L.A.Times Crossword Corner

Oct 12, 2019

Saturday, October 12, 2019, Erik Agard

Themeless Saturday by Erik Agard

Today we take another fun spin on Jeopardy Champion Erik Agard's puzzle-mobile. Two triple vertical stacks of 9's and triple horizontal rows of 8's are so impressive!

This is a nice article about Marylander Erik (graduate of Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Springs)

Across:

1. Online gay dating site: GRINDR - Here ya go

7. Bridge accessory: SCORE PAD.

15. Electrically overhaul: REWIRE - It took me an hour to REWIRE a lamp three weeks ago. Now I could do it in five minutes!

16. ProvenÁal olive-and-capers spread: TAPENADE - Its name comes from the Provençal word for capers, tapenas. French major granddaughter says ProvenÁal used in clue is an archaic name for the adjective Provençal describing things from the Provence area in SE France

17. Many: A LOT OF.

18. Bent: APTITUDE - My APTITUDE for math and science led to a 42-yr career (BENT OUT OF SHAPE was our Thursday gimmick)

19. Legal end: BAN - It doesn't seem to be a good time to be starting a Vape business

20. Eponymous German bacteriologist: PETRI - Here is the discoverer of penicillin, Alexander Fleming, holding a PETRI dish like the one he used in making his momentous find

22. Nuzzled: NOSED.

23. Relative of "You go!": ATTA- Many "over and above" things I did as a teacher garnered me an "ATTA Boy" but no cash

25. Yogurt-based condiment: RAITA - How to make one type. Yes, I saw it is an anagram of our cwd rope friend

27. Contents of some weekly organizers: MEDS - They can get complicated

30. Forensic workplace: DNA LAB - DNA testing exonerated this Idaho man and convicted the actual perpetrator. 28. "Alas ... ": SADLY he spent 20 years in jail before the truth came out

32. Volumes on devices: EBOOKS.

34. Cheeks asset: GLOW.

35. Lose juice entirely: DIE.

38. Sci-fi science: ALIEN TECHNOLOGY - The premise of the movie Independence Day was that gov't scientists were studying ALIEN TECHNOLOGY at Area 51

41. Palindromic observance: TET.

42. Imprecise words: OR SO.

43. Stand-up comic Boosler: ELAYNE - A funny minute with ELAYNE

44. Words of denial: I WASN'T

46. Was upheld on appeal: STOOD - After a review, an NFL referee can say a call has STOOD, been confirmed or been overturned

47. Radio letters: AM FM - In my yute, our car radios only had AM but those of us of a certain age will recognize the Conelrad symbols in case of emergencies

50. Many of the characters in the 2018 film "Smallfoot": YETIS.

52. Italian cabbage?: EURO - This is slang for money. Real Italian cabbage is Cavolo Italiano

53. Part of UCSD: DIEGO - The Geisel Library at the University of California at San DIEGO

55. Radical cousin: NEATO - The fill predates the cluing by quite a bit

57. Cheese go-with: MAC.

58. Handy annuals: ALMANACS - Here's one from the year I was born

60. It was created in Philly in 1792: US MINT.

62. Small tuft: PLUMELET - The PLUMELET (feather) in Forest Gump had wonderful symbolism

63. White, to Juan: BLANCO - A fun song about Una Paloma BLANCA - The White Dove (I know the fill is masculine BLANCO but this is a fun song)

64. Persistent: TIRELESS.

65. Unifying alloy: SOLDER - U.S. - Sodder. U.K. - Sohl' der. Why?

Down:

1. Park it: GRAB A SEAT.

2. Sympathetic: RELATABLE - I would call Tom Hanks the most RELATABLE actor in Hollywood

3. Defiant refusal: I WON'T DO IT.

4. Micromanager's excess: NIT - In a recent response to me, a professional person hoped my "weekend went GOOD" and said "she was giving me a PEAK at fees her institute charges". I did 9. Go (for): OPT to not correct her

5. Fall: DROP.

6. Direct: REFER - My doctor REFERRED me to a wonderful Omaha surgeon rather than trust our local hospital

7. Competitions in which batting is forbidden: STARING CONTESTS - Anyone batting their eyes loses

8. Goalpost look-alike: CAPITAL H.

10. Control during riding: REIN.

11. Lay to rest: ENTOMB.

12. Meaning of two vertical lines, at times: PAUSE.

13. Put in later: ADDED - If you buy M*A*S*H DVD's, you can choose to leave off the ADDED laugh track which I would elect to do

14. Done things: DEEDS.

21. Tiny bit: TAD.

24. Wound application: ALOE.

26. Without help: ALONE.

29. Informal "Dig?": Y'KNOW - Another ' from Erik and a very annoying speech idiom

31. Base runners?: AWOLS - Sgt. Hulka chews out Pvt. Ringer after Winger goes AWOL from the base, which was Camp Arnold, in Stripes

33. Deviate: STRAY.

35. "Excu-u-use me!": DO YOU MIND - He made it famous (:07)

36. "Learning [is] the kind of __ distinguishing the studious": Bierce: IGNORANCE - I always say that I am smart enough to know how little I know

37. Triangular chart user: EYE DOCTOR - People in 2020 will be surprised to learn that 20:20 vision is normal not perfect vision

39. Basic natures: ESSENCES.

40. Having a timing problem: LATE - Rude

44. "Let's": I'M GAME - A fourth apostrophe fill for our good friend Erik today

45. Familia member: TIA - ¿Todos los demás tienen una TIA loca en su familia? (Does everyone else have a crazy aunt in their family?)

47. Change for the better: ADAPT - When in Rome...

48. __ Vanilli: MILLI - Their lip-synching fraud of someone else's performance came out when the track stuck while they were "singing" on stage