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

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Jan 21, 2016

Thursday, January 21st 2016 George Simpson & C.C. Burnikel

Theme: Legal Eagles. As the unifier tells us:

50A. The end of each answer to a starred clue is a former one : CHIEF JUSTICE

19A. *Whopper alternative (1969-1986) : VEGGIE BURGER. Warren E. Burger. Odd clue/answer in that a Whopper is a brand name and a veggie burger is a generic term.

36A. *Former MLB mascot BJ Birdy was one (1789-1795) : BLUE JAY. John Jay was the first of the Chief Justices.

10D. *Film for which John Houseman won an Oscar, with "The" (1864-1873) : PAPER CHASE. Salmon P. Chase. Meet his brother, Trout, and his sister, Chilean Sea Bass.

25D. *"Jaws" menace (1910-1921) : GREAT WHITE. Edward Douglass White. 

This is the second puzzle from George (a.k.a Big Easy on the blog) and C.C. The Chief Justices tend to stick around for a while - when I looked 'em up I was surprised to find there have only been 17. The longest-serving, John Marshall lasted 31 years. John Routledge managed only six months.

Let's see what else we've got:

Across:

1. Chinese take-out order? : NO MSG. A naturally-occuring salt of glutamic acid. In studies, scientists have never been able to trigger allergic reactions to MSG, but that doesn't stop people refusing to eat chinese food (and happily eating tomatoes and parmesan cheese which are naturally loaded with it). If you want an umami bomb to amp up your flavors I use a mixture of anchovy paste, soy sauce and Marmite.

6. Co. making many arrangements : FTD. Florists' Transworld Delivery. Of course we all knew that.

9. Basilica recess : APSE

13. Impressed : IN AWE

14. Lab coat discovery? : FLEA. Nice. The dog, not the research facility.

15. Tool with teeth : RAKE

16. Loud cheering consequence : SORE THROAT

18. Informed about : UP ON

21. Help for a breakdown : TOW. See 34D below for an example of a car that looked very much at home on a flatbed. One of my friends commented that it almost looked like it had been designed to be seen from that viewpoint.

22. Affaire de coeur : AMOUR

23. Star followers : MAGI

26. Webby Award candidate : E-MAG. There were 344 Webbys awarded in 2015. That's one heck of long awards banquet.

29. Wrap maker : ALCOA

32. Lot size : ACRE

33. WWII lander : L.S.T. Landing Ship, Tank.

34. Author Greene : GRAHAM

35. Feel sorry about : RUE

38. From __ Z : A TO

39. Barely moves : CRAWLS

41. Roker and Rosen : ALS

42. Tiny time meas. : PSEC. One trillionth of a second.

43. Branch of yoga : HATHA. Thank you, crosses. Apparently hatha yoga was developed by the deity Shiva and the principles were overheard by a fish.

"Darn secret-stealing piscari"

44. "No real damage" : I'M OK

45. Car-collecting star : LENO. He keeps his collection in a hangar at my local airport. You often see him driving around the neighborhood. My favorite is his 1906 Stanley Steamer.

46. George Eliot or George Sand : WOMAN

48. UV index monitor : E.P.A. The Environmental Protection Agency.

54. Hi's wife, in comics : LOIS

55. Broiler with a motor : ROTISSERIE. I bought one of those Showtime rotisserie ovens once. When I found that it took at least half an hour to clean it each time I used it it went to the back of the cupboard and eventually to a yard sale.

58. Start to freeze? : ANTI-

59. Sanctioned : OK'ED

60. Scrub : ABORT

61. Russia is its largest producer : BEET. Food! They get through a lot of borscht, those Russians.

62. National Preparedness Mo. : SEP. National what? Weird concept.

63. Breathers? : NOSES

Down:

1. Grafton's "__ for Noose" : N IS. This is not so much a clue as a giveaway. You may as well just print "NIS" in the grid and have done with it.

2. "Art is my life and my life is art" artist : ONO

3. Sportscaster Albert : MARV

4. Honey : SWEETIE

5. Day one : GET GO

6. Ice __ : FLOE. I watched "Straight Outta Compton" last night, so wanted CUBE here.

7. Leaves holder : TEA BAG

8. Fact : DATUM

9. Peppery salad green : ARUGULA. They call it rocket in the UK. Odd folks, those Brits.

11. Candy bar with a Nordic name : SKOR. Thank you, crossses. A Hershey product apparently. I don't eat much candy.

12. Dusk, to Pope : E'EN

14. Calendar col. : FRI.

17. "The War of the Worlds" author : H.G.WELLS

20. Detroit Lions' lion mascot : ROARY. Nailed it!

23. Time that "went out like a lion," in song : MARCH. From the musical "Carousel". I found this odd as I'm more familiar with the proverb "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb".

24. Upscale Honda : ACURA

27. Spartans' sch. : M.S.U. Michigan State. Showing tremendous invention and creativity, their mascot is called ....... "Sparty".

28. Best crew : A TEAM

30. Like granola : OATEN. OATIER yesterday. Is it National Oat Week?

31. Oil giant that built what is now Chicago's Aon Center : AMOCO. If you want to pick a nit here, strictly speaking it was Standard Oil, not Amoco, that built the skyscraper in 1972. Standard Oil became Amoco in 1985.


34. Leak preventers : GASKETS. The end of my time owning a V12 Jaguar XJS came when I blew a head gasket. It was going to cost $4,000 to rebuild the engine. I passed.

Jag-you-are (as Gary noted yesterday)
36. Fault : BLAME

37. 2001 album that's also a nickname : J-LO. Jennifer Lopez.

40. Response to a ring : WHO IS IT?

42. Medically ineffectual treatment : PLACEBO. It's not really "ineffectual"; to me that implies that it's meant to be effective. It's not meant to work, that's the whole point.

44. Bit of clique humor : IN JOKE.

47. High styles : AFROS. I had UPDOS first and was proud of myself for remembering the term.

49. Galileo, by birth : PISAN. Some say the whole ball-dropping malarkey from the tower is a myth.

50. Frozen yogurt holder : CONE

51. Lone Star State sch. : U.T.E.P. Please welcome the University of Texas, El Paso

52. Caesar of comedy : SID

53. Psyche's beloved : EROS. We had this yesterday. There's a common misconception that this statue in London's Leicester Square is Eros - it's not, it's his brother Anteros, but 99.9% of the population won't believe you.


54. Class where partners may be required : LAB. Crossword purists on other blogs will tell you that it's a heinous crime to have the same word in a clue and in the grid. Rich obviously doesn't mind, and I don't either.

56. Ill temper : IRE

57. "Edge of Tomorrow" enemies, briefly : E.T.S. Never seen the movie, but the crosses filled it in for me.

And .. here's the grid.

Steve


Notes from C.C.:

1)  George (Big Easy) came up with this theme, and I went for a smooth ride. Thanks for the inspiration and fun, George! 

Big Easy and his wife Diane

2) Our blog turns 8-year-old today! Constructor Peg Slay (C6D6 Peg) made a puzzle to celebrate this special occasion. 

Please click here for the PDF file. You should be able to see a Download button on top, to the right of Print.

Click here for Across Lite.

Click here to solve on line. 

Click here for the Answer Grid.

Thank you so much for the puzzle, Peg. My team and I are deeply honored by this amazing tribute. 

Thank you for your loyal support these years, everyone. Thanks for your honest & respectful feedback on each LAT puzzle, your daily random thoughts, your recipes and funny links.