google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday June 19th, 2016 Jeffrey Wechsler

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Jun 19, 2016

Sunday June 19th, 2016 Jeffrey Wechsler

Theme:  "I Ching" - CHING is added to each theme entry.

23A. Job for the philharmonic's publicist? : ORCHESTRA PITCHING. Orchestra pit.

41A. Sign over a woodcarver's shop? : NOTCHING FOR SALE. Not for Sale.
 
83A. Country club mentors? : TEACHING CADDIES. Tea caddies.

106A. Crowding on the barbecue grill? : HAMBURGER BUNCHING. Hamburger bun.
 
16D. Marriage of theater performers? : BROADWAY HITCHING. Broadway hit. Two pairs of Down entries intersect two Across entries. Nice!

36D. Late-shift laundry job? : EVENING STARCHING. Evening star.

This is the kind of the theme I'd not have dreamed of, adding a rare 5-letter string to each theme answer. Jeffrey is very creative when it comes to letter(s) addition/deletion/replacement gimmick.

Total 96 theme squares. Very manageable.  Jeffrey went low with 138 words. Our average is 144. Low word count often produces some snazzy entries like TRUE/FALSE (19. Type of question) and MT. SHASTA (77D. Highest peak in the Calif. Cascades). It also produces some wobbly long fill like REPACKER (78D. One changing hotels, perhaps) and abundant  3-letter words (total 42). Constructors are risking it when they go over 40 3-letter on a Sunday grid.

For those Sunday-only solvers, I met with the great Jeffrey last Sunday at the MN Crossword Tournament. He was busy with the event, but we managed to talk a bit about our blog & puzzle-making. He's passionate about crosswords and we're lucky to enjoy his talent & hard work on a regular basis.

 
Left to Right: David Liben-Nowell, Cathy Long (David's friend), Tom Pepper, Jeffrey Wechsler, David Hanson & C.C.


Across:
  
1. H.S. equivalency tests : GEDs

5. Hold on : WAIT

9. Mollusk named for its earlike extensions : SEA HARE. Helpful clue.


16. Tool used at home : BAT.  Home plate. Also 48A. Reliever Robb with 314 career saves : NEN. 79A. Target Field player : TWIN

21. One responsible to an officer : PAROLEE. Simple in retrospect.

22. Narrow inlet : RIA

25. Hockey legend : ORR

26. Rock bands : STRATA. Great clue.

27. Made tracks : RAN

28. Essen-to-Leipzig direction, locally : OST

29. Chief justice before Hughes : TAFT. Got via crosses, despite the CHIEF JUSTICE puzzle I made with George.

30. Sun. message : SER

31. Where narcs may be found : ON A BUST. Not a fan of this type of entry. Or IN A JAR/CAN. 

34. Headline makers : MEDIA

35. Weaving components : WEFTS

38. Kitchen appliance : JUICER. Mine is Jack Lalanne. 

39. Nielsen unit : VIEWER

40. Michelangelo masterpiece : DAVID. Did you try PIETA first?

44. Cell users' concerns : OVERAGES. Not a word I use.

46. Chaplin of "Game of Thrones" : OONA

47. QB's stats : YDs

49. Side-to-side movement : YAW

50. Devon demolition work : RASING. Crossing 50. Refresh one's knowledge of, to a Brit : RUB UP. The latter is new to me.

54. Med. research agency : NIH

56. Much Arctic Ocean coastline : ASIA Also 93. North Atlantic perils : BERGS

58. "Don't even try" : IT'S FUTILE. Reminds me of Jeffrey's I WAS MAD a while ago.

61. Modern storage unit : CD FILE. Also new to me. I don't use CDs any more.

64. Heartless role for Jack Haley? : TIN MAN. Nice clue/fill.

66. Union grievance figure : ARBITER

67. "We've Got Tonight" duettist with Rogers : EASTON (Sheena). Wiki says it was a hit in 1983. Was 1983 memorable to you? We were able to eat meat once a week then.

68. Marx collaborator : ENGELS. Heroes when I grew up.

69. Dodgeball taunt : YOU MISSED. Never played Dodgeball.

71. Twice tetra- : OCTA. 8.

72. Long-running NBC comedy : SNL

73. Self-described toon "dust magnet" : PIG PEN. "Peanuts".


74. Snitch : RAT

76. Engine room noise : HUM

77. "I pity the fool" speaker : MR. T

81. "A kind of library," to Borges : PARADISE. Unfamiliar with the saying. 


90. Symposium group : PANEL

91. Unexpected twist : SPRAIN. Not plot twist.

92. Raise : PARENT

94. Modern break-ins : HACKS

95. To whom Alice said, "Why, they're only a pack of cards" : HERSELF. Unexpected clue.

97. Stylish '60s Londoner : MOD

98. Liniment target : ACHE

99. Half a drum : TOM. This "Half a drum" solved a nagging problem for me yesterday. I just could not understand what the guy was talking on a YouTube clip, neither could Boomer. The "Half a drum"  came back to me in a few minutes.

100. Half of MXII : DVI. All crosses. I was not going to calculate.

101. Ring combo : ONE TWO

105. __ slope : SKI

111. High end of many a scale : TEN. On a scale of 1 to 10...

112. "The poetry of reality": Dawkins : SCIENCE. Jeffrey likes quote clues.

113. Initiates, as a conversation : STRIKES UP

114. Uru. neighbor : ARG

115. "Dylan & __": 1989 rock album collaboration : THE DEAD. Also unfamiliar to me. Bob Dylan. The Grateful Dead.

116. Song : TUNE

117. "Nice" Laurel and Hardy predicament : MESS. Got via crosses as well.

Down:

1. Car in a '60s hit : GTO

2. Goes astray : ERRS

3. Air line : DUCT. Loved the clue as well.

4. Very, in Mannheim : SEHR. A bit more challenging than TRES.

5. Doesn't use efficiently : WASTES

6. Vow site : ALTAR

7. Lod's land: Abbr. : ISR

8. Remove, as a coupon : TEAR OUT

9. Strength-building food of comics : SPINACH. Have any of you tried water spinach? So good.

10. Snack on : EAT. And 12. Snack cake brand : HO HOs

 11. Line on a globe : ARC

13. High-profile group : A-LIST

14. Flat charge : RENT. We've seen [Flat rate] clue before.

15. Med. recording : EEG

17. Control tower vista : AIRFIELD. There's one a few miles from our home. 

18. Raw beef dishes : TARTARES. This is plurable? Irish Miss likes steak tartare.

20. Dedication to a saint : FEAST DAY

24. Fast-spreading emotion : PANIC

29. Driving areas : TEES

32. "Cursed __ that did so!": "The Tempest" : BE I. Gluey entry. By the way, Bei means "North" in Chinese. Jing means "capital". So Beijing means "northern capital". 

33. Caterer's vessel : URN

34. Landmark case name : MIRANDA

35. Signals to try to score : WAVES IN

37. Christmas buy : FIR

38. __ A. Bank Clothiers : JOS. None in our neighborhood.


39. Beethoven opener? : VON. Ludwig van Beethoven.

40. Give : DONATE. Grateful for all constructors/volunteers who donated time and puzzles to the MN Crossword Tournament, esp Jeffrey.

41. Mature eft : NEWT

42. Ill-fated ones : GONERS

43. Golden Gate phenomenon : FOG

45. Investors' goals : GAINS

51. Grisham's "__ to Kill" : A TIME

52. Protest tactic : SIT IN

53. Martinique et RĂ©union : ILEs

55. "In that case ... " : IF SO

57. "I heartily agree" : AMEN

59. Adage : SAYING

60. Cleft-tongued critter : FROG. I never paid attention to frog's tongue.

61. Fragrant conifer : CEDAR

62. Chinese water garden staples : LOTUSES. Subjects of many Chinese poems. It stands for purity & tranquillity. Here are two plants Irish Miss sent to me back in March. The  frosty nights killed the third one. Do you know their names?




63. Paint choice : ENAMEL

65. What "can be yours ... if the price is right!" : ALL THIS. 7-letter partial.

70. Important times : ERAs

73. Etui item : PIN

75. Obsolescent music source : TAPE DECK

80. Take the gold : WIN

81. Guinea pig, for some : PET

82. Patriotic org. : DAR

84. Food to celebrate with : CAKE. Sorry for the Z crossing yesterday, Dave! Thanks to all who solved my puzzle and gave me valuable feedback. Yes, FermatPrime, I have two more in queue.

85. "Kiss of life," briefly : CPR

86. Small batteries : AAs

87. Saved from obscurity, with "up" : DREDGED

88. Probe : DELVE

89. Leading : IN FIRST

93. Sports journalist Bernstein : BONNIE


95. Pal : HOMIE

96. Nestle securely : EMBED

97. Express bereavement : MOURN

99. Measurer of rpm : TACH

102. Movie about giant ants : THEM. The poster looks too scary.

103. Impudent : WISE

104. Burden : ONUS

106. 33rd pres. : HST. Did you know the answer immediately? I know JFK was the 35th, then counted back.

107. A, in Arles : UNE

108. Red Seal label company : RCA. Wiki says RCA Red Seal is a classical music label. Jeffrey loves classical music.

109. Heating stat : BTU

110. New car feature, for short : GPS

C.C.

40 comments:

OwenKL said...

Some more serious poems today. The first two and to some extent the third are philosophical.
{C+, B, C+, C+.}

To Borges, PARADISE would be a kind of library,
With shelves stretching up to ceilings airy!
No due dates, no fines,
And you can check out the minds
Of authors past, for discussions so merry!

To Dawkins, the poetry of reality is SCIENCE,
Nature and Number in fruitful alliance!
Be it ever so immense,
The universe makes sense,
Knowledge drawing order and beauty from the silence!

Trying to get out of debt, IT'S FUTILE.
The strangle-hold of banking is brutal!
An ism to beat
Rapcious Wall Street?
There is one, but it's known to be Feudal!

The CEDAR and FIR agreed to a contest
To see which one of all trees was the best!
To show they were hunks,
They flexed limbs and trunks,
The lumberjack decided for the CEDAR's chest!

OwenKL said...

FIW. :-(
I had 115a THE BAND instead of THE DEAD. EMBEb must have been a typo (I know I put in EMBED, but probably typed over it without noticing) and the other two perps were unknowns.
As per usual on Sundays, I forgot to look at the title until I was near done, so took a long time to see the theme.

Where narcs can be found should have been Where a bra can be found.
Hand up for PIETA.

"Another FINE mess" was the catchphrase IIRC, though I suppose the nice variation could be found in one of the movies somewhere.
Nit: HO HOS are a product, HOSTESS BRANDS is the brand that produces them.

George Barany said...

This puzzle was a lot of fun to solve, and I also appreciate C.C.'s account. As some of you may know, I missed @Jeffrey Wechsler last weekend at the Minnesota Crossword Tournament, on account of being in California the same day for my daughter's graduation. On the other hand, I had met Jeffrey previously on the East coast, and have corresponded with him on several cruciverbal matters.

Of course, there was a bittersweet non-theme aspect to this puzzle: the crossing of 79-Across and 80-Down. These days, the local TWINs, beloved by C.C. and me, do not WIN very much.

If you are in a mood for a second Sunday-sized puzzle today, @Todd Gross has created Rock Around The Clock. After solving it, you might enjoy reading this "midrash," which includes links to some fun songs.

Anonymous said...

CHING, OK, but where are the I's?

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks, Jeff and CC! Nice theme!

Wow! This one took a while! No cheats, though!

The following were perped and/or wagged:

SEA HARE, NEN, TWIN, PARADISE, BONNIE.

Tried Pieta first, CC!

CC: what color shirt is JW wearing in the photo?

It is getting hotter and hotter here. Expect 109 degrees on Monday. Yuck. And in the middle of a drought!

Anonymous said...

Tartare is indeed plurable. TARTARES is all over French menus, such as at http://garbyrestopub.com/tartares/

Perhaps the better question is whether "plurble" is a word. I've never heard it.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Fun puzzle overall. The entire East Coast was the last to fall, partially due to going with EIN instead of VON for 39D.

Another hand up for PIETA before DAVID.

Oh, and I have to pick a nit with CPR being clued as "Kiss of life." To the best of my knowledge (and I may be wrong), artificial respiration is the kiss of life, not CPR. Artificial respiration often accompanies CPR, but you can certainly do CPR without it. In fact, I've heard that it's now recommended to perform CPR without it. So, yeah. Nit.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Hand up for PIETA, and that made "Signals to try to score" = WINKS AT. Made sense. Wrong! Also thought a lot of the arctic coast was FLOE. Nope. The engine room on an oil rig does not HUM -- it roars! Hearing protection is mandatory. Those are the same engines that power diesel locomotives. Nice puzzle, J.W.

Interesting about BEIJING (northern capital), C.C. Anon@6:38 -- apparently you weren't here when C.C. invented "plurable" a couple of years back.

RED SEAL -- RCA's guarantee that you'd pay at least a buck extra for the LP.

SCIENCE was a gimme. Richard Dawkins is one of my heroes.

Half-a-drum out.

billocohoes said...

How is VON an opener for Beethoven? Even CC's comment notes his name was van Beethoven (from his Flemish ancestry) not von, which denotes nobility in German. Another clue should've been used.

TTP said...

Good morning all. Waiting to watch the US Open. The puzzle was a great diversion. Thank you Jeffrey and CC !


Took me forever to get HAMBURGER. In fact, that area from CADDIES SW to THE DEAD probably took as long as the rest of the puzzle.

I was stationed in Mannheim (Sandhofen). Coleman Army AIRFIELD. 70th Trans (AVIM). Predominately rotor wing Dudley, but we did have some fixed wing. Eine sehr gut zeit !

WEFTS took awhile to DREDGE up. MafiA before MEDIA. ParTON before EASTON. PIGlet before PIGPEN. SEA HARE ? TGFP. (For Perps).

Had THIS. ALL THIS seemed to make sense and it fit. Especially after getting each letter in ALL from the perps. Yeah, I know, Bert Lahr and Jack Haley. But in the fog I was thinking Jack from the show 24, and initially put in hitMAN. Probably a remnant from having mafia earlier.

Hand up for never having heard RUB UP in that sense.

CC, DW says the first is variegated English Ivy, and her first thought on the second one is that it appears to be Hypoestes (polka dot plant). Not certain on the second one. She was in a hurry this morning and had to get going. Took her under 20 seconds to name them.

maripro said...

Very enjoyable puzzle from Jeffrey Wechsler and a lovely write-up from C.C. I especially liked your explanation of the meaning of Beijing.

Re "von" and "van," I have seen it used both ways with "Beethoven." A possible substitute clue might be "Von Miller," a Bronco's player, but he's not as famous as Ludwig.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads!

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning!

Very enjoyable start to a busy day. Thanks, Ed. Thanks for another fine and informative tour, C.C..

Enjoy this Fathers' Day!

Madame Defarge said...

PS:

I don't know how to create links. Sorry. If you have time, check out Mary Schmich's very thoughtful Fathers' Day column in today's Chicago Tribune.

Madame D

Husker Gary said...

A fun/challenging Sunday exercise where I got hung up in three places (SEAHARE?, EASTON not PARTON, ITS FUTILE not IT IS NO USE, CD DRIVE not I DRIVE) but prevailed on a very nice Sunday morning on the great plains.

Musings
-We should have gotten a smaller grill. I have had HAMBURGER BUNCHING only once in two years
-This iridium rich STRATA from a meteor marks the boundary below which are dinosaur fossils and above none.
-One past STRATA and a possible future one
-TAFT is the only president to later become chief justice. This was after he gave us Woodrow Wilson.
-Dodge ball is alive and well where I teach
-Education PANELS are more meaningful to me when they contain people who actually have contact with kids
-Teaching how to avoid the old ONE-TWO
-I have a sister and BIL who are WASTING talents living in near poeverty but it’s their lives
-The ARC is the faster route
-Gotta run! What better thing to do on Father’s Day than to meet my daughter to watch grandson play ball

Bill G. said...

Hi everybody. It's hot here (high 80s) but not nearly as hot as it will be 20 miles away in various other micro-climates in areas where it may reach close to 120 degrees F.

I really enjoyed the puzzle and the clever theme. Thanks Jeffrey and CC.

It was interesting to see TARTARES in the puzzle. I've had it once and liked it but a little goes a long way. I remember many years back when Life Magazine had a color page each week devoted to famous recipes. They published one for steak tartare including lean ground beef, chopped peppers, Worcestershire sauce, capers, etc. Next week, in the Letters to the Editors, someone wrote in and said it sounded delicious but they had omitted how to cook it. The editors wrote back and responded, "If you cook it, you've got hamburger."

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I thought this was a delightfully clever offering from JW who always keeps us on our toes. Caught the theme early which helped with the solve. Yet another hand up for Pieta and Parton before Easton. I was reading Borges as Borge (Victor) so I was stumped there and needed perps. Learning moment was sea hare but I'm sure there were others, as well. CSO to Tin Man and no _ _ _ to bug him. (I just remembered that he doesn't usually do the Sunday puzzle.)

Thanks, Jeffrey, for an easy-going Sunday saunter and thanks, CC, for the detailed and informative review. Now I'm curious as to what Peking means. (Slight change: Irish Miss LOVES steak tartare!)

Glad that half a drum was able to come to your rescue, CC. (AKA, DO in TX,)

Happy Father's Day!

Have a great day.

C6D6 Peg said...

Nice theme, and loved the punny expressions that were formed! Thanks, JW, for a great outing this am!

C.C. another very lovely write-up. Thanks, again!

Lucina said...

Happy Fathers Day to all the fathers! I hope you are treated royally.

Not much time to comment, only to say that PIETA fleetingly crossed my mind then I saw DONATE would be the down so DAVID went in.

Fun puzzle from Jeff Wex as Dudley calls him. I also looked for the I in I ching and for the most part CHING helped fill the long theme answers all of which I found very clever.

Thank you, JW and C.C. More later.

Have a celebratory Fathers Day, everyone!

PK said...

HI y'all! Great puzzle from Jeffrey! Great expo from C.C.

I started the puzzle in the Sunday paper because my wi-fi has been down since a branch fell on the cable during a storm Wed. night. It was on and then off a couple times. Finally I called my internet provider on Thursday and got a tech date for today Sunday. I had checked the computer this morning and had no internet. Then I unplugged the thing so I could move 2/3 of my computer desk out of the way of the input cable and clean out the dirt & cobweb accumulation of five years. Heavy work for an old woman. So this tech shows up who looks like he is 12 years-old with dragon tatoos on his arms and neck and a diamond stud in one ear. He tested everything. Couldn't find anything wrong. I turned on the computer and viola, the internet worked fine. Did I feel stupid! Well, unplugging & replugging may have corrected whatever happened to it when the storm shut off the power for an hour last Wednesday. Personally I think Puff, the magic dragon tat on the kid shazaamed the thing well. You can't fool me. There is a lot of magic involved in this computer stuff.

Anyway, I threw away the mostly blank newsprint puzzle with a sigh of relief and tuned into the Mensa site for a much needed puzzle fix with red-letter help. Man, three days is a long dry period without my daily puzzle. And a meaty JeffWex satisfied the craving.

C.C.: About 1983, my oldest graduated high school and went off to college leaving me to mourn the loss. We raised choice beef and ate it twice a day.

Learning experience: fragrant conifers = CEDARS. Cedars have berries not cones so I don't think of them as coniferous, but WIKI says they are. Our farm was surrounded by a CEDAR break and I planted many replacement trees.

Angela said...

Hi Everyone,
I usually don't check this site until early afternoon on the east coast [SC]. I am happy to see that all you smart bloggers have the same areas in question that I have. Just wanted to say that I was stunned to see Bonnie's name. I taught her in first grade!

Spitzboov said...

Good afternoon everyone.

Liked the theme. A good workout; nothing annoying.
14a - flat charge - RENT. I believe the clue refers to 'apartment' another word for 'flat'. I know the term is common in NYC.
40a - DAVID - Tried Pieta first.
4d - SEHR - I prefer the L. German 'heel'; pronounced as the English 'hale'. Grew up with it.
39d - VON - Although born in Germany, Beethoven's paternal grandfather was a Fleming from Brabant. So its seems to make sense that he kept the 'van' in his name.

Unknown said...

Tough puzzle but I finally finished with no cheats.

PK: Your learning experience comment gave me a learning experience as well. I researched CEDARS and found that TRUE CEDARS are native to the Western Himalayas and Middle East, but not North America. True Cedars have pretty fair sized cones. The Western Red Cedar, indigenous to my neck of the woods, in not actually a cedar.

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling Thoughts":

I don't normally do Sunday puzzles but did this one while watching the early wave of US Open players before the leaders TEE off.

It took me awhile as I got hung up in several places, but I hung in there and persevered. Too many write-overs to list; but I didn't mistake DAVID for PIETA, as I solved FEAST DAY first and knew it had to end in a D. I got stuck on 78d and 111a as I wanted TON instead of TEN. Maybe if the clue had read "Bo Derek movie number" ...

Argent said...

I had DOOMED instead of GONERS for awhile, and Alice talking to HERSELF derailed me for a bit.

Re RUB UP - I agree with C.C. I was a London-based journalist for over a decade and never heard the phrase. It must be regional. Can anyone here provide any more information? I suppose it's like the American "brush up" in derivation (work to smooth out any rough or dulled patches).

For Madame Defarge: The Tribune doesn't seem to have Mary Schmich's column up yet, but here's a link to all of her columns.

SwampCat said...

I loved this one! No, of course I didn't finish. It's Sunday and a Jeff Wex. Waaay over my head. But the struggle was entertaining and I kept plugging away with much pleasure.

I'm feeling pretty smug because I got DAVID and never thought of Pieta. I must admit I had the Ds from FEAST DAY and DONATE first so it was obvious.

I got NOTCHINGFOR SALE. from perps, But still don't understand it. Oh wait....."notch" . Just pass the V-8 can, please. Just typing it out here was a revelation. Who knew?

Thanks, Jeffrey, and C.C. for the enlightenment.

Jayce said...

I like this puzzle very much, and think the CHING addition is very clever and fun. While I had to look up a bunch of stuff in order to finish yesterday's puzzle, today I was able to solve it all without such assistance. Some really great clues and fill.

I do feel extremely weird with calling the "Beethoven opener" VON. Of course I entered VAN and didn't want to change it. When 41 Across just had to have that "O" there, it bothered me. Even Beethoven himself would correct people when they introduced him as Ludwig Von Beethoven. Ludwig Van Beethoven means "Lewis (or Lodewijk or Louis) from the beet fields." In German, his name would have been something like "Ludwig von Rubenhoffen."

Like Lucina, I had DONATE and FIR in the downs, so I knew it was DAVID and not PIETA. But yes, I did think of PIETA.

Our dentist's name is MIRANDA. My wife's sister's name means Precious LOTUS.

I sure didn't know a frog's tongue is cleft.

I saw the movie Them when I was in high school. I sure thought it was scary!

Best wishes to you all.

desper-otto said...

If memory serves, James Arness (Gunsmoke) turned into the monster in Them.

Yellowrocks said...

The tree commonly called cedar, not the true cedar, has berries, which are actually a type of cone.
cedar berries are really cones

PK said...

I can attest to the fact that birds like blue cedar/juniper berries/cones. I bought a new red Mercury years ago and parked it under the cedars in front of the house. A flock of migrating birds sat in the trees and ate berries and decorated my car. You could hardly see the color. I had to wash the windshield so I could see to go to town to the car wash. Took two trips through to get it all off. The birds were gone the next day.

inanehiker said...

Fun challenge of a puzzle - slowly worked through it. Thanks Jeffrey for the creative theme and fill.

@BarryG -- IMO the CPR cluing is valid - it is cardiopulmonary resuscitation and up until a few years ago it always started with the artificial resuscitation(2) and then went into the rhythm of alternating chest compressions and breaths (15:1 or 15:2 ratio depending on whether it was a two person or one person job.) Recently it has been recognized that the cardiac portion of the arrest is the most important aspect (especially in adults) and 1 person should just get started with the chest compressions to the rhythm of "Stayin' Alive" (cute, I know, but easy to remember)

Thanks CC for the write-up and Happy Father's day to all the fathers at the corner. My dad is gone and my husband is away on a mission trip to Uganda so it was a quiet day, but did make a trip to a nearby nursing home to visit someone who is like another dad to me.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Late to the dance. Enjoyed the puzzle, made easier by the Ching segments in the theme answers.

Inane Hiker - the CPR compression cadence set up by "Stayin' Alive" seems to work, but recently a medical professional clued me in to the fact that "Another One Bites The Dust" gives essentially the same cadence, and roughly equal odds of success. Grim, but kinda funny!

Anonymous T said...

Sunday lurk say.

I thought YR's berry-eating/pooping birds story was funny but, Dudley, that CPR mnemonic is beer-out-the-nose LOL! Macabre, but funny.

Cheers, -T

TP said...

Re comment from desper-otto: James Arness was the monster in "The Thing" (1951), but he was also in the movie "Them" as an FBI agent.

Wilbur Charles said...

No. He was THE THING

Argyle said...

James Arness played The Thing in The Thing from Another World(1951). Them!(1954), had James Arness as an FBI Agent.

Unknown said...

van Beethoven, not von Beethoven!

Anonymous said...

Yes, I echo Mark Carlson here, a fellow musician and FB friend. It is "van" not "von". Please pass this on to Jeffrey. This is a common error. Thanks!
-Ann Pittel, Director, Cornerstone Music Conservatory, West Lost Angeles.

Picard said...

Sorry for being dense but why is Ring Combo ONE TWO?

Interesting about the Borges quote "I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library." When I was a freshman in college I read "The Library of Babel" which is a most imaginative short story that seems to have deep cosmological and philosophical meanings.

Several years later I was very fortunate to meet Borges and asked what he had in mind writing that story. His answer was not what I hoped for. He simply said that at the time he wrote that story he had a boring job at a library.

Argyle said...

The old left-right in the boxing ring. Or the right-left if you are a lefty.

Picard said...

Thank you Argyle!