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

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May 19, 2009

Tuesday May 19, 2009 David W. Cromer

Theme: SHOW ME THE MONEY (55A: "Jerry Maguire" catchphrase, and this puzzle's title)

20A: NBA team that drafted Lew Alcindor (Kareem) in 1969: MILWAUKEE BUCKS

33A: Joaquin Phoenix's "Walk the Line" role: JOHNNY CASH

43A: Dine: BREAK BREAD

"Jerry Maguire" is a very noisy film, lots of yelling, esp the "SHOW ME THE MONEY" part. I don't understand why Joaquin Phoenix wants to be a rapper. He was so good in "Walk the Line". The bracketed Kareen is sure a help for those who are not aware of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's original name Lew Alcindor. He changed it in 1971.

Very nice puzzle. Only five 3-letter words. Besides basketball, we also have other sports fills:

47A: 1977 Cy Young Award winner Sparky: LYLE. Dennis mentioned his "The Bronx Zoo" a few times on the blog. But I forgot all about this pitcher. He won Cy Young when he was with the Yankees.

48A: Hockey great Bobby: ORR

66A: Slamin' Sammy of golf: SNEAD

Quite a few letter C's & K's. My favorite entry is KLEENEX (44D: Sniffler's need). Always neat to see scrabbly letter like X at the bottom/right edge.

"I dreamed a dream" where every theme entry was a gimme to me. And the dream came true this morning. I really felt like Susan Boyle.

Across:

1A: Work detail, briefly: SPEC. Top row entries tend to have more consonants. So are those in the first column, like STAMP (1D: Snail-mail need), as most words start with consonants.

5A: Italian-American singer Jerry: VALE. Why specify "Italian-American"? You don't clue SINATRA as "Italian-American singer Frank", do you?

9A: Man with many fables: AESOP. Wish HARE (56D: Long-eared leaper) were cross-referenced here.

15A: Basic Latin word: AMAT

16A: Whale feature: SPOUT. Have no idea why whale spouts.

17A: Golden Fleece ship: ARGO. Jason and the Argonauts.

18A: Subculturist in black clothes and makeup: GOTH. Funny how word evolves. The original Goths people probably did wear lots of black clothes. Definitely no dark makeups. I kind of like Gwyneth Paltrow's Gothic look.

23A: Classroom recitation: PLEDGE

24A: Oft-smelled rodent?: RAT. Smell a RAT.

38A: Leprechaun's land: EIRE

39A: WWII threat: U-BOAT. Last time E-BOAT was clued as "WWII torpedo vessel". E stood for "Enemy".

40A: Nile reptile: ASP. Rhyming clue.

41A: Safe place: HAVEN

42A: Boodles and Beefeater: GINS. The answer revealed itself. I've never heard of Boodles GIN or Beefeater GIN.

50A: Patronizes, as a restaurant: EATS AT

61A: Crazy bird?: LOON. Crazy as a LOON. I wonder how the phrase got started. Poor LOON. It's our state bird.

62A: Rain delay covering: TARP. Poor Twins. They just could not escape the Yankee ghosts, new stadium or not.

67A: Cajole: COAX

Down:

3D: Great Seal bird: EAGLE. And AERIE (53D: 3-Down abode)

4D: Three, so they say: CROWD. Two's Company, three's CROWD.

5D: In an unspecific way: VAGUELY

6D: Wild way to run: AMOK. Run AMOK.

9D: Quick on the uptake: ASTUTE

10D: DeMille movie, e.g.: EPIC. Nice clue. I liked "The Ten Commandments".

11D: Loll in a tub: SOAK. I "loll in tub" every night.

22D: "The Art of Fugue": BACH. "I believe in BACH, the Father, Beethoven, the Son, and Brahms, the Holy Ghost of music." Interesting line on the origins of the Three B's.

33D: Moonshine vessels: JUGS

34D: Cousin of a Tony Award: OBIE

36D: Condé _ Publications: NAST. They own Vogue, Glamour, GQ, Vanity Fair, New Yorker, The Golf Digest, Gourmet, etc. Do you read any of those?

37D: Fix, vet-style: SPAY

41D: Construction support piece: H-BEAM. New to me. How are they different from I-BEAM?

43D: Earthen wall adjacent to a ditch: BERM. No idea. Like this? Shouldn't they be called banks?

46D: "That's a shame": HOW SAD. Indeed. HOW SAD! A brilliant career was cut short.

52D: Watchdog's warning: SNARL. Alliteration again.

54D: Used the Selectric: TYPED. Easy guess. I've never heard of IBM Selectric typewriter.

59D: Guatemala greeting: HOLA. "Ni Hao" in Chinese. Or "Wei" when you greet people on the phone. Different intonation from the dynasty Wei though. The former is rising, the latter is falling.

Grid answer.

C.C.