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

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Mar 17, 2010

Wednesday March 17, 2010 Mike Peluso

Theme: FORE (71. Links warning, and a prefix with the second word of the answers to starred clues). - Golfers would yell "Fore!" if they fear that their shots might endanger the spectators/players ahead. When I play golf, and there are too many very slow players in front, I might just take a shot at one, but I always yell the warning.

17A. *"Unbelievable!": OUTTA SIGHT. Hmm, okay out of sight, meaning amazing. A good Maynard G. Krebs word; he introduced the transistor radio to the world. Good thing this is a CROSS WORD puzzle. FORESIGHT. Which if I had any, would have told me there would be no St. Patrick here today.

25A. *Knitting aid, in a way: PLASTER CAST. Now this clue I love, as who would think about bones knitting together. Great misdirection. FORECAST, what the weathermen do daily.

37A. *Office component: MICROSOFT WORD. Another nice curve, as this is but one part of the MICROSOFT OFFICE SUITE. Most old lawyers still use Word Perfect, but we are in the minority. FOREWORD, the writing before a book, not to be confused with FOREWARD, like our own dear Lois.

52A. *Legendary archer: WILLIAM TELL. Always was the apple of my eye, and I really like his intro music by Rossini. FORETELL, another look into the future.

61A. *Cartoon beeper: ROAD RUNNER and of course my favorite, Wile E. Coyote, his nemesis, and another hero of mine. He never gives up. FORERUNNER, not to be confused with 4Runner.

And our bonus word, for ones who look into the future, 70. Oracles: SEERS. Mr. Peluso did, perhaps wisely, leave out FORESKIN.

Good morning, boys and girls and trolls; how many were expecting a green puzzle today? Heaven FOREFEND such a concept. We do however, get the clever mind of Mike Peluso who gave us the wonderful President’s puzzle last month.

Welcome to wacky Wednesday with your guest blogger Lemonade 714. I really enjoyed doing this puzzle, and now know how hard C.C., Argyle and all of the others who have sat in this place, work to entertain.

Across:

1. Repairs with thread: SEWS. Okay, nice simple beginning to get the juices flowing.

5. Burning: AFIRE , 43. Like angry bees: ASWARM , 57. Each: APIECE . Well we all have our favorites and not so….

10. Part of C.W. Post: Abbr.: INIT. This refers to the initials, C. W.

14. BCS org.: NCAA. March Madness started tonight, good job Arkansas Pine Bluff, another example of not quitting, as the Golden Lions lost their first 11 games this year.

15. Tot watchers' nicknames: NANAS . I called one of mine Mimi, and the other- her.

16. Muscle quality: Tone. Well, do you like them Big or Small ?

19. Radio toggle switch: AM FM. What about satellite?

20. What you can't have success without?: ESSESS. Three letter S in the word "success". You could not spell it any other way.

21. Abate: EASE UP

23. La Mediterranean e.g. : MER , our first French lesson of the day, meaning SEA, which led me to: 56. Evian for one: and of course I wanted EAU, which means water, but the perps told me it was: SPA .

28. "Born Free" lioness: ELSA , and I always get this PICTURE in my mind.

30. Record book: LOG, Captain’s LOG Stardate 124.8; yes I am a trekkie.

31. Evaluates: RATES

32. Adopt, as a stray: TAKES IN . Is that how most of you got your kitties?

35. Cosmetic surgery, for short: LIPO . Maybe if I move my tummy, to my ass….

42. R.E.M.'s "The __ Love": ONE I. The band is originally from Georgia .

45. Highway with a terminus at Dawson Creek, British Columbia: ALCAN (Alaska-Canada)

49. Night sch. course: ESL . We see that a lot in Florida.

51. Give off: EMIT .

58. Japanese-American: NISEI .

60. Almond __: crunchy candy: ROCA . Yummy.

66. Reactions to no-brainers: DUHS .

67. "Coffee __?": OR TEA . Or me?.

68. Nevada neighbor: : UTAH. We have seen this state often, recently.

69. Renege on a dele?: STET. Editing. What a great new clue, for some crosswordese, with a pun on DEAL to boot! Love it.

Down:

1. __-Cat: SNO. Isn’t THIS what you wanted this winter Dennis?

2. Old French coin: ECU. Back to our French lesson, but instead of old standby SOU, we have ECU.

3. Wakeboard relative: WATER SKI

4. Exams for srs. SATS

5. Yosemite photographer Adams : ANSEL a great EYE .

6. '60s-'70s Saudi king: FAISAL. Our government loved him because he hated communists.

7. Having one sharp, musically: IN G. I defer to one sharp himself, BUMPA.

8. Cry of support: RAH

9. Competitor of Helena and Coco: ESTEE. Okay, we may be sick of the woman, but this is wonderful new way to get all those lovely EEs in the puzzle.

10. Mississippi River source: ITASCA a real gimme for our Minnie friends, C.C. and Lo-li-ta and others.

11. Vegan's credo: NO MEAT. I promised Dennis, I would not go there.

12. Add, as if by pouring : INFUSE.

13. Plays the siren : TEMPTS. Did you all see the movie SIRENS with ELLE that is temptation with a capital T.

18. Cleopatra's undoing: she made an ASP of herself.

22. Equipment for 52-Across: ARROWS or for GREEN ARROW.

23. Came across: MET, like ran into

24. Jack of Westerns: ELAM proving you have to be pretty to be in movies.

26. Recital performer: SOLOIST

27. Pre-weekend "Phew!" : TGIF

29. Cold War agcy. : AEC our friends at the Atomic Energy Commission

33. Like some unexpected endings: IRONIC

34. Lille denial: NON. Back to French class, Lille is a city in Northern France.

36. Home-school link: Abbr. : PTA tricked you, nothing to do with home schooling.

38. Appear to be: SEEM

39. Have debts: OWE .

40. Collides with: RAMS INTO THIS .

41. Leak: DRIP .

44. Beantown transit syst. : MTA made famous by the Kingston Trio.

45. Oscars and such: AWARDS

46. Curl around the edge of the hole without going in, in golf: LIP OUT which reminds me, Tiger will play the Masters.

47. Stale expression: CLICHÉ .

48. Blue Jays' div. : AL EAST spelled out for once.

50. Bank, often: LENDER As Polonious said, never a borrower nor a lender be.

53. Houston hockey team: AEROS why do they have hockey there?

54. Turkish money: LIRAS.

55. Sch. with a Shreveport campus: LSU part of the spawning of NICK SATAN.

59. Ample, slangily: ENUF It is real .

62. Pay dirt: ORE love this simple clue.

63. Had: ATE Did Mr. Peluso's Wednesday eat you alive?

64. Auditory organ: EAR . Well, I am ‘ear today, gone tomorrow, thanks for having me.

65. Scoreboard letters: RHE Runs, did I score? Hits, any you liked? Errors, I know I am not perfect, so it is all good. My best to each and everyone of you. Even, well I am outta here. Happy St Patrick's Day!

Answer grid.

Lemonade 714

Mar 16, 2010

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 Jerome Gunderson

Theme: # TIC TAC TOE (57A: Pencil game that hints at this puzzle's theme, found in the first and last letters of 18-, 25- and 43-Across) - Each familiar phrase is bookended by O and X.

18A: Rival of Staples: OFFICEMAX.

25A: Red Cloud's tribe: OGLALA SIOUX.
Chief Jack Red Cloud. As a warrior and a statesman, Red Cloud's success in confrontations with the United States government marked him as one of the most important Lakota SIOUX leaders.

43A: Jane, to Dick, e.g.: OPPOSITE SEX.

Argyle here (a lot more here than yesterday).

How long did you play tic tac toe before discovering how to always win or at least, draw? I'm afraid I didn't get it until I was nine or ten.

It's a little harder than our usual Tuesday and a Pangram, to boot.
Four Xs.

Across:

1A: Roaring group: CROWD. Bad start for me; had PRIDE. (lions)

6A: Bridge coup: SLAM. The card game. I'm more familiar with Denny's
Grand Slam

10A: Boston NBAer: CELT. (basketball)

14A: Act like a doting grandma, perhaps: HOVER.

15A: Hawaiian port: HILO. (on the Big Island)

16A: Healthy: HALE.

17A: Musical narrated by Che: "EVITA".

20A: '40s-'50s paranoia that led to blacklisting: RED SCARE. Anti-communist fears played up by people like Senator McCarthy resulted in hearings where people were forced to name names and state, under oath, if you or anyone you knew, were communists. To stick to your constitutional right to not do so, got a person blacklisted.

22A: "For Your Eyes Only" singer Easton: SHEENA. The song was from the James Bond movie of the
same name.

23A: Island strings: UKE.

24A: Rides roughshod over: STEPS ON.

30A: Board with eerie messages: OUIJA.

31A: Neither's partner: NOR.

32A: Microwaves: ZAPS.

36A: Not guilty, for example: PLEA.

37A: Make one of two?: UNITE.

39A: Came down to earth: ALIT.

40A: Cowpoke's prod: SPUR.

41A: Petunia, e.g.: PIG.

42A: Serpentine: SNAKY.

46A: Fillies and foals: EQUINES. (horses)

50A: __ la la: TRA.

51A: Track athlete: RUNNER.

52A: "The Breakfast Club" actors are part of it: BRAT PACK. Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy

59A: Conservative front?: ULTRA. Front of the word ultraconservative.

60A: Perry's creator: ERLE. ERLE Stanley Gardner created Perry Mason.

61A: "Major" constellation: URSA.

62A: Grand __ National Park: TETON. You latecomers to the blog have missed some epic comments about the Grand Tetons.

63A: Futurist: SEER.

64A: Seamstress's fold: TUCK.

65A: Not approximate: EXACT.

Down

1D: "Believe" singer: CHER.
Official Music Video. "Believe" is noted for its use of the Auto-Tune pitch-correction software on the singer's vocals to create a peculiar sound effect, sometimes referred to as the "Cher effect". An interesting read at Wikipedia.

2D: Wander: ROVE. When do we go back to ROAM(which I enter every time).

3D: "Ars amatoria" poet: OVID. A Roman poet who authored Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria, three major collections of erotic poetry.

4D: Antiprohibitionists: WETS. WETS vs. DRYS

5D: Count with a cape: DRACULA. Count Dracula.

6D: Coastlines: SHORES.

7D: Family board game: LIFE. When was the last time you played LIFE, or any board game, for that matter?

8D: TV E.T.: "ALF". A television sitcom that originally ran on NBC from 1986 to 1990 and was created by Paul Fusco. The title character was Gordon Shumway, a friendly extraterrestrial nicknamed ALF (for Alien Life Form) and he was very fond of cats.

9D: Defogging target: MOISTURE.

10D: Nest noise: CHEEP. (alliteration) Not a good sound if it's from starlings in your eaves.

11D: Chair maker Charles: EAMES With his wife, Ray, they were both
designers

12D: South American plain: LLANO.

13D: Houston pro since 2002: TEXAN. The Houston Texans is football team currently a member of the Southern Division of the AFC in the NFL. The Texans joined the NFL in 2002 as an expansion team after Houston's previous franchise, the Oilers moved to Nashville and became the Tennessee Titans.

19D: Whole grain cereal brand: CHEX.

21D: Dossier letters: AKA. (also known as)

24D: Flue filth: SOOT.

25D: "How clumsy of me!": "OOPS!".

26D: Big swig: GULP.

27D: Stead: LIEU.

28D: Slightly open: AJAR.

29D: Jones of English architecture: INIGO. This is NOT a Tuesday word.

32D: Author Grey: ZANE. This is a Tuesday word.

33D: Quaint word of regret: "ALAS!".

34D: High-speed highway: PIKE.

35D: Underworld river: STYX.

37D: Pugilist's punch: UPPERCUT. Alliteration, A fighter's fist to the face of his foe.

38D: Puppy bites: NIPS.

42D: Legislative act: STATUTE.

43D: Military service designation: ONE-A.

44D: Windex target: STREAK.
Commercial.

45D: Lyricist Gershwin: IRA.

46D: Art works by Romain de Tirtoff: ERTES. Our old friend, "R.T.", with his full name.

47D: Paper measure: QUIRE. A set of 24 uniform sheets of paper.

48D: "I surrender!": "UNCLE!".

49D: Bury: INTER.

52D: Pear choice: BOSC.

53D: Suffix with cine: PLEX. The term was coined by Philip Taylor of Toronto in 1978 and is the registered trademark "Cineplex Odeon Cinemas"

54D: "__ boy!": ATTA.

55D: Gator's kin: CROC.

56D: "Critique of Pure Reason" philosopher: KANT. Immanuel KANT(1724 – 1804) was an 18th-century German philosopher.

58D: Capote, on the stage: "TRU". In 1990, Robert Morse received both a Tony and a Drama Desk Award for his portrayal of Capote in the one-man show, "TRU".

Answer grid.

Argyle