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

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Nov 12, 2010

Friday November 12, 2010 Dan Naddor

Theme: You (U) Fit In - Each theme answer is a common two word expression, with the letter “U” inserted into the second word, to create a humorous new expression, with the question mark at the end of the clue telling you a play on words is coming.

16A. Opening with a thud?: BAD DEBUT. BAD DEBT. Something becoming all too familiar after the recent mortgage debacle.

19A. Staple in a Hollywood first-aid kit?: STAR GAUZE. STAR GAZE. We love staring at our stars, making so many tabloids and tabloid tv shows popular. Do we really care that Disney child stars Lindsay Lohan and Demi Lovato are coke heads?

26A. Compulsion to set up camp?: TENT DURESS. TENT DRESS. An interesting internal deception because the meaning of Tent is very different when you are talking about this DRESS STYLE .

34A. Hoss and Little Joe's off-color jokes?: PONDEROSA RAUNCH. PONDEROSA RANCH, the home of the Cartwright family on BONANZA which was the first television show to be shown in color. My favorite phrase of the theme. Do you all remember the name of Ben’s (the father, played by Lorne Greene) horse?

43A. Civil unrest in Brest?: FRENCH FURY. FRENCH FRY. A nice rhyming clue, to obscure the French city.

50A. Restrain a legendary soul seller?: HOLD FAUST. HOLD FAST; FAUST is the Devil in German legend, made famous by Goethe’s tragic play.

58A. Classy accommodations at the Spider Ritz?: WEB SUITE. WEB SITE. Don’t you just love the mind that created the image of an exclusive hotel for spiders?

47. "Have a nice day" response, and a literal hint to this puzzle's theme: YOU TOO. YOU (U) too, meaning an added U.

Et tu Brute! Hallelujah, Lemonade here, week two already. Happy Friday, C.C. and all. Wow, another Naddor for me, and one so typical and so witty. I really enjoyed this effort, with 75 letters and 8 theme related answers. Lots of fun fill, a few things I should have recalled but had to work to get, and generally a good time for all.

Across:

1. Bucolic: PASTORAL. We begin with a pleasant straight forward image.

9. Sushi choices: EELS. I like some sushi, but am not fond of eels, probably something psychological from my childhood.

13. Wood preservative: CREOSOTE. COAL TAR CREOSOTE is an EPA registered wood preservative, distilled from crude coke oven tar, and is mainly composed of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), but also contains phenols and cresols. Like I knew that.

14. Plays the class clown: CUTS UP. Remember, Dan likes two word answers that create deceptive letter strings. 21A. Clueless: AT SEA. 65A. As terrific as they say: THAT GOOD. 7D. "Do you bite your thumb __, sir?": "Romeo and Juliet": AT US. I love that he includes some Shakespeare, as well as the very old insult of biting one’s thumb, which has resurfaced in our culture as seen in the URBAN DICTIONARY . 33D. Corner the market on: BUY UP. Speaking of which, do you remember when the Hunt brothers tried to corner the silver market? They were the inspiration for these BROTHERS .

17. Showy: ORNATE.

18. Overseas fem. title: SRA. As Kazie pointed out, the abbreviation for Senora, like most of our dear ladies.

25. Source of Ulee's gold: BEES.Hi Melissa, and yes, the gold was in the honey, honey.

29. She played Emma in "The Avengers": UMA. We all know this is true in the movie, but this will always be the real MRS.PEEL .

32. Mideast language: IRANI. Oh, in Iran, I guess.

33. Support group?: BRAS. Nice deception, but then again, it may all be DECEPTION .

40. Lake near Niagara Falls: ERIE. Where my oldest is currently freezing his little behind in grad school, though his birthday is in nine days, he will be home in 11!

41. Atlanta campus: EMORY. This is a very well respected private college that emphasizes research; it ended up in Atlanta through the generosity of the people from Coca Cola. If you go to Atlanta, go and tour the Coke factory (except Lindsay Lohan and Demi Lovato, who know better).

42. Jets coach Ryan: REX. He plays against Cleveland this week end, whose defense is coached by his older (by 5 minutes) identical twin brother ROB RYAN .

48. Fizzled out: DIED. Like so many romances…

49. Gulf of Finland city: ESPOO. The second largest city in Finland, and it took me way to long to drag from my brain. We just had the clue in August, in a Barry Silk themeless.

55. Word with a head slap: DUH. DOH, whatever you like; here we use the V-8 can against the head.

57. Six-Day War country: ISRAEL. Remember it well.

62. Insurer of Tina Turner's legs: LLOYDS. LLOYD’s of LONDON has been in the insurance business since 1688, and has always insured the odd things of value like insuring, silent film comedian Ben Turpin's eyes against uncrossing, Jimmy Durante’s nose, Troy Polamalu's hair for $1 million, and these R rated pre-silicone marvels of TEMPEST STORM .

63. One transferring property rights, in law: ASSIGNOR. Must have obscure law clues so Lemonade can feel smart. We love our ORs and EEs.

64. Plenty: TONS.

Down:

1. Banned pollutants: PCBS. They belong to a group of man made “organic” chemicals called PolyChlorinated Biphenyls.

2. Biblical resting place: ARARAT. A nice deception, for it was Noah’s Ark, not a person that ended up resting atop Mount Ararat.

3. Composed: SEDATE.

4. "The Fox and the Hound" fox: TOD. The hound was Copper, but I really do not remember the MOVIE.

5. Suffix with fruct-: OSE.Also with SUCR-, LACT- and others, it means SUGAR.

6. Hold up: ROB. Yes, to rob is to hold up, to burgle is to break in.

8. Riga resident: LETT. We see this one very often, and I actually have some clients from Latvia, but they moved to Venezuela.

9. Old lab heaters: ETNAS. Dan used this in a Sunday puzzle in August 2009, I did not know the term then, and do not now. I am strictly a BUNSEN BURNER guy.

10. Isaac's eldest: ESAU. Poor guy, hairy and he lost his birthright.

11. Eponymous skater Alois __: LUTZ. For our dear CA back from vacation, and our prodigal Robin, just back, we have the TRIPLE LUTZ in pictures and words. Eponymous, is when you give your name to something, like Joe Robbie stadium.

12. WWI German vice-admiral: SPEE. One I knew nothing about, but apparently quite a bold man, of whom Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty at London, wrote: "He was a cut flower in a vase, fair to see yet bound to die.”

14. Centers: CORES. Oh, okay, I get like the center of the earth.

15. Prods: URGES.

20. Justice Fortas: ABE. Another law tidbit for me; Justice Fortas was a very successful student of the law, and lawyer, arguing and winning the famous right to counsel case, GIDEON vs. WAINWRIGHT, in which the Supreme Court for the first time granted all who are accused of a crime the right to be represented by counsel, creating the Public Defender system. Mr. Fortas, who came from an Orthodox Jewish family became very good friends with Lyndon Johnson, who when he became president, convinced sitting Justice Arthur Goldberg (the then Jewish member of the court) to resign to become ambassador to the UN, so Fortas could be appointed to the court. Sadly, Fortas ended up resigning under a cloud for taking fees while on the bench.

22. Derisive: SNIDE. My favorite was this CHARACTER .

23. Raison d'__: ETRE. Meaning literally “ reason to be” in French.

24. Month before Nisan: ADAR. And then a little Hebrew calendar to make me feel at home; that calendar has leap months, where there is a 13th month added to catch up with the earths rotation from a moon based calendar.

27. Card game warning: UNO. A favorite of children of all ages, though my grandmother preferred Skip-Bo.

28. Out of bed: RISEN. Which of course reminds me of this SONG .

29. Still-life subject: URN. Really, I only remember the poem.

30. Bud: MAC. Talk about misleading, and yet easy. In our culture, BUD means beer, not buddy, so hey BUD and hey MAC was very hard.

31. Tip for a smoker?: ASH. Literal but hidden again; I still liked Camel Droppings best.

34. In accordance with: PER.

35. It may be found in a deposit: ORE. No not a bank deposit, silly.

36. Outlaw: NIX. Hmm, my in-laws are named NIX, so they are in-laws and outlaws!

37. Onetime Jeep mfr.: AMC. American Motors Company and one of the big four when the US controlled worldwide auto manufacture. Sadly the Rambler and the NASH American did not keep the company afloat, when the Pacer, their final effort to convince the country to drive smaller fuel efficient cars failed, they gave up. Not long after they folded, we had the first gas crisis and their small car ideas took hold.

38. Architect Mies van der __: ROHE. Did not know him, but he designed lots of BUILDINGS.

39. Pound sounds: ARFS. Another cute rhyme.

43. Fluted, in a way: FIFED. Not the champagne glass, but the guy playing the flute; hmm, a verb?

44. Old Spanish coins: REALS. Spanish Reals are often found at historic sites in the US, as during colonial days in the U.S., the silver Ocho Reales coin, referred to as the Spanish milled dollar, piece of eight, or eight bits, was the principal coin in circulation. Hence, the saying, 2 bits, 4 bits, 6 bits, a dollar; all for the home team stand up and holler. Some still refer to a quarter as two bits.

45. Web address ender: EDU.

46. House Judiciary Committee chair during the Nixon impeachment hearings: RODINO. This piece of trivia was buried deep in the brain, and crossing it with ESPOO really slowed me down. In the ironies of the world, and karma, Nixon was determined to impeach Abe Fortas, who eventually stepped down.

48. Critical moments to gear up for: D DAYS. JUNE 6, 1944 .

50. Maximum degree: HILT. This sweet phrase comes from the violent turn of stabbing a dagger or a sword into the victim all the way to the hilt (the protective handle).

51. European capital: OSLO. To our Norwegian brethren, we shout out.

52. Hubbard of Scientology: L RON. Yes, I like my religion from an unsuccessful science fiction author.

53. Team acronym: SWAT. Special Weapons and Tactics.

54. John with Emmys and a journalism award: TESH. A singer, a talk show host, a piano player and a journalist.

56. Rancher's concern: HERD. Not this ONE .

59. Jamboree gp.: BSA. We had Boy Scouts of America in the very first puzzle I blogged, back in the day.

60. Be in session: SIT. Congress, or the courts, like the Supreme Court!

61. Trendy boot brand: UGG. Worn by our temperature challenged crew, including dear Lo-li-ta. Do they come in red Fishie? I guess they do not sell too well in Arizona.

Answer grid.

Well, a long day ahead, so I am out of here, hope you enjoyed the show; see you same bat channel, same bat time.

Lemonade

Nov 11, 2010

Thursday November 11, 2010 Don Gagliardo

Theme: Childish Behavior - With a HINT (32A) from 56A. Admonition to one acting out the starts of 17-, 23-, 34- and 48-Across: MIND YOUR MANNERS.

17A. Battle of the Bulge air assault division: SCREAMING EAGLES. The Army 101st Airborne Division. Timely clue related to Veterans day, today.

23A. Doppelgänger: SPITTING IMAGE. In fiction and folklore, your evil double. Also considered bad luck, or even an omen of death, to see one.

34A. It's hard to get romantic with one: NAGGING HEADACHE. This is probably worse. One percent of the population, really?

48A. Reason to see a mechanic: WHINING ENGINE.

Al here.

Heavy 71 theme squares. Seven Down fill intersect 3 theme entries. An ambitious grid.

Not a pangram, missing six letters, no helper squares, better than average theme, and a few clever clues. Parts of the theme did help me for once, the "ing" letters filled in a few spots. So, on with the answers. Don included a note to C.C. about the puzzle, which is included at the end of the write-up.

ACROSS

1. U.S. dept. with a Race to the Top reform prog.: EDUC.ation.

5. Iconic rings: HALOS.

10. Lock style: COIF. Lock of hair. Coif from old French for a skull cap worn with headgear, as under a helmet.

14. JV team member, perhaps: SOPH. Junior Varsity, Sophomore. A second year student, literally an "arguer". From sophume, variant of sophism (specious, fallacious argument).

15. Warning: ALERT. From Italian all'erta "to the height," from erta "lookout, high tower".

16. Back in the day: ONCE.

20. Willows for weavers: OSIERS.

21. Cause to suffer: AIL. What ails you? What is causing you to suffer? Never having looked it up before, I never realized the word had this meaning, but just thought that it referred to a state of health not being good. Even knowing that, I still wouldn't ever say "A cold ails me".

22. Word with meal or cake: OAT. I've never heard of oatcakes (similar to pancakes but with a lot of fiber), most references I found seem to be from the UK. Must be more common there?

27. Name on an airport shuttle: AVIS. They try harder.

29. Incarnation of Vishnu: RAMA.

30. Alice's workplace: DINER. Mel's Diner in the TV series, with Alice played by Linda Lavin. There's also Alice's Restaurant, the spoken "song" by Arlo Guthrie, based on a true story and made into a movie.

31. Yang's partner: YIN. Male/female, day/night. The concept of balance in all things. You cannot have a back of your hand without there being a front.

32. Clue: HINT. From old English hentan "to seize", related to hunt.

33. Cul-de-__: SAC.

40. Important no. to most car buyers: MPG. Miles per gallon.

41. Coastal raptor: ERNE. The "sea eagle".

42. It starts with "http": URL. Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol, Uniform Resource Locator.

43. Sheer: STEEP.

46. Desertlike: ARID.

47. Teeny: ITSY. Could have been itty too.

51. Reservoir borders?: ARS. The letter "R" begins and ends the word reservoir.

52. Besides: TOO.

53. __ Tunes: LOONEY. Warner Bros animation.

60. Court entry: PLEA.

61. Shopping list entries: ITEMS.

62. "Woe __!": IS ME.

63. Some shooters, briefly: SLRS. Single Lens Reflex cameras.

64. Mythical animal kingdom ennead: LIVES. Ennead: "group of nine". A reference to cats.

65. Peter or Paul, but not Mary: TSAR. There were tsarinas named Maria, though. A diversion kind of clue to get you thinking MALE, or folk music instead of rulers.

DOWN

1. Gas acronym: ESSO. Standard Oil initials: SO (say it out loud)

2. Holliday and others: DOCS. The two "L"s were a giveaway to look deeper than calendar dates.

3. Revolting situation: UPRISING. Punny.

4. Nest chorus: CHEEPS.

5. Target of pre-race stretching: HAMSTRING.

6. "__ Baba Bunny": classic Bugs cartoon: ALI.

7. Hall of Fame quarterback Dawson: LEN.

8. Leia's last name: ORGANA. One of her last names... The Star Wars universe. Born Leia Amadala Skywalker, daughter of Darth Vader. Hidden and adopted by Bail Organa, a royal family on Alderan. Also Mrs. Solo after being married.

9. "Shrek!" author William: STEIG.

10. Minor player: COG. Just a nameless tooth on a gear that keeps the wheel turning.

11. Checked out, as a book: ON LOAN.

12. Cooling-off period?: ICE AGE.

13. Uncle at 0001 Cemetery Lane, in '60s TV: FESTER. The Addams Family.

18. First name in shipping: ARI. Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate.

19. Angular measurement device used in surveying: ALIDADE. Many different types.

24. Bite: TANG. "Serpent's tongue" (thought to be a stinging organ), later "sharp extension of a metal blade", then "sharp taste" followed later.

25. "Count me in!": I'M THERE.

26. Mineral with basal cleavage: MICA.

27. Writer Rand: AYN. Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead.

28. Routing word: VIA. Latin, by way of.

32. __ Hop: bouncing ball brand: HIPPITY.

33. Time-measuring device: SANDGLASS. During the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan around the globe, his vessels kept 18 hourglasses per ship. It was the job of a ship's page to turn the hourglasses and thus provide the times for the ship's log.

35. Feds: G-MEN.

36. "__ go bragh!": ERIN.

37. Kitten's quality: CUTENESS.

38. Retail posting: Abbr.: HRS. Open hours.

39. Callaway of golf equipment fame: ELY. The founder and also the stock ticker name.

43. Overwhelms: SWAMPS.

44. Rollercoaster ride, e.g.: THRILL.

45. Former Disney chief: EISNER. Michael.

46. Rainforest rodent: AGOUTI.

47. Part of a conspiracy: IN ON IT. From prefix com- (together) + spire (breathe), so, to breathe together.

49. Kind of salad dressing: NO OIL. I may have mentioned before that you need (the right) oil to properly absorb the phytochemicals from plants, like carotene, lutein, and various flavenoids.

50. Charged particle: ION. A Greek word meaning "go" adapted by Michael Faraday to label particles that move towards an electrode of opposite charge.

54. Columnist Bombeck: ERMA.

55. Nieuwpoort's river: YSER. Belgium.

57. Courtroom VIPs: DAS. District Attorneys.

58. Test, as an engine: REV.

59. Sra.'s neighboring counterpart: MME. Senorita, Mademoiselle. Spanish and French for miss.

Answer grid.

Note from Don about today's theme:

"I think secretly that everybody finds a bratty kid more interesting than a thoroughly well-behaved angel. I found some words that describe the bratty behavior, and put them into phrases, wondering when the solver would catch on. It is not the usual kind of puzzle theme, which might make it more of a surprise when the solver comes to the last theme answer. I felt fortunate to find a 15-letter phrase to tidy it up. Next time someone says, “Mind your manners”, you can say “That’s a 15-letter phrase that addresses bratty behavior!"

Al