10.03.2010

S U N D A Y   October 3, 2010
Sylvia Bursztyn (calendar)

Theme: 10 A.D. Ten theme answers are people whose initials are A.D.

[Note: This is the puzzle that appears in the Sunday L.A. Times newspaper. If you don't get the paper, you can find the puzzle here. Scroll down to see today's syndicated puzzle.]


Theme answers:
  • 24A: Czech composer (ANTONIN DVORAK).
  • 38A: Civil rights movement activist (ANGELA DAVIS).
  • 58A: TV's "Police Woman" (ANGIE DICKINSON).
  • 76A: Veteran civil rights lawyer (ALAN DERSHOWITZ).
  • 93A: Pulitzer-winning historian (ARIEL DURANT).
  • 111A: French "Affair" figure (ALFRED DREYFUS).
  • 3D: Football Hall-of-Famer (ART DONOVAN).
  • 15D: "Falcon Crest" actress (ABBY DALTON).
  • 70D: "Purple Noon" star (ALAIN DELON).
  • 73D: Classic Hollywood character actor (ANDY DEVINE).
Everything Else — 1A: Physician coalition abbr. (AMA); 4A: Virtuoso (ACE); 7A: Stroke the strings (STRUM); 12A: Barb (DIG); 15A: Barbary beast (APE); 18A: Outlying (FAR); 19A: Contrasting (DIFFERENT); 21A: Cockney castle? ('OME); 22A: Supplicate (BEG); 23A: Tailor's concern (FIT); 26A: Sis's sib (BRO); 27A: Withstand (ENDURE); 29A: "Hurlyburly" playwright (RABE); 30A: Sycophants (LACKEYS); 32A: More intimate (CLOSER); 33A: One-time link (AT A); 34A: Orchestra area (PIT); 35A: Golden number (OLDIE); 37A: Daly of "Judging Amy" (TYNE); 43A: Mary's follower (LAMB); 44A: Whoopi's "Ghost" role (ODA MAE); 46A: Wilder on the screen (GENE); 47A: Louise's film crony (THELMA); 49A: Hardly or softly, briefly (ADV.); 51A: Pop (DAD); 52A: Writer Sarah --- Jewett (ORNE); 54A: Good sign on B'way (SRO); 55A: Slinky, for one (TOY); 56A: Get to (REACH); 63A: Paddled boats (CANOES); 65A: "--- fair in love ..." (ALL'S); 66A: Car deal part (TRADE-IN); 67A: Restrain (TRAMMEL); 69A: Most lacking slack (TAUTEST); 70A: Painter's workplace (ATELIER); 71A: Campaign pros (POLS); 72A: Like "Body Heat", for instance (STEAMY); 79A: Moore's sitcom boss (ASNER); 80A: Spring for a vacation? (SPA); 81A: Let go (CAN); 82A: Arm bone (ULNA); 83A: LAPD alert (APB); 85A: Plaines or Moines intro (DES); 86A: Bleach (WHITEN); 88A: Wiltshire wheel (TYRE); 90A: Ally of "St. Elmo's Fire" (SHEEDY); 92A: Cartoonist Peter (ARNO); 97A: Smith or Sandler (ADAM); 100A: Ways (MODES); 102A: Roadie's tote (AMP); 103A: Nancy salt (SEL); 104A: Blood line (ARTERY); 106A: Preordain (DESTINE); 108A: Ringlet (CURL); 109A: Lots of bread (LOAVES); 110A: Dressing base (OIL); 115A: Acct. amt. (INT.); 116A: From --- Z (A TO); 117A: River, to Rivera (RIO); 118A: Humperdinck hit (RELEASE ME); 119A: "--- didn't!" (NO I); 120A: Mattel doll (KEN); 121A: Prefix for flooey (KER-); 122A: Free as --- (A BIRD); 123A: "That --- then ..." (WAS); 124A: List's last letters (ETC.); 1D: Influence (AFFECT); 2D: In essence (MAINLY); 4D: "Not on ---!" (A DARE); 5D: Widescreen process (CINERAMA); 6D: Baby newt (EFT); 7D: Half of Congress (SENATE); 8D: "Survivor" adjective (TRIBAL); 9D: Lalique or Magritte (RENÉ); 10D: Colditz conjunction (UND); 11D: VH1 rival (MTV); 12D: Conductor Antal (DORATI); 13D: Apple variety (IMAC); 14D: Douglas's "Wall Street" role (GEKKO); 16D: Ebony family fruit (PERSIMMON); 17D: Sense of self (EGO); 20D: Search for food (FORAGE); 25D: Martini morsel (OLIVE); 28D: Not new (USED); 31D: She, in Cherbourg (ELLE); 34D: Knock (PAN); 36D: Cyberbuyer's market (EBAY); 39D: Zilch, in Xochimilco (NADA); 40D: Choreographer de Mille (AGNES); 41D: Exploit (DEED); 42D: Progress (STRIDES); 45D: Faithful support (ADHERENCE); 48D: White House nickname (HONEST ABE); 49D: Pendulum's path (ARC); 50D: DOJ gp. (DEA); 52D: Peer group? (OGLERS); 53D: Brooklet (RILL); 54D: 32-card game (SKAT); 57D: Terra --- (COTTA); 59D: Finger-pointer (NAMER); 60D: Livorno's land (ITALIA); 61D: Tart part (CRUST); 62D: Surfer's stops (SITES); 64D: "Avatar"'s Zoe (SALDANA); 68D: Air (MIEN); 69D: Burg (TOWN); 71D: Guided a gondola (POLED); 74D: Thai dish --- krob (MEE); 75D: Many mos. (YRS.); 76D: Greek Venus (APHRODITE); 77D: Send flying (HURL); 78D: Newscaster Paula (ZAHN); 80D: Competed with Michael Phelps (SWAM); 84D: Sonoma County city (PETALUMA); 87D: Ten below? (TOES); 88D: Oven built-in (TIMER); 89D: "You betcha!" ("YEP!"); 90D: Field and Ride (SALLYS); 91D: Facts (DATA); 94D: Sought, as office (RAN FOR); 95D: Loan shark (USURER); 96D: Go over "The Wall" again, say (REREAD); 98D: "We --- amused" (ARE NOT); 99D: Rasputin, for one (MYSTIC); 101D: Austere (STARK); 105D: Wine cellar staples (ROSES); 107D: "Would --- to you?" (I LIE); 108D: 451, in old Rome (CDLI); 110D: Flooring wood (OAK); 112D: Age (ERA); 113D: Miss coming out? (DEB); 114D: Sprinkling (FEW).

9 comments:

JOHNSNEVERHOME said...

Oh my goodness! A puzzle loaded with proper names, but that’s okay. I knew all of them even though I struggled with the spelling of ALAN DERSHOWITZ.
Took me well over an hour, but who cares, I got it done, and got it 100% correct.
It didn’t occur to me at first, but I noticed that all the names have the initials A.D.
Now that’s cool. Not only that, but a 21x21 grid with 10 theme words (4 of which are verticals)… now that’s pure genius! I didn’t notice, until Puzzlegirl pointed it out, but the theme title is 10 A.D.

New WOTD for me: TRAMMEL… I guess I’ve never been restrained and I hope to never be.

I always like those English spellings, like TYRE and ‘OME.

Liked the crossing of PIT with OLIVE.

A good CW101 candidate: the word KER. Here it’s used to prefix “flooey”, but I’ve seen it with “plop”, “plunk”, “chunk“, “splash“, “flop“, and “chief”.

One of my favorite trees is the PERSIMMON (Diospyros virginiana) with its yummy fruit… in southern Indiana they actually make PERSIMMON ice cream. I had some at their Covered Bridge Festival.

So ironic that yesterday I watched the movie “Ghost” with Whoopi Goldberg, and today we get a clue for ODA MAE. Probably the best role she’s ever played.

I do watercolor painting, so I just built an art studio. Think I’ll start calling it by that fancy name, ATELIER.

Here’s a delightful and uplifting piece for a Sunday morning… ANTONIN DVORAK’s Prague Waltzes, performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Antal DORATI. I didn’t hear the violinists STRUM their instruments though.

Thank you Sylvia, for a very entertaining Sunday puzzle.

Well, y’all have a relaxing Sunday (especially you, Puzzlegirl) !

badrog said...

Altho we [sorta] learned "trammel" while [sorta]studying "Macbeth" in HS, the only time I've ever heard it vocalized was at Tiger Stadium.

It was the D and V of 10D, UND, and 11D, MTV, that quickly unlocked the theme for me. The only one of the other 9 entries that had to wait for lots 'n' lots of crosses was ABBY DALTON at 15D.

And altho I've eaten many a persimmon, I never knew that the tree was of the ebony family.

Thanks, PG, for helping keep us older folks on our 87D.

John Wolfenden said...

Nice Detroit reference, badrog. I wonder if any Tigers sportscaster ever described Alan as being "tramml'd up in the sleeve of care."

I particularly liked "Ten below?" for TOES.

Could someone explain how "Surfer's stops" is SITES? And a true nitpick...how many wine cellars have you seen stocked with rosés? Not exactly a wine you'd want to age.

CrazyCat said...

@John Wolfenden: Someone "surfing the web" stops at web SITES.
Agree with you about ROSÉS. I had CASES first.

Puzzle took me an hour too. Some names I didn't know - ALFRED DREYFUS and ARIEL DURANT. TRAMMEL was new too. Fun puzzle to get back in the swing of things.

KJGooster said...

@John Wolfenden: Think surfing the web, not the ocean.

I like a puzzle with full proper names, but yeesh. I'm a reasonably educated 30-something and 3 or 4 of the them seem pretty obscure to me. Guess I shouldn't complain about my own lack of knowledge, but still...

Eric said...

None of the names were gimmes, in the sense that I needed at least a few crosses for them all -- and the theme definitely helped a lot, once I had it figured. The only three I didn't know at all were:
- ART DONOVAN, who I had to Google, but only because of a stupid thinko: no, Eric, words ending in -ly are not ADJs!
- ALAIN DELON
- and ABBY DALTON, which was funny: even with every other letter of both the across and down words, I needed the theme to get the intersecting "D". For "Golden number" I was so fixated on RATIO that I couldn't begin to see what OL_IE was getting at!

Disappointed that the 24A "Czech composer" wasn't Jan Dismas Zelenka, whose Missa Dei Filii and Litaniae Lauretanae "Salus infirmorum" (the Tafelmusik recording) taught me, a rabid atheist at the time, to love sacred choral music despite its actual message. It helped that it's in Latin, a language I don't know, so the religious words couldn't interfere with my enjoyment of the music... That doesn't seem to be online, but here's a piece I'd never heard before, Regina coeli laetare, that exemplifies what I love about Zelenka's work. (I'm still an atheist, btw, just not as rabid.)

Will and ARIEL DURANT's The Story of Civilization is on my to-read list (which is several lifetimes long, alas) :-/

The ALFRED DREYFUS affair is pretty obscure, but its ramifications are with us to this day. Dreyfus was a French Army captain who was falsely convicted in 1894 of giving military secrets to the Germans, and later framed when evidence pointing to the real traitor came to light but was suppressed. This was due to anti-Semitism (Dreyfus was Jewish), and was understood to be so at the time, which prompted a huge scandal. Dreyfus was ultimately exonerated, but the uproar gave a huge shot in the arm to the nascent Zionist movement (that's a drastic oversimplification), which ultimately led to the creation of Israel in 1948 after several more twists and turns -- some of which are infamous, but others (e.g. the Balfour Declaration), like the Dreyfus Affair, are likely not too well known except to history buffs.

badrog said...

One of Dreyfus's more famous defenders was a man more familiar to CW-ers as the author of the CW-ese NANA, i.e., Emile Zola.

JIMMIE said...

Awesome puzzle, Sylvia. I had trouble with SALDANA crossing ATELIER, but guessed right anyway.

Thanks to the overworked PG.

And thanks to JNH for the incredible find of ANTONIN and Antal together.

JIMMIE said...

Or rather, Antal playing ANTONIN's waltz.