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

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Aug 2, 2012

Thursday, August 2, 2012 Jack McInturff

Theme: Material Girl 4:43

17A. Easter song title critter : PETER COTTONTAIL

28A. Rich chocolate dessert with a crust : FRENCH SILK PIE

33A. Under-the-sink cleaners : STEEL WOOL PADS

41A. Dessert sometimes colored with beet juice : RED VELVET CAKE

And the unifier:

54. Important trial figure, or what you'll be when you read this puzzle's other longest answers :
MATERIAL WITNESS.

Marti here to walk you through the fabric of this puzzle.

Across :

1. Shake in reproach, as a finger : WAG. Or in our corner terms, "Wild A--ed Guess" (Sometimes Scientific WAG...)

4. E-junk : SPAM

8. Beats handily : WHOMPS

14. Raymond Burr's TV sleuth : IRONSIDE

16. Speed up : HASTEN

19. Plenty of poetry? : ENOW. "Enough". Who was the poet who wrote the following?
"A book of verses, underneath the bough,
A jug of wine, a loaf of bread - and thou
Beside me singing in the wilderness -
Ah, wilderness were paradise enow!"

20. Facility : EASE

21. Seattle's ___ Field : SAFECO. Home of the Mariners.

24. Not likely to bite : TAME

25. Mischievous moppet : IMP

31. Expensive : DEAR

32. City east of Wichita : IOLA. Map, for those not from the Wichita area. Zoom out 6x to see Wichita in the far left edge.

39. Nasty : MEAN

40. Bit of carpenter's gun ammo : NAIL

47. Massage facility : SPA. Our favorite crossword sound: "Aaaaaaahhhhh"

48. Some necklines : VEES. Like this.

49. It's often closed for the night : EYELID. Fun clue!

52. Safecracker : YEGG. Learned from x-words.

53. Vocal range : ALTO

61. 1887 La Scala debut : OTELLO. I love opera, and Placido Domingo did Otello so well! 1:10

62. Feminist poet Rich : ADRIENNE. I remember her for declining the National Medal of Arts award in protest of Newt Gingrich's proposal to end funding for the National Endowment of the Arts (more so than for her poetry!)

63. Novelist Waugh : EVELYN. Seems like a lot of names in this puzz, no? Either you know them...or you don't!

64. "Check this out!" : PSST

65. 33-Across brand : SOS. Do you mind when an non-theme answer refers to a theme answer?

Down:


1. Diaper bag supply : WIPES

2. Bowl game venue : ARENA

3. Escaped punishment : GOT OFF

4. Old geopolitical abbr. : SSR. Soviet Socialist Republic.

5. JPEG file, usually : PIC

6. Hue and cry : ADO

7. Confronted : MET

8. Guessing game question : WHO AM I ? Or, a song from Les Mis...2:52

9. Grimm brother : HANSEL. Wilhelm wouldn't fit, and Jacob didn't work with the perps. So it had to be Hansel, brother of Gretel.


10. Prefix meaning "bone" : OSTE

11. L.A. bus-and-rail org. : MTA. Metropolitan Tranist Authority. Also a famous subway in Boston.

12. Canada's smallest prov. : PEI. Prince Edward Island. Map. Between the Gaspé peninsula and Nova Scotia.

13. NBC weekend revue : SNL. Saturday Night Live.

15. Later : NEWER. As in, a "later" model car.

18. They may be black or green : TEAS

22. Give up : CEDE

23. Answer to "How do you Yanks spell 'travelling'?" : ONE "L" (Vs. the British "travelling"??)

24. Seats of power : THRONES

25. Device with earbuds : iPOD

26. Wire measures : MILS

27. Princess provoker : PEA. Not Grimm, but a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale!



29. Cry from a crow's nest : CAW. Loved this clue/answer - great misdirection!

30. Sportage supplier : KIA. Automaker.

33. Leak slowly : SEEP

34. "Look what I did!" : TA-DA!

35. It needs to be addressed: Abbr. : ENV.elope

36. Heart-healthy grain : OAT. Eat your Cheerios!

37. Layers of nits : LICE. HaHa, lice lay eggs which are called "nits" (...and they should be picked!!)

38. Quarterback's call : PLAY

39. Old Miss : MRS. LOL!! DH went to Ole Miss, so this was a real misdirection for me.

42. Either "Bye Bye Love" singer : EVERLY (Brothers). Song. 1:51

43. Troop group : LEGION

44. 1970s Chevy subcompact : VEGA

45. "The Family Circus" cartoonist : KEANE.


46. Actress Barkin et al. : ELLENS

50. "___ use!" : IT'S NO

51. Teaspoons, perhaps : DOSES

52. Make oneself heard : YELL

54. Curly tormenter : MOE. Curly, Moe and Larry - The Three Stooges.

55. Suzuki offering, briefly : ATV. All Terrain Vehicle.

56. Kickoff helper : TEE. Football tee. When Lucy is not available...

57. Runner's circuit : LAP

58. Sentence fragments?: Abbr. : WDS. Words.

59. Form letters? : IRS. Internal Revenue Service. Form 1040.

60. Bearded ___: small bird : TIT. Awwww, what a DF way to end this post!
Take your pick of the following two links. But you are ONLY allowed to click on ONE link. (No cheating!!): #1 or # 2

Answer grid.

See you next week!

Hugs,
Marti

Aug 1, 2012

Wednesday, August 1 2012, Norfleet Pruden

theme: that's gross!

17A. One in a dozen difficult jobs : LABOR OF HERCULES. greek mythology. hercules performed twelve labors given to him by king eurystheus.

32A. One in a dozen old family lines : TRIBE OF ISRAEL. old testament. jacob had twelve sons, from whom descended the twelve tribes of israel.

52A. One in a dozen constellations : SIGN OF THE ZODIAC. wikipedia says in both astrology and historical astronomy, the zodiac is a circle of twelve divisions of celestial longitude that are centered upon the elliptic: the apparent path of the sun across the celestial sphere over the course of a year.

melissa here.

very straightforward theme, but i had to stare at the theme answers for a while to figure it out. the zodiac gave it away. i know very little about mythology, and had no idea about labor of hercules.

twelve dozen is a gross, and twelve gross are called a great gross.

a dozen, a gross, and a score,
plus three times the square root of four,
divided by seven,
plus five times eleven,
equals nine squared plus zero, no more.

across:

1. Use as an ingredient : ADD IN

6. Coordinating pillowcase : SHAM.

10. Big fishhook : GAFF



14. "__ evil ..." : SEE NO

15. Something in the air : AURA. i like this clue.

16. Fisherman's gadget : LURE

20. Command from le général : ORDRE. french for order.

21. If nothing else : AT LEAST

22. Strait of Gibraltar port : TANGIER. pretty.

24. Antiseptic element : IODINE

25. "As Husbands Go" novelist Susan : ISAACS

26. Without : SANS. merriam webster says: Middle English saun, sans, from Anglo-French san, sanz, modification of Latin sine without.

28. Mountain goat's perch : TOR. wikipedia: A tor is a large, free-standing residual mass (rock outcrop) that rises abruptly from the surrounding smooth and gentle slopes of a rounded hill summit or ridge crest. like this.

29. V __ Victor : AS IN

30. Mischievous sprites : PIXIES

37. Wrongly desires : COVETS

38. Fed. crash investigator : NTSB. national transportation safety board.

40. Commotion : ADO

43. "Nothing's stopping us" : LET'S. i suppose.

44. Change the expiration of, as milk : REDATE. re-dating …. never a good idea. let's not.

46. Fishy fellows? : MERMEN. just seems wrong.




48. Event after morning twilight : SUNRISE

49. Find after digging : UNEARTH

51. __ pool : TIDAL

56. Cupid's counterpart : EROS

57. The Miners of Conf. USA : UTEP. university of texas at el paso.

58. Shakespearean barmaid : WENCH

59. No longer in the oven : DONE. by that definition, i guess these are done.




60. Some hosp. staffers : LPN'S. licensed practical nurse.

61. Seamless transition : SEGUE

down:

1. Subj. taught in silence : ASL. american sign language.

2. Justice Dept. division : DEA. drug enforcement administration.

3. Sophisticatedly charming : DEBONAIR

4. Like ammonia, chemically : INORGANIC

5. Alternative to Alpine, in skiing : NORDIC

6. Not as dangerous : SAFER

7. "What'd you say?" : HUH?

8. Cordoned-off space : AREA. seems a little weak.

9. Bond's were shaken : MARTINIS. the apostrophe gave it away.

10. Bonded, in a way : GLUED

11. Café specification : AU LAIT. coffee with milk.

12. California's largest inland city : FRESNO. didn't know this trivia.

13. Rankle, as resentment : FESTER.




18. Metal-yielding rocks : ORES

19. The Yankees' Mariano Rivera, e.g. : CLOSER

22. Niña's aunt : TIA. spanish.

23. Mgr.'s helper : ASST. assistant.

26. Puts through a strainer : SIFTS

27. Center of rotation : AXIS

30. One who "can survive everything but a misprint": Wilde : POET. oscar.

31. "A Summer Place" actress : SANDRA DEE

33. Ravel classic : BOLERO

34. Momentous : EVENTFUL

35. Online stores, collectively : E-TAILING. wanted e-tailers.

36. WWII carriers : LST'S. wikipedia: the military designation for naval vessels created during World War II to support amphibious operations by carrying significant quantities of vehicles, cargo, and landing troops directly onto an unimproved shore.

39. Comb user : BEE. honeycomb.

40. Pleasantly diverted : AMUSED

41. Young Vito Corleone portrayer in "The Godfather Part II" : DE NIRO

42. End of an old trail : OREGON. the oregon trail ran from independence, missouri to oregon city, oregon.

44. Phillies catcher Carlos : RUIZ

45. Provides funding for : ENDOWS

47. Pastor's place : MANSE. residence of a minister.

48. Instruction manual segments : STEPS

50. URL leader : HTTP. hypertext transfer protocol.

53. Feathery layer : HEN. great clue.

54. Start to puncture? : ACU. acupuncture.

55. Cohort of Fidel : CHE. castro and guevera.

Answer grid.

melissa

From C.C.:


Please click here about about the 2nd National Brain Game Challenge to be held on Sept 30, 2012. It's a part of "a collaborative effort by the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America and Merl Reagle to boost awareness of lifestyle choices that promote brain health, as well as raise awareness of Alzheimer’s disease. (Merl’s mother in law had Alzheimer’s disease)".