You have to dial your Wayback Machine to
September 16, 2013
to find veteran Jerry Edelstein's first LA Times puzzle, blogged by the inimitable
Argyle. This marks Jerry's 39th appearance here, and today he schools
us in a little business management with a lesson about
The C Team
As there are no circles, no stars, and no question marks you have to put your
ear to the ground and listen very closely to hear the 4 homophonic themers:
20A.
C's: MEDIOCRE GRADES. Hand up if you never got one of these in college (I got some even worse). Don't
be shy ...
33A. Seas:
GLOBAL SEPTET. Our GLOBE is girt with Seven Oceans,
traditionally called "The Seven Seas",
but some sources cite others:
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The Seven Seas |
58A. Seize: CAPTURE BY FORCE. "Well it seemed like a good idea at the time." - V. Putin
And
Jerry even threw in a pseudo-reveal, kinda sorta ...
28A. VIP with a
corner office, perhaps:
CEO. "Leader of Executive Officers? abbr."
Here's the
grid:
Here's the rest ...
Across:
1. Sven's transport in "Frozen": SLED.
I've never seen Frozen, but my research indicates that it was
Kristoff, an ice hauler who was being
transported in a SLED pulled by the reindeer Sven:
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Kristoff's Sled |
5. 35-Down company founded in Milwaukee in 1844: PABST. The Pabst Brewing Company is an American company that dates its origins to a brewing company founded in 1844 by Jacob Best and was, by 1889, named after Frederick Pabst. It is currently a holding company which contracts the brewing of over two dozen brands of beer and malt liquor:
14. Exercise target: CORE. Why you should strengthen your core muscles. And here are some exercises to do it.
15. "Love Me Like You Do" Grammy nominee Goulding: ELLIE. Elena Jane "Ellie" Goulding, born 30 December 1986) is an English singer and songwriter. "Love Me Like You Do" was included in the soundtrack to the 2015 film Fifty Shades of Grey.
16. Cut: PARE.
17. Missing: AWOL.
18. Spa amenity: SAUNA. The word sauna is an ancient Finnish word referring to both the traditional Finnish bath and to the bathhouse itself.
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Modern Finnish Sauna |
[Theme clue]
23. Start to mature?: PRE. PREMATURE, as in too soon.
24. Eyeglass frames: RIMS. I'm running out of doctors to see. I think my next one will be an optometrist.
25. Gift with an aloha: LEI. The traditional greeting and gift to arrivals in HAWAII.
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Hawaii Lei |
[Theme clue] Kinda. Sorta.
30. Dec. 31: NYE. New Years Eve.
[Theme clue]
38. Antlered deer: STAG.
41. Retro photo hue: SEPIA. A word derived from the brown melanin-containing pigment from the ink of cuttlefishes. It was used in old photographic prints and is a setting on most smart phone cameras. Leonardo da Vinci also used the pigment to make ink:
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Water Wheels pen & ink by Leonardo da Vinci |
42. Burial isle of many Scottish kings: IONA. Also the name of the ABBEY on the island where early Scottish kings, as well as kings of Ireland, Norway, and France are buried.
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Iona Scotland |
[Theme clue]
46. Skin art, for short: TAT.
47. Unit of corn: EAR.
48. Titan with a heavy load: ATLAS.
Atlas was one of the most famous Titans, the son of Iapetus and the Oceanid Asia (or, possibly,
Clymene). He was the leader of the Titan rebellion against Zeus, and he
got a fitting punishment after the end of the
Titanomachy: he was condemned to eternally hold up the sky. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it ...
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Atlas |
54. Comfort Revolution bra-maker: BALI. None of the pics passed the breakfast test.
57. Tolkien terror: ORC. Definitely bad guys.
[Theme clue]
62. Clicking devices: MICE.
63. Poet Dove and actress Moreno: RITAS. We've seen Ms Dove before as a clue for her home state of OHIO.
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Rita Dove |
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Rita Moreno |
64. "Less" Pulitzer winner Andrew __ Greer: SEAN. "A generous book, musical in its prose and expansive in its structure and range, about growing older and the essential nature of love". Here's Greer on "Less" and so much more.
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Andrew Sean Greer |
65. "It's for you," on an env.: ATTN.
66. "Wrong!": NOT SO.
67. "Smooth Operator" singer: SADE. Helen Folasade Adu CBE (Yoruba: Fọláṣadé Adú born 16 January 1959), known professionally as Sade Adu or simply Sade (shah-DAY), is a Nigerian-born British singer, known as the lead singer of her eponymous band.
68. Crime novelist Gerritsen: TESS. Tess Gerritsen (born Terry Tom; June 12, 1953) is the pseudonym of Terry Gerritsen, an American novelist and retired general physician. - "She has an imagination that allows her to conjure up depths of human behavior so dark and frightening that she makes Edgar Allan Poe and HP Lovecraft seem like goody-two-shoes..." - Chicago Trib.
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Tess Gerritsen |
70. Brewpub brews: ALES.
Down:
1. Shrimp dish: SCAMPI. Here's a recipe.
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Shrimp Scampi |
3. Reduces slowly: ERODES.
4. Supermarket section: DELI.
5. "GoodFellas" Oscar winner: PESCI. GoodFellas is a 1990 American biographical crime film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is a film adaptation of the 1985 nonfiction book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi. Starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino, the film narrates the rise and fall of mob associate Henry Hill and his friends and family from 1955 to 1980.
6. Heist obstacle: ALARM.
7. St. Louis team: BLUES. The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis, MO. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. Here's the latest Blues news.
10. Digging tool: SPADE.
11. Gradually become familiar with: EASE INTO.
12. Slow-moving boats: ARKS.
13. Paul in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: LES. Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, and his prototype, called the Log, served as inspiration for the Gibson Les Paul. While Paul is mainly known for jazz and popular music, he had an early career in country music. In the 1950s, he and his wife, singer and guitarist Mary Ford, recorded numerous records, selling millions of copies. Among his many honors, Paul is one of a handful of artists with a permanent exhibit in the R&R HOF. He is prominently named by the music museum on its website as an "architect" and a "key inductee". He is the only inductee in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame AND the National Inventors Hall of Fame. My Dad played the guitar and my Mom Mary sang and we watched every one of their shows on TV, so it was hard to stop with just one selection:
Here are Les and Mary performing How High the Moon:
And here's their The World is Waiting for Sunrise
And Teri found this tribute to Lucina:
21. Former pitcher Hershiser: OREL. Orel Leonard Hershiser IV (born September 16, 1958) is an American former baseball pitcher who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1983 to 2000. He later became a pitching coach for the Texas Rangers from 2002 to 2005 and a broadcast color analyst for the Dodgers. He is also a professional poker player. Here are his stats.
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Orel Hershiser |
27. Some slouchy boots: UGGS. UGH, not again!
28. Ad writer's award: CLIO. The Clio Awards is an annual award program that recognizes innovation and creative excellence in advertising, design, and communication, as judged by an international panel of advertising professionals. For some reason they're named for the Greek Muse of History. Nobody asked me but I think they should put some of their creative excellence into a better logo:
29. Actor Morales: ESAI. Esai Manuel Morales Jr. (born October 1, 1962) is an American actor. He has had notable roles in the films Bad Boys with Sean Penn and La Bamba with Lou Diamond Phillips (1987).
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Esai Morales |
32. Schedule abbr.: ETA. Or the 7th letter of the Greek Alphabet ...
37. The Panthers of the ACC: PITT. The Pittsburgh Panthers football program is the intercollegiate football team of the University of Pittsburgh. Pitt competes as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
38. Lt.'s underling: SGT. Lieutenants outrank
Sergeants.
39. Bagged leaves?: TEA.
40. Has some pull?: ATTRACTS. Gravity? Magnetism? Political connections? Let's leave the latter unconnected.
44. Collapsible shelter: TENT.
45. Gullible sort: NAIF.
Forrest Gump has been rated by at least one source as the #1 NAIF character in film history.
Here's a short clip of one of 25 great quotes from the film that proves
that sometimes gullibility pays off. Forrest has made a bit of money
in the shrimping business and on the advice of his boat's first mate he
has invested it in a fruit company (it's only a few seconds long so you
may have to replay it to get the gag):
49. World's largest cosmetics company: LOREAL. Here's one of their lip smacking ads.
50. Game keeper?: ARCADE. The ? gave Jerry's game away and we knew right away he wasn't talking about lions and tigers, and bears. Here's a short history of ARCADE gaming.
51. Movie parts: SCENES. See trailer for 54D.
53. Makes the first bet: OPENS.
54. Actress Davis played by Susan Sarandon in TV's "Feud": BETTE. Feud is an American television series that premiered on March 5, 2017. The eight episodes document the well-known rivalry between Hollywood actresses Joan Crawford and Bette Davis during and after the production of their 1962 psychological horror thriller film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?. Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon star as respectively Crawford and Davis, supported by an all-star cast. This movie was so over the top that the trailer itself has 4 episodes:
55. Humiliate: ABASE. The opposite of ANACID. Either one will burn you.
56. Disinfectant brand: LYSOL. The first Lysol Brand Antiseptic Disinfectant was introduced in 1889 by Gustav Raupenstrauch to help end a cholera epidemic happening in Germany. In 1918, during the Spanish flu pandemic, Lysol advertised it as an effective countermeasure to the virus. And it has helped a lot of us to get through the COVID pandemic. OTOH in 1911, poisoning by drinking Lysol was the most common means of suicide in Australia and New York.
59. Large garden planters: URNS. Very versatile containers. They can be used to serve coffee, ashes, and plants.
60. Barrel of laughs: RIOT. A CSO to Ray - O
61. Mount of Greek legend: OSSA. The legend sounds like it was a bit of a stretch.
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| Mount Ossa |
Cheers,
Bill
As always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
And I have to add one very important member to Jerry's C TEAM, our inspiring Corner Maestra C.C. Burnikel. Some months back in one of her reviews she included a picture of a dish she called "Pine nuts and corn stir fry", which inspired me to come up with this recipe:
