google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday, August 25th, 2016 Max Carpenter

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Aug 25, 2016

Thursday, August 25th, 2016 Max Carpenter

Theme: Celiac-Safe: None of the theme entries contain any of the letters G-L-U-T-E-N

17A. GLUTEN-free fare : SWORDFISH. The Andrea Gail which featured in the book and movie "The Perfect Storm" was a swordfishing boat.


26A. GLUTEN-free fare : BABY BACK RIBS. Food! I cook my ribs sous-vide and finish them in a searing-hot oven. Barbecue purists would cry "foul" but I'd back 'em in a blind tasting against anyone!

47A. GLUTEN-free fare : SHRIMP SCAMPI. Classic Italian-American dish of shrimp sautéed in olive oil, garlic, onion and white wine. In Italy, scampi are actually a specific kind of shrimp, also known variously as langoustines, Norway lobsters or Dublin Bay prawns.

Back off, buddy, I've got claws!
61A. GLUTEN-free fare : ROCKY ROAD. A dessert of marshmallow, chocolate and nuts; usually served up as a variety of ice-cream.

I was a little underwhelmed by this theme when I first looked at it - four foods or preparations which happen not to have any one of six letters, but the more I thought about it the more I liked it - the dishes themselves (depending on how the swordfish is prepared, most typically grilled) are actually gluten-free.

Plenty of Food! references to keep me happy too!

Max is also known for a puzzle where the gimmick was that each "W" letter was written out literally as a double-U. It's pretty certain that's the only time you'll see POUUUUOUU in a grid.

Let's see what else catches the eye today.

Across:

1. Not very exciting : DRAB

5. "__ the east, and Juliet ... " : IT IS

9. King whose gift became a curse : MIDAS

14. Tiny bit : IOTA

15. One pulling in pushers : NARC. Slang drug dealers gives us a slang narcotics officer.

16. Amtrak express : ACELA

19. 1983 Woody Allen film : ZELIG. The Z was my last fill, I was distracted for a while by the baseball ex-commissioner Bud SELIG and I'm not an expert on Polish dances.

20. Schoolyard "I'll show you!" : CAN TOO

21. Scholarly : ERUDITE

23. Like some headphones : ON-EAR. 30D's BOSE make mine - noise-cancelling for the plane.

24. Better at heeling, say : TAMER. Is Fido tamer or just better trained if he heels when commanded?

32. "GoodFellas" fellowship : MOB

35. Breaks : GAPS

36. Duffel bag filler, in a thriller : RANSOM

37. Sandwich guy? : EARL. The Earl of Sandwich who, as legend would have it, invented the sandwich when he didn't want to leave the card table to eat dinner and had his meat brought to him between two slices of bread.

39. Take care of : SEE TO

41. "Don't forget ... " : ALSO

42. Singer Nicks : STEVIE. Here's Ms. Nicks back in her Fleetwood Mac days singing "Rhiannon".

44. Modernists, informally : NEOS

46. Mind reader? : EEG. Nice! Brain scan.

50. Alma __ : MATER

51. Lacking the knack : INEPT

55. Supposed bringer of bad luck : EVIL EYE

59. Mimosa family tree : ACACIA. Likes a dry climate and often grows alone.



60. Gas used in flashtubes : XENON. The flash in your camera or your smartphone is a flashtube.

64. Chilean range : ANDES

65. K thru 12 : EL-HI

66. Radius neighbor : ULNA. Forearm bones.

67. "It could happen" : MAYBE

68. Father of Thor : ODIN

69. Padre's brothers : TIOS. Uncles, in Spanish.

Down:

1. Summer genre : DISCO. The singer Donna, not the season.

2. Atkinson of British comedy : ROWAN.  I prefer his "Blackadder" characters over the "Mr. Bean" persona. Check out the clips on the BBCWorldwide channel on YouTube.

3. More than just apologize : ATONE

4. Bill for shots : BAR TAB

5. Scoop or poop : INFO

6. With 63-Down, meditative discipline : TAI

7. Org. that takes many forms : I.R.S.

8. Blueprint : SCHEMA

9. Lively Polish dance : MAZURKA. I vaguely remembered this from the song "The Waiter, the Porter and the Upstairs Maid" sung by Bing Crosby in "The Birth of the Blues"

10. Like most cupcakes : ICED

11. Pastrami provider : DELI. I started the process of making pastrami yesterday. It'll be ready in around 22 days - it's the kind of thing you need to plan in advance!

12. Came down : ALIT

13. Guru : SAGE

18. Bandanna kin : DO-RAG

22. Place for family game night : REC ROOM

24. Arial, for one : TYPE. I was fixating on "The Tempest" at first and trying to come up with a four-letter word for "sprite" or "nymph".

25. Attendance record spoiler : ABSENCE

27. Regular hourly rate : BASE PAY

28. Genetic letters : RNA

29. Any one of the Arans : ISLE. Three islands off the west coast of Ireland in Galway Bay. Not to be confused with the Isle of Arran which is a Scottish island in the Firth of Clyde.

30. Big name in audio products : BOSE

31. Beijing blight : SMOG. I was lucky enough to visit Beijing during the Summer Olympics in 2008 when there was no smog - industry was shut down and car usage was restricted in the month leading up to the Games to clear the air. I thought the city was beautiful.

32. Serious disorder : MESS

33. Swear words? : OATH

34. Fox's title : BRER

38. Year in Nero's reign : LVI. He lasted as Roman Emperor from LIV through LXVIII and then committed suicide.

40. Run like heck : TEAR

43. Epic : IMMENSE

45. High on the Scoville scale : SPICY. It is if you equate spice with heat. Most spice mixtures aren't hot at all. The hottest I have is ghost pepper, three or four times hotter than a habanero, so it packs quite a punch.

48. Multichannel : STEREO

49. Making no progress : IN A RUT

52. Bacteria in a produce recall : E.COLI.

53. Brahms' instrument : PIANO

54. Proud cries : TADAS. Finishing moment for many online crossword solvers.

55. Teacher's handout : EXAM. Tried TEST. Didn't work.

56. __ cava : VENA. As well as the familiar blood vessel, this is also a winery in the Valle de Guadaloupe, Mexico.



57. May race, familiarly : INDY. The Indianapolis 500, more formally.

58. "Stay (I Missed You)" songwriter Lisa : LOEB. One of those songs that I know, but had no idea what it was called, nor who sang it.

59. Like, with "to" : AKIN

62. Out of use : OLD

63. See 6-Down : CHI

I think that's about it from me - have a nice day, all y'all and heeeeere's the grid!

Steve



45 comments:

OwenKL said...

{B+, B, C+.}

There's a school on an ISLE in Spain
Where NARCS are held in disdain.
From first grade on up
Everyone takes a puff --
MAYBE that's why EL HI is its name!

A hero came to Earth from far XENON,
A gas-giant an explosion was seen on.
When he needs to get flighty
He eats something SPICY,
And his giant gas jets help him speed on!

The SHRIMP SCAMPI detective was INEPT.
He splashed instead of quietly crept.
He MESSED up a job
With a SWORDFISH MOB --
He clearly was out of his depth!

Hungry Mother said...

Got the theme immediately, but didn't need it to solve an easy Thursday.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Naturally, I totally missed the g-l-u-t-e-n part of the theme. Otherwise, it was a smooth solve, and the ACELA came into the station ahead of schedule.

Wonder if BASE PAY has ever been clued as "Private's salary?"

Which is more correct, "Bose make" or "Bose makes?" Is it a pond-crossing thing?

Big Easy said...

Neat theme that I missed. It was obvious that none of the gluten free foods were missing gluten but I was more concerned with finishing, which I did with the unknown ROWAN being the last fill. I knew MAZURKA but wasn't sure of the spelling and not knowing Woody Allen's film didn't help so I left the cross blank and guessed Z.

I only had one change- FONT to TYPE- and Lisa LOEB was the only other unknown. I'm glad I finished it.

BABY BACK- I grill the ribs from the big pigs, you know, the ones that actually have meat on them.

D-O The more correct would be 'Bose MADE'- he died a few years ago.

oc4beach said...


Without perps there would be no way of finishing the puzzle's theme entries. Once a few down clues were filled in the "gluten-free" items became evident. Not real thrilled with the theme. Otherwise a reasonable puzzle.

No real fish were harmed in making the movie "The Perfect Storm," only rubber ones were used. (not very tasty and hard to chew)

Have a great day everyone.

Tinbeni said...

Steve: Excellent write-up. Just knew you would enjoy all the food.

Max: Thank You for a FUN Thursday puzzle with a few ideas for lunch. Yum!

Went to the Honda Dealership to have my CR-Z Air-Bag replaced (via re-call, on them).
Was told it might take 3 to 3.5 hours ... it as done in 45 minutes.
Barely gave me the time I needed to solve todays puzzle.

Fave today were all the themes ... since they are ALL personal favorites.

Even remembered ACELA ... though I haven't ever been on an Amtrak Express train.

BTW ... I prefer my cupcakes plain ... go figure.

Cheers!

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning!

Thanks, Max. The puzzle was fun when I decided to ignore the theme. Ha! Didn't get it until the explication. Clever idea!

Steve, thanks for the write up. I thought all that food would be a PERFECT STORM for you. I appreciate all your culinary details.

I agree with Tinbeni, the cake is better than the frosting--unless it happens to be a great whipped cream. I also prefer fine ice cream to buttercream. I do not, however, drink my Scotch neat. Although, my son is trying to teach me to drink it properly. :-) Never too old to learn. . . .

Have a wonderful day.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Ran into a few bumps but perps solved them handily. I, too, had font/type and I had no idea of the theme until the expo but the solve was smooth enough without knowing it.

Thanks, Max, for a fresh theme, and thanks, Steve, for a "tasty" tour.

I hope Bluehen's absence is not health-related. And where is TTP?

Have a great day.

C6D6 Peg said...

Unusual theme, but very workable for a Thursday. Thanks, Max, for the puzzle!

Glad to know Max got all that Food! in for you Steve. Absolutely fitting puzzle for you to explain! Would love to know how your pastrami turns out!

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-I’m glad Steve caught the underlying theme
-DRAB and non-DRAB visitors at our feeder
-The secretary at my former school has spent thousands of dollars travelling to see STEVIE perform
-EEG - Flatliners was a 1990 movie about researching near death experiences
-You must ATONE
-Perfect attendance all the way through EL-HI is remarkable
-Yes, you can overdo ICING
-Good wait staff can prosper despite ridiculously low BASE PAY
-My uncle always offers us a MESS of sweet corn
-Choose your SPICY level at Buffalo Wild Wings
-My EXAMS, like my blogs, are heavy with graphics

PK said...

Hi Y'all! This didn't start well for me. NW was a bugger. DISCO & ROWAN were last to fill. Used to love Mr. Bean but forgot his real name. Tried "blah" & "dull" before DRAB which is how I think of a GLUTEN-free diet. The rest of the puzzle went better with some WAGs and perps. The theme lines went in fairly easily with a little imagination. Thanks, Max. Thanks, Steve.

MAZURKA came easy. One of my few early piano pieces I liked to play.

Didn't know ZELIG or LOEB.

IM: I was wondering about Blue Hen too. Also thinking about BillG. & Barbara.

Anonymous T said...

Argg! Save the ink!

Even with copious write-overs I still FIW'd. iN EAR did me wrong - I was cool w/ the plural DISCi for playing Frisbee-golf in the summer... Frogs.

Thanks Max for a great "pick-your-poison-puzzle"... How many times have I heard "I can't eat that, there's GLUTEN"? Get your RNA out of the gene-pool you snobby little... ROWAN could make that look better.

Thanks Steve for the expo! And you SEE TO calling out the food! :-). [BABY BACK sous vide... Gotta do it].

My GAPS: I donno what I had @15a - NARC finally flushed out. 24d was my ELBA [yesterday?] - I put in font knowing I was right [bzzt]. That led me to Atend [sic] at 39a and more ink. Didn't help I wrote ELHI in at 66a...

Fav: XENON. ++points in Scrabble; double that when challenged. The only time I beat DW and her librarian BFF at their own game.

Runner-up: c/a for EARL of Sandwich. [CED - have time to find the whole sketch (my 8d @1st)?]

Anyone else think of The Goonies @ROCKY ROAD?

{A+, B, A- } ALSO, FLN - wonderful quite-blog prose.

Tin - LOL re: cup-cakes. Personally, I like a good cream-cheese icing - not too sweet; add Sambuca to the coffee and we're in business.

Steve - I'm w/ you on Blackadder v. Mr. Bean. ROWEN's stand up is funny too. [the faces he can make!]

Cheers, -T

Anonymous said...

EL-HI? Again? Ugh!

Bluehen said...

This puzzle was strangely doable for a Thursday. Perps solved all unknowns. The theme eluded me for the longest time. Well, I thought, it's true that none of the theme answers include wheat so all are gluten free but that is a strange theme. Took Steve's ERUDITE explication for the light bulb moment. I would love for the constructor to chime in and tell us the inspiration for the wacky theme (IMHO) and how long it took to become viable. Well done, both Max and Steve.

I apologize for being so reticent lately. I just haven't had much new to say each day. However, my mother did not raise me to be so aloof and self centered, so I would like to sincerely offer the following sentiments:
To all of those who celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, births, reunions, etc. my heartfelt congratulations. I hope you lived it up to the max.
To all of those suffering ill health, the ill health of a loved one, the vagaries of the weather or other natural disaster, please know that I hear you and my heart aches for you. The strength of some of you amazes me. To quote Chief Dan George, "Endeavor to persevere".
To Bill G., thank you for the link to Elvis' version of "Danny Boy". Still my favorite version of one of my favorite songs.
To the amateur poets, anagramists, linkers, etc. please keep doing what you do. Your efforts are appreciated. You make this blog sparkle.
To IM, thanks for asking, but my health is great. I am so glad that I gave that surgeon (notice he's no longer a sawbones) a Mulligan. The difference in pain level and recovery time between these two operations is like night and day. I have been flying through PT this time. As a matter of fact, the therapist just signed the discharge papers for Medicare, indicating that no more PT is required than the mandatory two weeks. I'm cleared to drive and Saturday AM will be driving my bride of 45 years to our remote mountain retreat in the high country of WV. I'm feeling so frisky, I'm thinking of taking my fishing gear to see if I an sneak up on some unsuspecting mountain rainbow trout. But, IM, no matter how full the car, I will make sure there is room for my bottle of 12 year old, single barrel, Black Label Jameison.

Cya!

CrossEyedDave said...

OwenKL, Awesome poetry late last night!

A tasty puzzle today, but without Steve's write up
I would never have known that it was free of the letters G,L,U,T,E, & N.

Sorry Anonymous-T, I can't find SNL's full Lord Douchebag clip either.

Reading the write up, & coming across the unusual "Z" in Zelig,
& "X" in Xenon, made me wonder if this could be a pangram...

(Doh!)

(I thought Crosswords were supposed to make you smarter?)

Actually, this puzzle is not gluten free, the letters
g,l,u,t,e, & n are almost everywhere. What IS missing is P, Q, & W...

Mike Mc said...

I just Googled Rowan Atkinson and found that there was an Internet hoax last month that he had committed suicide.

Misty said...

Bit of a Thursday toughie, although in the end I got everything but the Northwest corner. Finally had to cheat by looking up ATKINSON and BANDANNA, then Voila! I got the rest. Would never have figured out ROWAN or DORAG (didn't guess it was two words) otherwise. But I loved the food theme, and found lots of it fun--so, many thanks, Max! And your write-up was especially engaging this morning, Steve.

Enjoyed all your limericks this morning, Owen.

Thanks again for the "Mork and Mindy" segment you posted last night, Anonymous T. I really enjoyed watching it!

Have a great day, everybody!

Lemonade714 said...


Oddly quiet day for a very doable but creative puzzle.

So instead how about a quiz...no cheating



Something for seniors to do to keep those "aging" grey cells active! And for you younger ones, to get them growing!!

1. Johnny's mother had three children. The first child was named April. The second child was named May. What was the third child's name?

2. There is a clerk at the butcher shop, he is five feet ten inches tall and he wears size 13 sneakers. What does he weigh?

3. Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world?

4. How much dirt is there in a hole... that measures two feet by three feet by four feet?

5. What word in the English Language... is always spelled incorrectly?

6. Billy was born on December 28th, yet his birthday is always in the summer. How is this possible?

7. In California, you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. Why not?

8. What was the President’s Name...in 1975?

9. If you were running a race, and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in now?

10. Which is correct to say, "The yolk of the egg are white" or "The yolk of the egg is white"?

11. If a farmer has 5 haystacks in one field and 4 haystacks in the other field, how many haystacks would he have if he combined them all in another field?


Email me if you want instant feedback, otherwise I will post the answers this evening

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Had to look up MAZURKA. That gave me the BABY BACKs, which gave me BOSE (I wanted SONY). BOSE gave me ALSO. Finally got DISCO, which fixed "AreToo" and "InEar". I was receptive to ROWAN, since that's the sleepy little county I come from.

It is most recently known for the county clerk that went to jail for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses. It is better known for sports. Phil Simms played his college ball there. It was the home of the late Steve Hamilton, one of two men who played in both an NBA final and a World Series. Denny Doyle was another major league player to come out of the local college. And my favorite, Major Wilson, was a world-champion Tennessee Walking Horse.

Unknown said...

I had to run through the entire alphabet to get the "Z" in Mazurka/Zelig. Otherwise a fairly easy Thursday.

Lemonade714: I liked your quiz. The December 28th/ Summer birth took a minute to figure out

Ol' Man Keith said...

Don't know much about Gluten so wasn't helped or hindered by the theme.

The Z cross, MAZURKA/ZELIG, was a gimme to this old folk-dancing movie-goer.

Toughest for me was the left side. Just couldn't think of any of the short answers - until I gave up trying to squeeze MAFIA into MOB. Once I managed to think small, it all came through.

Lemonade714 said...

RE, there were a few very nicely misleading one in the Quiz.

See if you can figure out what these seven words all have in common?
1. Banana
2. Dresser
3. Grammar
4. Potato
5. Revive
6. Uneven
7. Assess

Ol' Man Keith said...

The Aran ISLEs are visible from the Cliffs of Moher, off Ireland's west coast. This is where Europe ripped itself away from the east coast of America. One of the great natural beauties of the earth.

Wilbur Charles said...

I had FISHEYE which would have been appropriate. Had LOPS and changed the O to A but left the L. Then I thought of GAPS. (noun).

Nero should never have messed with Jewish Christens. The Herod family suffered similar fates.

ELHI and ACELA not to speak of MAZURKA. And if not CHILE/I then ANDES

Gotta go. My bell got rung

Unknown said...

how does "came down" have anything to do with "alit'? The bird flew "UP" and alit on the very top of the tree. Alit has nothing to do with up or down.I had to use it because nothing else would fit but it was a bad clue. Plus although I have Polish cousins and saw the movie...Zelig and Mazurka intersection made the northeast a hard solve. I kept trying to fit some hitherto unknown kind of POLKA in the block. Oh well :(

I got the Gluten free as in in food right away but that didn't help much.

Jerome said...

I've made baby back ribs, pork loin ribs and pork spare ribs in a lot of different ways. I've found that simplest is best.

Season with a lot of salt and pepper. Don't scrimp.
Bring to room temperature, put in pan, cover with foil.
Bake 2 hours at 325.
Turn up temp to 375 and bake uncovered 20 to 30 more minutes.
Turn temp to broil and brush on generous amount of barbecue sauce. Don't scrimp.
Bake 5 more minutes. That's it... Feeds 4.

Baby backs are the top part of the rib cage next to the spine. They're the shortest of the rib cuts. So, they're named baby. It Has nothing to do with age.


Spitzboov said...

Good afternoon everyone.

Nice puzzle today from Max. No solving issues. Slow getting ON-EAR but finally parsed it right.
XENON - Car's headlamp is XENON although they don't advertise it much. When the lamp blows while under warranty, as mine did, they replace the whole assembly ~$1500 plus shop time. Scheesch!
BRER - I favor Brer Rabbit molasses on my oatmeal. Blackstrap not available locally, so have gone on line and gotten it from Rochester.

AnonymousPVX said...

Nicely done puzzle.

I must say that Stevie Nicks, attractive as she might be to some, has a voice that sounds like a goat.

OwenKL said...

Lemon: CROSSWORD could be added to your list.

The birthday question has a couple answers other than the one intended.

The Japanese have a fashion of calculating ages that is entirely different from ours. Every girl is a year old on the third of March after she is born, and every boy is a year old on the fifth of May following his advent into this world.

From other sources, all birthdays are new years day in Japan.

All thoroughbred horses have the same birthday so that their ages can be standardized for comparison. Their birthdays are January 1st in the northern hemisphere and August 1st in the southern hemisphere. For standardbreds it is one month later (at least in Australia).

Abejo said...

Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Max Carpenter, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for a fine review.

Used the IPad on this puzzle today too. I did get the correct newspaper today, but not early enough to start the puzzle.

About a Thursday level puzzle. Kind of tough.

My last letter was the V in STEVIE. I had an X. I was thinking Roman numerals. Then I realized a V would look much better. Either one may have been correct for Nero's reign. I might check that.

Never heard of the movie ZELIG.

XENON was tough but the perps were solid.

Had SCHEME for a while. Then BABY BACK RIBS fixed that to SCHEMA.

ACACIA is a favorite word and tree/bush for me. Anyone in my fraternity will feel the same.

Never heard of the ARANS. Perps worked.

On my way to a Knights Templar conclave in Glenview.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )


Bill G. said...

Lemon, I've always enjoyed puzzles and I've seen most of the first set of questions before. I enjoyed seeing them all over again. Here's another to add to your list: Do they have July 4th in England?

The second list was trickier. Would the word STAT fit in the list?

I've never understood the selling point of GLUTEN-FREE unless a person has Celiac disease. To me, it seems like a new eating fad, much like the appeal of Acai berry juice a few years back and others. Some people seem programmed to jump onto these new eating fads every time a new one comes along.

Anonymous T said...

Bill G - Yes, yes programmed they are. Folks will even self-diagnose themselves with Celiac (I know them!) and marketers jump on that. Ever see a bottle of water with "Gluten-Free" on the label. Wha? No wheat in water? Who'd-a-thunk?

Lem - I think I nailed the 1st quiz. A bit stymied on the 2nd.

Good to hear from you Bluehen!

Cheers, -T

Anonymous said...

I floundered in several places on this one and had to get help from the grid to finish. Not bad for a Thursday. Thanks, Max. I enjoyed the expo, Steve. Good food!

Fav clue: 57D May race, familiarly--The Pig!! The first Sunday in May is the Flying Pig Marathon and other activities. My daughter has been in either the 1/2 or whole since 2008. But it didn't fit.

To those who are making fun of those who claim to not be able to eat gluten, SHUT UP! I do not have celiac disease but I am sensitive to gluten. If I eat any I hope I'm at home because I'm going to be spending the next several hours in and out of the bathroom. It is a real issue. It is not a diet I would encourage anyone to follow if they don't have to. I miss my whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta. Gluten-free baked goods tend to be dry and tasteless. Not a good substitute. Rant over.

Pat

Irish Miss said...

Bluehen, glad to hear all is well. You sound very chipper and eager to get back to "work" having fun. Good luck with the trout 🐡 and good cheer with the Jameison. Enjoy your getaway. 🌈

Bill G, please give my best wishes to Barbara.

Anonymous T said...

Here's a fantastic way to spend 53:33 and, for those unfamiliar, get to know ROWEN Atkinson. If his humour is just not your cup of tea, simply don't spelt it with a U.

Cheers, -T

Anonymous said...

Owen, I'm not 100pct sure of the pattern of lemons list but I don't think Crossword fits, considering the second and last letters

terence mazzocco said...

I still don't get this clue. Somebody fill me in

Spitzboov said...

Lemon = The seven words all have the sequence where the last 2 letters are = to the 3rd and 2nd ltr in that order. ie Revive ends in ve which are the 3rd and 2nd ltrs read in reverse.

Spitzboov said...

Lemon -

1. Johnny
2. He probably weighs meat
3. Mt. Everest
4. The hole is an empty space - no dirt
5. Incorrectly
6. Billy must be in the Southern Hemisphere
7. You need a camera. (I looked this one up)
8, Obama
9. 2nd
10. York is yellow.
11. If combined there'd be 1 large one.

JD said...

Had a hard time getting a foothold . Mazurka was my last fill and had to look it up. Still have problems filling multiword answers, like see to, on ear... but they fell in place. LOVED the clues MIND READER, BILL FOR SHOTS, and SCOOP OR POOP. Thanks Max.
Like others, I did not get more than just the simpleness of the theme...it went over my head.

Jerome said...

Chuck- A buck on the side says you have a dictionary.

windhover said...

Shirts, hats, and other gear from the local university are also very popular, even among those who didn't go the school there or have no idea where it is.

Northwest Runner said...

The theme totally escaped me, but I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle. Some of the most creative cluing I've ever seen.

Argyle said...

"in response to" feature: Frankly, I'm not sure how it works but on the blogger home it shows when a comment is a reply to a previous comment. I believe most viewers can't see the original comment leading to confusion about the current post.

terence mazzocco @ 8:09 PM made a "in response to" question: "I still don't get this clue. Somebody fill me in".

It was a response to: Anonymous said...EL-HI? Again? Ugh! @ 12:08 PM

The original c/a was 65-Across. K thru 12 : EL-HI.

So Terence, it relates to schools; Kindergarten through Twelfth is also known as Elementary-High School (EL-HI) although most of us thoroughly hate it.

OwenKL said...

Ah ha. I was going by a simpler rule that at least 2 letters had to be repeated (which CROSSWORD fits). I now see based on Spitz's comment, the more rigid rule that once the initial letter it lopped off, the remaining ones are palindromic!