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

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Jul 27, 2013

Saturday, Jul 27th, 2013, Brad Wilber

Theme: None

Words: 68 (missing J,Q,X,Z)

Blocks: 31

   Today's offering actually seemed better than the DNF I had yesterday (NE corner remained blank).  I have to say, I did use red-letter help in the Mid-West to solve Mr. Wilber's solo effort, but only because of a foreign word, a nick-name and an acronym I was not familiar with.  Something new in the grid - stair-stacked triple 10's off-center, to go with two 10-letter climbers and the usual triples in the corners.  Some fill from today:

20A. Herodotus and Thucydides, for two : HISTORIANS - I was thinking they might be Titans or Greek Islands, but it's really these Greek guys

45A. Homemade defense against a mind-control ray : TIN FOIL HAT - nailed it - such a great visual

12. Stephen Colbert bestseller subtitled "(And So Can You!)" : I AM AMERICA - I read it; typical TV fame-to-books money maker

25. Pessimistic J. Geils Band hit with the line "It's gonna make you cry" : LOVE STINKS - Music Link

O  w  r  ~!
  n  a   d

ACROSS:

1. Many a knockout punch : UPPERCUT - always a good feeling to start out with the correct 8-letter answer~!

9. There's a charge for it : OPTION - I have observed that a LOT of new cars do NOT come with turn signal indicators as standard; must be an expensive option - they were standard on my 2000 Dodge Stratus, and I use them all the time~!

15. Navigator's creator : NETSCAPE - ISP; I was trying to stretch Lincoln to fit - Navigator is their SUV

16. Mind the sitter : BEHAVE - The children, that is

17. Signs at a rally : PLACARDS - Eh, OK - I think of placards as the metal HAZ-MAT plates on trucks

18. Showed signs of being : SEEMED

19. These, in Tours : CES

22. Disk-shaped safety device : SMOKE ALARM - the Town inspector came out to look the apartment over Wednesday; must have been psychic, he left his car running in the driveway....He did point out that the building code requires the smoke alarm in the apartment to be hard-wired to the one in the house, so we could know if there was a fire over there - makes good sense to me

24. Baby shower gift : SLEEPER SET - sounds like Sleeper Cell, but I never saw this show

26. Recordholder's suffix : EST - "World's BiggEST ____" - you fill in the blank....

29. Ridge studied in forensics : WHORL - Fingerprints

30. One with "Esq." on the door : ATTorney

31. Liveliness : BRIO

32. Citrus-marinated South American fish dish : CEVICHE - Total unknown, so it got me; popular with 46D~?  More here

35. High-level disagreement? : YELLING - high decibels, that is

37. Not kosher : TREF - Learned doing crosswords

38. Styled after : À LA

40. Deep purples : PUCES - sounds so unappealing

41. Faltering sounds : UMs - OK, who started with ERs?

42. "The Winds of War" actress : ALI MacGRAW - 1983; her IMDb

47. Hotly contested area : SWING STATE

49. Riddle of the Sphinx answer : MAN - What goes on four feet in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three at night? - More here

52. Scratch : CANCEL - Makes me think of dictation - "Dear Sir or Madam...scratch that..."To Whom It May Concern..."

53. Fortifications : BASTIONS - I tried RAMPARTS, but had to take it out because it couldn't cross the "MOAT" at 49D

56. Acid neutralizer : ALKALI

57. Like Buckley's columns, say : LITERATE

58. Close again, in a way : RE-SNAP

59. In orbit : ECSTATIC - I was on this wavelength, but ELATED was too short

DOWN:

1. Insensitive, in a way : UN-PC - Not Politically Correct

2. Mononymous kicker : PELÉ - actually, his, er, "triptonym" is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, so I thought you'd like to know more

3. K-12 fund-raisers : PTAs

4. Backup key : ESC - Escape, top left on the keyboard - In AutoCAD, it is THE go-to key for ending any command; drawing a line, making a selection set, typing text.  What irks me is when I switch to Photoshop, it does NOTHING at all....

5. Dave Matthews Band label : RCA

6. Meals-on-wheels worker? : CAR-HOP - Har-Har~!



7. "Rabbit Is Rich" Pulitzer winner : UPDIKE - John, and this novel, one of four

8. Mosaic piece : TESSERA - I had heard this before, but I needed perps first; a small tile of glass, stone, etc.; through Latin, from Greek, meaning 'four'

9. Horse-and-buggy : OBSOLETE - I find drivers on cell phones to be really annoying; I wonder if 100 years ago horse-and-buggy types felt the same way about the 'new' automobile....and neither one is going away

10. Examine closely : PEER AT

11. "... __ finest hour": Churchill : THEIR

13. Roast spot : OVEN

14. Beatty and Rorem : NEDS

21. Scrumptious : TASTY

22. Font flourish : SERIF

23. Sporty Spice, familiarly : MEL C - Melanie Chisolm, from the "Spice Girls"

24. Col. Potter on "M*A*S*H," to pals : SHERMan T. Potter

27. Tough tissue : SINEW - animal tissue, that is

28. Garb : TOGS - a WAG that stayed

29. Pro-prohibition org. : WCTU - Women's Christian Temperance Union - never heard of it, but then again, I was anti-prohibition for 15yrs (LOL)

31. Spill, with "out" : BLURT

33. Petticoat alternative : HALF-SLIP

34. "Four Quartets" poet : ELIOT

36. Annika Sorenstam's gp. : LPGA - Ladies Professional Golf Association

39. Good-natured : AMIABLE

42. German chancellor Merkel : ANGELA

43. Language family including Turkish : ALTAIC - Turkic, Mongolian, and Tungusic, sez the dictionary

44. Drawer holders : CHESTS - The furniture, not this chest, ladies

46. Old Peruvian : INCAN

47. Trauma consequence : SCAR

48. Corduroy rib : WALE

49. Zoo trench : MOAT - Dinosaur Parks, too~!

50. Debate side : ANTI

51. One of 60 billion in a min. : NSEC - Nanosecond

54. Three-day festival : TET

55. SS supplement : IRA - Social Security, and Individual Retirement Account - changing it up from Monday level cluing


Splynter

Note from C.C.:

Melissa & her friends had their annual Girls Weekend Getaway a few weeks ago. Here are all the fun pictures. She said "there was a friend who was unable to join us this year, that's why we made those pics of her so that we could bring her along with us. it was almost like she was really with us - so funny."