L. A. Times Crossword Puzzle Blogging

Are we having fun yet?  Here we have in-the-language phrases that otherwise have nothing in common reimagined as descriptions of showing disrespect to a variety of otherwise innocent objects. For some reason, being made fun of is never fun.  Go figure.

17. Make fun of boxing gear? : KID GLOVES.  These are GLOVES made from the soft, supple skin of young goats.   Handling something with KID GLOVES means giving it very gentle treatment.  To KID can mean a variety of things from mock and tease playfully to deceive. Be careful if you do that to boxing GLOVES.

25. Make fun of Harleys? : RIDE BIKES.  Harleys are popular American-made motorcycles with many riders.  To RIDE is to ridicule or harass with carping criticism, a bit harsh for "make fun of."

38. Make fun of sweater styles? : MOCK TURTLE NECKS.  These are articles of clothing made with a collar folded over to form a tube, with both edges of the tube fastened to the garment at the neck line.  One can make fun of real TURTLE NECKS, where the tube is twice as long, folded over, and only fastened at one end of the tube.

All choked up

50. Make fun of tunes? : PUT ON AIRS.  This phrase means to act in a haughty manner, pretending to be superior.  In a different sense, AIRS are songs, and one could make fun of them.  But to "put on" means to deceive or mislead, for amusement or to make someone or something look better than it is.

62. Make fun of Porky and Petunia? : ROAST PIGS.   To roast someone is to hold an event with that person is guest of honor; and a series of speakers subject him or her to [ostensibly] good natured ridicule.  To ROAST a PIG is to cook the entire animals over an open fire

Hi gang, JazzBumpa reporting for duty.   This is a fun-making theme, but a bit loosey-goosey in terms of exact correspondence to the verb in the clue.   Well, I'm not going to make fun of it.  Let's see what other fun is in store.

Across

1. Moments, briefly : SECS.  Not brief moments of DF, though those can be fun, but SECondS, briefly.

5. God with a bow : AMOR.  AKA Eros, AKA Cupid.  Could inspire a brief moment of DF.

9. Like some elephants : ASIAN.   They are smaller, less wrinkled, and more hump-backed than their African counterparts, with different anatomical features in the head and face.

14. Jai __ : ALAI.   Popular X-word puzzle game, played in a closed space using a ball and large, curved wicker baskets.

15. "Game over," to Kasparov : MATE.  The end of a chess game, when the losing king cannot escape.   Garry Kasparov (b 1963) is a Russian former world chess champion and political activist.

16. Forrest's shrimp-loving friend : BUBBA.   From the movie Forrest Gump.

19. Lusitania sinker : U-BOAT.  The Lusitania, launched in 1906, was the world's largest passenger ship.  It was torpedoed and sunk on May 7, 1915, six days out of New York, bound for Liverpool, killing 1198 passengers.  It was 11 miles off the coast of Ireland in a German-declared war zone, and sunk in 18 minutes.  This event was influential [a straw, if you will.  Vide infra - see 61 A.] in bringing the U.S into the war two years later.

20. StyleBistro and Slate : E-ZINES.  Electronic magaZINES.

21. "Into the Woods" (2014) director Marshall : ROB.   He is a stage and screen director and choreographer, who won several awards for directing "Chicago" in 2002.  "Into the Woods" involves an original story of the baker and his wife, which is used to tie together several otherwise unrelated fairy tales.  Also last Wednesday's theme clip.  Am I in a rut?

23. Schlep : TOTE.   v.  To haul or carry a burdensome load.  That's no fun at all.

24. Arles article : LES.  "The" in French

27. "Gigi" novelist : COLETTE.   Also French.   Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954) was a novelist, journalist, actress and mime.

30. Barcelona-born muralist : SERT.   Josep Maria Sert i Badia (21 December 1874 – 27 November 1945)

Palais des Nations, Salle du Conseil - Geneva

31. MouthHealthy.org org. : A D A.   American Dental Association.

32. Line from the sun : RAY.  Beam doesn't fit.

34. Ristorante desserts : GELATI.   Italian ice creams.

42. Came afterward : ENSUED.

43. Roller in Vegas : DIE.  Spotted cubic gambling device.

44. Low digit : TOE.  I wanted "TWO."

45. Lively dance : REEL.  For real!

47. Adopt, as a cause : ESPOUSE.   Does anyone here ESPOUSE polygamy?

54. Ga. neighbor : ALAbama.  

55. Numbered musical piece : OPUS.

or perhaps

Thpptball?

56. Colorado native : UTE.  Native American.

57. Human rights advocate Sakharov : ANDREI.  (May 21, 1921 – December 14, 1989)  Russian nuclear physicist, and later dissident and human rights activist, earning him state persecution and a Nobel peace Prize.   The Sakharov prize, awarded annually by the European Union for dedication to human rights and freedom is named in his honor.

60. "¿Cómo __?" : ESTAS.   Spanish "How are [you?]"

64. Requests for Friskies, maybe : MEOWS.   Cat food brand.

65. Half of zwei : EINS.   From 2 to 1 - a German division.

66. Rules, to GIs : REGS.  REGulations.

67. Proverbial reason for a break? : STRAW.   Only if it's the last one on the camel's back.

Just one more

68. Schedule opening : SLOT.   An open space between occupied spaces, figuratively or literally, from Old French esclot, the space between the breasts.

69. Bone, in Rome : OSSO.   Modern Rome, not ancient, but derived from the Latin ossum.  Also Monday's 39 D.   Is it time to bone up on my Italian?

Down

1. Benefit : SAKE.   Often for Pete, though I don't know why.

2. 16th/17th-century Eng. queen : ELIZ.  ELIZabeth.   Looks like an odd Abrv.

Queen of Cosplay

3. Eldorados, e.g. : CADILLACS.  Automobiles.

4. One of the Declaration of Independence's 56 : SIGNEE.   One who signs on, not someone who gets signed on. 

5. "Famous" cookie guy : AMOS.   Wally AMOS learned cookie baking from his aunt.  Later in life, as a talent agent with the William Morris agency, he would often send cookies to celebrities he wanted to woo.  In 1975 he left it all behind and became a cookie entrepreneur.

6. Big D cager : MAV.   Dallas MAVerick professional basketball player.

7. "SNL" alumna Cheri : OTERI.   (b 1962) This frequent crossword gal was on SNL from 1995 to 2000.

Cheri, baby

8. Patches, as a lawn : RESODS.  I wanted RESEEDS, but that has to many letters.

9. __ Dhabi : ABU.  Middle East country.

10. Foreign film feature : SUB-TITLE.   English translation of foreign-language dialog. printed near the bottom of the screen  Not sure what it has to do with titles.

11. Discontinued Apple laptop : I-BOOK.  Sold from 1999 to 2006.

12. Let up : ABATE.

13. Archibald and Thurmond of the NBA : NATES.  Archibald played on several teams from 1970 to 1984.  Thurmond played with 3 teams from 1963 to 1977

18. For fear that : LEST.  This word comes to us from Old English, via Middle English. I have no idea how LEST - which literally means "The less that" got transmogrified into "For fear that" - but that is commonly how it is defined.  We don't do A, lest B happen.  It is a preventive, and fear has nothing to do with it.  /rant.

From Dictionary.com:   "before 1000; Middle English leste, contraction of the lesse the, thi les the; late Old English the lǣste, earlier thȳ lǣs the, literally, whereby less that ( thȳ instrumental case of the demonstrative and relative pronoun, lǣs less, the relative particle.)

22. "Saturday Night Fever" group : BEE GEES.

25. Raise : REAR.  Take care of and support until mature.  Also, a horse REARS by raising up on its hind legs, but I can't find a connection between these meanings.

26. Machine gun partly named for the Czech city in which it was designed : BREN.  First designed and manufactured in Brno, Moravia, this gun was popular with the British armed forces from the 30's through 1992.

27. Showed up : CAME.  Arrived at an event.

28. Take too much of, for short : O.D. ON.  Over-dose, figuratively, as on chips, in yesterdays 39 A.  

29. "Doonesbury" creator : TRUDEAU.  Gary, purveyor of a classic politically oriented newspaper cartoon.

33. Pay stub abbr. : YTD.  Year To Date.

35. Insurance risk assessors : ACTUARIES.   They use mathematics, statistics and financial theory to study uncertain future events, especially those of concern to insurance and pension programs.

36. Ring stats : TKOS.  Technical Knock Outs.  These occur in boxing matches when it is determined that the match can not safely continue.

37. "Understood" : I SEE.   Got it.

39. "Rashomon" director : KUROSAWA.  Akira KUROSAWA (1910-1998) was a highly influential film maker who directed 30 films over his 57 year career.  Rashomon is a 1950 Japanese movie which uses the plot device of having several characters provide contradictory versions of the same incident.  It won several awards and is considered on of the greatest films of all time.

40. Many a "Divergent" reader : TEEN.  "Divergent" is a trilogy of dystopian young adult novels set in post-apocalyptic Chicago.

41. "It's all false!" : LIES.  Accusation of mendacity.

46. Petrol measures : LITRES.  British spelling of metric units for automobile fuel.

48. Huff and puff : PANT.  Should be huff OR puff.  Together, they are a pair of pants.

49. One who knows the ropes : OLD PRO.  Way back when I was young, an OLD PRO told me that youth and skill were no match for old age and treachery.

50. Sonnets, say : POEMS.   A literary form using meter, rhyme, imagery and other devices to evoke meaning beyond what is in the mere words.

51. Unexpected victory : UPSET.  So called because the favored team is toppled, thus UPSETing the natural order of things, or alternatively because of the way they feel about it.

52. Sylvan Learning employee : TUTOR.   Franchised and corporate supplemental learning centers that provide personalized learning programs for primary and secondary education students.

53. Work on, as a stubborn squeak : RE-OIL.   When one OILing simply isn't enough.

57. No. 2 : ASST.  ASSistanT.  

58. Frittata ingredients : EGGS.  An Italian dish similar to an omelet or crustless quiche, incorprating a variety of other ingredients such as meat and cheese.

59. "That __ last week!" : IS SO.  This awkward partial belongs in an assessment that something ephemeral has become quickly outdated.  

61. Sacramento-to-San Jose dir. : SSW. South-SouthWest

This is so 1968

63. 365 días : ANO.  Years in Spain, sadly lacking the tilde.

Well, we had some retro music, an eggy treat, and I got to carp a little bit.  That's about as much fun as I can handle in one day.  Hope you don't MOCK me for it.

Cool regards!
JzB

Carpe Diem Modern Times Haiku #3 Jerry Kilbride (1930-2005)

Of the four Jerry Kilbride examples, the potato one seems abstract and mysterious.  In the other three there is a deeply touching moment with a unique person - so something very concrete.   This appeals to me.

This has been a difficult summer.  Early in June my mother had a stroke.  She was fairly stable for a few days, then went rapidly down hill.  She spent her last few days at Hospice of Northwest Ohio, a beautiful location, where she received quality care.  Sadly, she was not aware in any obvious way of us or her surroundings.

That period was physically and mentally exhausting.  I really haven't fully recovered.  So I'm in the right frame of mind to be inspired by Jerry Kilbride.

mostly she just slept

as we sat by her bedside

a stroke of bad luck

and a flashback to childhood

a porcelain cup

filled with tea and memories

graham crackers with mom

L A Times Crossword Puzzle Blogging

Wednesday, August 19, 2015, Mary Lou Guizzo

Theme - INTO THE WOODS.  The theme answers are the names of trees, but clued differently, of course [though cluing as the trees' woods or fruits is only slightly different] and they are located at the puzzle's periphery, thus surrounding all the other fill.

1 A. Hearth dust : ASH.   That is what is left of the wood when the fire is done burning.  Sadly, the ASH tree is under attack from a green boring beetle.  I thought this might be why fewer baseball bats were being made from ash and more from MAPLE, but that turns out not to be the case.  The word is derived from Latin, via Old English, meaning spear in both languages, which can provide another hint as to one of its uses

4 A. Snapple's __ Madness : MANGO.  A fruity beverage made of kiwi and vegetable juices, MANGO puree and other stuff.  The eponymous tree is tropical and cultivated for its fruit.

9 A. Jet black : EBONY.  A deep black color, named for the wood of the EBONY trees - several species of the genus Diospyros native to Africa and Asia. The wood is used for decorative and ornamental purposes.  

65 A. Syrup type : MAPLE.  Made by boiling down the sap of the tree of the same name.  There are other syrups made from corn and sugar cane, but only pure MAPLE syrup will adorn my pancakes!

66 A. __ Rapids, Iowa : CEDAR.   Iowa's second largest city straddles the CEDAR River, named for the red CEDAR trees that grow in its Minnesota and Iowa watershed.

67 A. C&W's __ Ridge Boys : OAK.  They started in the 40's as country group Wally Fowler and the Georgia Clodhoppers [I am not making this up] who evolved into the OAK Ridge Boys [because that was where they usually performed,] a gospel singing quartet that changed their focus in the 70's, thus generating several country and crossover hits. Of course many personnel changes occurred over the years.  The tree whose name is at the heart of all this is native to the northern hemisphere.

1 D. Jam fruit : APRICOT.  Well, this could have been just about anything - but as is it is one of my favorites.  Apricot trees are from the genus prunus - bearing fruits with a stone seed at the core.

13. Robin Hood's bow wood : YEW.  Again, the wood and its tree.  "The secret to the Yew bow’s strength and beauty is it’s natural laminate of heartwood and sapwood. The heartwood is where the power comes from, it’s ability to be compressed and return back to its original shape is almost unmatched in any other wood. The sapwood of the tree is superior under tension and protects the heartwood from being able to break, but also adds beauty. This is why some Native North American tribes believe this tree was put on earth for the making of bows and referred to it as the chief of the forest, being a small tree mostly almost vine-like under towering Old Growth forests."

27. Cookie fruit : FIG.   Fruit and tree - an Asian species in the mulberry family, cultivated since ancient times.

Newtons

39. Trident, e.g. : GUM.  Well - this is different - and confusing.  Trident is a brand name for sugar-free chewing gum.  People have been chewing gum made from various tree bark extracts for millennia. In recent decades, though, natural gums have been replaced by polybutadiene, a synthetic polymer (yum!)  GUM tree can refer to various types of trees from the eucalyptus, angophora or corymbia genera, native to Australia and/or Tasmania.   The American Sweet GUM tree is completely different, native to the southeastern U. S., Mexico and Central America.

46. Poison drunk by Socrates : HEMLOCK.   Here, we have a case of mistaken identity.  Socrates' bane, corium maculatum, is a poisonous biennial herb of the carrot family, also known by several other names such as carrot fern, poison parsley and devil's bread.  These plants contain several chemically similar highly potent alkaloids that attack the nervous system leading to paralysis of resperitory muscles.   The completely unrelated and nontoxic HEMLOCK tree includes several species of the genus tsuga, tall conifers in the pine family, pinaceae.  The crushed foliage exude an aroma similar to that of the poisonous plant, hence the name.

58. Common street name : ELM.   Many American cities once had shady tree-lined streets - hence the name transfer from the tree.  In the mid 20th century, elm growth in North America and Europe was devastated by dutch ELM disease, an affliction caused by three related fungus species spread by the ELM bark beetle.   It's ben a mightmare.

And the unifier: 36 A. Like a shady boulevard ... and like this puzzle, in terms of its 12 border answers : TREELINED.  Which by this time should need no further explanation.