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

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Jul 6, 2013

Saturday, Jul 6th, 2013, Bill Thompson

Theme: None

Words: 70 (missing F,J,V,X)

Blocks: 26

  Now that's what I call a Saturday grid~!  Triple 8's and 6's in the across AND down corners, with a grid spanner, AND a grid climber, to boot~!  Mr. Thompson was last seen here over a year ago with his "Box Set"; I have not had the "39A".  Completely intimidating, but with a few educated fills from crossword experience and a lot of WAGs, I did get this one done, and in a relatively short time.  Here's the 15-letter answers:

35A. Film based on junk science, say : SCHLOCKUMENTARY - anyone think of an example~?

8D. Biased interview features : LOADED QUESTIONS

And some of the others;

36D. Licorice stick in a pit : CLARINET - HA~!  I get it~!

 

And I am guessing some of you are wondering what happened with miss Home Depot?

63A. Premature plot giveaways, e.g. : SPOILERS - can't tell you now....have to wait to the end~!

Oscar-November-Whiskey-Alfa-Romeo-Delta~!

ACROSS:

1. Onetime college All-Star football game : HULA BOWL - Once I had HU--, I WAGed the rest

9. "Hasn't scratched yet!" cleanser : BON AMI

 

15. Song played at the 1920 Olympics when music for the Italian national anthem could not be found : "O SOLE MIO" - one of the educated crossword fills

16. Enmity : ANIMUS

17. Colorful headwear : BANDANNA - the second (er, third) "N" got me; I went with BANDANAS, since headwear could be plural

18. Sorbetto alternative : GELATO - oops~! put in GelatI

19. Sister : NUN - I have a friend, Sister Barbara, in the "Friends of Bill W." clan - she is a character, let me tell you; I used to joke that she could get thru the "Third Step" (the one about God) easier, because she has the 'hot-line' somewhere in the nuns' Villa....

20. Blitzes, in old football lingo : RED DOGS - I did not know this; it was mostly perps for me

22. RSA neighbor, in the Olympics : ZIMbabwe - map

23. Grizzlies, in Granada : OSOs

25. Not at all swank : SEEDY

26. "He who hath many friends hath __": Aristotle : NONE - this is my take on people who go around claming they have 763 "friends" on Facebook - I am probably the last 42yr-old who still does not have a presence there; I am trying to get my H.I. business a page - anyone help me with that?

27. Did some farm work : BALED

29. "Crusade in Europe" memoirist, initially : DDE - Dwight David Eisenhower, seemed like a good choice to me (I also had D-E....)

30. "Bouquet of Sunflowers" painter : MONET

 

31. Have a life : ARE

33. More unsettled : QUEASIER - as in one's stomach

39. Delight : PLEASURE

40. Czech sci-fi play : RUR - Nailed it, but not saying much; crossword standard

41. Pulls down : EARNS

42. Fire proof : ASH - had a bonfire while the English family was here; the next day the neighbor complained the smoke was getting in his house; too bad his windows are closed with the A/C units runnning....

44. Like infant fingers : PUDGY

48. First Nations tribe : CREE

49. Skirts that come in bell and pancake styles : TUTUs - not my kind of skirt, as you know

51. Insignificant : MERE

52. Rx instruction : t.i.d. - ter in die, Three Times a Day

53. Pros : ARTISTS

55. Decline : SAG

56. Strand, in a way : ENISLE

58. "Absolutely!" : "OH YES I DO~!" - ooh, four-word answer~!

60. Wrap again, as an ankle : RETAPE - ah, I had REBAND, and I knew it wasn't quite right

61. Cared for : NURTURED

62. Cut and dried? : STYLED - hair-dos; Lilia had a ponytail today....


DOWN:

1. Mingle (with) : HOB-NOB - and I did so with her last evening....

2. 1992 Dream Team chant : USA~! USA~!

3. Cambodian leader ousted by the Khmer Rouge : LON NOL

4. City pol. : ALD. - This filled in via perps; I have never heard this term, either

5. Support : BEAR - Could have been beaM, too, which is what I had

6. Exeunt __: stage direction : OMNES - All go off stage - hey~! my high school Latin came in handy~!

7. Breathless : WINDED

9. Like some jeans : BAGGY - not FADED, like Lilia's....

10. People : ONES - the "ones" over there

11. Cipher : NIL - well, it's a stretch, but with the absence of "0" in Roman times....more here

12. Vast rainforest : AMAZONIA - AMAZON was too short; then the -IA filled, and the V-8 can flew....

13. Bounty rebel : MUTINEER - Mutiny on the Bounty - not the paper towel

14. Equality of measure : ISOMETRY

21. Concert hall : ODEUM

24. Pirate's hunting ground : SEA LANE

26. Medicine show elixir : NOSTRUM - "a medicine of secret composition recommended by its preparer but usually without scientific proof of its effectiveness" - Merriam Webster

28. Refuse : DROSS - Ooh, I was close - I went with DREGS - a noun and not a verb

30. Put on one's big-boy pants : MAN-UP - Like this commercial~?

32. Old coin with an accented first letter : ÉCU - another "educated crossword experience"

34. Poetic adverb : E'ER - went with o'er first

35. Haunting images : SPECTERS - here's a song from "Spectres", Blue Öyster Cult

37. Trait determinant : HEREDITY

38. Brat topper : KRAUT - ah, the food; I was thinking "TIARA", as in Toddlers & Tiaras

43. Keep under wraps : HUSH UP

45. Really fancy : DESIRE - the verb, to fancy - as I do Lilia

46. Teacher, during exam week : GRADER

47. "Mercy me!" : YE GODS~! - so? so? what happened at HD~?....

49. Stuck up? : TREED - stuck, UP, in a tree~!

50. Prefix in a Dow trademark : STYRO - Dow the chemical company, and their extruded polystyrene foam

53. Suisse peak : ALPE - just the "European" spelling for Alp

54. "Contact" acronym : SETI - Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence - and another BÖC song~!

57. Baseball's Bando : SAL - I leave it to you, C.C. (Wiki talks. He let Paul Molitor go!)

59. Oporto-to-Lisbon direção : SUL - straight up Portuguese for south

OK - Home Depot & Lilia....Um, well, the conversation went really well, and while Lilia was mixing my paint, she was telling me all about being Russian, and living in New York....so when I asked if she would like to carry on this conversation over coffee, she said....
she was married.

DAH~!  I couldn't believe it.  Two years.  BUT - then she says, "give me your number, and when I go out with my friends, I'll call you" - apparently, her hubby is not much of a party guy.  We will see....

Splynter