google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Rich Norris

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Showing posts with label Rich Norris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rich Norris. Show all posts

Nov 11, 2023

Saturday, November 11, 2023, Rich Norris

 

Saturday Themeless by Rich Norris

It's old home week as the former LA Times puzzle editor makes yet another triumphal return. I was so surprised when the "Congratulations" window came up and I will point out some of my rough spots as I blog here. However, if  you look at the puzzle graphic, you can see where my last fill was a desperate guess at the Natick Rich planted at the conjunction of ABUJA and JANIE. I'll take a "got 'er done" out of petty cash.





Across:

1. Stop for an assessment: TAKE STOCK - A lot of NFL teams have doing that as we are near the halfway point of the season.

10. Reverence: PIETY.

15. Brown group: IVY LEAGUE ๐Ÿ˜€ Cleveland fit but...

16. "Mad TV" alum Lange: ARTIE.

         

17. Shade named for a river: NILE GREEN.


18. Callas title role: NORMA.


19. "Aww!": SO CUTE.


20. Outdoor: OPEN AIR - Junkstock is a huge OPEN AIR craft show 15 minutes from us


22. Occasion to eat bรกnh chu'ng: TET.


23. 2019 Tyler, the Creator album: IGOR.


24. Bridge installer's deg.: DDS ๐Ÿ˜€ My dentist has not installed any bridges for me but has crowned me several times.

25. Feature of an Oscar statuette: SWORD.

28. Rose __: PARADE - It was on our bucket list and we were not disappointed!


30. Syrup brand since 1902: KARO.

31. "__ here": SAME.

32. Gender reveal words: A BOY.
35. Singing competition, familiarly: IDOL - The first winner


36. Dominated, in gaming: PWNED - Leetspeak is a system of modified spellings used primarily on the Internet. 
37. Indian royal: RAJA.

38. Handout to the hungry: MENU ๐Ÿ˜€

39. Winery discard: LEES All you want to know


40. Old ski lift: J-BAR.


41. Pair with quite a lot of pull: OX TEAM ๐Ÿ˜€

43. Type: KEY IN - Demonstrated by a very famous keyboarder!


44. Branch: ARM - The FBI is an ARM of the justice department 

46. Pro __: RATA.


47. Rival: VIE.

48. All smiles, in a Carroll poem: BEAMISH - The poem was never meant to make sense!


50. Soap named for a city: DALLAS ๐Ÿ˜€


53. Yupik craft: UMIAK an open boat made of animal hide stretched over a wooden frame, traditionally rowed by Inuit women. Yeah, I knew that ๐Ÿ˜—


54. Kitchen counter: OVEN TIMER.

57. "Their Eyes Were Watching God" protagonist Crawford: JANIE.


58. Keyboard ornament: GRACE NOTE - an extra note added as an embellishment and not essential to the harmony of melody. My music teacher colleague's immediate first thought was of Patsy 
Cline singing Crazy.


59. Figure skating leaps: AXELS.


60. Word from the Greek for "working together": SYNERGISM - If everybody does their job, this could be a huge gain.


Down:

1. Solder element: TIN - If you know chemical symbols, you can see this is 60% Tin and 40% Lead


2. Zipcar parent: AVIS What is Zipcar?


3. Luke's nephew: KYLO.


4. Whirlpool alternative: ELECTROLUX.


5. Proceeded without pause: SEGUED - The Beatles rocked the house on the Ed Sullivan Show and then Ed had to SEGUE to a magician named Fred Kaps. 


6. "The Goldfinch" Pulitzer winner: TARTT.


7. Pointed arch: OGEE.

8. Stick on a table: CUE ๐Ÿ˜€

9. Contests with numbered balls: KENO GAMES.

10. "Let's get toasty" fast-casual chain: PANERA.


11. Tend to a pressing task?: IRON ๐Ÿ˜€

12. Super Bowl debut of 2008 revived in 2022: E-TRADE BABY.


13. Hardly bold: TIMID.

14. Junior and senior: YEARS.

21. Mulled (over): PORED.

23. Rio region: IPANEMA - Tall and tan and young and lovely...


25. Take off the top: SKIM.


26. 13-time All-Star inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2023: WADE.


27. University town northeast of Augusta: ORONO MAINE - Hmmm, now what university is close to Augusta, GA? Oops...

A popular cwd city

29. Indian district known for a beverage: DARJEELING.


31. Crew taught by Gabe Kotter: SWEATHOGS.


33. California classical music festival city: OJAI - 82 miles WNW of LA


34. Story: YARN.

36. Court answers: PLEAS - A PLEA of "Not Guilty" isn't always the same as "Innocent"

42. Short rides?: TRIKES ๐Ÿ˜€

43. Off-__: KILTER - The Canadian Pavilion at EPCOT had a band called OFF KILTER who featured a bagpipe in their rock and roll show.


44. Nigerian capital: ABUJA - Yeah, I had LAGOS first too. The capital was moved from there to ABUJA over thirty years ago.


45. Century 21 rival: REMAX.

47. "Lovecraft Country" Emmy winner Courtney B. __: VANCE - One of those clues where you wonder whether the clue was Rich's or Patti's


49. Send: MAIL.

50. Campus figure: DEAN.

51. French mine: A MOI So cette maison est ร€ MOIS (This house belongs to me)

52. Court units: SETS - In volleyball teams used to have to win five games to win a match. Games has now been changed to SETS like tennis. Last month, #2 Huskers beat the then #1 Badgers 3 SETS to 2 SETS.


55. Texter's emphasis: VRY.

56. __ sleep: REM.







Aug 12, 2023

Saturday, August 12, 2023, Rich Norris

Saturday Themeless by Rich Norris

Our former editor returns with a very doable Saturday exercise. He also gives a very nice shoutout to C.C.













Across:

1. Draft pick?: OXEN ๐Ÿ˜€ OXEN are draft animals


5. Bentley of "Yellowstone": WES - Second from left


8. __ Canarias: ISLAS - Canary Islands was obvious but I had to work to get ISLAS 


13. Backs: SIDES WITH 


16. Use, in a way, with "off": MOOCH and 37. Used, in a way, with "off": SPONGED.

17. Texas Revolution figure: SANTA ANNA.


18. Ask: PUT TO - I PUT TO you this question, does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost over night?

19. Hot: ON A STREAK.

20. Like some accents: ACUTE.    


21. Uniform item, often: CAP - At the Pentagon Mall store - $29. At a street kiosk by Ford's Theater - $9
22. Best Original Song Oscar winner for "No Time to Die": EILISH - Billie won with her brother Finneas for this Bond theme


24. March honoree, familiarly: ST. PAT.

27. 21st century explorer: DORA.


28. Job listing ltrs.: EEO.

30. Golf shot: CHIP - Tiger's on #16 at Augusta is probably the most famous


31. 2002 AFI Life Achievement Award honoree: HANKS - At 46, he was the youngest to get it


32. Pandora or Spotify: APP.

33. Demolish: RAZE - My childhood home finally got RAZED two years ago, twenty years later than it should have been.

 


34. Rest stop visitors: SEMIS.


35. Take the lead: STAR - Henry Winkler declined to STAR as Danny Zuko in Grease


36. Snack brand since 1921: UTZ - Not familiar in my town
37. Cocky gait: STRUT.

38. Olympian queen: HERA - A wife of Zeus

39. Org. honored with a commemorative stamp for its 50th anniversary in 1960: BSA.

40. Assistant's job, often: PREP.

41. Deserving of: WORTH.

42. "Criminal Minds" actress: AJ COOK.


44. Cut (off): LOP.

45. Runners at the corners, say: TWO ON - That means a baseball team has runners at 1st and 3rd base.

46. Request to be heard: INDULGE ME.


52. Garden hose gasket: O-RING - Of course this NASA guy immediately thought of the O-RING on the Space Shuttle Booster that failed on that cold January day and caused the Challenger to blow up.


53. TV series that teamed a conspiracy theorist with a doctor: THE X-FILES - Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) was the conspiracy theorist and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) was the doctor turned FBI agent.


54. Poet whose work helped establish modern Italian: DANTE.

The Inferno - Canto I 

The Dark Forest. The Hill of Difficulty. The Panther, the Lion, and the Wolf. Virgil. 

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
chรฉ la diritta via era smarrita.

Ahi quanto a dir qual era รจ cosa dura
esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte
che nel pensier rinova la paura!

Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.

Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.


55. Critters with discs on their extremities: TREE FROGS.


56. Wasn't indecisive: OPTED.

57. Kennel sound: YAP.

58. "Fuller House" actress Ashley: LIAO - In the middle below


Down:

1. __ buco: OSSO - Italian for "bone with a hole"


2. Capital of Shaanxi Province: XIAN - This is the hometown of our gracious hostess, C.C.. Here is a beautiful picture of her in her old XIAN "hood" where her brother Andy still lives.


3. "The Incredibles" designer Mode: EDNA - It is commonly believed that multi Oscar-winner Edith Head was the inspiration for this cartoon character.


4. Loser to Explorer in the first browser war: NETSCAPE - This was my first browser and I remember how thrilled I was to use it via my dialup modem.


5. __ Country: WINE.

6. Volcano where Zeus trapped Typhon, in some myths: ETNA - Zeus, volcano, c'mon...

7. Agree: SHAKE ON IT.

8. Chevys retired in 2020: IMPALAS - I didn't know that

9. Sans __: carefree: SOUCI - French: Sans (without) SOUCI (worry)

10. Odyssey dreamer: LOTUS EATER - Speaking of sans souci...


11. Behave as required: ACT THE PART.

12. Brake __: SHOE.

14. Occupied, in a way: SAT AT - The famous 1960 lunch counter SIT IN in at a Woolworth's Lunch Counter in Greensboro, N.C.


15. Distort: WARP - Did'ja ever...


23. Bugs: IRKS.

24. Really clean: SCRUB - My idea of "clean the deck" is using a garden hose for ten minutes. Joann's is two hours with a power washer attached to a 2,700psi compressor.

25. Closing words: THAT'S A WRAP - In some movies, "THAT'S A WRAP" is heard after the first scene is filmed way out of sequence.

26. Pie seller, casually: PIZZA JOINT - This is a one where we got a great pie on top of the Island of Capri which is called Anacapri.


27. Block: DAM UP.

29. Media mogul born in Mississippi: OPRAH.

In Kosciusko, MS

31. Summons whose last word is often repeated: HERE KITTY - Repetition does not seem to help with our kitty.

34. Minute Maid Park player, to fans: STRO.

35. Meg Ryan's screen name in "You've Got Mail": SHOPGIRL.


41. Mezzo-soprano Beverly: WOLFF - Two famous Beverly sopranos with five-letter last names.

SILLS.            WOLFF

43. Italian noble title below marchese: CONTE.

Nobility
  • Imperatore (Emperor) / Imperatrice (Empress)
  • Re (King) / Regina (Queen)
  • Principe (Prince) / Principessa (Princess)
  • Duca (Duke) / Duchessa (Duchess)
  • Marchese (Marquis) / Marchesa (Marchioness)
  • Conte (Count or Earl) / Contessa (Countess)
  • Visconte (Viscount) / Viscontessa (Viscountess)

44. Opulent: LUXE.
45. Well attachment?: TO DO - Well TO DO peeps demand LUXE accommodations 

47. Drag org.: NHRA - National Hot Rod Association


48. Word with freeze or fry: DEEP - McDonald's great fries are DEEP frozen before they are DEEP fried


49. H.G. Wells race: ELOI - Rod Taylor greets the passive ELOI in the 1965 iteration of The Time Machine 


50. Colossal: MEGA.

51. Petrol brand: ESSO - This Ontario station was charging 116.5 cents/liter