google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, August 21, 2015, Mark McClain

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Aug 21, 2015

Friday, August 21, 2015, Mark McClain

Theme: Is this the Gamblers Anonymous meeting? I bet it isn't! How much  you want to put on it?

GA, which is better known as the two letter abbreviation for Georgia is added into three thirteen letter phrases to create a new and whimsically clued phrase for which another 15 letter reveal is presented. With four grid spanning answers, Mark needed lots of short fill to make the grid work, primarily using four letter words, but not THE four letter words. This is the third of Mark's LAT publications that I have had the pleasure of blogging and so far the easiest. Mark has come by the Corner to comment on puzzles as well. The sparkly 6 letter fill came easily and while the gimmick hid for a while, once you see the added letters the long ones were done. This made the rest of the solve go quickly. I enjoyed seeing AMORAL,  BORING,  DADDY-O,  EPONYM,  MITTEN,  RICOHS in the grid. There were some Friday clues/fill and some use of cheater squares to make it all fit. My unknown was COTE, which comes from the same strain as COTTAGE and I struggled with the vaguely recalled CAEN and LALO. Well let's look it over.

17A. Missed the bird's nest under the eaves? : FLEW INTO A GARAGE (14). I try not to rage.

26A. Red army unit? : BLUSHING BRIGADE (15). Do brides blush anymore?

44A. Druid baker's recipe? : PAGAN CAKE BATTER (15). Since I knew Druids were pagans, and pancake batter popped out, this is where I got the theme. Also my favorite.

57A. Carmichael/Gorrell classic, and a hint to this puzzle's theme : GEORGIA ON MY MIND (15). my favorite version. LINK.

Across:

1. Goof : SLIP. Betwixt the cup and the lip.

5. Barnyard cries : MAAS. I think of this defunct retailer.

9. Cook, in a way : BOIL.

13. Scheduled 2022 FIFA World Cup host : QATAR. More scandal there.

15. "As Time Goes By" requester : ILSA. She will live on.

16. Procter & Gamble cosmetics brand : OLAY. Katie Holmes did ads for them.

20. Toon cat : TOM. TomKat divorced.

21. Farm shelter : COTE. A new word for me, apparently home to pigeons among others. I would have done better with this one. LINK.

22. Records, nowadays : TIVOS. I think they are mostly generic DVRs.

23. Study intently, with "over" : PORE.

24. City SW of Le Havre : CAEN. This CITY was the base for William the Conqueror and the site of many war deaths.

33. Thirsts : LUSTS.  Oh my! 41A. Drive : URGE. Oh my!

34. Bit attachment : REIN. Horses.

35. Luau dish : POI. Yummy!

36. Here, in 24-Across : ICI. Just the French word.

37. Barber's "Vanessa," for one : OPERA. An easy guess. I appreciate the skill but do not get a thrill.

39. Throw in : ADD.

40. Time meas. : MINute..

42. Musical lament : DIRGE. Pray for the dead and the dead will pray for you. LINK.

48. Future execs, perhaps : MBAS. Not to be confused with MAAS.

49. They're full of beans : PODS. Fun clue.

50. It was removed from the Dow 30 the same year Nike was added : ALCOA. It happened in 2013.

53. Protective cover : HOOD.

54. Court : WOO, A nice old fashioned word.

61. Nike competitor : AVIA. Not sure  about competitor anymore,  but it has an interesting HISTORY.

62. Art medium : CLAY. I am better with play doh.

63. Shred : OUNCE. Your Honor there is not one shred of evidence...

64. Tiny stream : RILL.

65. Damage : HARM.

66. Hits the road : GOES.  Was it George Carlin who pointed out how ridiculous this expression is? He did COMMENT on much life.

Down:

1. Real estate ad no. : SQFT.  SQuare FeeT. Any Q without a U is tricky.

2. "Symphonie espagnole" composer : LALO. Compose yourself then read. LINK.

3. Couple in the news : ITEM. Another celebrity and a nanny?

4. Dog's dog : PAW. Do young people remember feet are called  dogs, and the old 'my dogs are barking complaint? Is it true they name Hush Puppies because of that?

5. Winter warmer : MITTEN.
When I was first smitten
With a perfect white mitten
It wasn't my true love
With her leather glove
But a purrfect little kitten.

6. Natural soother : ALOE.

7. "__ rule ..." : AS A.  Was it Groucho who said, " As a rule I do not smoke, but as a habit I do."

8. Subside : SAG. Not what brings sag to my mind.

9. Likely to elicit a nod? : BORING.

10. Norwegian saint : OLAV. Not OLAY!

11. "It is the green-eyed monster ..." speaker : IAGO.

12. Strong cleaners : LYES.

14. Some copiers : RICOHS.

18. "Me neither" : NOR I.

19. Canceled a reservation, maybe : ATE IN.

23. Ore. setting : PSTPacific Standard Time.

24. Speaker of words like alpha and bravo : CBER. Semi clecho: 29D. Like alpha, but not bravo : GREEK.

25. It's frequently in Italian : ARIA.

26. Aerial view provider : BLIMP.

27. Saint __: Caribbean island nation : LUCIA.

28. Via : USING. I go to work by I-95.

30. Split : APART. Ben-Jen. TomKat, where will it all end?

31. Sidestep : DODGE. Impossible to not get into politics with this fill.

32. Where to get down : EIDER. My favorite clue, as the misdirection really works. My mind went to this SONG (3:03)with the rare female lead guitar.

37. Ocean predator : ORCA. Whale of a good answer.

38. Two of Rory McIlroy's major wins, familiarly : PGAS. A record breaking  performance last week by Jason Day and Jordan Speith knocked Rory out of world number 1.

41. Put away, as groceries : UNBAG. Really?

42. Beat address : DADDY-O. I think of Maynard G. Krebs but see


43. "__ a trick!" : IT'S.

45. Unscrupulous : AMORAL.

46. Sousaphone, for one : EPONYM. The instrument is names after the inventor.

47. Loud noise : BOOM.

50. Food thickener : AGAR, Cool to this so soon on its own again.

51. Son of Jacob : LEVI. One of 12 sons, Reuben · Simeon · Levi · Judah · Dan · Naphtali · Gad · Asher · Issachar · Zebulun · Joseph · Benjamin.

52. Stamp purchase : COIL. The hardest clue for an easy fill.

53. Icy coating : HOAR. This and rime must be known.

54. Lush : WINO.

55. "The Sea of Faith / Was __, too, at the full ... ": "Dover Beach" : ONCE. All perps.

56. Laudatory verses : ODES.

58. Berlin pronoun : ICHWer ist da? — Ich bins! Who's there? — It's me!

59. In the fashion of : À LA.  A little more French.


60. Actor's exaggeration : MUG. For the camera dear...

Well another Friday in the books and a nice workout from Mark, who I hope will stop by and tell us his inspiration for this puzzle. I had fun and hope you all did, Lemonade out.

45 comments:

Manac said...

Good morning Everyone.

Nice write-up Lemon.

DNF today. Got the reveal first then the
theme answers fell in place. Failed on the
rest of the fill. Got Amoral easy enough though, hmmm...

Off to Killington for one more day.

Have a great Friday everyone.

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks, Mark and Lemon. Happy to finish a Friday w/o cheats. Took a while.

Some very clever clues. Very amusing. Lots of things required perps.

Accompanied a good violinist (on the piano) playing Symphonie Español many years ago, so that one was free!

Time for bed!

Have a great weekend!

OwenKL said...

Would have finished it wrong on paper, but the lack of an electronic ta-da warned me that I had errors that needed correcting. bITTEN (which had started as bITTrs) to MITTEN and ROLL to COIL gave me the win before I had to resort to the reds.
I saw the GA's early, but didn't notice what the unaltered phrases would be until looking back after I had finished the puzzle.

There was an old codger from GEORGIA
Who made his porridge taste porridger.
If you had a MINute
I could tell you what's in it,
But I really don't want to be BORING ya!

There was a strange guy from Atlanta
Who thought that he looked just like Santa.
He had no facial hair,
And was thin to despair,
And he wouldn't drink Coke, he drank Fanta!

A old lady who hailed from Tbilisi
Pronounced "eek" as if spelt double-E Cee.
When she saw a mouse
She'd run to her spouse
And insist that he call the policee!

Mark McClain said...

I love making added letter puzzles, and as a solver have always loved doing them. Ideally the "base" will be a phrase or idiom that is very familiar ("in the language" as we say), and the converted phrase will elicit at least a smile. The fashion now is to use a clever reveal entry as well (which I personally don't think should be necessary to figure out the theme, but it can be entertaining). That's why this one got a complete revision, to get that 15-letter revealer in. I think it's the first one I've had one accepted with 4x15s for the theme, so it was rewarding to get the incidental fill to be mostly devoid of clinkers. Excited that someone not only knew Symphonie Espagnole but has played it - now that's some real talent! For FLEW INTO A GARAGE, I really wanted the clue to be "Crash landed at a parking facility?", but Rich insisted otherwise (too violent) - I guess crosswords are about the only things left that are RATED G! Cheers!

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Internet was out all day yesterday. It's good to be back to "normal."

I struggled with the middle west (as in Northern California/Oregon) on this one. Recognizing the theme gave me PAGAN and then things started to fill in there. Nicely done, Mark. And thanks for stopping by. Nicely done, as well, Lemon.

Hand up for RIME. At one time I had a TIVO...now just a DVR. I get the OUNCE/Shred connection -- but it's a stretch. And, yes, the stamps are in a COIL, but I've always called it a ROLL. I'll bet my local postmaster would look at me sideways if I ordered a COIL of stamps.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Thanks (again) for the kind words of support yesterday.

Today's puzzle was definitely a challenge for me. I got the theme early on at FLEW INTO A GARAGE (although I thought the clue was odd and liked Mark's original version much better), and that helped get PAGAN CAKE BATTER and the reveal GEORGIA ON MY MIND. It didn't help much with BLUSHING BRIGADE, however, since my brain was stuck thinking about red army ants for some reason. The perps finally got me through, however.

In addition to the aforementioned clue for FLEW INTO A GARAGE, I wasn't very happy with the clue for SAG. Again, though, I'll put the blame on Rich.

Elsewhere, I had tons of write-overs (primarily due to the vague cluing). For the stamp purchase, I tried BOOK, then ROLL before finally conceding that COIL might be a thing when it comes to purchasing stamps. RICH before WINO. RIME before HOAR. CLIFF before BLIMP.

"Likely to elicit a nod" for BORING was nice.

Lemonade714 said...

Mark thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts and editing experience with Rich. As for Fermatprime and her piano playing prowess, one of the things I find most enduring about this blog is the diversity of our readership and commentators. We have everything from astronauts to zoologists ready to provide an extra piece of information. While there is the common bond of solving puzzles, the average Corner Contributor really does not exist. The vast array of experiences and backgrounds make this a special place.

Bluehen said...

Barry G, belated condolences. I wanted to check in yesterday to extend my sympathies, but I couldn't think of anything to say that would help. Chin up. It will get better.

I thought this puzzle was going to be a bear, but I ended up getting the "Tada" in a quick time for me, despite too many w/os to mention. PAGAN was the last to fall. For some reason I couldn't make the connection to "druid". Preferred Mark's clue for the FLEW fill. Great puzzle. Thanks, Mark' Entertaining expo. Thanks, Lemonade714, I liked the links.

5 day heat wave finally broke yesterday, so I'm off to mow the crabgrass and weed the garden. Cya

Husker Gary said...

Off to the subbing wars today and so I had to do this online because I, uh, forgot the paper! Very unsatisfying. The puzzle was fun, the theme hid and I am in awe of how Mark did this with 3 grid spanners and a grid spanning reveal. Wow!

Musings
-BLUSHING BRIGADE gave the gimmick but not the theme
-Lemon’s summative paragraph works por moi!
-The mom in the mourning dove nest under our eave feels safe from our kitty
-FIFA
-A discussion of how to pronounce CAEN and CANNES
-On Seinfeld “Steinbrenner” told George he had SPIT the bit. Have you heard this expression?
-Those PODS are so full that bean prices are SAGGING!
-Hit The Road Jack was another Ray Charles hit
-Wanna see what 265 SQ FT costs in SF?
-Pols DODGE tough questions and get back to talking points
-They’re stamp ROLLS ICI!
-In what movie did Marlon Brando have a COTE of pigeons?
-Sophomores coming in!!

Big Easy said...

Lemonade- I'm glad you found it easy because it was snake-eyes for me today. It was a sea of white for about 10 minutes. Way too many wrong attempts at first.
LILO to LALO; PUP to PAW; EBB to SAG; CANONS to RICOHS; OLAF to OLAV. Before getting SQ-FT I was stuck on SLEPT_____GARAGE because of the incorrect PUP for PAW. Then I saw the theme and the rest fell easily until the SE.

49A- I had CANS before POTS and PODS never made it. I filled MINCE instead of OUNCE. That gave me DATDYM instead of DADDY-O and MIG (jet???) instead of MUG. I was on the beatnik wavelength and was thinking of Maynard G. but I was thinking of a place to crash-'PAD', not what one was called. My only unknown was Barber's 'Vanessa'- ARIA.

HowardW said...

Thanks for the challenge, Mark! I got the theme early on (from ...GARAGE) and that helped with the other two answers, for example, I knew the base phrase for #2 was ---SHING BRIDE which made it easy. Clue for EIDER made me think of the old joke, "How do you get down from an elephant?" Favorite clue was "Beat address", because it misled me along the lines of "On the Road" or "the Village".

By the way, do you know the difference between RIME and HOAR? The RIME of the Ancient Mariner is famous.

On a completely different note, I first read the constructor's name as "Mark McCain" which brought to mind "The Rifleman". Trivia note -- Chuck Connors once played basketball for the Celtics (which I knew) and also pro baseball with the Cubs (which I didn't).

Mark McClain said...

OK, I'm going to relent on COIL. My clue, Rich didn't touch it. It's definition #12 in RHW Unabridged. A coil is a 500 stamp ROLL that's primarily used to feed vending machines. Technically legit, but not good for this spot. Believe it or not, it also appeared in USA Today, TODAY! And, Rich used it himself in NYT a while back. But I promise not to use it again!

Mr. Google said...

HW said..."The RIME of the Ancient Mariner is famous."

Though the "RIME" in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (originally The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere) does not refer to ice but is Coleridge's intentionally archaic spelling of "rhyme" (i.e. the poem of the ancient mariner).

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I started my day off on the wrong foot, for sure, by putting a 2" gash in my forearm, the result of being distracted and clumsy! 😔

I liked the clever theme and overall execution (except for unbag). W/o's were rime/hoar and Rick/Ilsa. My MIL used Oil of Olay by the gallon.

Thanks, Mark, for a fun Friday and for dropping in to the Corner. Thanks, Lemony, for a humorous and enlightening expo. Loved the kittie poem. Speaking of kitties, thanks, CED, for that water-loving kitten clip from yesterday.

Have a great day. (I'll try to stay out of the ER!) 😈

C6D6 Peg said...

Thanks, Mark, for a fun and challenging puzzle. SE was last to fall, only because I had GEORGE AND...... until the tada GEORGIA fell in. Loved the cluing and the fill.

Very nice expo, Lemonade. Thanks for the Carlin clip. He's one of my favorites!

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

I surprised myself by finishing this one. West central was the last region to fill.

Theme baffled me for a long time. My brain doesn't want to work that way. All of it seems a reach too far, anyway.

Mark - thanks for stopping by. Nice to see your thoughts.

Looking forward to PAGAN CAKES - that was my favorite.

Cool regards!
JzB

desper-otto said...

Just finished reading yesterday's blog and comments. Barry, so sorry. It's been 23 years in my case, and I still miss him.

RE water-loving cats. Lulu, the whitish-one in my avatar, loves to sit at the bathroom sink while I shave and swish her tail in the warm water. Later, after I've rinsed off and my hands are still wet, she loves to get a rubdown. I've had lots of cats over the years, and she's the first one who had a water "thing."

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Tough but doable today. Got help from the theme. After PAGAN CAKE BATTER, got the GA gimmick and filled in FLEW INTO A GARAGE, thus anchoring the top tier. Had to google for QATAR, since I'm not a FIFA nut. Also messed up DADDYO.
EIDER - Favorite cluing.
ALPHA - Is in CB alphabet. Alfa is NATO.
COIL - I don't see what all the hubbub is about. The USPS uses both on its sites, I wanted 'roll', too at first, but the perps made COIL obvious, and it made sense in the context. If I were Mark, I would use it again; good Friday stuff.

Yellowrocks said...

Add GA, so flew into a rage, flew into a garage. AHA that made the theme answers easier.
Fun puzzle, Mark, and always fun Friday blog, Lemony.
Me, too, Spitzboov, I don't understand the objection to COIL. Fridays usually have less than common entries.
From a USPS ad:
"Philatelic Products. There are two philatelic products available for the Kaleidoscope Flowers COIL of 10,000"
EPONYM held me up for a while. Cute. I finally thought of PAGAN. Great puzzle experience.
Saint Lucia named after Saint Lucy, shout out to Lucina.
I loved OLAY Body Wash. I can't find it these days.
Terrific weather today. I should force myself to finish my boring paperwork quickly so I could hang outdoors guilt free..

Nice Cuppa said...

Mark,

• Enjoyable, but UNSCRUPULOUS = AMORAL irked. It would be so nice to maintain the distinction between AMORAL and

IMMORAL for a while longer.

• Thirsts = LUSTS. The (PC) equivalents tend to have the construction LUSTS FOR = THIRST FOR, rather than LUSTS AFTER which is strictly sexual

• I for one am glad you promised to shuffle off that mortal stamp purchase.

• You didn't need "bird's" in the edited 17A clue, and it might have made for a better clue.

• TIVOs - definitely dated.

• Why TOON cat for TOM? A TOM is a (male) cat, period.

• I see DOGS (PLURAL) for feet (chiefly N. Amer. so I do not know it). But I did not see DOG (singular) for foot.

• PUT AWAY = UNBAG? Well, that's Step 1 at least.

NC

Anonymous said...

Well, if it's in the USA Today...that's all you need to know right there!

Lemonade, can you please use a better color than lime green in your expositions? It's very difficult to read.

Misty said...

I've had such a hard time with Friday puzzles lately, I debated whether to even try this one. But I'm so glad I did! It took a while, but slowly, slowly, one corner after another filled in and after a half hour or so VOILA! I HAD THE WHOLE THING! Woo-hoo! What a great way to start a Friday--many thanks, Mark, and thanks also for stopping by. And Lemonade, even though I got the theme answer, I didn't understand how it worked until your expo--so, many thanks for that too.

So sorry to hear about your gash, Irish Miss. Hope it doesn't hurt too much and will heal quickly. Take good care of yourself.

Have a great day, everybody!

Northwest Runner said...

With "SW" in the Caen clue I was looking for an abbreviation in the answer, but I don't think Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives is nearly well-known enough to be the basis of a response.

Anonymous said...

NC, Tom & Jerry, the old cartoon.

Argyle said...

Who calls the English teacher Daddy-o?

desper-otto said...

This dude does @1.07.

Lucina said...

Hello, friends!

Thank you, Mark. This was a good Friday experience. I sashayed over most of it and slowly filled in the theme answers. Didn't really need them but would have finished faster had I used them.

Only the NW gave me fits as I didn't know QATAR or LALO, finally researched them. V8 can made a dent!

Clue for EIDER was great! YR, thanks for the shout out.

Hand up for RIME/HOAR and just knew Lemonade would tell us "not a shred of evidence" at OUNCE. Wonderful expose, Lemon. Thank you.

I don't understand the beef some solvers have with any of the fill as it's Friday, it's challenging and as long as the use is legit, it should stand.

Have a joyful Friday, everyone!

aka thelma said...

Abejo... my uncle also was a pilot with the 8th air force out of england during WWll .... perhaps your dad knew my uncle...

Hope everyone has a great day...

thelma :)

Husker Gary said...

-Here are Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint visiting his pigeon COTE. Name the movie.
-Spending the whole day showing DVD’s ain’t all that stimulating but the kids were good.
-Subbing at the secondary level is a whole different kettle of fish from JH or Elementary. I prefer teaching JH but secondary kids are so laid back which makes subbing a breeze.

Boo LuQuette AKA Boudreaux in Eunice, La. said...

Challenging puzzle today seemed like a Friday. Hands up for RIME, PODS then POTS. Put in PAL as in that's my DOG in slang in some movies.

My 2 nits are CBER and COIL. Ham Radio Operaters use that not Cbers. Hands up for a 2 Meter guy here.

A coil as in spring coil, but it is a roll also but not used nowadays.

Now we getting too much rain here in South Louisiana again.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Husker G @ 2:29, I'm guessing On the Waterfront. It's been a while, but that sticks in the ol' memory...

Challenging pzl today, yes, but doable with no cheats. Starts my Friday off well.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Argyle @ 12:03 ~

Why that must be Charlie Brown!
No, not that one, the other one, the one of 1959 song where He’s a Clown! RIGHT! THAT Charlie Brown...

Jayce said...

Good puzzle.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

DNF :-( 36a xing 27d and I really messed up the SW. I put in AsIc for 61 (I now know it's Asics) and easu in for 51d. It fit so well but was so wrong (yeah, I googled it - Easu is Isaac's son). So, GEORGA never appeared. Oh, well, I had fun. Thanks Mark and thanks for stopping by.

Lem - You beat me to Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's Go DADDY-O. Love that song. I'll second the wonderful breadth of interesting folks here. Thanks for the write-up.

W/os: too many to mention.

Fav: c/a for 4d. Lem - I'll make it my personal mission that my kids know dogs are feet.

IM - Gosh, I hope the gash is more like a scrape.

Alpha? No, Alfa (Romeo). The fix-it manuals are still GREEK to me, but I'll learn. I just hope the rain lets up so I can drive it this weekend!

Cheers, -T

Bill G. said...

Gary, my recollection is the movie where he was a boxer. "I coulda been a contender." Was it On the Waterfront?

Anonymous said...

I nominate Jayce's 3:31 comment as the best comment ever. Would that it were a model for all future comments.

Anonymous T said...

Anon@3:42 - Mark, we know it's you... :-)

BTW, I did forget to say how much I liked ARIA xing OPERA.

C, -T

Avg Joe said...

For Barry: I heard this song by Iris DeMent for the first time today and couldn't help but think of you. I hope it's not too soon for the sentiment, but hopefully it will bring you some solace.

No Time To Cry

Irish Miss said...

Anonymous T @ 3:39 - Sadly, it's way worse than a scrape. I tore the skin right off and it bled profusely. Bacitracin and bandage to the rescue! 😇

Misty, thanks for your concern.

Yellowrocks said...

Irish Miss, so sorry to hear of your accident. I hope you will heal quickly and are not in too much pain.

SwampCat said...


Out of my league, but fun to struggle with this one. Thanks, Mark, and thanks for stopping by to discuss it. BTW, I had no problem with COIL...just an unusual Friday word.

And Lemon, the explanation was great.

Owen, I laughed!

Lucina said...

IrishMiss:
That gash sound bad! Are you sure you don't require stitches? Stay well.

Boo LuQuette AKA Boudreaux in Eunice, La. said...

Forgot to put in that I put COTY instead of OLAY. I had LYES on the the down so that messed up my NE corner

Irish Miss said...

YR and Lucina: Thanks for your thoughts and well wishes. No, Lucina, no stitches necessary. It wasn't deep, just a tearing off of the skin, leaving a rather nasty looking wound. (I dread changing the bandage because sometimes things look a lot worse than they actually are.). Some discomfort but I wouldn't call it pain.

Boo LuQuette AKA Boudreaux in Eunice, La. said...

Just heard Charlie brown by the coasters on our locally owned radio station. KBON 101.1 FM Had to throw that in here !!!