May 15, 2011
Don Gagliardo & C.C. Burnikel
[Note: This is the syndicated L.A. Times puzzle. It does not appear in the actual newspaper, but is available for free at cruciverb.com.]
Theme: "Sale!" — Various sale announcements leading up to a sad ending.
Theme Entries:
- 23A: Week 1 (BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE!).
- 42A: Week 2 (INVENTORY REDUCTION!).
- 65A: Week 3 (DEEP DISCOUNTS!).
- 88A: Week 4 (HUGE SAVINGS!).
- 88A: Week 5 (BLOWOUT PRICES!).
- 88A: Week 6 (STOREWIDE CLEARANCE!).
- 88A: Week 7 (EVERYTHING MUST GO!).
- 109A: Week 8 (CLOSED).
Our slumping economy seems to be affecting the puzzle. Last week we had negative stock market headlines, and today we have a store going out of business. Near my house, there's a Blockbuster and a Radio Shack right next to each other. I can't believe either one is still open. And there's a giant Sears that never seems to have more than three people in it, including employees. OK, enough of that. To the Bullets...Bullets:
- 26A: No View, No Touch Trap maker (D-CON). I prefer to kill mice the old-fashioned way, with a cat.
- 28A: Like an ant. (OPP.). Antonym & opposite. On my printout, the dot on the "ant." was very small, and the clue was very confusing.
- 38A: Common Latino newspaper name (EL SOL). Have you ever tried to do a "crucigrama" in a Spanish newspaper? Muy difícil.
- 45A: Catch word? (HOWEVER). "However, there's a catch..." Yep, there's always a catch.
- 49A: Many NASA astronauts were in it (B.S.A.). Boy Scouts of America.
- 66A: Group with the 1979 #1 hit "Babe" (STYX). I thought about posting the "Babe" video here, but no one wants to hear that song. I just listened to the intro, and that was painful enough. When I was about 12 years old, I won a Styx "Paradise Theater" album on a call-in radio trivia show. I used to love listening to that trivia show, but it'd never work nowadays. Thanks a lot, stupid Google!
- 95A: Inner-city genre (GANGSTA). Is "gangsta" itself a genre? I know about gangsta rap, of course. Are there other things that can be described as gangsta? Gangsta gardening? Gangsta sudoku?
- 125A: Hall of Fame subject of "The Last Boy" (MANTLE). Biography subtitled "Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood." Looks good. PuzzleGirl has probably read it. She reads everything.
- 14D: Cool color for contacts (ICE BLUE). Cool cat.
- 16D: Legendary sword (EXCALIBUR). My favorite entry of the day.
- 25D: Routine grounder, say (EASY OUT). Excellent baseball entry and clue. I approve.
- 31D: F1 neighbor (ESC). This clue is much easier if you're solving the puzzle on a computer.
- 18D: 50-year-old dolls (KENS). He doesn't look a day over 40.
- 69D: Altar assurance (VOW) / 70D: Altar assurances (I DOS). When you see consecutive clues like this, do you sometimes think it's an error? I get the "Didn't I just read that clue?" feeling.
- 93D: Tarzan portrayer Ron (ELY). I've heard that Ron Ely is a crossword fan. Well, he's never commented here, so how big a fan can he be?
- 98D: "Speed" actor (REEVES). If Keanu Reeves had retired after "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure," he'd still be considered a decent actor. It's been downhill ever since.
- 81D: Six-time World Series-winning MLB franchise (L.A. DODGERS). C.C. is a Minnesota Twins fan, and they've won the World Series twice (or three times if you count the 1924 Washington Senators' championship.) The New York Yankees have won it 27 times. What team is second to the Yankees with 10 World Series victories? The first person with the correct answer in the comments will be today's winner. (PuzzleGirl pays me a half-cent per comment, so I need to get those numbers up.)
- 117D: Favre's 508 (TDS). Touchdowns for Brett Favre. Lots of sports in the puzzle today, but still no Dan Gable. Maybe next week! See you then.
20 comments:
It's my first visit to this site...glad I found it.
If you could explain the answer to 4D in this puzzle, I'd be grateful.
BABE is a wonderful song.
I think the Montreal Expos won 9 World Series but that may have been only in my dreams.
@Crosscan. Eco as in Eco-car for a ecology friendly vehicle
@Crosscan - The '94 Expos/Yankees series would have been one for the ages.
@Stuart - Yep, Eric is right. Eco-car. "Car starter?" is a tough clue because "eco-car" isn't a term you hear very often.
St. Louis Cardinals Doug - and thanks stuoid google ;-D My favorite uniform by far.Grew up Dodger fan but alas what a mess they are now....kind of like the LAPD which USED to be the standard setter (pre Rodney King).....One nit to pick - a hole in one is not always an eagle. Should you be lucky enough to hole out on a par 4you have a double eagle. Puzzle was pretty much a fun, if not easy breeze.
Nice job, Dave! You've won bragging rights for the entire state of Oregon.
Found this one slightly easy (yet pretty delightful) for a Sunday - unlike you experts that finish these things in multiples of minutes, on tough or large ones I'll take hours (on and off) and really kind of savor it (sort of like a good novel). Also befuddled on the eagle = hole in one thing but eventually, it had to be.
Here to help Doug keep his numbers up and to wonder where the Yanni video is. I thought this was super-fun, if depressing. I kind of wish 1A could have paralleled 129A.
I liked the crossing of the two clubs: MED & SAMS. Not so sure the membership overlaps.
I quit (accidentally) before I was done, so a DNF, with one blank square and one wrong square. I misspelled EXCALIBeR, which I was so glad to see in the grid. Oh, well. Time to get in DO GEAR and get on with the daily routine.
Dave in Bend beat me to it because I am watching my STL Cardinals trying to avoid being swept by the Reds. Top of the 9th down 9-2 the Cards have a little rally going. Now 9-5, two on w/ one out. Go Cards. Routine grounders haven't been EASYOUTs in the muddy infield. Both Rolen (CIN 3B)and Pujols (STL 1B) erred due to funny bounces. It's 9-7...stay tuned! Tying run at the plate.
Mokus....Now you have my interest piqued! Busy watching Mcdowell make a mess of the TPC....You are doing a great Jack Buck so far.....How did it play out?
Holing the second shot on a par 4
is an eagle. Holing the second shot
on a par 5 is a double eagle.
EddyB - Yeah but there are a few par 4s that are reacheable in one and if you hole it out it is 3 under par ergo a double eagle....rare but it has happened.
Double eagle info - http://www.doubleeagleclub.org/index.php?suffix=FAQs
@victorherbert, eddyB - I'd much rather be bragging about a hole-in-one than passing it off as "an eagle on a par 3" :)
Across the pond where I'm from orignially, a double eagle is called an albatross on the grounds that an eagle is a pretty rare bird, but you hardly ever see an albatross. I prefer albatross.
Oh - nice puzzle, BTW. I'm solving it at 35,000 feet above Enid, Oklahoma
Steve. Right. If I holed-out my drive on a Par 4, I wouldn't call
it a double eagle. I would be unable to speak.
I'm not sayin'......I'm just sayin' it was certainly a nit that I picked......and since it said "hole in one, e.g." ...the e.g. clarified so actually it was clued correctly to begin with now that I re-visit it.... So as a whole I was wrong. And I would be dumbfounded with an eagle let alone an albatross/double
116D needs to be clued as an abbrev.
47D uses a noun to clue an adjective.
65D is just plain wrong.
That said, pretty easy Sunday. Only the SW corner gave me much trouble.
@Dave in Bend: Berkman struck out and the game ended with a sweep by CIN. As rare as an albatross.
Still don't get 21A "LAIC" doesn't mean a thing to me. Also 11D - I thought A was ALPHA not ALFA
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