerest - Savings & Loan

9. Lift, as an anchor : HEAVE UP

10. Economist Janeway : ELIOT

11. Lower jaw-related : MANDIBULAR - phew, that's a mouthful~!

12. Hated the book, perhaps : SPOONERISM - Baited the Hook being the "alternate" phrasing

16. Busses in Birmingham : SNOGS - Watch Harry Potter - there's snogging going on there

18. Beauty spot? : PARLOR

22. Bit of fodder : OAT

24. Hot-and-cold : STREAKY

25. Fuzzy : WOOLLY - the two "L"s seem 'wrong' to me - must be the down-ness of the answer

26. Toon shopkeeper voiced by Hank Azaria : APU

27. Where business is always picking up? : SINGLES BAR - I am trying to "pick up" one of the female associates at Home Depot - I don't do the bar anymore

28. Pushy : AGGRESSIVE

29. '90s judge on "The People's Court" : ED KOCH - a WAG - I could not remember the name of the first guy who did the spot; "W-something....ah, "Wapner"; I did not know Ed was a judge there, just the mayor of NYC - the Wiki

32. Linguist's concern : SEMANTICS

35. Belabor : REHASH

36. Most ATM deposits : CKs - Checks, and, meh.

38. Novelist Flaubert : GUSTAVE - I had everything but the "G", since my first "shot protector" was "KEVLAR VEST"

39. Tools for those on the way up : ICE AXES

40. Bedlam : CHAOS

41. __ Altos, California : LOS

43. Positioned : SITED - mostly in terms of where a house sits on its plot, in terms of solar gain, views, etc.

46. Bother : PEST - the Pittsburgh Penguins were SWEPT out of the playoffs by Boston tonight - and they are an NHL pest to me

47. Stage presentation? : OBIE - the award for stage performances

48. Observance : RITE

49. Stalk in the garden : STEM

52. Excitable dinosaur in "Toy Story" : REX - I could not think of his name - but when the perps filled it in, I got a smack upside the head from myself

53. TNT part : TRInitrotoluene - usually we get the TNT part as the answer; I was curious, so I read the Wiki - it was first prepared by a German named Julius Wilbrand - as a dye - now that's what I call "ribald"

Splynter