google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday, May 26, 2011, Jack McIntruff

Advertisements

May 26, 2011

Thursday, May 26, 2011, Jack McIntruff

Theme: Whee! Fun homonyms. I might have gone with the five (three sir!) little piggies, but that's spelled the same as one of the clues.

17. We: PERSONAL PRONOUN.

23. Wie: GOLFER MICHELLE.

33. Oui: FRENCH YES.

50. Wee: EXTREMELY SMALL.

57. Wii: NINTENDO CONSOLE.

Hi all, another Thursday, and another puzzle with the clues carrying the theme instead of the answers. A good mix, all different spellings and meanings. For a while there, I thought I wasn't going to be able to think of another one to to tie them together.

ACROSS:

1. Bass-baritone Simon: ESTES. A late week, more obscure clue than Colorado Park.

6. Second-century date: CXIX.

10. Welding sparks: ARCS.

14. Hard to stir: STOIC. Stir, as in the emotional sense.

15. Old __, Connecticut: LYME. Historical district, artist's colony, and summer resort. Pop. 7500.

16. Half a fictional detecting pair: NORA. Nick and Nora Charles (with Asta the crossword puzzle terrier).

20. Prov. bordering four Great Lakes: ONTario, Canada.

21. Limoges liver: FOIE. French  Foie gras is "fatty" liver.

22. Saltpeter: NITER. Puts the bang in gunpowder and takes it away from something else.

27. Maroon: ENISLE. I had the "LE" at first and was thinking PURPLE? That can't be right.

28. Cycle start: TRI.

29. Common street name: ELM.

30. Amateur golfer's score, perhaps: LIE.  If you lie about your lie, you won't lie easy.

31. Lasting impression: SCAR.  From Old French escare "scab," from Greek eskhara "scab formed after a burn," lit. "hearth, fireplace,"

32. Confucian path: TAO. Literally "the way", path.

38. First woman to land a triple axel in competition: ITO. Midori.

41. Nyctophobic fictional race: ELOI. Afraid of the dark because the Morlocks lived below and hunted at night.

42. Fed. fiscal agency: OMB. Office of Management and Budget.

45. Cheese partner: MAC. We just call it "glop".

46. Moving aid: VAN. Shortening of caravan.

47. "Obviously": SO I SEE.

53. Win by __: A HAIR.  Anyone for a nose or a mile first?

54. Words before many words?: IN SO.  Idiom: In so many words.

55. Canadian attorney's deg.: LLB. Bachelor of Laws.  The double L is a plural form abbreviation, like pp for pages or bbl for barrels.

61. Seller of FĂ–RNUFT flatware: IKEA. Swedish uses umlauts, too.

62. Phnom __: PENH. Capitol of Cambodia, today's geography lesson.

63. Corn Belt native: IOWAN.

64. Tracy's Trueheart: TESS. The Dick Tracy comic strip that went 18 years before they finally married on Christmas, in 1949.

65. Chipmunks creator Bagdasarian: ROSS. (Rostom) The real name of David Seville, the original voice of Alvin, Simon and Theodore.  Later he employed female vocal artists, recorded at 33, and played back at 45 rpm.

66. Recipe amts.: TBSPS. Equal to half a fluid ounce, one-sixteenth of a cup.

DOWN:

1. Five-time Art Ross Trophy winner, for short: ESPO. Phil Esposito, hockey.

2. Baseball's "Old Perfessor": STENGEL. Casey.  "They told me my services were no longer desired because they wanted to put in a youth program as an advance way of keeping the club going. I'll never make the mistake of being seventy again."

3. Ristorante dessert: TORTONI. Ice cream made with heavy cream, minced almonds, chopped maraschino cherries, flavored with rum. How have I never had this?

4. Frozen Wasser: EIS. German: water, ice.

5. Mocks: SCOFFS.

6. Eau __, Wisconsin: CLAIRE. "Clear waters".

7. Water-carrying plant tissue: XYLEM. A picture is worth a thousand words.

8. Sitter's handful: IMP. Old English impe, impa "young shoot, graft," from impian "to graft," sense of "child, offspring" came from transfer of the word from plants to people. "Suche appereth as aungelles, but in very dede they be ymps of serpentes."

9. Thirtysomething, e.g.: X-ER.

10. Hall of fame: ANNIE. My best guess is referring to the Woody Allen movie with Diane Keaton,since  fame is in lower-case, so not part of a title.

11. Small plant support: ROOTLET.

12. Fur-loving villain de Vil: CRUELLA.

13. Riviera resort: SAN REMO.

18. Carol: NOEL.

19. Available for service: ON HIRE. Again? This still sounds odd to me. On call, now that I understand all too well..

24. Gladly: LIEF. Etymology gives this as "dear" or "love" as with German lieb.

25. Burning desire: ITCH. Um... not really the kind of burning you want to associate with desire.

26. Supercomputer name: CRAY.

31. Fi front: SCI. Science Fiction.

34. Admire greatly: REVERE. From revereri to stand in awe of, to fear, to be wary of.

35. Ancient rival of Assyria: ELAM. Now part of southwest Iran.

36. Zilch: NONE.

37. Slugger Sammy: SOSA.

38. Mom's tough emphasis: I MEAN IT.

39. It makes one's net smaller: TAX HIKE.

40. Pump ratings: OCTANES.

43. Veges (out): MELLOWS.

44. Last track circuit: BELL LAP.

47. Meshes: SYNCHS.

48. __ buco: OSSO. Italian: bone with a hole, a marrow bone of veal with vegetables and wine.

49. Music to the boss's ears: I'M ON IT.

51. Coolidge and Moreno: RITAS.

52. Ford Field team: LIONS. Football, Detroit.

56. Uncle __: BEN'S. Competitor for Minute Rice.

58. "Fresh Air" airer: NPR. A talk show hosted by Terry Gross for over 30 years.

59. __ gratias: DEO. Latin: Thanks be to God.

60. Sound after a breakup, maybe: SOB. Hmmm, that could be what was done, or what was said...


Al

Note from C.C.:

Here is a beautiful picture of Linda & her husband cutting their 50th wedding anniversary cake last Saturday. She said: "Being a non-traditionalist, I chose lavender, pink and white as my color theme. Those were our wedding colors. The cake topper is the original one.  Note the photo at lower left of us cutting the first cake".

69 comments:

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Ran out of time on this one and just couldn't get it done. The theme answers were relatively easy to get, but a lot of the other stuff killed me. I eventually got the crossing of ESTES and ESPO on the NW, but it took awhile. I never got the CXIX/XYLEM/LYME/FOIS section, however, despite finally getting XER at 9D. I just didn't know XLYEM or LYME, guessed ever letter except for the X in C_IX and misspelled FOIS as FOIX.

Down in the SE, I wiped out at BELL LAP (never heard of it), LLB (never heard of it) and OMB (heard of it, but forgot it).

thehondohurricane said...

Good day folks,

In a rush this AM due to 10:35 start for today's BB game. This puzzle was a struggle for me. When I solved the Michelle Wie clue I knew the contructors MO for today and it made the rest of the theme answers come easily. But there sure some WTF's too. Nyctophobic race, Fornuft flatware, Bagdasarian, Water carrying plant tissue, fur loving villain....., & Assyria rival? Wags/Swags were the order of the day. And enisle, is that a word? Shows as a spelling error on my computer.

To compound matters, I had dent instead of scar and Russ instead of Ross.

In spite of all my bitching, I finished... almost. Never could get the X in 6A & 9D. Wagged a V. What the Hell, I was only off by 5. But admittedly, I did enjoy Mr McInturff's offering. It's good to get mentally beat up occasionally.

At least it will be a perfect weather day for the ball game. Enjoy your day.

Lemonade714 said...

Well good morning all, this one had its moments and its obscurities, but I was lucky as they all fell in place. Not familiar with Mr. Estes, but the perps got me home, and ENISLE does not seem like a real word, but what do I know. Americans used to get LLBs until a bachelor degree became a prerequisite for law school. It was nice to see old Casey Stengel mentioned, and Annie Hall is still hailed as a great movie by many. Tortoni is quite interesting, and can be shared with someone getting spumoni/
Just w/u for me.
Dennis, any interesting floatation devices in your travels?

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning Friends. This was a tough Thursday for me. It wasn't until I filled in FRENCH YES that I felt I had enough of a toe hold to actually complete this puzzle.

My favorite clue was Hall of Fame = ANNIE. That one had me going for a while, but then the light went on!

I confidently wrote down STRAND for Maroon. I had to look up the word ENISLE after the perps filled it in. According to Webster's the word means: (1) to place apart / isolate, or (2) to make an island of.

I wasn't fool by winning by A HAIR because the perps had already given me the final "R".

Thank you for sharing your 50th anniversary with us, Linda. Come back and join us again in blue.

QOD: Heresy is another word for freedom of thought. ~ Graham Greene

Tinbeni said...

Al, Thank you for an informative write-up.

Well ... the themes were doable.

INK BLOT test that may get me arrested.
Geez, what a mess and a DNF.

Had 'Strand' for Maroon. STENGEL & NOEL helped but I never got ENISLE.
XYLEM crossing FOIE got a WTF !!!

Last week, Zilch was Nada.
(In that puzzle I put in 'none' at first).
So, today I put in 'nada' and it was NONE.

ON HIRE didn't fool me twice. (Still don't like it).
The RITA'S showed me it was A-HAIR.
Hand-up for wanting a-nose.

I agree SOB may be something done after a breakup.
Never heard it was a sound.

Fave was the Nyctophobic ELOI clue.

Game 7 Friday. Should be a great one.

HeartRx said...

Good morning Al, C.C. et al.

Terrific write-up, Al. I did not remember Midori Ito, so thanks for that link – but I know I will forget her name even before tomorrow’s puzzle.

Funny how the mind thinks – I immediately put in ENISLE, because I knew this was way to difficult a puzzle for it to be something as straightforward as “Strand”.

And for “Win by___”, I thought hmmm: a hair, a nose, a neck…OK, just wait for the perps. But wait! THERE WERE NO PERPS!

In fact, the entire south was mostly blank for the longest time, until I started picking away and finally saw CONSOLE. I have a Wii down in my gym that I use all the time, but had the hardest time thinking of NINTENDO…I wanted “exercise”.

MELLOWS and TAX HIKE made me slam on the brakes, but finally saw them emerge. So I come away a little battered and bruised, but with no permanent SCARs.

Have a great day, everyone!

Husker Gary said...

Rain has stopped and we are off the Henry Doorly Zoo today with Heckle and Jeckle on a beautiful day on the prairie. I thought “Whee!” as well and enjoyed the trip!

Musings
-Lie about a golf score? Who me?
-Silent H on PENH got me.
-No hockey for me except for ESPO and ORR in puzzles.
-No Tiramisu either - TORTONI
-I got Hall and wondered whether liver might be someone who “lives” somewhere
-‘Enry said Liza’s jewelry in My Fair Lady were “hired”
-Got LIEF but needed Al’s erudite explanation to “get it”
-Semper, Hi, Re, Fee nope? SCI
-I’ve rung that bell for the last lap!
-Lions are loving Huskers Suh and Alberts!
-What a lovely couple Linda!

Husker Gary said...

Addendum to yesterday –
Thanks for the respectful note WH, I mistook the word “sustaining” to mean sustaining three million people here and six billion worldwide and really knew better.

Of course I am familiar with the dead zone, chemical leeching, water table levels, BT issues, ethanol, government subsidies, etc. I also fervently hope we can find safer and more earth friendly methods to balance ecology with feeding the masses.

I look forward to continuing this dialogue off-site if you would like! Have a great blue grass day!

Grumpy 1 said...

Good morning, Al, C.C. and gang. This puzzle did a good job of deflating my ego. I was beginning to think I was getting pretty good at solving but I ran head on into reality. ENISLE crossing LIEF? German ice? That's really CRUEL! Surprisingly, FOIE and ELOI filled easily and the theme revealed itself early. I really wanted something to do with game to go with CONSOLE, but perps finally pointed to the obvious.

We usually watch speed skating events when the Winter Olympics are on, so BELL LAP was almost a gimme.

I thought the theme was fun but and there were some clever clues, but I really struggled to get some of the more obscure stuff.

Linda, great pic of your Fantastic Fifty celebration. Congratulations.

Avg Joe said...

This one beat me. DNF with 4 blanks and 2 errors. The first 2 letters of 7 and 9D were blank, had FOIs and DEi. They all make sense, but just couldn't come up with them at the time.

I had no problem with ENISLE. That's one that appears often enough I don't question it. A little clunky, maybe, but not wrong.

carol said...

Ouch, Ouch...this one was not a good experience for me this morning!! DNF...I think Barry G (and others) said it very well. About the only one I DID get was my name (18D) Sad, sad, but it is Thursday and I expected a toughie :)

Splynter said...

Hi There ~!

Ditto on the STRAND and A NOSE, and I was feeling a bit "meh" on LIE and LIEF crossing - I get the LIE play on words, but never heard of LIEF.

Took too long for me to get ESPO, must be the fact that we have a game seven, Tampa Bay ~!

XYLEM crept up from the depths of my mind, and saved me from a disaster in the NW.

And all that French, too....

Splynter

Clear Ayes said...

Good Morning All, I knew I was in for it in the NW. I didn't know ESTES and baseball clues are not my forté. So...skip 1 & 2 Down. Next up, I really wanted TIRAMISU at 3D...didn't fit. Since "Wasser" was capitalized at 4D, I thought it must be a proper name.

So it went. I didn't know LYME, XYLEM, CRAY, ELAM....blah, blah...

After my first pass, I switched over to X'd incorrect letters in Across Lite preferences. That helped a lot and eventually I muddled through and backed into the NW as my last fills.

All that doesn't mean I didn't like it. Yesterday, Don G. mentioned gathering the theme answers is the hardest part. No doubt on this one!

There were some great misleading Thursday level clues. I loved 10D/Hall of fame/ANNIE and 30A/Amateur golfer's score, perhaps/LIE.

Best Thursday level clue was "nyctophobic ..." for the often seen 41A/ELOI.

dulburm said...

Nice puzzle, nice write-up! Thanks!
Specifically, couldn't help but wonder if Jack had the same thoughts as Al re SOB.

Never before have I been able to get all the theme answers so quickly with so few perps.

And never before have I had so much trouble with a roman numeral! The 6A/9D X was more a how-could-you-be-so-stupid moment than a lightbulb.

This Angeleno also wondered briefly how many miles it might be from Old LYME, CT to Natick, MA.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning all. Nice write-up, Al. Nice picture, Linda.

Fairly difficult. Theme words came home eventually, but had much trouble getting into Jack's thinking. Many of the clues ENISLEd me. I know LIEF in German but did not know it it had English usage. C'est la guerre. WAG's incliuded XYLEM, ESTES, ELOI, TAO, and OSSO. Not into racing so didn't know BELL LAP, either. Thought clue for ANNIE was quite clever. Lot's of new stuff learnt today.

Enjoy the day.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

I never could get the hang of Thursdays, but was able to get through this one with perp help, a few swags, some head scratching and a couple of AHA! moments. That's especially satisfying since I am physically and mentally very sluggish today.

Good theme, but one probably shouldn't double it.

Al - great job.

My favorite baseball trivia question: in 1927, the year that Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs, what was Casey Stengel doing?

I left a comment yesterday, but it seems to have disappeared. Congrats to CC and Don on another fine puzzle, and to Marti for an entertaining and informative write up.

Cheers!
JzB

Denny said...

Gladly = LIEF? To veg out = to MELLOW? A plant is "supported" by a ROOTLET? Simon ESTES?

Too tough, vague, obscure, misleading and occasionally, downright inaccurate cluing today. Three minutes in, I knew I'd spend most of today doing the Google.

JD said...

Good morning Al, C.C. and all,

I was all over the place with this one, trying to get a foothold anywhere. I proudly completed 2/3 of it, leaving extremely small and nintendo console inc.Not enough perps in that area.Wish I could say I missed it by a hair, but not so.

Loved the answers mac and scar.

Linda, what a lovely picture of a memorable event.

kazie said...

This at first looked impossible, but in the end I only had to g'spot the names (people, places and things!): STENGEL, TORTONI, XYLEM, ESTES. I didn't realize WIE was a name, so didn't get MICHELLE. I thought of "German conjunction" for WIE, and couldn't come up with anything else, and that didn't fit. The perps failed me, as I also missed the ANNIE non-capitalized 'hall'. Wanted ROOT NET, thinking of support as help, external to the plant, holding it together before planting.

sherry said...

Lots of problems. I also have never heard of belllap? Themes were fairly easy,didn't know Michelle Wie. Had to look her up. Also the Vegas clue-mellows?

kazie said...

Since I'm taking my time on my first day back from another week away, this time visiting son #2 in Little Rock, I made time for this one. I'm suffering from internet withdrawal, since he only has access on his phone. Can't stand computers at home since he works on one 12 hours daily when at his job.

We had a lengthy trip each way by car, but on the home run got to experience the Ozarks much of the way for the first time. Amazing scenery, and impressive road building through the rock faces.

Good to be home again though.

Anonymous said...

Eis is ice cream in german. I was there 9 years. Your mother always told you to wear clean underwear!!! I thought this was an english crossword. anonomous whom got deleted was probly right to, also Denny. Pathetic today.

Barry G. said...

It's strange the things that stick (and don't stick) in our brains. My first (and only) thought for 7D was PHLOEM, despite the fact that (a) I wasn't really sure what PHLOEM actually meant and (b) I knew there was no way that P could be part of 6A.

I finally just got around to looking it up, and apparently PHLOEM is a synonym of XYLEM. Or vice versa, as the case may be. Nice to know I was on the right track, even if I took the wrong train...

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers - I'm squarely in the "I got my butt kicked" camp today. Too many unknowns to complete as a no-peeky. Had to Goog ITO, STENGEL, and CRUELLA. Mixed up Michelle Wie and Kwan. Darn sports clues.

Made lots of guesses, most wrong, and didn't recognize ELM for the longest time, even with all its letters. Even bollixed the Roman numeral. Not my day. Oh, hand up for win by A NOSE.

LIEF? Really? Aargh!

kazie said...

Linda and your DH,
Wonderful photo! Congratulations on your life together. Such a rarity these days.

For anonymous at 10:47am, and anyone else to whom it may apply: WHO is the Subjective case, used when it is the subject of a verb (as are I, he, she, we, they). The objects of verbs or prepositions are in the Objective case: (WHOM, me, him, her, us, them). "you" and "it" manage to stay the same in both cases.

We are still assailed with errors like "him and her went to town" or "between you and I", or in the "anonomous whom got deleted" example, just driven crazy by the spelling as well as the passive voice verb having WHOM as its subject.

End of rant--my turn this time, Sallie!

Jazzbumpa said...

LIEF is an obscure word, and though many of you would just as LIEF leave it out, it is perfectly acceptable.

To VEG out - perhaps as a couch potato - is one way to mellow out. What's the problem?

ON HIRE doesn't feel right, I'll agree with that.

The Germans might call ice cream "ice." We do the same with sherbet here, right? But EIS really does mean ICE = gefroren water.

Inaccurate cluing really annoys me, but there isn't much of it here.
The only inaccurate clue I see is "It makes one's net smaller." Net income is the bottom line number on which taxes are calculated, so a TAX HIKE does not make the net smaller.

It only feels that way.

Cheers!
JzB

creature said...

Good Day C.C., Al and all,

Thanks for all the explanations; I hope I’ll eventually know all the story of Morelock and Eloi; like, Tinbeni says, learning moments are short lived. Is this Harry Potter?

Jack gave us a tough but good puzzle. It took forever to work, but every time I got off the phone, I saw more answers. ENISLE was my third entry; the ‘e’ at each end gave it to me. Actually, today was ‘perps and wags ‘ day.- plus letter-at-a-time day. My biggest hangup was the ‘y’ in LYME/ XYLEM; a tiny voice began to remember a biology lesson., years ago.

Someone asked where do we go for tornado warnings; we go to the basement. I take lap top, Ipod, flashlights and a bell. Of course, we have a water dispenser{on a well}if electric goes off, small refrig. Also, a regular plug-in phone.

By the time it reached us last night, the temperature had lowered, thus it wasn’t so wild. Major oak tree fell over {next to a horse field}. The ground is so saturated, the root ball just rose from the ground; it’s approx. 35’ wide and even has a couple of other trees in it.I can’t tell how deep it is-next to a side access road.

Have a nice day everyone.

eddyB said...

Hello.

Cray brought back happy memories
of many visits to Minneapolis.
Seymour used our type of logic for
the Cray-1.

Squall line should be through Indy.

Take care.

Grumpy 1 said...

JazzB, I think the clue for TAXHIKE is OK. If you're drawing a paycheck, the taxes are deducted based on your gross income, thus a TAX HIKE makes the amount left (net) smaller.

To our Anonymous contributors (and Denny), I guess this one was above your pay grade. Yes, there were obscure words, misleading clues and misdirection. We expect some or all of that by Thursday. I did not find one inaccurate clue, though. Between the constructor and the editor, the inaccuracies are pretty well eliminated. If you feel a clue is inaccurate, you probably haven't sensed the proper tense or meaning of a word or two in the clue.

Anonymous said...

Sorry for the grammer Sallie. I have no left arm. I lost it in iraq somewhere and its hard to type on a mobile phone. I hated today like i stated. But i did finish it though. God bless all and have a happy memorial day next week. See ya

JD said...

Creature, sounds like you are very prepared for these tornados. Wowzer! That is one big root ball.How many horses do you have?

'on call' sounds so much better than 'on hire', but I guess he needed other letters.I never doubt the research that goes into these puzzles.

kazie said...

Anonymous @12:26 PM,
I'm sorry for jumping at you for the grammar. It was I, not Sallie, but I referenced her because I know she is also irked at such English errors. I meant that I was doing the explaining on her behalf as well.

I am deeply sorry if my rant seemed to be directed only at you, but we had some discussions a week ago about our pet peeves in English usage, so I felt justified in adding my 2 cents worth. I can't imagine how difficult life must be for you in general after your injuries. Please accept my apology.

Jeannie said...

As my girlfriend’s German mother used to say, I had trouble with a capital D today. Surprisingly, I did know all the theme answers but didn’t come close to finishing. I didn’t “win by a hair” and I lost by more than a nose. The learning moment from Al was the geography lesson on Phnom-Penh. I guess I’m not a good Minnesotan as I don’t follow hockey so have never heard of the Art Ross trophy. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.

Al, I can assure you that my mac –n-cheese is not glop! For you newbies, you can search for my recipe in the archives of this blog.

Linda, you are one beautiful lady and that handsome man by your side is no slouch either!

Anonymous said...

Good afternoon everyone.

What a beautiful picture, Linda. You, your handsome husband, and the cake. Thanks for letting us see it.

Superb write up, AL. Especially the graphic of XYLEM. And yes, I had a nose for 53A. Didn't get much today. But it was fun trying.

Kazie, you done good with your rant and your apology.

Cheers

thehondohurricane said...

Jazz,

I'm pretty sure Casey's career had ended by 1927 and there would be a time lapse before he began to manage. My guess is he had begun his career in banking, Glendale Bank comes to mind and I believe he would eventually become bank prez.

It's a day of WAGS for me.

Hondo

Jeannie said...

Todays riddles: No cheating!

A man wanted to work but he could not log in to his computer terminal successfully. He tried twice but his password didn't work. He suddenly remembered that the passwords are reset every month for security purposes. So he called his boss and said,
Man-"Hey boss, my password is out of date."
Boss-"Yes, that's right. The password is different, listen carefully, I am sure, you can figure out the new one. The new one has the same amount of letters as your old password, but only four of the letters are the same."
Man: "Thanks boss." With that he could correctly log into his station. Can you tell me his new and old passwords?

The number 8,549,176,320 is unique. How?

Bill G. said...

Dunno about the password puzzle. Is it a riddle or is it all logic? There doesn't seem to be enough information. But knowing how tricky you are...? So maybe I need a hint.

For 8,549,176,320, it seems to be divisible by all the digits from one to 10. But so is 5040. So maybe I need another hint. Hmmm, maybe it's more about words than digits?

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone. This was a DNF for me. There were too many unknowns for me, Niter, Arcs, OMB, LLB,Bell Lap. Sports clues are my downfall and the Hall of Fame clue really caught me. Duh.

I didn't know the creator of the Chipmunks, and also had forgotten about Midori Ito. I did a lot of lookups today, which isn't my idea of doing a puzzle on my own. I do learn something but it takes up too much time.

I've just put together 100 fruit kabobs for a reception this afternoon honoring teachers from several different districts in our area. So I'm off to deliver those and enjoy the rest of the afternoon.

No rain for graduation last night. Smiled a lot.

Have a great day everyone.

Lucina said...

Hello, Friends. Very late today because I have been glued to the new computer trying to adjust to it. Hard!

Linda, thank you for sharing your beautiful photo and congratulations on 50! As Kazie said, not reacged much these days.

Yowza! I shall blame it on jet lag and out of practice not to mention sports clues right out of the box! I slid to the bottom and did well since there were no names with which to deal, well, ROSS and TESS but no problem, finished half way up then had to stop for my techie neighbor to do his magic on the computer.

Finally I did the most hated thing, Ggled the names to finish. ENISLE was familiar as we have seen it before, but LIEF, who knew? All of my first pass fill had to be changed but I liked the theme answers. Fave today was Nyctophobic race, ELOI, definitely a Thursday clue!

Well done, Jack McInturff, thank you and Al, as well for many learning moments.

I hope your Thursday is delightful!

Lucina said...

Jeannie:
The number seems to contain all the digits, 1234567890 for the decimal system.

Hahtoolah said...

Lucina: I hope you are able to navigate your new computer. What did you get?

Jeannie: I agree, I would never call the mac 'n cheese that my grandmother made "glob.". Hers was wonderful and just the thought brings up good childhood memories.

Jerome said...

"Whom are you?" he asked, for he had been to business college.

George Ade

Grumpy 1 said...

Old password was "outofdate"
New password is "different"

Same number of letters, four letters,d, e,f,and t reused.

The number is the amount of increase in the national debt in the last two years of the Bush administration and the first two years of the Obama administration.

JUST KIDDING!!

creature said...

Jeannie, is the old password November and the new December?

creature said...

OUCH! Grumpy's right. Only 4 letters alike.

Linda, Thanks for sharing your neat anniversary picture. Both of you look wonderful! Like the original topper idea.

HeartRx said...

Jeannie, if his old password was "outofdate", I think I know the answer. But, I'll wait to see if anyone else gets it.

Spitzboov said...

Jeannie:

place ⇔ laced ??

HeartRx said...

SHOOT, Grumpy1 - you beat me to it again!!

Lucina said...

Hahtool:
The new computer has Windows 7 which is very different from Vista, my previous one. I'm slowly adjusting to it, but you know, "old habits die hard." Thanks for asking.

Grumpy 1 said...

I'll amend the new password to "carefully". It meets the criteria and none of the four reused letters are repeated.

I just realized that number needs to multiplied by 1000 or so.

Avg Joe said...

Grumpy, Yes, I was gonna comment on that. Or as Everett Dirksen so famously said: "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking about real money.

dodo said...

Jeannie, it has all the numbers from 0 to 10 with no repeats of any.

Jazzbumpa said...

Linda - You look fabulous!

Hondo - In 1927 Casey Stengel was the manager of the Toledo Mudhens. I didn't know anything about his banking business.

I won't argue about net. We are thinking of different things. I was thinking of business tax, where it is levied against net profit; you are thinking of personal tax.

If a fisherman spends the off-season mending nets, and charges by the item, he makes a net profit.

The nail company found short nails with wide heads to be unprofitable. They took a tacks loss.

Grumpy - You did make it non-partisan!

Cheers!
JzB who is seriously vegging

dodo said...

Hello everybody.

Well, we're pretty much in agreement about this one, aren't we? Good for you, Jack! You really stumped us.

It wasn't just that I didn't really know a lot of the answers, but somehow, the perps weren't where I needed them and I just couldn't get a foothold. Did the 'nada/none' thing; Annie Hall went right over my head, and that just kills me! Read 'axel' as 'axle' and I can't tell you all the hours I sat watching my daughter practice them over several long ago years. I remembered 'enisle' from other crosswords and I have heard and read 'lief' used exactly the way JazzB used it, but that doesn't mean I got it without perps! Oh well! Oops! Over the line!

dodo said...

Kazie and Sallie, I'm with you on those irritating little grammar errors! The other day I was watching an interview with some young t.v. or music or something star and he was saying
something "was good for me and....": and he quickly switched to "for my wife and I" Yeeek! Right the first time, the idiot!

Oh, one more thing: 'on hire' sounds to me like a Brit term. I think of "for hire" as being American usage. Kazie, do you know?

Bill G. said...

If I'm correct that the digits puzzle is more about words than numbers, then the digits are in alphabetical order. Yes? And also happens to be divisible by all the digits, a bonus!

thehondohurricane said...

Jazz,

Casey was a banker, but giving it more thought, I think it may have been the time between managing the Yankees and the Mets. I do not remember if it was a legit position or if he was a figurehead. I do know he was a helluva lot smarter then the media portrayed him.

Never new about the Mud Hen gig, do you know how long it lasted? Wasn't he managing the Braves (Bees) in the 30's?

You got my curiosity up. Time for some serious Stengel research. Do you want to be kept up to date or will it be "old hat" for you?

Hondo

kazie said...

Dodo,
'On hire' sounds odd to me too. But Aussies and Pommies do differ on a lot of expressions, so I assumed it could be British.

Then I decided to look in my little concise OED, and sure enough, there it was: "on hire: available for hire". Mystery solved!

dodo said...

Help! Sometimes I can view my profile and it will say 'Edit Profile" and others it doesn't offer me that opportunity.I'm still trying to change my avatar and even though Annette sent me some wonderful instructions a long time ago, I still can't do it. Now I'm not even getting 'edit profile'. My email address is available from my p.rofile

Avg Joe said...

Dodo,

Since I've just recently gone blue, I've had some recent similar experience with this. Not sure it will apply to you, but it might.

Rather than clicking on your avatar, try clicking on the blue name "Dodo. That should get you there. You will probably get a strange message after you've made changes, but they will still take effect. Hope this works and that it helps.

Miss Manners, the retired teacher said...

I too am a former teacher and I understand how tempting it is to correct grammatical misuse and misspelling. But please remember this is a public forum. We are all adults here and might think it rude to be picked out and criticised as if we were children.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hondo -

By all means keep me updated - thanx!

IF something is old hat, that just means I've had plenty of time to forget.

Cheers!
JzB

Jeannie said...

Awards go out to Grumpy1, Heartrx and BillG.

Answers were in the riddle on the first one: old, out of date and the new, different.

BillG, the only other twist is that that number is the longest number that uses all ten digits that are in alphabetical order. That's what made it unique. Your addition that they all can be a division of all numbers is indeed a bonus! Are you going to use this one in a future column?

I just made the best Thelma's fried chicken outside on the side burner of the grill using Thelma's Mom's cast iron skillet. I swear it's Stella's (my Granny) singing through that darn deep skillet. It's probably one of the most coveted cooking itemsI own, and it's probably more taken care of than my car!

HeartRx said...

Jeannie, keep those riddles coming - a fun addition to our little corner! And I know how you feel about Stella's skillet...I also have a cast iron skillet that belonged to my grandmother, and it is the most priceless utensil in my kitchen!

BTW, do you ever "wash" yours? Curious to know how you treat it, as I have my own special procedures...

WikWak said...

Ugh. Felt like somebody used those cast iron skiddles on ME when this one was finished.

(And no, I NEVER wash mine! Just wipe it out and re-oil it. My DOD [Dear Old Dad] would roll over in his grave if soapy water and a scouring pad ever hit mine.)

Linda said...

Thank you all for your kind words and well wishes on our anniversary.

It`s been a good week! I just got home from watching my oldest grandchild graduate high school with over $30,000 in scholarship money.

Seldom Seen said...

MissManners: Thank you. I'm just a bumpkin from Ohio and I make mistakes often. Leave me be and just look down upon me.

As to iron skillets...I have a few and they are priceless. Everyone has their own process but this is a good guide.

Seldom Seen said...

I don't hate teachers. A lot of my friends are teachers. There are teachers in my family. I'm just sayin'.

Lemonade714 said...

Dodo, you have to be signed in to edit your profile, so even though you were when you posted, you were logged out and while still blue you are not on blogger, and cannot edit