Saturday, Aug 27th, 2016, Pawel Fludzinski

Theme: None

Words: 70 (missing F,J,Q,V,X)

Blocks: 28

  Mr. Fludzinski returns with another Saturday LA Times grid, a little over a month since his last construction.  I re-read that blog, and had a repeat solving experience - switching between across and down.  In fact, I was so eager to switch back to across from the down that I never actually read the last two 'Down' clues; when it came to the write up, I didn't recognize the entries at all....Relatively smooth solve, under my personal time, with the proper names were helped along by the perps.  Triple and almost-triple 10-letter corners, plus four 8-letter answers on the inside;

 1. Parent of 66-Across : BABY BOOMER - ugh, a circumreferential clue to start; it was the second half that got me the answer here

66. Child of 1-Across : MILLENNIAL

26. Ramshackle : DECREPIT - the image this word conjures up

48. Iconic Ansel Adams photograph shot in Hernandez, New Mexico : MOONRISE

moONWARD~>!

ACROSS:

11. Jobs creation : IMAC - I tried iPod; not fooled by the reference to Steve Jobs

15. As it happens : IN REAL TIME

16. It can tide you over : NOSH

17. Exercise regimen : DAILY DOZEN

18. Ending to avoid? : ANCE - avoidance

19. Commemorative pillar : STELA - pondered TOTEM, but that was in last week's puzzle - and then it appeared here anyway @ 29d.  I did however, fill in STELE at first

20. Accords : ENTENTES - oops, I had DEtentes at first

22. Piccadilly Circus statue : EROS - dredged this one up from the depths of my crossword solving brain

25. Anesthetizes : DEADENS

30. Refuse : DROSS

31. Link letters : URL - ah.  I tried PGA for golf links

32. Thin feathered flier : ARROW - at first I thought we were looking for some sort of bird; got it after some thought

34. Pop music sleepyhead : SUSIE - I still have no clue what this refers to; I found a Susie Sleepyhead teddy bear....the second "S" was the only non-crossing unfilled

36. Youngest player to join the 600-HR club : A-ROD

38. Snowmen? : YETIs

40. Trade staple : TOOL - I am looking into refrigeration classes this coming winter/spring, as it's the only industry area I am unfamiliar with at the restaurants.  There are some specific tools for this trade, too, and I don't own them - yet

41. Sore __ : LOSER - had it, put it in, took it out because of 26d.

43. Teeth in Torino : DENTI

45. ICU VIPs : RNs

46. Transplant, in a way : REPOT

50. Preserves flavor : APRICOT - Dah~!  preserves the noun, not the verb

52. Part of a Simon & Garfunkel quartet? : SAGE - clever; the others being parsley, rosemary and thyme

53. Railroad worker : TRACKMAN

55. Pass a second time : RELAP

59. Custom : WONT - I tried NORM

60. Olympics event since 2000 : TRAMPOLINE

63. Seraph, to Sylvie : ANGE

64. "The Decay of Lying" author : OSCAR WILDE

65. Swamp thing : REED - not this Swamp Thing

DOWN:

1. Contractors' proposals : BIDS - part of my business also, and the hardest for me - getting the right number for both myself and the client/customer

2. Body lang. : ANATomy - I pondered ASL, American Sign Language, but it didn't jibe - or fit

3. French wheel : BRIE - ah.  Roue is Frawnche for wheel; cheesy reference....

4. See 6-Down : YELLER - paired with; 6. With 4-Down, Fred Gipson book that won a 1957 Newbery Honor : OLD

5. Region including Napa : BAY AREA

7. Tribe that met with Lewis and Clark in 1804 : OTO

8. 1987 Masters champ Larry : MIZE

9. Polish, in a way : EMEND

10. Let : RENTED

11. "It was a very brief visit" : IN AND OUT

12. Education innovator : MONTESSORI - big help in the NE - my friend from Ohio was once a participant of this system

13. Climbs : ASCENSIONS - makes me think of a Blue Öyster Cult song

lyric @ 0:24

14. Mating game : CHESS - D'oh~! couldn't think of any "dating game"....

oh, this kind of mate

21. Canal zones : EARS - clever

23. Country music venue : OPRY

24. Brought into being : SIRED

26. Part of DINK : DUAL - I was told it was "Double Income, No Kids", which meant the answer was "KIDS"; so that messed me up for a long time

27. Likely to be off : ERROR PRONE

28. A short distance : CLOSE RANGE

29. Venerated symbol : TOTEM - here it is again~!

33. Skid row figures : WINOS - I never made it to "Skid Row"....but damn close

35. Ultimatum end : ELSE - "or else~!!!"

37. Portrayed : DEPICTED

39. Old portico : STOA - another one I dredged up

42. __ bottom : ROCK

44. Like some hairs : INGROWN

47. Drum kit component : TOM-TOM - Pawel likes his drums - he had a snare drum reference in the last Sat puzzle

49. Catch at the shore : REEL IN - wasn't sure about this answer; you would still reel in from a boat, right~?

50. Openly hostile : AT WAR

51. Low bones : TARSI

54. Substance in the sea's H2O : NaCL

56. Taylor of "Say Anything..." : LILI - I thought it was LORI, but the last "I" helped - 100% 50% correct

57. Time-half link : AND A - time-and-a-half, which I get after 5hrs at UPS - each day, and I pretty much go over every day during the summer - and now I am on vacation until after Labor Day - yay~!

58. Outer cover : PEEL

61. __ du pays: homesickness : MAL - never even saw this clue....

62. Historic leader? : PRE - nor this one; Pre-historic

Splynter

Saturday, Aug 20th, 2016, Julian Lim

Theme: None

Words: 70 (missing J,Q,X)

Blocks: 32

  OK, is it just me, or was this one way too easy for a Julian Lim puzzle~?  Perhaps there were enough clues in my wheelhouse to have the right number of crossings in the right places to cruise right on through in less than half my personal allotted time - and that includes an additional minute to find the one letter I had wrong before the ta-DA~! was mine.  All the proper names filled via perps and educated WAGs, too.  Hey, I'll take it~!  Triple 10-letter corners in both across and down, with two more 10's and two 9's;

25a. Sidecar ingredient : TRIPLE SEC - Yesterday marked 4,242 days for me - which in terms of "The Hitch-hiker's Guide the Galaxy" must have some significance....

44a. Dairy Queen offerings : BLIZZARDS

7d. Where Ulysses rests : GRANT'S TOMB - oh, I thought it was George Washington....Bugs Bunny humor

30d. Emulates a bad waiter? : CUTS IN LINE - I'm linking this song again, since this is one of the lines

 

 Paul Simon The Afterlife @ 2:10

ONWARD~!

ACROSS:

1. "The Winds of War" actress : ALI MACGRAW

11. Bon __ : MOT - it was this or "AMI".  And I went with the latter.

14. "Love in the First Degree" all-female group : BANANARAMA - I know of very few female groups, and not too many of them are 10 letters long; the song title made no difference to me

15. Emotion betrayer : TONE

16. Knocked out : ELIMINATED

17. Emergency op : EVACuation

18. Emblem : TOTEM - HA~!  Anon-T and I had a small discussion about the "Cricket Bat" in Spinal Tap; the manager refers to it as "totemistic; a good solid piece of lumber in your hand....is useful"

19. New Mexican? : NENE - not fooled, but I thought it was "BEBE"

20. Ho Chi __ City : MINH - gimme

21. Busts, e.g. : ART - too easy

23. "The Legend of Zelda" currency : RUPEES - don't know this, but I had half the letters from the Downs

31. Jump __ : START

32. Happy __: old snack brand mascot : HO HO

 

33. Pulls some strings? : STRUMS - I had a feeling it was on this wavelength, but for me, a strum is striking the strings; to pull them usually gives you an artificial harmonic - or maybe it's a semi-reference to a PULL-off and hammer-on technique....

35. Slovenia neighbor, to the IOC : CRO - via perps; not much into this Olympics, tho I did see Water Polo, Field Hockey (that's icing~!) and Men's Singles Badminton - love me some badminton~!

36. Singer Lambert with the album "Trespassing" : ADAM - perps

37. Angiography concern : AORTA - I WAGed this over "HEART"

38. Crisply and detached, to an orch. : STACcato

39. Talks acronym : TED - Nailed it; their site

40. Tops : AT MOST - "Tops" in this sense reminds me of "Die Hard" and the Feds on the gunship helicopters; scene 328, here

41. Driver's protest : HONK - this is what I figured, but by now, I was thinking it was way too easy
42. Mine finder : SONAR

46. Publisher Ochs : ADOLPH - I had ADO--H

48. "__ won't!" : "NO I..."

49. Quo warranto, e.g. : WRIT - this filled via ALL perps

50. Short-lived '80s sports org. : USFL - I tried MISL; we had the NY Arrows, right here on L.I., playing at the Nassau Coliseum; their goalie was Shep Messing, and he had a fitness club mere miles from my house

53. Whimpers : MEWLS

58. Lift : RIDE - ah.  I was stuck in the verb sense of "to raise", not "drive"

59. Grammy-winning Santana song : MARIA MARIA

61. Maintain : AVER

62. Regardless : IN ANY EVENT

63. Podded plant : PEA - again, I said....really~?

64. Restraining order, say : DETERRENCE

DOWN:

1. Help with a job : ABET - had the whole phrase last week

2. "Mission: Impossible" theme composer Schifrin : LALO - again, perps

3. Still vying : IN IT

4. Jerry Herman musical : MAME - didn't know it, and "HAIR" didn't work

5. Kind of magnetism : ANIMAL - I like this kind of "attraction"

6. Preserve, in a way : CAN - dah~!  Not JAR; that's 100% 33.3% correct

8. Word after going or before hike : RATE - going rate, rate hike

9. Hymn ender : AMEN

10. Bit of fishing attire : WADER

11. Penn, for one : MOVIE ACTOR - that would be Sean Penn; I pondered TRAIN DEPOT (Penn Station, NY)

12. At the store, perhaps : ON AN ERRAND

13. AAPL and GOOG : TECH STOCKS - nailed it

15. Entice : TEMPT

22. Came together again : RESAT

24. Letters before some state names : USS

25. Shout after the last shot : THAT'S A WRAP - I've been on two movie sets

26. Part of Beverly Hills' Golden Triangle : RODEO DRIVE

 

it's in the middle

27. "Honestly?!" : "I HAD NO IDEA~!?!"

28. Popular toy, for short : POMeranian

29. Documentarian Morris : ERROL - again, perps, and just the "E" to get

34. __ ball : MATZO

38. Oldies syllable : SHA-na-na, and I went with "TRA" first

40. "Leaves and Navels" artist : ARP - some other examples of the artist's work

43. Modify : ALTER - I had EMEND first

45. "The Lion King" composer Hans : ZIMMER - only had to guess the first "M"

47. Sticky : HUMID - like it's been for two weeks here; this has been the worst summer at UPS since my first - and my first was only bad because I had never experienced it before

51. Sound : SANE

52. "Animal House" group : FRAT

54. Gable neighbor : EAVE - carpentry terms~?  C'mon....too easy

55. Singer of complex songs : WREN - ah, clever

56. Michael's brother in "Prison Break" : LINC - I figured this show was short lived - I mean, once they got out, what's the point of watching...?

57. Make full : SATE

60. City on the Firth of Clyde : AYR - and yes, it was all perps

Splynter

Saturday, Aug 13th, 2016, Gareth Bain & Brad Wilber

Theme: None

Words: 70 (missing J,K,Q,Z)

Blocks: 28

  Well, I thought I was not going to do so well with this puzzle when I saw the constructors' names, but all in all, I came out on the other side with just a few scratches - but I have to admit to some red-letter cheating.  I was done in by the proper names, again, and one entry that I am ashamed to have missed, but it's been a long hot and humid week, so that's my excuse....what's yours~?   Triple 9- and 11-letter corners, with a couple more nine-letter entries on the inside.  One from each corner;

15. Some wealthy '70s British emigrants : TAX EXILES - The Beatles come to mind, and a lot of other musicians

12. Political nickname : "The GOVERNATOR" - Ahhnold Schwarzenegger

67. Bond, e.g. : MASTER SPY - gratuitous image for C.C.

 

30. Liqueur in a monastic-looking bottle : FRANGELICO - back in the day, a friend of mine used to make an alcoholic drink that tasted like the milk of the cereal "Boo Berry", and this was one of the main ingredients

LONG
         W
             A
                 R
                   D
                   ~!

ACROSS:

1. Parents concerned with play dates? : STAGE MOMS - har-har

10. Like kelp : ALGAL - I thought maybe LEAFY; this image is "ALL GAL"

16. Those who call New Zealand "Aotearoa" : MAORI - educated WAG

17. Yom Kippur theme : ATONEMENT

18. Buff : MAVEN - I was stuck on the verb for a while; this is more like Film ___

19. Default : RENEGE

20. "Penny Dreadful" network, briefly : SHOwtime - never heard of this show, but I don't get premium channels

22. Lea grazer : EWE

23. Changdeokgung Palace city : SEOUL

26. Like white tigers : INBRED

28. Left Bank eateries : CAFÉS

31. Temp in many pictures : MALL SANTA - At first I thought it was "MALE ---", but the last "-TA" was solid; I just could not see the connection to 'pictures' - had it been 'shopping centers'....but then, that's too easy

33. Water cooler newcomer : HIREE - every week there's newly hired kids at UPS, and very few last beyond a year

34. Cardiogram connection : LEAD

35. Nuclear fission pioneer Otto : HAHN

36. Educator LeShan : EDA

37. Defender at Thermopylae : SPARTAN

40. Noir hero : TEC

41. Group of pals : GANG

43. Bard's instrument : LUTE

44. "... with a muffler __ her eyes": "Henry V" : AFORE

46. Pigs and cows, e.g. : UNGULATES - "hoofed" - the Wiki

48. Mules' mothers : MARES - HORSE was not the correct pluralism

49. Ideal : EDENIC - ah, so that's how you get EDEN to fit 6 letters....

50. Branding target : STEER

52. He succeeded Michael as Batman : VAL - Kilmer, one of the few proper names, and I could spell it, too

53. Lincoln's st. : NEBraska - Shout Out to two of our regulars~!

55. Swear : ATTEST

59. Stomach : ABIDE

61. Way to get to Bora Bora : AIR TAHITI - D'oh~! I went with VIA, not AIR

64. Quest for intel : RECONnaissance

65. Immature : UNRIPENED

66. Tiny energy sources : ATOMS

DOWN:
1. Scrabble board symbol : STAR - smack in the middle

2. Turner Prize-awarding gallery : TATE

3. Impulse pathway : AXON - good WAG, but then again, a four-letter brain word....

4. River through Rochester, New York : GENESEE - I'm familiar with the answer because I drove down Genesee Street when I visited my buddy up at Utica

5. Interpretations of scripture : EXEGESES - all the consonant filled via perps; the rest was "E" WAGs; new word for me

6. Old copy : MIMEO

7. Fútbol cry : OLÉ

8. Chess pieces : MEN - I SO want a stone set for the back yard~!

9. Now-flightless "birds" : SSTs - great clue for a standard CW fill

10. Two-time National Book Award-winning poet A.R. __ : AMMONS - WAGed one "M", the rest was perps

11. A.L. West team, in crawl lines : LAA - Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

13. Sleepy backseat query : "ARE WE THERE~?"

14. Performances in rows : LINE DANCES

21. "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" aunt : HILDA - again, a WAG

24. Häagen-Dazs ingredient? : UMLAUT - this is Blue Oyster Cult/Spinal Tap territory~!

25. To whom Polonius said, "To thine own self be true" : LAERTES - I WAGed the spelling

27. "Ridiculous!" : "BAH~!"

28. Cuban Revolution VIP : CHE GUEVARA - I am familiar with this iconic poster image

29. Help badly? : AID AND ABET

32. Grapevine product, with "the" : LATEST - there's also the A.A. Grapevine

38. Put : PLACE

39. Young camper's proof of ownership : NAME TAPE - I looked this up after the fact because I had never heard of such a thing

42. Try hard (for) : GUN

45. At a greater distance : FARTHER

47. Bedding : LINENS

51. Absorb the loss : EAT IT

54. "John Dough and the Cherub" author : BAUM - perps and a WAG

56. Zehn minus neun : EINS - das German 10 - 9 = 1

57. Bit of progress : STEP

58. Spruce (up) : TIDY

60. King's end? : DOM - kingdom

62. Like Schubert's "Trout Quintet" : IN A - filled in the "IN" and waited....

63. The 1906 Hepburn Act gave the ICC power to set rates for them : RRs

Splynter

Saturday, Aug 6th, 2016, David Liben-Nowell

Theme: None

Words: 70 (missing Q,X,Z)

Blocks: 34

Hi there~!  Splynter back with less work and more blog this week.  Today's puzzle from David (see C.C.'s interview) had clues that were either gimmes or complete misses for me.  I either knew it, or didn't, and nothing was going to help me "45A."  Just a few too many 'half-word' clues for me, too.  The SW was utterly wrong on my first pass, and combined with the proper names/places, just wouldn't open up.  Add in one more red-letter cheat, and that's my story, an' I'm sticking to it.  A non-intimidating grid with only the two spanners and four 10-letter fills;

5. Intuition : GUT FEELING 

10. Line diagram : FAMILY TREE

25. Computer screen? : SPAM FILTER

26. Act too hastily : JUMP THE GUN - a line from Van Halen's "Secrets", too

Cathedral / Secrets (lyric at 3:14)

INKY~!

ACROSS:

1. Jet : INKY - I figured we were looking for 'black', and ONYX worked, but 4d. would have started with "X"

5. Govt. property overseer : GSA - the crossing of 7d. stymied me, so the "A" was red-lettered

8. Artists' pads : LOFTS - a gimme

13. Great __ : DANE - I wanted "SCOTT~!"

14. Gets onstage : CUES

15. Detached : APART - oops, not ALOOF

16. Slid across the pond, maybe : ICE SKATED

18. Start of a noncommittal RSVP : WE MAY

19. Last-minute number? : ELEVEN FIFTY-NINE - 11:59.  Here's another way to say Eleven Fifty-Eight

 

The video

21. Awards for "Rent" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" : OBIES - I put it in, but then I thought 4d. might be "EULOGIES", and took it out

22. Cads : HEELS

23. San Francisco, to most Californians : UPSTATE - We have "upstate" in NY, too - hello Argyle~!  When I talked to the admissions woman at Delaware Tech last year, she suggested taking classes at the campus "upstate" - Delaware is too short to have an "upstate"

26. Rice on a field : JERRY - WR, mostly for the SF 49ers of the NFL

27. Laid-back : TYPE B - I'm Type C - clueless....

28. Big lugs : LOUTS

30. PC-checking org., at times : TSA

33. Word of regret : ALAS

34. Pebbles bearer : WILMA - the Flintstones "10d."

35. Drop : DRAM - I was looking for the verb, not the noun

36. Bringing it up can lead to a fit : HEM - ah, my kind of clue~!  Thanks for covering lat week, CED~!

 

I found this one, too - my that's short~!

 

37. It first passed 2014 in 2014, briefly : S AND P - S&P 500 - the Wiki
 

38. Choice word : MEENY - eeny is my first choice....

39. "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" author : FLAGG - WAG

41. Raiding group, familiarly : THE FEDS

43. Fool : LIE TO

44. Sand bar : SHOAL

45. Figure it out : FILL IN THE BLANKS - there were a few "Wheel of Fortune" images I would like to have posted, but....

50. Hitching post? : ALTAR - a gimme

51. Group of football players, perhaps : RUGBY TEAM

52. "Mr. Belvedere" actress Graff : ILENE - a WAG

53. Weight : ONUS

54. French bread : EURO - almost got me

55. Square figures : NERDS - I had AREA, then ACRES, and never thought it was something else

56. Gp. using sub titles? : USN - submarines in the U.S. Navy

57. Unattached : STAG - dah~! Not LONE

DOWN:

1. "Thus with a kiss __": Romeo : "I DIE"

2. Table salt, in chem class : NaCL

3. Pants part : KNEE

4. Words said in passing? : YES VOTES

6. Part of WYSIWYG : SEE IS - I am usually pretty good with acronym-type challenges - I nailed this as "what you see is what you get"

7. Home position, for some : ASDF - and then I hit a brick wall with this reference - A S D F on a Q W E R T Y keyboard is called the home row, which I did not know

8. Bar staff : LAWYERS - Dah~! I was in the wrong bar here....

9. Bar tool : OPENER - but the right one here

11. Former leader? : TRANS - transformer

12. Sebaceous gland issue : STYE - nice Saturday cluing

14. "Enough already!" : "CAN IT~!" - I had CUT IT to start

17. Fare on a stick : KEBAB

20. Round Greek letter : THETA - DAH~!! - I had OMEGA, since the E - A was in place....

23. Monument Valley locale : UTAH - half perps, half WAG

24. Sitcom marine : PYLE
 

29. Overdone : OLD - oh, I get it now

31. Measure of passing time : SAND - like through the hourglass....

32. Organic frozen-food brand : AMY'S - I guessed the "M"

34. One traveling in Old West circles? : WAGON - circle the wagons~!

35. Lowers the volume of, in a way : DEFLATES - no NE Patriots joke~?

37. "SNL" sketches, e.g. : SATIRES

38. Like a bad apple : MEALY - argh~! not WORMY

40. University founder Stanford : LELAND - no clue

42. Film hero Roy who wielded a bat called "Wonderboy" : HOBBS - from "The Natural" - IMDb

43. De Gaulle's birthplace : LILLE - OK, sure - that's too Frawnche for me

44. Keeps away from : SHUNS

45. Willing : FAIN - never heard of this before

46. Briefs covering, in brief : TROUsers

47. Unaligned: Abbr. : NEUTral - two half-words in a row

48. Supergirl's Krypton name : KARA - another "no clue" on my part

49. Irritating blanket : SMOG - I pondered SNOW at first, but snow doesn't irritate me, personally

Splynter