Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Thursday, September 13 - Joe Krozel & Victor Fleming

If I'm not mistaken, Victor Fleming is a judge. He teams up with Joe Krozel to give us a puzzle that's laden with legalese.

I had no idea that twenty years as a paralegal would make me a better crossword solver. It did at least one time.

The seven theme answers--each fifteen letters long--all refer to some aspect of the legal process...and they are:

14A: Serious crimes (capital offenses).

17A: Perry Mason line (the defense rests). That's actually a real life line as well.

32A: Order sought by an accused before trial (admission to bail).

39A: Hearing, e.g. (court appearance).

40A: Lawyers' requests at trials (motions to strike).

57A: Equals at a trial (jury of one's peers).

63A: Specialist's offering (expert testimony).

The last two were gimmes, but I didn't really struggle with any of them. Once I had a few letters in place from the downs, they all just fell nicely into the grid. I can't help but wonder how difficult this must have been for anyone without a legal background.

A few things I didn't know:

2D: Family name in Olympic skiing (Mahre). Never heard of them.

26A: "__ Robin Gray" (classic Scottish ballad) (Auld). Definitely not the Monday clue for that word.

28A: Dr. __ Schneider, historian who was a love interest of Indiana Jones (Elsa). Again, it wouldn't have been such an out-there clue early in the week.

42A: De bene __ (of conditional validity) (esse). Similar words I didn't know were 11D: Mythical mount (Ossa), 13D: What she is in Italy (essa) and 41A: You are, in Aragón (eres). Actually, I do know that one...from this song.

It made me smile to see 4A: Johnny Carson persona (Swami). I don't remember much about him, but I do remember that role.

Favorite clues include 35D: Lucky sorts? (Irish) and 44D: Key component (ivory).

Foreign words that were easy to guess were 22D: Meal, in Milan (pasto) and 37D: French cup (tasse). You know, like antipasto (food served before the meal) and demitasse (little cup).

I liked the crossing of homonyms at 60D: Abbr. on a firm's letterhead (Esq.)...very appropriate for this puzzle...and 65A: Relative of -ish (esque). We have frequently discussed hononyms vs. homophones, but my understanding is that the word homophones more appropriately describes identical letter sounds, such as the C in civil and the S in servant. Either way, I liked it.

I just realized we have a pangram. Damn, these guys are good!

I've never heard the expression if say (8D: Suppose), and I don't quite get 51D: From Nineveh: Abbr. (Assyr). Maybe someone can shed some light on those two.

Time to call it a night. Here's the grid...



...and I'll see you tomorrow.

Linda G

14 comments:

Orange said...

Your end questions:

Suppose you looked at it this way = If, say, you looked at it this way...

Abbreviation for Assyrian

Linda G said...

Thanks, Orange. The comma makes all the difference in IF SAY. And I was thinking along the line of travel from Nineveh, rather than having been born there.

Maybe in another 30 years I'll do better!

Unknown said...

Assyr as the clue f
"From Nineveh" is short for Assyrian.

Anonymous said...

Linda,You do a wonderful job...I had a terrible time with this puzzle...took me over one hour to solve and that was with Google help!!!
Enjoy the trip...do you have friends there or just spending the time at a hotel?
Bob

Linda G said...

Seriously, Bob, if I hadn't been in the legal field for many years, I would have torn my hair out on this one. There really wasn't much you could Google.

We swapped our timeshare for one of the weeks...the second week we're staying in a hotel on another end of the island. We probably should make some friends while we're there ; )

Anonymous said...

I never heard of "Admission to Bail" (32A), or "Orle" (18A), or "Ner" (66A).

"Bean Sprout" (15D)really threw me.

2D "Mahre" has appeared a few times over the years. I believe it refers to twin brothers who ski.

I never saw "Pasto" used by itself; antipasto, yes, pasta yes, pasto, no.

coachjdc said...

15 D was my favorite :-)
I was able to get the legal terms because along with US History, I also teach a Criminal Justice class.
Have a great trip, Linda.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't get to the puzzle until late today, and found it challenging but fun. I hope someone can still help me with 10D - "Night stand leader" with ONE as the answer. Help!

Anonymous said...

Doh! I wrote the last post, then jumped in the shower. As soon as the hot water hit my tired bones, I got "one night stand." Moral: always wait a bit.

cornbread hell said...

what an initiation!
i finally sprang the big bucks and got this puzzle online. it took me forever to finish. when i sub for you, if there's one like this, it might be morning before i post.

i liked it, but really struggled with several of the theme answers.

one of my favorite answers was *relaps.* now i'm gonna go have some sauce. (booze)

Linda G said...

JD, pasto is Italian for meal. We hear antipasto more often...the course before the meal, or the appetizer.

Coach, you're a person of many talents! (Several months ago there was a reader I thought was a man...just from the tone of the comments. But he turned out to be a woman. So I don't presume anything any more!)

Sue, I'm glad you posted the second comment. I'd gotten the answer from crosses so didn't really see the clue, but when I read your first comment, I couldn't figure it out.

Cornbread, you'll do just fine. When I finally subscribed many months ago, Rex said something like, "Welcome to the future...that is, the present."

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the nice commentary on Thursday's Times puzzle.

The puzzle was mostly the work of Joe Krozel, who developed the theme and did the initial grid construction. He is a master at the art of stacking 15-letter anmswers.

I tweaked the grid a tad, changed the non-theme fill a good bit (to make the pangram work) and wrote clues, half of which were changed (for the better) by Will.

My first time to visit your blog. I like it a lot,

Keep up the good work.

Vic Fleming

Linda G said...

Vic, thanks for your nice commentary. I hope you'll come back to visit (and comment) in the future.

Anonymous said...

Oh this was SOOOO hard for me, even working with my witty mother! What is a pangram?