Saturday April 16, 2011 Brad Wilber

Theme: None

Total words: 72

Total blocks: 30

This puzzle is anchored by a grid-spanning 15 crossed by two 10s:

35A. Summertime response to a wave? : HOT ENOUGH FOR YOU? Heat wave.

5D. Puts up gates, say : BABY-PROOFS. I was picturing real gates.

30D. Menacingly complex, as a bureaucracy : KAFKAESQUE. As typified by the works of Franz Kafka.

Today is a good example of how it's the cluing and not obscure words that made a late-week puzzle tough:

14A. Eugene O'Neill character? : CAPITAL O. The O in his name O'Neill. Not any play character.

50D. 2009 U.S. Open champ Glover : LUCAS. "Star Wars" director George would be too easy a clue. Here is our champion Lucas Glover. Ricky Barnes collapsed in the final round.

Lively fill abound in the grid.

Across:

1. Turned to a life of crime : GONE BAD. Figured the end had to be ED. Oops!

8. Become absorbed : OSMOSE. I wanted ENRAPT, which is an adj. Dummy!

15. Scorched : SEARED

16. Order in a preschool classroom : ALPHABET. Of course, I was in the verb "order" line of thinking.

17. NFL coach with the most career postseason wins : LANDRY (Tom). No idea. Longtime Cowboys coach.

18. Grant, for one : LOU. Wanted CIC again, thinking of President Grant.

19. Half of the UAR : SYR. UAR is a union of Syria and Egypt.

20. Surname of 15th/16th-century Pope Alexander VI : BORGIA. Wow, who knows?!

21. Physics units : ERGS. Work units.

23. Not flush : POOR. What kind of flush do you have in mind? Poker? Alignment?

25. Is wistful (for) : LONGS

27. 1959 winner of a record 11 Oscars : BEN-HUR. Brad knows everything about Oscar.

29. Debauchee : RAKE. So is ROUE.

31. In imitation of : A LA

32. Kinsey Institute Library collection : EROTICA. Where is it?

34. Negligible amount : DRIB. Not IOTA.

39. Skeptic's retort : I BET

40. Searched, in a way : FRISKED

41. Six-time Sugar Bowl victors, briefly : LSU. Six-time, is it a record?

42. Literary ID : ISBN

43. Lineups : ARRAYS

47. Preeminent industrialist : TITAN. Would you call Donald Trump a titan?

49. Guernsey, for one : ISLE

51. Citation space-saver : ET AL

52. Sidestepped : DODGED

54. "Royal Pains" network : USA. I've never heard of "Royal Pains".

56. It had a hub at JFK : TWA. Guessed.

57. Took umbrage at : MINDED

58. Familiarize : ACQUAINT

60. Cocktail flavored with orgeat syrup : MAI TAI. Not familiar with the syrup. Wiki says orgreat derived from the Latin hordeata, meaning "made with barley".

61. "Viaducts Break Ranks" painter : PAUL KLEE. Here's the painting. Very abstract.

62. Extra number : ENCORE. Oh, musical number.

63. 6-Down, nowadays : USED CAR. And 6D. Olds introduced in '98 : ALERO.

Down:

1. In abundance : GALORE

2. Call into question : OPPUGN. New word to me.

3. Biomedical research agcy. : NIH

4. Itinerary nos. : ETAs. ETA = Estimated Time of Arrival.

7. Bespeckle : DOT

8. City with the newspaper Aftenposten : OSLO. First encounter with the newspaper.

9. Ambien maker : SEARLE. Also the maker of Celebrex. Now part of Pfizer.

10. Chutney fruit : MANGO. Delicious!

11. Prosaic : ORDINARY

12. Harem : SERAGLIO. Dictionary says it's rooted in Italian serraglio, meaning "animal cage". ODA is Turkish for room.

13. Joseph of ice cream fame : EDY

14. Canaan infiltrator : CALEB. Biblical spy.

20. Big name in candy corn : BRACH'S

22. Word with cake or metal : SHEET

24. Sources : ORIGINS

26. "A Tiger Walks" star : SABU. Was ignorant of film "A Tiger Walks". India-born Actor.

28. Catering dispenser : URN

33. Murky : TURBID

34. Frequent producer for Eminem : DR DRE

35. Highest degree : HILT. To the hilt.

36. Volcanic glass : OBSIDIAN. Also a new word to me.

37. Frankfurter adjective : TEUTONIC

38. "Not stepping __ the bounds of modesty": Juliet : O'ER

42. Ready to roll : IN GEAR

44. Fifth-century invader of Gaul : ATTILA. The Hun.

45. Hardly a moving picture? : YAWNER. Tricky clue.

46. Group of candidates : SLATE

48. Augment : ADD TO

53. Eva Marie's "On the Waterfront" role : EDIE. Stumper for me.

55. Word heard after a countdown : AULD. "Auld Lang Syne". New Year count.

57. Nice address: Abbr. : MME (Madame). Nice the City in France.

58. "The Simpsons" Squishee seller : APU. The shopkeeper.

59. Pedigree-tracking org. : AKC (American Kennel Club)

Answer grid.

Happy 83rd Birthday to our fellow LA Times solver Dot! And a belated Happy 97th  Birthday to her husband Irv! Hi there Andrea & Kazie.

C.C.

Friday, April 15, 2011, Matt Matera

Theme: Initial names and more. Each theme answer takes the name of a famous person who is known by his initials, and adds a new letter to the end of the initials to create an in the society expression. The answers are pretty cool, and I really was a little taken back by 1A being a theme answer. We have:

1A. Fantasy author and forensic pathologist?: CSI LEWIS. C S Lewis has reached new audiences with the movies made from his Chronicles of Narnia. His life was depicted in one of my all time favorite movies, Shadowlands. It is impossible to have avoided all the CSI shows on television, though it looks like they are finally fading.

22A. Behaviorist and teen confidant?: BFF SKINNER. As a psychology major, there was much debate between ways to modify human behavior; Freud with analysis and B F Skinner who believed you could train humans like rats, simply reward or punish behavior. He was known as the rat psychologist, which did not make him my BFF, BEST FRIEND FOREVER.

33A. Huckster and school supporter?: PTA BARNUM. Phineas T. Barnum was a showman, with little respect for his audience. He probably never went to a Parent Teacher Association meeting.

49A. British novelist and medic?: EMT FORSTER. This author wrote a few very interesting BOOKS , not to be confused with C S Forester who wrote Horatio Hornblower novels. Neither of them were Emergency Medical Techinicians.

63A. Children's author and roadside helper? : AAA MILNE. Mr. Milne was the author of the beloved Winnie the Pooh series (which we read in Latin, Winnie Ille Pu) and like Forster and Lewis a British author. American Automobile Association has been helping drivers for years.

Lemonade here, having horrendous computer problems, having had this post go blooey and redone four times, I am giving up on all the links for this week, perhaps I can get some in during the day. I liked the theme and its consistency, now let's see what else we have hidden to find.

Across:

9. Jah worshipers: RASTAS. The divine being in the Rastafarian religion, the name likely derived from the famous tetragrammaton of Judaism, YHVH, Yahweh.

15. Reason for a pass: LATENESS. I did not get the boys to school late often, but have to go in an get them a pass was always unpleasant.

16. Strike caller: UMPIRE. Balls and strikes.

17. German shepherd: ALSATIAN. Wonderful dogs.

18. Some special forces headgear: BERETS. Who among us did not love the Ballad of the Green Berets.

19. It merged with Kmart in 2005: SEARS. When I was a kid we lived in a town so small all we had was a Sears catalog store. Learned a lot from those catalogs.

20. Hairy: PILAR. Our first Latin of the day, from PILUS meaning hair. You wonder if people like Deion Sanders who married a girl with that name, looks at her and sees  her as hairy?

21. High sch. VIPs: SRS. Seniors.

27. At first blush: INITIALLY. What a quaint little phrase.

30. Teen follower?: AGERS. One of the many ways suffixes are described to confuse.

31. Infer: CONSTRUE. Dictionaries list INFER and IMPLY as synonymous; Nero Wolfe is rolling over in his fictional grave.

32. Indeed: YEA. There really are many 3 letter words in this offering.

38. Toon dynamo, familiarly: TAZ. The Tazmanian Devil, very cute.

41. Inspiration for the Frisbee: PIE PLATE. Since all the flying saucers in the movies in those days were pie plates, this makes lots of sense.

45. Lieu: STEAD. Almost a legal term.

48. Time, for one: DIMENSION. Einstein's theory of relativity made time the 4th dimension.

51. CD-__: ROM. Compact Disc-Read-Only Memory.

52. Droid in every "Star Wars" film: ARTOO. DEETO, the little one.

53. Sweet cake that's an Easter tradition in Eastern Europe: BABKA.

55. Spots: ESPIES.

57. University of Cincinnati team: BEARCATS. One of the many teams beaten by UConn on their most recent trip to the NCAA Basketball championship.

60. Gangster's gun, in old-timey slang: ROSCOE. A gat, a piece and so many more. Has anyone read Hammet and Chandler?

61. Permits: ENTITLES. I had trouble with this thinking in noun.

62. Most people: ASIANS. This was so easy it was hard.

Going...

Down:

1. Thing that endures: CLASSIC. So many good and bad things endure, this was tricky.

2. Port of SW Italy: SALERNO . A very pretty city.

3. "That's just wrong" : IT'S A SIN. A bit strong.

4. "That way madness lies" speaker: LEAR. No, I will weep no more. In such a night,

To shut me out? Pour on; I will endure.

In such a night as this? O Regan, Goneril!

Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all—

O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;

No more of that.

5. Tolkien's Skinbark and Leaflock, e.g.: ENTS. JRR Tolkein was a close friend of C S Lewis, they both taught at Oxford and wrote fantasy novels. I see a sub-theme with British authors who wrote for younger readers.

6. China's Northern __ Dynasty, 386-534 AD: WEI. Interesting history.

7. First of the Maj. Prophets: ISA. Major Prophets, Isaiah.

8. Three-part fig. SSN. Social Security Number.

9. Creator of a popular six-color puzzle: RUBIK. The cube, many man hours lost on that baby.

10. First name in aviation: AMELIA. Not sure why she is first, but Ms. Earhardt is a continuation from last week.

11. Paid (for): SPRANG. Yes, I sprang for lunch last Friday.

12. Maura of "ER": TIERNEY. I enjoyed her in NEWS RADIO

13. Lost __ : ART. Letter writing is a lost art.

14. Paris possessive: SES. Wake up Lolita, our French lesson; SON means his/ hers of a singular item, SES is his/hers for a plural item. LEURS is for theirs.

20. Adler's subj.: PSY. More abbreviations and more psychology and Alfred Adler a disciple of Freud.

22. Theda of silents : BARA.

23. Bungle: FLUB. Makes me think of FLUB a DUB in the tub.

24. Run-down theater : FLEA PIT. I have heard of Flea bag hotels.

25. Before, in verse : ERE.

26. Where Mandela was pres.: RSA. The Republic of South Africa provided another Masters' champion this past weekend. And, 46D. Lesotho's home: AFRICA. A little landlocked country in the middle of RSA.

28. Dosage abbr.: TSP. Teaspoon.

29. Babbling Addams character: ITT. Their PILAR cousin.

34. Coleridge work: RIME. Of the Ancient Mariner, and Epic Poem.

35. __-do-well: NEER. Another great old phrase.

36. Network that merged with The WB: UPN. United Paramount Network.

37. David Beckham's org.: MLS. Major League Soccer.

38. Half a fly:TSE. Really, we have not seen this stinker in a while.

39. Withdrawal aid, briefly: ATM. Becoming a gimme.

40. Fraternity founded at New York University in 1847: ZETA PSI. Really obscure, but there are not that many greek letters.

42. Hoops embarrassment: AIRBALL. When the shooter in basketball, misses everything, does not hit the basket, the backboard, just air.

43. Caught one's breath: TOOK TEN. I never got more than 5.

44. As one : EN MASSE. French, in a single mass.

47. Spoil rotten : DOTE ON. I love them babies.

48. Brit. military award : DSO. Distinguished Service Order.

50. Lover's gift : ROSES. 20 million red roses are given on Valentine's Day in the US, or so they say. I like other roses better if you were planning on sending me some.

53. Boater's edge: BRIM. Well the brim is everyone's edge, fill it to the brim. Brim are also bait fish? (Note: Boater hat).

54. When Tony sings "Maria" : ACT I. West Side Story.

55. Time often named : ERA. Huh?

56. Under-the-sink brand : SOS. We were a Brillo family.

57. Arthur of "All in the Family" : BEA. Where she played Maude, a liberal who infuriated Archie and who ended up with her own series.

58. Spain's Queen Victoria Eugenia, familiarly: ENA. The grand daughter of Queen Victoria.

59. ___snail's pace: AT A. which is how this puzzle was for me, not hard, just a real slog. Between vision and computer problems, a long night. Enjoy the upcoming holidays whatever your persuasion, and see you next time.

Answer grid.

Lemonade