Friday June 18, 2010 Doug Peterson

Theme: TIE-IN - (69A. Marketing ploy, and a hint to this puzzle's theme) - TIE is inserted into different part of each two-word familiar phrase.

20A. Ones wearing designer hospital gowns?: FANCY PATIENTS. Fancy Pants. Fun clue/answer.

32A. Massive marina protectors?: JUMBO JETTIES. Jumbo Jets. With two expensive letters Js.

42A. Plaza with many levels?: TIERED SQUARE. Red Square. Central square in Moscow. Another expensive letter Q.

55A. More passionate language?: SWEATIER WORDS. Swear Words. Vivid image.

Two of the TIE additions are in second word, two first word. I liked the variety.

Nice pangram. All 26 letters are used at least once. The below two non-theme 10-letter answers are great (normally they are split into two slots to make the construction easier):

17A. "M" star: PETER LORRE. Rare to see his full name.

61A. Heavily favored squads: DREAM TEAMS

My favorite clue today is EDS (31A. Recipients of authors' gratitude, briefly). Editors. I gather it's Doug's original clue? I am sure it brought a smile to Rich's face.

Across:

1. Watch for: AWAIT. As in "Watch for an opportunity". I wanted ALERT.

6. "Big Brother" host Julie: CHEN. Very pretty. Chen = Chan (as in Jackie Chan). Former is Mandarin, latter is Cantonese.

10. Zinger: BARB

14. Extremely, in slang: MONDO. Not familiar with this slang.

15. Likely to loaf: LAZY. Alliteration.

16. Like zero: OVAL. Oh, shape.

19. Princess who battled Callisto: XENA. Played by Lucy Lawless.

22. Petting zoo sound: BAA. Sheep.

24. Some quick pitches: ADS. Of course I thought of baseball.

25. Salad oil pourer: CRUET

26. Pungent: ACRID

28. Out of the woods: SAFE

36. Basilica section: APSE

37. Three-time Clooney title role: OCEAN. Danny Ocean. I liked "Ocean's Eleven" the best.

38. Slender wind: OBOE

45. Tape deck button: REC

48. Disparage: SLUR

49. "Family Matters" misfit: URKEL (Steve). Beat me. Have never seen "Family Matters".

50. Deck out: ADORN

52. Genetic ID: DNA. Always have to waffle between DNA & RNA.

54. Accident scene initials: EMS

60. Arrange logically: SORT

64. Nuts: LOCO

65. Disney president Robert: IGER. He succeeded Michael Eisner in 2005. Quite articulate.

66. __ Island: NY/NJ landmark: ELLIS

67. Starting place?: EDEN. Can't fool me any more.

68. Play a round: GOLF. Felt stupid not nailing it immediately. Who's your pick for US Open?

Down:

1. Band booster: AMP

2. Distress: WOE

3. Colonies with tunnels: ANT FARMS. Awesome fill.

4. Brainchild: IDEA

5. Supercell product: TORNADO. Our local meteorologist is obsessed with tornado, but I don't remember he mentioned supercell.

6. Is too sweet: CLOYS

7. Emblem of Ireland: HARP. Man, I never knew this. It's on the cover of Irish passports. On the obverse of Irish Euro coins also.

8. Book before Nehemiah: EZRA. Needed crossing help. The name means "Help" in Hebrew.

9. Uh-uh, in Ufa: NYET. Russian for "No" (Da is "Yes"). Ufa is a city of west-central Russian in the Southern Ural Mountain. Doug picked Ufa for alliteration purpose. My first encounter with this name.

10. Ring competitor: BOXER

11. One of 17 Monopoly properties: AVENUE

12. Blustered: RANTED

13. Great times: BLASTS

18. Type of screen, briefly: LCD. Several abbreviated answers in this puzzle. None obscure.

21. Frozen drink brand: ICEE

22. Tijuana's region: BAJA. Is it short for Baja California?

23. Lingerie size: A CUP. First time I saw A CUP in a LAT.

27. Skeptical comment: I BET

28. Direct: STEER

29. Not much: A TAD

30. Underwater directors: FINS. "Director" made me think of a person.

33. "Just the Way You Are" singer: JOEL (Billy). Great song.

34. Stationery shade: ECRU. Alliteration.

35. Grumpy: SOUR

39. Popular fund raiser: BAKE SALE

40. Central Utah city: OREM. And Provo. Learned both from doing Xword.

41. They may be shockers: EELS. We've seen similar clue before.

43. Fails to be: ISN'T

44. Many a pop group: QUARTET

45. Grapple with, in the sticks: RASSLE. Wrestle.

46. "Plan 9 From Outer Space" director: ED WOOD. The name faintly rings a bell. Also a title of a Johnny Depp movie.

47. Put the squeeze on: COERCE

51. Inform against: RAT ON

52. Khuzdul speaker, in Tolkien: DWARF. Khuzdul is a fictional language spoken by the Dwarfs. Stumped me.

53. Metz moniker: NOM. Metz is a city in NE France. Another alliteration.

56. "Cool, man!": I DIG. I totally dig Jazzbumpa's theme title the other day "Music, Man". Mondo cool!

57. So: ERGO

58. Line holder: REEL. Oh, fishing line.

59. Ham salad seller: DELI

62. DI doubled: MII. 51X2= 1002. (Correction: It's 501X2= 1002).

63. Three-part fig.: SSN

Answer grid.

Thanks for the concern and understanding of my recent absence, everyone. I've been very busy and am always behind in catching up with the comments/emails. Dennis is the designated host in my absence, and he will (he has been) answer any question that needs to be addressed.

Additionally, I feel the quality and fun/education factor of the blog write-up have been improved considerably with regular contributions from our dedicated team of Argyle, Al, Melissa Bee, Jazzbumpa and Lemonade. They add distinctive style and flavor to our blog and I love looking at the puzzles through their eyes.

So don't worry about my diminished blogging. I assure you that a carefully written post will appear every morning at 5:30am Central Time. Just enjoy the write-up & have fun!

C.C.

Thursday June 17, 2010 Robert W. Harris

Theme: Double Features - Each theme answer contains two movie names, the "short" & circled one is a single word and placed orderly from left to right (the first and last one are actually in perfect symmetry).

17A. Alan Alda feature with a Will Smith short: CALIFORNIA SUITE. The circled (green color) movie title in the answer is ALI (Muhammad, the boxer). Interesting to see 54D. Branch of Islam: SHIA in the grid, which means "followers of Ali", and is based on the teaching of Muhammad and his successor (cousin) Ali. Coincidence?

27A. William Hurt feature with a Warren Beatty short: ALTERED STATES. Circled movie: REDS.

47A. Barbara Stanwyck feature with a Dustin Hoffman short: NO MAN OF HER OWN. Circled movie: HERO.

62A. Michael Redgrave feature with a Helen Gahagan short: THE LADY VANISHES. Circled short movie name: SHE.

I found this a little tough for a Thursday, especially getting started in the southwest corner. Maybe because I was a bit anxious at starting to be a regular once per week.

Al here, hope you all had a good time with this one, I know I liked the challenge. So, let's get started.

Across:

1. Tired: LIMP. Wow, a DF answer right off the bat...

5. Hall & Oates hit "__ Smile": SARA.

9. Beast of burden: LLAMA. An "orgle" is the mating sound of a llama or alpaca, made by the male. The sound is reminiscent of gargling, but with a more forceful, buzzing edge. Males begin the sound when they become ready to mate and continue throughout the act—from 15 minutes to more than an hour. That must be as annoying as a vuvuzela...

14. Higher than: OVER.

15. GM subsidiary since 1929: OPEL. Wir Leben Autos (we love cars)

16. Lady who reportedly exchanged barbs with Churchill: ASTOR. Nancy Witcher. A Viscountess, the first woman to sit as a Member of Parliament.

20. Like some condors: ANDEAN.

21. Net worth factor: DEBT. Yes, your only worth in the US is to go into debt, to keep the economy going. I know I've done my share of patriotic duty...

22. __ leaf: TEA.

23. Part of a process: STEP.

25. They take vows: NUNS. From the WTF department: "Nunnery" is slang for a brothel??

32. Prefix with sac: OVI. Usually a deposit of insect or arachnid eggs.

33. Familiar saying: SAW. Old English "sagu" (proverb), also Old Norse "saga", which is from an Old English root "secgan" (say), also related: sage.

34. Fuses, as ore: SMELTS. From German schmeltzan, which contains the word melt.

36. Prepare to fire on: AIM AT.

39. Terhune collie: LAD. Albert Payson Terhune is the author of "Lad: a Dog".

41. Hot fragment: EMBER.

42. Sets aside for later consideration: TABLES. In parliamentary sense, originally "to lay on the (speaker's) table for discussion", but it has come to mean to postpone indefinitely.

44. "Excellent!": RAD. Slang shortening of the word "radical".

46. Montana motto word: ORO. "Oro y Plata" (Spanish: Gold and Silver)

51. Frantically: AMOK. To run amok first recorded 1670s, from Malay amuk "attacking furiously." Earlier the word was used as a noun or adj. meaning "a frenzied Malay," originally in the Portuguese form amouco or amuco.

52. Management ally of a sort: SCAB. Meaning of "strikebreaker" first recorded 1806, from earlier sense of "person who refuses to join a trade union" (1777), probably from the meaning "despicable person"

53. Former flier: SST. The Concorde's last flight was on November 26, 2003.

56. Dick of adventure fiction: MOBY. I was trying to come up with a detective name, like MOTO or CHAN.

58. WWII encryption machine: ENIGMA.

65. Ipse __: DIXIT. A Latin phrase meaning he himself said it. The term labels a statement asserted but not proved, to be accepted on faith. Usually from a person of standing, such as Aristotle.

66. Grand Marquis, briefly: MERC. A Mercury full-size car, equivalent to a Ford Crown Victoria. I think I heard a rumor that Ford will shut down the Mercury line soon.

67. Depressing situation, with "the": PITS. Said to be a shortened form of armpits. Could be worse...

68. "Gymnopédies" composer: SATIE. Eric, a frequent crossword clue.

69. Spot: ESPY. Old French: espier, to spy.

70. Kiln for drying hops: OAST. Frequent crossword fill.

Down:

1. Crazy, in a Ricky Martin song: LOCA. Living la vida loca (the crazy life) Hot stuff!

2. Russian John: IVAN.

3. Blend: MELD. One for Argyle and Tinbini: The original reference is to whiskey-making.

4. Christian guide: PRIEST. Greek Presbyteros, to Latin prester, to Old English preost.

5. Norman athletes: SOONERS. Norman, Oklahoma, Oklahoma University.

6. Boston Marathon mo.: APR. Abbreviated clue (month) = abbreviated answer

7. Split apart: REND. Also rive and rent, all related.

8. Klingons, e.g.: ALIENS. Latin alienus, belonging to another, variant of Latin alius (other), related: alias.

9. Job application line: LAST NAME.

10. Fightin' Tigers' sch.: LSU. Lousiana State University.

11. Working: AT IT. OK, right, "working"...

12. Small particle: MOTE.

13. Region: AREA.

18. Inevitable outcome: FATE.

19. Borders: ABUTS.

24. Big ring: PEAL. From a bell. Clever clue, I was thinking bathtub and wondering: There's a name for that?

26D. 31-Down opposite: STEM. and 31D. 26-Down opposite: STERN.

27. Bird-related: AVIAN. Latin avis. (Rara Avis = rare bird, a pecular person)

28. Dance at a bar: LIMBO. The bar you bend under, not the one where you get bent out of shape.

29. Doc, for one: DWARF. Happy, Dopey, Sneezy, Grumpy, Bashful, Sleepy, and a list of about 50 unused names.

30. Attention-getting joint: ELBOW. Especially a poke in the gut.

32. Cereal grass: OAT.

35. Sign at a popular musical: SRO. You have to want to see a show pretty badly to pay and have to stand up all the way through it...

37. __ mater: ALMA. Bountiful mother.

38. Rice, to Montana: TEAMMATE. Tight End and Receiver both were the right length, too.

40. Some code signals: DAHS. And DITS. Morse code pulses.

43. Hair net: SNOOD.

45. Propriety: DECENCY. Appropriateness.

48. "I find that acceptable": OK BY ME.

49. Indian royal: RANI. For Queen, or the alternate spelling of RAJA for king.

50. San Luis __: OBISPO. Saint Louis, the Bishop. Halfway between San Fran and L.A.

53. Agreed-on guidelines: Abbr.: STDS. Standards. We have a saying at work, "The nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from". Unofficial, of course...

55. Message often sent using thumbs: TEXT. I'm not one for doing phone text myself; I prefer the feel of a real tactile interface.

57. First name in fashion: YVES. Saint Laurent.

59. Karmann __: sports car: GHIA. Multiple car name clues today. This one's a VW.

60. 1986 World Series champs: METS. Game 6 is another coincidental movie theme tie in for this puzzle.

61. Helper: Abbr.: ASST.

63. First-century date: LII. 52. Wasn't thrilled with the clue for this. Could have been clued Caesar's deck, or something else helpful, instead of random unguessable Roman letters.

64. Dada daddy?: ARP. Jean, but also went by Hans. The other founders of the Dada movement were Max Ernst and Alfred Emanuel Ferdinand Grünwald.

LA Times website has no circles since its software does not support circled squares. You can see our Answer Grid to identify where circled letters are.

Al

Note from C.C.:

I am very pleased to announce that Al will blog Thursday puzzles from now on. Al has been a quiet hero, always there when I have a computer or crossword related question. Welcome on board, Al.