Theme: Borrowed Words - Lexical borrowing is the adoption of individual words or phrases in their native language and used "as is" in our English.
39A. With 42-Across, cars like BMWs and Audis ... or 18-, 24-, 53- and 63-Across: FOREIGN. 42-Across: IMPORTS
18A. Writer's chief work (Latin): MAGNUM OPUS. (great work)
24A. Done deal (French): FAIT ACCOMPLI. (fact accomplished)
53A. English, in many non-English speaking countries (Italian): LINGUA FRANCA. Literally "Frankish tongue". Good definition by Merriam-Webster. LINK Read the "Did You Know?" section.
63A. Young sensation (German): WUNDERKIND. (a wonder child)
Argyle here. Don't shoot the messenger.
Across:
1. Ponzi scheme, e.g.: SCAM
5. Impersonated: APED
9. Your __ Highness: ROYAL. 37D. Princess' headpiece: TIARA
14. Drilled bowling ball feature: HOLE
15. Artist Magritte: RENE
16. Shah of Iran, in 1979-'80: EXILE. ??
17. Bahrain big shot: EMIR. Kingdom of Bahrain is a small Arab monarchy.
20. Sphere of influence: AMBIT. The adjective form is ambient.
22. Drinking glass edges: RIMs
23. Ambulance initials: EMS. (emergency medical service)
28. Farm country skyline highlights: SILOS
29. Nissan model: SENTRA
33. "Take me for a walk!": [ARF!]
36. Expel from office: OUST
38. Amazon's business: E-TAIL
44. Rhett's last words: A DAMN
45. Siamese, now: THAI
47. __ dye: food-coloring compound: AZO. Infrequently seen fill.
48. Live (in): RESIDE
50. Lover of Euridice, in a Gluck opera: ORFEO. Wiki Previously clued as Monteverdi title character. Not Monday friendly.
58. Word with health or day: SPA
61. Oboist's need: REED
62. Lagoon-enclosing isle: ATOLL
67. Sinister: EVIL
68. Cortés subject: AZTEC. I believe this refers to Cortés personally governing the Aztecs, making them his "subjects".
69. Wrinkle, as a brow: KNIT
70. San __, Italy: REMO
71. Suppose for argument's sake: POSIT
72. Many van Goghs: OILS
73. Killed, as a dragon: SLEW
Down:
1. Harvest bundle: SHEAF
2. Grammar class subject: COMMA. Also, in the news.
3. Legal defense mechanism?: ALIBI
4. Advantages: MERITS
5. Shortstop's asset: ARM. He has to rifle the ball to first base to beat the runner.
6. Green soup veggie: PEA
7. Thoroughly absorb: ENGROSS
8. Jeans fabric: DENIM
9. Dreaming phase: REM SLEEP. (rapid eye movement)
10. Kitchenware brand: OXO
11. Frightened exclamation: [YIPE!]
12. University fund-raising target: ALUM
13. A smaller amount of: LESS
19. Quartet assigned to bases: UMPs. In the big leagues, at least.
21. Mai __: TAI
25. Plumber's challenge: CLOG
26. Dracula's title: COUNT
27. Avid about: INTO
30. Skater Lipinski: TARA. Roller skating as a nine-year-old.
31. Nabisco cracker: RITZ
32. "Wait, there's more ... ": "ALSO ... " for a limited time.
33. Miles away: AFAR
34. Traveled by bike: RODE
35. Abbey titles: FRAs
40. Oscar winner Jannings: EMIL. The first Oscar recipient and one of the first persons you learn when doing crosswords.
41. Roundabout, as a route: INDIRECT
43. Offend slightly: MIFF
46. Entertainer who often got tied up in his work?: HOUDINI. Cute clue.
49. Part of DOE: Abbr.: ENERgy
51. Historic period: ERA
52. Many top-rated TV shows of the late '50s/early '60s: OATERS. Westerns.
54. Gordon __, "Wall Street" antagonist: GEKKO. "If you need a friend, get a dog."
55. James Joyce work: NOVEL. CSO
56. Weather, in poems: CLIME
57. Permit: ALLOW
58. Tit for tat, e.g.: SWAP
59. "The Godfather" novelist Mario: PUZO. It was on TV this weekend.
60. Teeny colonizers: ANTs
64. Agnus __: DEI. (Lamb of God)
65. Zip, in soccer: NIL
66. Wino's woe: DTs. (delirium tremens)
Argyle
52 comments:
Crunchy for a Monday with a lot of strange words even without the themers! e.g., AMBIT and POSIT -- I tried to look up examples of how AMBIT is used to put in a poem, and found only a deluge of companies named AMBIT, but never the word as a word!
{C, C, B-, B+, A-.}
There was a young buck from SAN REMO
Who thought that his bed skills were primo!
But the ladies he served
Had a more reserved word --
But wavered between niño and bambino!
What to do when they OUST a ROYAL EXILE?
Consign him to live on a ATOLL or isle?
If becoming free
Is a FAIT ACCOMPLI
There's a SLEW of places he could HOLE up awhile!
A mysterious agent was ADAM N.;
Secrets he knew of nations FOREIGN!
His all-purpose ALIBI
As a WUNDERKIND spy --
"A DAMN dog ate our SHEAF of secrets again!"
A COUNT and an EMIR went out on the town.
They ate at the RITZ, where crackers are round.
The EMIR'S religion
Said wine is forbidden,
So the COUNT showed him where the best blood could be found!
HOUDINI was proud of his MAGNUM OPUS
He would transform someone with hocus pocus
The first person to heckle
He'd SWAP into a GECKO!
Or if really MIFFED, he'd make him a crocus!
Good Morning, Argyle and friends. Youch! Is today Monday. or did I skip a few days. This was quite a challenge for a Monday morning. I caught the theme at FAIT ACCOMPLI, but WUNDERKIND just didn't come to me.
We've had discussions about the Oxford COMMA before. The Oakhurst Farms in Maine learned just why it is so important.
Rapid Eye also fits into the space for REM SLEEP.
I knew EMIL (Jannings, 1884-1950), only because he makes frequent guest appearances in the puzzles. Same with AZO.
ORFEO was a complete unknown. If it has appeared in the puzzles before, I had forgotten.
Although we often see Angus DEI, all I could think of was the Angus COW.
QOD: Simply by not owning three medium-sized castles in Tuscany, I have saved enough money in the last forty years on insurance premiums alone to buy a medium-sized castle in Tuscany. ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (Mar. 27, 1886 ~ Aug. 17, 1969)
Good morning!
Recognized all the foreign phrases, and that made for quick work on this one. Luckily ORFEO was filled by the perps -- definitely outside my AMBIT. I was expecting a specific James Joyce work; I'll bet Misty will have something to say about that. Thanx, Morton and Argyle.
This is clearly the ultimate nose thumbing puzzle for people who do not believe foreign words belong in English speaking crossword puzzles. ORFEO also is the least common expression of ORPHEUS. My oh my.
I enjoyed the CSO to Boomer-Drilled bowling ball feature: HOLE and to me and Oo- Siamese, now: THAI and the unrelated MAI TAI, which is her drink of choice.
AMBIT and POSIT are both common in legal palaver; Legal defense mechanism?: ALIBI seems oddly clued. But it was a challenge and fun.
Thanks Morton and Scott.
Not a bad Thursday puzzle. Didn't know Rene Magritte or Orfeo. Learning opportunities also with Magnum Opus, ambit and Lingua Franca. YR - Is Morton OK with "foreign imports"? Shouldn't it be just "imports"? Is there a "domestic import"? CC - or any of the other baseball gurus hanging out on the Corner - aren't there just three basses on a diamond, plus a plate? I have never heard of a home base umpire.
I erased realm for AMBIT. Should have erased aMPS for UMPS, but neither made sense to me.
Not my cup of tea today, but I won't shoot the messenger. What kind of fiend would shoot Santa, anyway.
Back safe and sound in Virginia. Zoe the greyhound was a little concerned when her new home suddenly shrank (the slide-outs came in) and started rolling down the road. She is learning all about her new bricks-and-sticks home now, including how to navigate full flights of stairs. She's doing fine with that, but it will take some time to build her confidence. She is good with the neighborhood dogs, and just adores meeting all the new humans.
Hi Y'all! Great puzzle, Morton! Great expo, Argyle! Thanks to whomever fixed it so I could post again.
I was sure ORFEO had a "u - s" at the end. I also was thinking "ORphEus in the underworld" and wished he'd stayed there after getting red-letters with the first three tries at filling this.
First pass I had nothing in the NW. I was trying to think of a fancy name for HOLE, I guess. HOLE seemed to easy for the rest of the puzzle. Duh!
Jinx: isn't there always an Ump behind the catcher at home base? Not sure what you meant there.
Good morning all
Well I'm glad I'm not the only one who found this to be crunchy for a Monday. I got all of the foreign phrases easily except LINGUAFRANCA ( thanks for the link, Argyle! Learning moment for me) I've never heard of it and like DO, was looking for a specific Joyce work not the generic NOVEL so the SE gave me some trouble. Didn't help that CLIME took awhile and I had Slay>SLEW due to reading the tense wrong.
Other unknowns: AMBIT, RENE, AZO, POSIT and ORFEO.
Thanks Morton for a good work to start the week and Argyle for guiding us along :)
Jinx- nice to read the update on Zoe. Sounds like she's adjusting well!
Have a great day everyone :)
Needed ESP (Every-Single-Perp) to get ORFEO ... didn't have a clue who Euridice is and never heard of a Gluck opera.
Fave today, of course, was the Mai-TAI ... I do like my booze answers.
Cheers!
PK is correct about the home plate being a base.
From Wikipedia: "Home plate, formally designated home base in the rules, is the final base that a player must touch to score. Unlike the other bases, home plate is a five-sided slab of whitened rubber that is set at ground level."
And there is an ump at home behind the catcher making a total of 4 Umps :)
In baseball, home is a base, but not a bag (1st, 2nd, & 3rd are called bags, but not home). Home is definitely more often referred to as home plate when locating pitches.
"Foreign import" seems superfluously redundant....
Good day to all!
A fun puzzle from Morton Mendelson, but this is Monday, right? I am not familiar with the phrases MAGNUM OPUS or LINGUA FRANCA, so thank you perps. Gordon GEKKO was another complete unknown. Thanks for the expo, Argyle. That was an amazing clip of young TARA Lipinski on roller skates.
Enjoy the day!
Just ran across this on a (mostly) humorous poetry site I frequent.
Silver Anniversary
by Jessica Shaver
What happened to my Prince Charming
Who swept me up on his horse?
He's middle-aged, overweight, balding,
He has bad breath, and he snorse.
Ambit on a Monday? And that wasn't the only clue that belongs later in the week. A very nice puzzle, but the editor's decision to run it at the start of the week is questionable. Another gripe I will lay at the editor's feet is the description of Gordon Gekko as an antagonist. He may have been a villain, but I wouldn't consider him an antagonist. That role fell more to the investigators even though they were the good guys.
Was this Monday? The puzzle itself was okay if a bit crunchy, but not what I expected today. Are AMBIT, POSIT, Monday words? And ORFEO? Only if the whole puzzle was written in Latin.
Thanks, Argyle for the expo.
Owen, I thought they were all A's! The first one was my favorite.
Needless to say, I loved the foreign borrowings today, since often it's the foreign words that get me started in more difficult puzzles at the end of the week. However, AZO was completely new to me, so I needed perps there.
YR, ANON T., BILL G,
Nice to know I'm in good company on the grammar front. So many of my student used to tell me they never understood English grammar before taking my French or German courses. The utilitarian nature of educational philosophy these days, with authorities dropping such courses seen as "frills" may be why we hear so many errors in the relatively recent graduates.
Musings
-Let’s all chip in and get Rich a new calendar. Monday? I had a good time anyway!!
-Our wonderful Uber drivers last week were from Cameroon, Ethiopia, Iran, Pakistan and Benin. English was the LINGUA FRANCA.
-Pickett’s charge was a FAIT ACCOMPLI which Lee deeply regretted
-SCAM – Anyone else getting calls saying the IRS is going to sue you?
-Bowling? Check out the first place name in mixed doubles and opt. singles in St. Paul recently
-I know it’s LIPS or RIMS and so of course I get the I first and then the S
-Baseball fans know that a shortstop needs a great ARM to make this play “from the hole”
-My daughter is taking up somewhat serious bike riding and so she bought a bike for that purpose. The first time she RODE with clips on her feet two weeks ago, she fell after 100’, but she’s getting better
-RE: QOD – My wife always reminds me of how much she saved when she buys a bunch of clothes. If your think my reply starts with, “If you hadn’t bought those clothes…”, you’ve never been married.
Good morning everyone.
Got it all without help, but with one white-out - had Oreo before RITZ. Got ORFEO and GEKKO from the perps. At least the FOREIGN IMPORTS were clued as to their native language.
Have a great day
Good Morning:
I agree that there was more crunch than usual for a Monday but perps were fair, so no harm, no foul. My "faux pas" was thinking the Nissan model was a Sentry which made Also (Wait, there's more..) hard in coming. I think Novel should have been clued with a lesser mortal than James Joyce. (Misty?) I initially started to spell Gekko as Gecko, as in the ubiquitous Geico fella! I must say that the Gecko-less ads are some of the most idiotic and senseless ads on television. But the most annoying, IMHO, is My Pillow.com. ACK,
Thanks, MJM, for a nice start to the week and thanks, Argyle, for getting the message across!
Jinx, thanks for the update on Zoe. I'm sure she'll have lots of new nooks and crannies to sniff out! 🐶
PK, welcome back! We've missed your wit and amusing anecdotes. Try to stay on the good side of the cyber gremlins! 😈
Rain, rain and more rain! ☔️ Sunshine (finally!) Wednesday but more rain Friday. April showers, doncha know!
Have a great day.
Very easy solve, even though a couple of items were unknowns.
I was able to do it in a little more time than a Thursday would take, but it wasn't as hard as it first seemed. Perps were the savior again. The foreign phrases were mostly known, but took a while to present themselves.
Clues I didn't know RENE, AZO, ORFEO and EMIL. My usual downfall - proper names. Note: no serial comma and probably the incorrect use of a dash.
AZTEC could also be "Cortes conquest." Does the period belong inside the quotes or are the quotes even necessary?
I actually enjoyed today's puzzle. Morton did a good job in constructing and Argyle did a good job conducting the tour. However, Rich probably should have made it a Wednesday puzzle at least.
HG: Yes, the scammers are out in full force here. For the past week I have been averaging over 8 scam calls a day. I have had two different IRS scam calls with different accents and slightly different dialogues. They don't have their acts together. They get belligerent when I mess with them.
Have a great day everyone.
Typical Monday, no unfamiliar words or phrases. Fun puzzle, Morton and fun expo, Argyle.
Jinx, "foreign imports" may seem redundant, but it such a commonly used phrase that I just accept it.
ORFEO ed Euridice is the original Italian version of the opera. (French version: Orphée et Eurydice; English: Orpheus and Eurydice)
The spelling of Euridice tells us we need the Italian ORFEO spelling.
AMBIT is not that unusual in news magazines and newspapers. Examples:
TripAdvisor has a slightly different problem: Its ambit is so broad that its recommendations have come to represent a safe median, a poll of polls. New York Times Aug 23, 2016
The changes at the museum show Ms. Carter, who graduated from law school in 2006, widening her ambit as protector of the Harper Lee brand. Wall Street Journal Jul 29, 2015
A taxpayer may fall within the ambit of the offence without any intention or knowledge on their part. Newsweek Mar 19, 2015
AGNUS DEI is Lamb of God
ANGUS is a cow
AGNES is dear Cornerite
BTW, Agnes, the name, means pure or holy.
Famous example of CLIME:
Gunga Din by Rudyard Kipling
Now in Injia's sunny clime,
Where I used to spend my time
A-servin' of 'Er Majesty the Queen,
Of all them blackfaced crew
The finest man I knew
Was our regimental bhisti, Gunga Din.
I think it is time for a puzzle for the average Joe or Josie!
Hi All!
Well Misty, irony that we just talked (FLN) about hanging one's head in shame on a Monday. 5 (Five!) bad squares this morning.
Thanks Morton for the effort - I tried to have fun. Dude, I this dyslexic has enough problems w/ English to attempt FOREIGN [breaks I/E rule and tosses in a G just for giggles! It's pronounced fer'n] IMPORTS spellings'.
Thanks Argyle for pointing out my bad squares (and the SLEW'd Lego dragon -- cute!).
Bzzt(s): Not ALIas for 3d; not rATEd-S (? I donno either - I didn't exist then); not WaNDERKIND.
[OK, Full stop. Wunerkind? That's a Triple-U... Who puts a U next to a W? Germans!*]
WO: YIkE b/f YIPE.
ESPs: AZO, DEI, FRAS (as clue'd) and 90% spelling of the IMPORTS.
Nit: Shortstop's asset is range. Pitching and outfield == ARM. (Also a MERIT at 3rd base; or to get there ;-))
Fav: TAI and THAI in the same puzzle. That's a win.
{A (LOL!), B,C,B+,B+}
Jinx - Zoe sounds like she's adapting well to your spoiling her.
PK - so nice to see you back (and Blue)!
HOUDINI's showmanship [5min - CED can you find The Fonz doing milk-can; I ROYALly struck out.]
Cheers, -T
*say it like Seinfeld says Newman :-)
Wow, this was a Monday workout. Thanks for the fun Morton and Argyle.
I thought that perhaps my brain was befogged after a busy weekend welcoming a new grandbaby and looking after the others.
Officially a FIW because I required red-letter help to see my mistake with O instead of U in cross of WUNDERKIND and PUZO.
I smiled at COMMA after the discussion of the Oxford Comma here.
I was misdirected to thinking about music before baseball with the "quartet assigned to bases" clue. I should have noted the spelling of bases (not basses).
Unknowns today included DOE, FRAS (will somebody please confirm that this is short for Friars at the Abbey???).
I immediately thought of impeach for 36A "expel from office" but it wouldn't fit.
I wanted the Nabisco product to be an Oreo, but realized I need a cracker not a cookie. Then ORFEO appeared. LOL.
YR, thanks for the explanation of the different spellings of Orpheus and Eurydice.
Phenazopyridine (Pyridium) is an AZO dye used to relieve symptoms (along with an antibiotic to treat) for the first 2 days of a UTI. (It is not used as much now because of potential carcinogenic implications.)
You can predict its most immediately recognizable side-effect!
Have a great day.
Like Kazie, I loved this puzzle! I know it's crunchy for a Monday, but the challenge is so worth it and a swift sashay. Thank you very much, Morton J. Mendelson and Rich! All those FOREIGN phrases are used as LINGUA FRANCA so it surprised me that I knew them all, even WUNDERKIND. Good NOVELs use all of those at one time or another.
At first, ALTIMA was the Nissan I chose, but obviously, SENTRA won the day. And I prefer Cortez as the correct spelling.
Thank you, also, Argyle. Shooting you would never enter my mind; your outstanding MERITS define you.
Have a special day, everyone! It's so good to see you, PK and Hahtoolah!
"Puzzling thoughts":
Well, you won't get any argument from me that today's puzzle was a bit crunchy for a Monday. And no, Argyle, I won't shoot you; I know you're just the messenger. WEES said about each and every strange, and FOREIGN phrase. I did know WUNDERKIND, as I studied German in HS and College. But LINGUA FRANCA? Really? Who uses that expression? Ok, I won't get political here . . . but yes, this was definitely not your usual Monday offering
Despite my occasional expletives, I was able to fill in the puzzle - correctly, I might add - using perps and WAGS and any other means without cheating. Oops sorry I forgot to use a COMMA in that last sentence
My only ERROR and write-over was when I spelt [sic] it as FETE ACCOMPLI instead of FAIT. And ORFEO only appeared when I figured MIFF must be correct. Lucky guess. As for FOREIGN IMPORTS, I have been driving an AUDI for most of this current century, having bought my first in 2003. My only regret is how expensive they are to maintain, but they're fun to drive
Favorite clue was: "Quartet assigned to bases" --> UMPS. Classic
I have a couple of limericks to share today. One is connected to today's theme; the other was inspired by today's JUMBLE in the newspaper:
At a cocktail reception nearby,
Lemonade reminisced; the wiseguy!
Knew when he met Ms Oo
That he'd soon be her beau,
Saying, "Who needs a drink? I've got 'my THAI'!"
Former mime was in church, and praying,
That no one would think he's displaying
Irreverence in
Not singing the hymn.
But you know, that goes without saying . . .
Canadian Eh!
I believe FRA is the Latin form of friar and is related to fraternal, fraternity, etc.
Actually, FRA is the shortened form of frater, brother.
{2x :-) C. Moe}
HG - Your link convinced me an ARM is a SS's MERIT from the HOLE. Firing across the body, deep, and on target is hard.
I've linked Word Crimes b/f but we need the drama of the Oxford COMMA. (right, Hahtoolah? - I read that article too). Cheers -T
AMBIT was new to me; spent some time trying to make orBIT work.
ARF kind of annoyed me. If I asked my wife if she wanted to go for a walk, I wouldn't want her to say ARF
I assumed Argyle meant that there are usually only two or three UMPs in the minors or college ball. If there's only one umpire he'll usually stand behind the pitcher. The majors even use six during the World Series, but only a quartet is on the bases.
Well, I did that 4/24 Morse this morning as promised. Took awhile. Then I knocked this cutey off. I think the Naticks were pretty much covered by easy perps. So, in a way the weekend crew had some chew and it was doable as a Monday.
And we got some baseball in.
I meant to say yesterday that AWK hardly is the extent of my varied parrots' vocabulary. HOW NOW BROWN COW is more like it.
Yes. Great imagination Owen and clever 'licks Owen.
WC
Ps. Thanks Argyle and Morton.
I know that I am picking nits here, but a reed (singular) won't do an oboist much good. I believe an oboe is double-receded, ergo an oboist would need reeds (plural).
Just sayin'.
Cya!
Liked this puzzle, easy Mondays can get boring. Foreign Imports is a common phrase often used in car magazines.
Anon T - I'd say that a long fast throw from deep in the hole, as HG's link showed, needs a pretty good ARM.
Agree with others about today's relative difficulty.
Bluehen @ 11:58 ---> regarding the "REED" conundrum . . . you are correct, that an Oboe is one of the "double-reeded" woodwind instruments. My intuition tells me, though, that when an oboist (or bassoonist, et al) makes or purchases a reed(s) for their instrument, they are not referring to it as a "double-reed". That part is understood. They refer to them as a REED or REEDS. I can check with my daughter (the bassoon professor) but I am 99.9% certain of this.
BTW, here is a video I found about making an oboe reed.
Morton hears a boo?
Yes, from this guy. The occasional non English word is ok in order to fill a otherwise fine grid. But a entire puzzle based on foreign words? Didn't enjoy it.
It's like pouring salt in my monday malaise.
Some one fd up! Surely a thurs puzzle. Did two clues then threw it away. Wasnt in the mood mentally. When fridays puzzle comes im ready for the challenge, but on a monday i am not. wasnt ready for this.
Bit of a crunch for a Monday but well clued and constructed. Got the solve rather directly.
"Foreign Import" - I buy my coffee beans from Hawaii, doesn't that make them a "domestic import"?
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Morton Mendelson, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for a fine review.
Jinx: Nice to hear about your dog, Zoe. Have fun. My wife and daughter headed for Texas this morning to pick up a dog we are adopting. It is a deaf pit bull. Should be interesting, to say the least.
The puzzle was fine today. Zipped through pretty quickly.
Hahtoolah, it is AGNUS not ANGUS. AGNUS is a lamb.
ORFEO was unknown, but perps did the trick.
AZO was also unknown. Perps.
Never heard the term MAGNUM OPUS, but it did make sense.
Still working on Sunday's puzzle. Maybe I will finish it. Maybe not.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Will ironies never cease! As you all know I found Saturday's puzzle so difficult that I couldn't believe reading on the blog how easy everybody found it, and was too embarrassed to even post. So, I was incredibly relieved to find this brilliant Monday puzzle a total speed run--and totally shocked that it seemed so difficult to so many. Go figure! Must be the different founts of knowledge we all bring to crossword puzzles. So, thank you for noting the irony, Anonymous T. And thank you for a delightful puzzle, Morton, and especially for--(you guessed it, desper-otto and Irish Miss)--my favorite clue: JAMES JOYCE WORK! Loved it!
I loved the other art references too, to RENE Magritte, and to Van Gogh's OILS, and the music of ORFEO. And the movie references to EMIL Jannings, and Mario PUZO's "Godfather," and Rhett Butler's last word in "Gone with the Wind"! A total delight.
Yellowrocks, thank you for the AGNUS, ANGUS, AGNES explanations and shout out to our dear Irish Miss!
Jinx, so nice to hear Zoe is doing so well.
And thank you, Santa, for the fun expo.
Have a great week, everybody!
Hi everybody.
Thanks Morton and Argyle.
No, I haven't been subject to any IRS scams. However, I experienced one that seemed even worse to me. I was about 75 percent asleep late in the morning last week, and was about to head off for a nap. The phone rang and a small voice said, "Hi Grandpa." I immediately thought of my local grandson and said "Hi" back without thinking whether he should be in school and why he would be calling me in the middle of a school day. (He never had before.) I began to think maybe it was my granddaughter in Portland, Oregon though by then I was too confused and embarrassed to ask who it was. The caller (granddaughter?) began to describe having been in an accident in a car and had a couple of stitches in her nose. Then she described some alcohol might have been involved (though she said she had tested very low) and that she and the others had been arrested and that her bail was $3800. She was very apologetic but said it was a difficult situation and she didn't know where to turn.
I went to get a pencil and a pad of paper. When I got back to the phone, she had been disconnected. I figured she had used up more than her allotted time on a jailhouse phone. I was distraught. I called Barbara who was at her quilting group. She immediately thought it was a scam. As I thought back (I was wide awake by now), the whole episode made less and less sense and a scam seemed more likely. I called some other relatives in Oregon and they confirmed that my granddaughter was in school and perfectly OK. Whew!
Normally, I think I am too smart and aware to get caught up like that. But a combination of sleepiness and concern for a grandchild made me a perfect dupe. No harm done except to my emotional well-being.
My understanding is that a double reed for an oboe is a single entity. The dictionary defines a double reed as a single entity, "a reed with two slightly separated blades, used for playing a wind instrument such as an oboe or bassoon."
Many of our most common English words are loan words from others languages. Without having borrowed foreign words our English vocabulary would be greatly diminished. Even entire foreign phrases, such as today's examples, have become accepted English phrases. And in studying several foreign languages I found that English words are borrowed by other languages. Some times loan words are borrowed whole as in today's phrases and sometimes they are somewhat altered. I have encountered all of today's phrases many times in my reading and in discussions. They are a solid contribution to our English language and are used copiously in print. Examples:
-These songs are carefully composed, culminating in the record’s magnum opus, “Walk Forward With Your Eyes Closed.” New York Times May 11, 2016
-But while English may be Europe’s lingua franca, that doesn’t mean everyone you encounter will be fluent — and not everyone will understand American English. Seattle Times Sep 20, 2016
-His mentors speak about his continued ascendance as if it was a fait accompli. Wall Street Journal Nov 9, 2016
I refused to be beat on a Monday,
(So I WAG'd my way to success...)
Actually, I thought being a Monday the perps would
be easy enough to get the foreign words without knowing them.
(Wrong again, Dei crossing Wunderkind?)
(Orfeos' oaters crossing french?)
(talk about a spaghetti western...)
Anyway, I stuck with it to the end,
& enjoyed the write up more than the puzzle.
(& that's saying a lot, because I did enjoy the puzzle!)
Learning moments: Azo/Ambit
Yellowrocks! LOL on the lamb/cow/cornerite definition!
Dr.Pepper, I just got the salt reference...
OwenKL. I LOL'd at the Snorse reference!
Pay no attention to the Viking behind the curtain...
Anonymous T? Fonzie? Milk can?
(I only watched Happy Days in passing.)
Fonzie did magic?
And finally, thank you Chairman Moe for the Oboe Reed link.
Now I finally understand this stupid joke:
How many oboe players does it take to change a lightbulb?
Only one but he'll go through 30 to 40 bulbs to find the best one.
Oops I was referring to C-Moe's little beauties
WC
In Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White, Charlotte, the spider, refers to her MAGNUM OPUS in producing 500 spider eggs before she dies. The book is at 4th-5th grade level reading.
Like Yellowrocks, I also have encountered all these foreign phrases in a variety of sources.
Nononono! Echoing, "is this Monday?"....please don't throw out foreign phrases this early in the week. I remembered Eurydice and Orpheus, not ORFEO. And that was the extent of my attempt on other languages. Too crunchy for today. Perhaps we'll get a simpler one on Thursday to make me feel as though my reasoning powers are still somewhat intact.
Easy Monday speed run with ORFEO as the only unknown. The one with the DTS may have SLAIn-SLAYED demons, but I doubt anybody ever SLEW a dragon. Maybe somebody dropping LSD.
Last week, my 5th grade grandson had to participate in a prose/poetry reading contest that his school forces all the boys to do. One of the boys recited the Gordon GEKKO 'Greed is good' monologue. The audience loved it, as the 10 year old dressed up like Michael Douglas's GEKKO as he delivered it.
Bill G- the usual scam is when these con artists scan Facebook and look for someone who has gone to China, Eastern Europe, or African countries. They find a relative's email address or phone number, impersonate the tourist or student, and claim to be in jail, kidnapped, or in a hospital in some godforsaken place where there is no phone service. Need money ASAP.
CED - Yes, that The Fonz. There was an episode of Happy Days where he did the Houdini in the milk-can trick. That's what made me learn who Houdini was... AAAayyyyy.
Yep. See Misty :-)
LOL YR (hi Irish!) I too read 64a as Angus and could only think of Young from AC/DC [<- link just for CED for trying to find Fonz - I did find it but apparently it's "owned" by kectv.com and you gotta sign up. EVIL!]
Bill G- The old grandkid in jail and Gramp's won't rat'em out for boozin' it up trick. That SCAM has been going on for at least 6 years. Good thing you didn't fall for it... Would you Believe... a glass of water and an eye-dropper?.
I'm still MIFF'd at Wunderkind. UUU just isn't natural. POSIT kinda makes up for it. I've used that word once or twice to really POSIT a poser. :-)
Cheers, -T
Moe - thanks for the family CSO poem. Oo and I had a long courtship as our first 14 months were needed to communicate as she spoke no English and I spoke no Thai. When me met on a double date with a friend and his Thai wife, I asked her to dancing and she said, "No." She has no idea what I had asked. Turns out she loves dancing, especially line dancing. Funny because she comes from Northern Thailand.
She also lived and worked with fellow Thai émigrés and it was getting her to watch American TV and then going to a YSL course that allowed us to get to know each other.
CED - Re: REED joke:
Q. How many Electrical Engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
A. Only one but he has to do it in the frequency domain.*
-T
*I know it's only Monday but Mr. Morton started it! [That link is for Tawnya. For the rest of y'all -- wait 'till Skee-Lo is xworded :-)]
YR ~ Thank you for the Agnus, Angus, Agnes exposition. I have been called all three! (I think I once mentioned that I was to be named Kathleen but my father intervened and suggested naming me after my mother's sister, Agnes. Whenever I complained about my name, which I really disliked, my mother's comeback was, "Agnes was a beautiful Saint." True as that was, I would rather have been a Kathleen.)
Bill G, that was a terrible experience to go through; I'm so sorry and hope you've regained your equilibrium. These scammers are the dregs of the earth!
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