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

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Apr 2, 2009

Thursday April 2, 2009 Dan Naddor

Theme: Paul's Siblings

18A: Pauly: COMIC SHORE

20A: Pauley: UCLA PAVILION

37A: "Paulie": PARROT MOVIE

54A: Polly: BERGEN OF FILM

57A: Poly: TECH SCHOOL

Tough puzzle. I always struggle when the clues are themes. I am just not good at defining things. And in today's case, I simply don't know those P* names.

The only "Pauley" I know is Jane Pauley. Is Pauley Pavilion well-known nationally? I still can't believe "Paulie" is a movie title. The poster looks interesting though. Maybe you can feed me some orts on Pauly Shore & Polly Bergen. I have zero familarity with them.

Several great clues today:

36A: Closing letter at Oxford?: ZED. Our ZEE, the last alphabet letter. British pronounce it as ZED. I was thinking of DEE, the last letter of "Oxford".

11D: Company, so they say: TWO. Can THREE, then, be clued as "Crowd, so they say"?

43D: Build a lengthy resume?: JOB HOP. Again, I was picturing someone padded his resume with fake experiences.

25D: Like the Opry?: OLE. Always "Corrida cry" or some kind of Spanish cheer in our old puzzle.

34D: Staff member?: NOTES. Music staff/NOTES.

Feels odd to see TEEN IDOL (23A) clued as "Any Beatle, e.g.". They might be TEEN IDOLS in 1960s, not now. I wanted BRITISH as answer. Who is the TEEN IDOL now? Miley Cyrus?

Across:

1A: Mark Cuban's NBA team: MAVS. Mark Cuban was just fined for his comments on Twitter. This guy is a real maverick. Too much reading on Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead".

5A: Some 35mm cameras: SLRS

9A: Volkswagen since 1979: JETTA. They have a big joint venture in Shanghai. JETTA taxis dominate the streets there. "Volkswagen" is just "Folk's wagon" in German, correct?

15A: Amanda of "The Whole Ten Yards": PEET. Know Amanda PEET from "Something's Gotta Give". She is very pretty. Not familiar with "The Whole Ten Yards". Have heard of "The Whole Nine Yards" though.

17A: Sack dress creator: DIOR. Oh, good to know.

22A: Words before ghost: SEES A. This kind of partial phrase seldom appeared in our old puzzle

30A: Cuba libre ingredient: COLA. Got it from down fills. Have never heard of Cuba libre. The ingredients are: COLA, lime and rum. Sounds quite simple to mix. Even a caveman can do it.

27A: Columbia River city: ASTORIA. Stumper. See this map (the very northwest corner of Oregon). It's named after John Jacob Astor, who founded a fur trading post here in 1810.

31A: Long odds: TEN TO ONE

41A: Academic term: SEMESTER

42A: Mus. key with three sharps: A MAJ. Pure guess. Know zilch about music terms.

44A: Wisconsin birthplace of Orson Welles: KENOSHA. Another unknown. It lies along Lake Michigan. Quite close to Milwaukee, where Spencer Tracy was born.

53A: Printing gizmo: INKER. What, isn't INKER a person?

60A: Prefix with -syncratic: IDIO. Meaning "Peculiar".

64A: Philippines' highest peak: Abbr.: MT APO. No idea. Wikipedia says APO means "master" or "grandfather". Very strange, in southern China, many people call their grandma A PO (or AH PO).

65A: Knock off: SLAY. Oh, I mixed up "knock off" and "knock up".

66A: "Skip __ Lou": kids' song: TO MY. I forgot. I think we had some discussion about this song last summer. Lou is "love", right? Not loo.

Down:

1D: Snaky-haired monster: MEDUSA. The ugly Gorgon. Her head was on the aegis of Zeus.

2D: Arlo's favorite restaurant: ALICE'S. It refers to the song "ALICE'S Restaurant", doesn't it?

3D: Part of Roy G Biv: VIOLET. Big, big problem for me. I've never heard of the mnemonic Roy G. Biv. Who made that up? It sounds quite difficult to remember.

4D: City south of Tampa: SARASOTA. See this map. Anyone from this city? What's it most famous for?

5D: Humane org.: SPCA

6D: Pope after Benedict IV: LEO V. Never know it's LEO I, LEO V or LEO X.

7D: Make a payment: REMIT

8D: Token taker: STILES. I like this clue better. Williams was so stubborn with his "Steps over a fence".

9D: "Juno" director Reitman: JASON. I thought "Juno" director is a woman. So I guessed JANET.

10D: Kind of food or group: ETHNIC. I forgot what's the difference between race and ETHNIC.

19D: Co. in Paris: CIE. This is new to me. All the French customers in my old company uses Ltd or Inc. I've never paid attention to this kind of et CIE before.

21D: Kitchen gadgets: PARERS

26D: Youth: LAD

29D: Tiny power source: ATOM. Tiny & powerful.

32D: Suffix with Capri: OTE. Capriote is new to me. Native of Capri. And the native of Cyprus is Cypriot.

33D: Trans-Siberian Railroad city: OMSK. Here is the map again. Barry Silk clued OMSK as "City on the Irtysh River" last time.

35D: Allowing for the possibility that: EVEN IF

39D: Subway alternative: CAB. Thought of "Subway" restaurant first.

46D: Second lightest element: HELIUM. I was unaware of this fact. Hydrogen is the lightest element.

47D: Weapons source: ARMORY. Reminds me of the MAGAZINE confusion I had last time. Did not know it can also refer to a place where weapons are stored.

49D: Tempera painting surface: GESSO. Drink acorn coffee if you missed this one. We saw GESSO three times in Jan 2009.

50D: AEC successor: NRC. Often see AEC (1946-1974) clued as "NRC predecessor".

51D: Turkish bigwigs: AGHAS. Can also be spelled as AGA. PASHA and BEY are also "Turkish bigwig".

52D: 1988 Olympics city: SEOUL. Literally "Capital" in Korean. I feel Hanja, Chinese characters used in Korea, is much much harder to recognize than Japanese Kanji. Love SEOUL food, used to eat a ton of kimchi.

56D: "Love the skin you are in" brand: OLAY. Most of my skincare products are OLAY.

57D: Skye cap: TAM

Answer Grid.

C.C.