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

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Jun 6, 2008

Friday June 6, 2008 Robert H. Wolfe

Theme: Animal Homophones

17A: Animal's cry: WHALE WAIL

25A: Beloved animal: DEAR DEER

36A: Animal that is pulled?: TOWED TOAD

57A: Unclothed animal?: BARE BEAR

59A: Golf-loving animal?: LINKS LYNX

Here (hear) are a few (phew) other animal clues (clews) for you to consider next time (thyme) Mr. Wolfe:

BEE (be); BOAR (Bore); FLEA (flee); FOWL (foul); GNU (new, knew); Gorilla (guerrilla); GRIZZLY(grisly); HARE (hair); HART (heart); Lamb (lam); Llama (Lama); Leach (leech); MITE (might); MOOSE (Mousse); MULE (mewl); MUSSEL (muscle); NIT (knit); RABBIT (rabbet); ROE (row); TAPIR (taper) and Tern (turn).

I(eye) like this puzzle. Great (Grate) theme entries, and the sheer (shear) amount of homophones in the clues/answers delights me. It does have a big attitude though, look: 68A: Nastily derogatory: SNIDE. And 13D: Look down upon: SNEER AT. 50D: Mimicked meanly: MOCKED. I guess you can also include 61D: Big fat mouth: YAP.

But (butt), I have high morals (morels), and I am in a good mood (mooed) this morning (mourning), so I am not going to whine (wine) too much. I enjoyed reading your yesterday's favorite books comments so much. Thank you all (awl) for sharing.

Here is the summary (summery):

ACROSS:

1A: Prohibit: BAR. If it were past tense "barred", we (wee) would (wood) have got "bard" for homophone.

9A: Parisian greenspace: PARCS. French for park. Love Monet's PARC Monceau.

16A: Briny deep: OCEAN. I am thinking of sea & see, seas & seize.

21A: Plains shelter: TEEPEE. Also spelled as TEPEE or TIPI.

22A: Singer Kathy: MATTEA. Did not know her. Here is her Goin' Gone.

28A: Hymn of praise: PAEAN. Here is the John Williams' Indiana Jones theme. A paean to Harrison Ford/Steven Spielberg/George Lucas' youth and their heroic deeds/dreams.

31A: Relished: ATE UP. ATE, eight

36A: Animal that's pulled: TOWED TOAD. And don't forget "toed".

39A: Rapid escape: LAM. LAM, Lamb.

42A: Singer Shore: DINAH. Or singer Washington.

47A: Sale-tag disclaimer: AS IS. Sale, sail. And of course, seller & cellar.

49A: King of Troy: PRIAM. I simply forgot. Like Brad Pitt's "Troy" a lot. PRIAM is "the father of Paris, Cassandra, Hector, Polyxena, and many others. He was killed during the capture of Troy". Tough intersection with AMEN-RA.

51A: Comic Rudner: RITA. I don't know (no) this RITA. RITA is the girl in Lou Bega's "Mambo No. 5". He wants Monika in his life, Erica by his side. He says that RITA is all he needs, Tina is what he sees. And he wants Sandra in the sun, Mary all night long, and "A little bit Jessica here I am, and a little bit of you makes me your man".

Boy (buoy), can you imagine a constructor makes a whole (hole) puzzle out of these girls' names in the song?

57A: Moliere play part: ACTE. Act in French. Hmm, Acts, ax.

58A: Approach quickly: RUN TO. TO, Two.

65A: Type of pole: TOTEM. Pole and Poll.

67A: Brings up: REARS.

DOWN:

1D: Present knot: BOW. Knot, not; BOW, beau; BOWED, bold; And presents, presence.

4D: Part: PIECE. PIECE, PEACE

5D: Get to the present?: UNWRAP. Wrap, rap. Wrapped, rapt, rapped.

7D: Hindu title of respect: SRI. I wonder how those people address their ELDER (54A: Church VIP) in ___Lanka.

9D: Model, often: POSER. PLANE for you Ray (thanks for the mail) and Dennis?

10D: Acquiesce: ACCEDE. Partly, CEDE, seed.

18D: Release: LET OUT

21D: Ballroom dance: TANGO. Is this somehow related to the theme?

22D: Kingston Trio hit: MTA. No idea, I've never heard of Kingston. What does MTA stand for?

24D: Equal score: TIE. TIE, Thai.

25D: Silence while broadcasting: DEAD AIR

26D: Singer Kitt: EARTHA. Tough (tuff) for me. I had never heard of her name before, might have heard some of her songs though.

29D: Egyptian sun god: AMEN-RA. Another hard one (won) for me. I had no idea. Dictionary defined it as "a god in whom Amen and Ra were combined". Another homophone: sun, son.

38D: Rye grass: DARNEL. No, no, nope, completely unknown to me. Plural form "ryes" will give us "rise" though.

41D: Actress Richardson: MIRANDA. Or ___ Rights. MIRANDA Richardson played Ingrid (and was nominated for the Academy Award) in Louis Malle's "Damage". To answer some of your email questions regarding my favorite books yesterday, Josephine Hart's "Damage" is probably my favorite after Bob Woodward's "All the President's Men".

44D: Smits of NBA: RIK. Not a familiar name to me. Got it from the across clues.

48D: Irish dog: SETTER

53D: Ill-bred ones: BOORS. Bred, bread

54D: "Who's there" reply: IT'S ME. There, their.

57D: Against: ANTI. ANTI, Ante.

59D: Some NFL linemen: LTS (Left Tackles)

63D: Greek letters: XIS. XI, psi & sigh. "Sighs" will give us "size", right?

Finally, 14A: Sugar ending: OSE. Here is Sugar, Sugar for you. Click (clique) and Enjoy!

C.C.