David makes a quick return with a visual theme. There are 4 seas placed above the letters "LAB." It is a cute theme but wreaked havoc on my mind with YELLOW LAB and IRISH LAB running around in my head. Woof, woof. The rest seemed like a Friday with many 6 and 7 letter fill. ERNESTO, EXACTOR, LOST ART, PANINIS, SWORE TO and WANNABE all interesting fill.
I have written about many of his puzzles, with this EFFORT being my first Friday write-up here at the Corner.
Hopefully, the grid will make you all smile. Grid first I think today:
17A. First U.S. national park: YELLOWSTONE (11). The YELLOW Sea is clued just above the LAB in 20A in LABEL.
35A. Co-star of the 1955 comedy "How to Be Very, Very Popular": SHEREE NORTH (11). The NORTH Sea is clued just above the LAB in SLABS. The MOVIE was unknown to me.
42A. Subject of a 19th-century famine: IRISH POTATO (11). The IRISH Sea is clued just above the LAB in LABREA.
62A. Aquanaut's workplace ... or a hint to what's graphically represented four times in this puzzle: UNDER SEA LAB (11). This LAB is under the CHINA Sea.
Across:
1. Big sister? : ABBESS. This is a woman who is the head of an abbey of nuns.
7. Way more than a whimper: BAWL.
11. Pixie: ELF.
14. Circus equipment: STILTS. There often is a clown on stilts.
15. Online marketplace: EBAY.
16. Madhouse: ZOO.
19. Syncopated piece: RAG. Ragtime (rag) also spelled rag-time or rag time – is a musical style that enjoyed its peak popularity between 1895 and 1918. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated, or "ragged", rhythm.
20. Calvin Klein or Perry Ellis: LABEL.
21. Caution: WARN.
22. Spilled the beans: SANG. Like modern mobsters.
23. Love personified: AMOR. Cupid's alias.
24. Letter writing, some say: LOST ART.
26. Oenophile's concern: YEAR. CSO to the Chairman and his wares.
28. Bear with a purple bow tie: BOO-BOO. Hannah-Barbera says "Boo-Boo Bear is a cartoon character on The Yogi Bear Show. Boo-Boo is an anthropomorphic bear cub wearing a purple bowtie. Most of the pictures I see online look blue, but.....
32. "Yada yada yada" letters: ETC.
38. Revolutionary murdered in a tub: MARAT.
The Death of Marat by Jacques- Louis David.
40. Groom's garb: TUX.
41. Generous slices: SLABS.
45. Menu general: TSO. It must be embarrassing to his family that he is known as a chicken.
46. Tar pits site: LA BREA.
47. "Pretty please?" : CAN I? May I never see this clue/fill again?
49. Che's given name: ERNESTO. Guevera.
52. State-spanning rds. : TPKS.
56. Cross by wading: FORD.
59. Digging: INTO.
61. "The Mikado" band? : OBI. The Japanese sash. Not to be confused with 57D. Village Voice award: OBIE. (OB) No longer technically true, they were originally given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered along with the American Theatre Wing. As the Tony Awards cover Broadway productions, the Obie Awards cover Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway productions. (various)
64. Dram: NIP. A wee dram at that; right Tin?
65. Thailand, once: SIAM. A nice CSO to my sweet bride.
66. Recess: ALCOVE.
67. Fictional vigilante's mark: ZEE.
68. Ballpark figs. : ESTSimates.
69. Christian of "Mr. Robot": SLATER.
Down:
2. Substitute players: B-TEAM.
3. Frodo inherited his ring: BILBO. The Hobbit.
4. Queen of mystery: ELLERY. Agatha also fits.
5. Small-runway aircraft acronym: STOL. Short Takeoff Or Landing.
6. Spokane-to-Walla Walla dir. : SSW.
7. Software to debug: BETAS. Testing, one two, three.
8. Scrub, at NASA: ABORT.
10. Drano compound: LYE.
11. Biblical reformer: EZRA. He was BIBLICAL.
12. Library transaction: LOAN. They are known as lending libraries.
13. "Around the World ... " hero: FOGG. Phileas Fogg is the protagonist in the 1873 Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Day (wiki).
18. Affirmed in court: SWORE TO.
22. Happy hour perch: STOOL.
24. __-di-dah: LAH.
25. Lighter brand: RONSON. My mental picture.
27. Bible book read during Purim: ESTHER. More Hebrew bible.
29. Frank's cousin: BRAT. This is one of the wurst clue/fills ever!
30. Gambling parlors, for short: OTBS. Off-track betting shops.
31. Very: OH SO. You all look oh so smart today!
32. Expressionist painter Nolde : EMIL. I did not know Emil Nolde, who was a German-Danish painter and printmaker. He was one of the first Expressionists, a member of Die Brücke, and was one of the first oil painting and watercolor painters of the early 20th century to explore color. (wiki) I like the Matterhorn Smiles.
33. Plantation near Twelve Oaks: TARA. Frankly, I no longer give a damn.
34. Nursery purchase: CRIB. Tree anyone?
36. Rural road feature: RUT.
37. One demanding payment, say: EXACTOR. In law, we often put or/ee at the end of words to make a new word, but this CREATION by David seems imprecise.
39. Comparable to a beet: AS RED.
43. Pressed sandwiches: PANINIS.
44. Confucian ideal: TAO.
48. Cornell's city: ITHACA.
50. Conclude by: END AT.
51. Parts of some flutes: STEMS. My brain went to the instrument b aha moment for the champagne glass.
53. First of a series: PILOT. No Honda this week, but the try out episode of a tv series.
54. __ of Hearts, accused tarts thief: KNAVE. You should know your Alice in Wonderland.
"The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,
All on a summer day:
The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts,
And took them quite away!"
55. Cavalry sword: SABER.
56. With "the," TV character who first jumped the shark-- literally: FONZ. Did we really watch this
HORRIBLE TV, On the other hand, I really like Winkler in his new show BETTER LATE THAN NEVER.
58. Harvest-ready: RIPE.
60. Spreadsheet box: CELL.
62. Employ: USE.
63. KLM rival: SAS. The HISTORY of Scandinavian Airlines System is worth reading.
We have already made it to my last write-up of January. David makes every puzzle different. I enjoyed it and hope you did as well. On to the Super Bowl!!! Lemonade out.
72 comments:
The puzzle I didn't find particularly hard. But the theme was a wowser! Even with the reveal, it took me a few takes to realize what it was!
FLN
There was a fat ABBESS who thought it was apt
To hide POTATO chips in a small wall apse.
The icon that reposed
In the ALCOVE she chose
Was Saint Francis -- now he's her chip-monk, perhaps?
Break out the CHINA and champagne FLUTES!
Uncle is coming -- the one with the loot!
He still thinks me a KNAVE
Tho the LOAN I repaid.
If I wear a TUX, might he think I'm astute?
{A, C+.}
Hi Y'all! Very interesting puzzle, David, thanks! It filled rather rapidly but I didn't get the theme even after the reveal. I didn't see the LABs and didn't know YELLOW was a sea, so gave up too soon and let Lemonade 'splain it, thank you very much! Lemony, chuckled at your TARA comment of not giving a damn. So Rhett Butler, dahling!
ABBESS took ESP as did SHEREE NORTH. Had heard of the movie, didn't see it, didn't know who played in it. Vaguely remember this actress but not how she spelled her name. Despite the movie name, I don't think she was very popular.
Didn't know STOL despite having a single engine rated pilot husband. Also didn't know EMIL, EXACTOR, and neither KLM or SAS. All ESP.
Tried Finn & FIGG before FOGG. Thought his first name was Finneas rather than Phileas. Duh! Knew this last time we had it.
No news about my missing neighbor yet. I didn't see any activity at that house yesterday. Hard to see a house on my side of the street with no windows facing there. I kept looking that way when I thought of it all day. Suspense is killing me. Hope I can catch the mail lady today and see what she knows. She raised the alarm.
FLN: interesting about Misty & Keith having electronics blackouts. Now that I'm back on the internet at least for now, I can't send any emails without doing some things that I can't figure out how to do from my provider's instructions. Google tried to pirate my emails the other day. I'm not even sure that the instructions I can't follow came from my provider. Also the local newspaper I subscribe to has done its annual updating and I can't get into that on my browser. Aaaaargh! I paid a lot of money to that newspaper to get the internet version.
43. Pressed sandwiches: PANINIS
Arghhh!!!! "Panini" is already plural (of "panino").
This was a truly lame theme. Great puzzle, fun to do, but under SEA lab? Really?
Good morning!
Reveal? There was a reveal? Dang, missed it again. As a result, I failed to SEA the LABs. Did complete the puzzle, though. Seemed fairly easy for a Friday. Thanx, David And Lemonade.
When I used to travel to Stavanger, I'd fly KLM to Schiphol and SAS for the final leg. In my work travels this KNAVE visited offshore oil rigs in the NORTH and CHINA seas. There was even a bonus sea in the puzzle...the ZuiderZEE.
Hello Puzzlers -
Well, I found the puzzle straightforward, but couldn’t grok the theme without help. It’s a clever one. Never heard of this “jumping the shark” business, had to read the Wiki on that one.
As Lemon’s video suggests, Alaska is pretty much home territory for serious STOL competitions. While the contests take place in ideal conditions, the skills shown are routinely applied in the wild, for real. They manage to get airplanes in and out of some unlikely places.
Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. I found this to be a fairly easy Friday puzzle, but I totally missed the various Seas and Labs scattered throughout the puzzle.
Lots of fun and misleading clues. I immediately thought of ELLERY for the Queen of Mystery.
My favorite clue was Mikado Band = OBI, with Good Dishes = CHINA a close second.
I will reading ESTHER be in Israel over Purim this year.
PK: Scary about your missing neighbor. My father lives on a short street in somewhat rural area. Last year his friends called him early in the morning. It seems that a house on his street burned to the ground and the tv stations were reporting that the elderly man who lived in the house was missing. My dad's friends were afraid that it was him; it was not. It turns out that the missing man had moved into a retirement home a week or so earlier, so all was well.
QOD: It’s our challenges and obstacles that give us layers of depth and make us interesting. Are they fun when they happen? No. But they are what makes us unique. ~ Ellen DeGeneres (b. Jan. 26, 1958)
Easy puzzle. Theme totally escaped me.
Confucius had his own "tao," but THE TAO was Lao Tzu's (Laozi's). Confucius was born the year Lao Tzu died.
LA BREA are the tar pits, not the site (the name La Brea Tar Pits is redundant).
A rare FIR Friday for me. I thought ABBESS couldn't be right, but the perps were mostly solid so I left it in. Erased wail for BAWL, and thought Walla^2 was ESE of Spokane. I have only heard of Walla^2 because of the music they played before Dodgers baseball radio coverage: "...from Walla Walla Washington to Kalamazoo".
Hand up for not getting the reveal until Lemony 'splained it.
PK - I seem to remember that you use Cox for your email. If you use Outlook I can help you make the required changes. They are easy, but require a few steps for each email address you use. These changes are good things - much more secure. RE: your neighbor who was reported missing by the USPS - I hope I'm not reported missing. Mail forwarding service is TERRIBLE. Whenever I'm gone long enough to need my mail forwarded I have to make it effective a couple of days earlier than I really need it to stop. I have to lay in wait for the letter carrier to deliver the mail that was supposed to be forwarded, then tell them that the forwarding order was supposed to take effect that day. If I'm lucky that will get it started, but if it happens to be a substitute carrier the order will continue to be disregarded. My sister lives in a different state and has the same trouble. Her only solution is to subscribe to the USPS's VERY expensive deluxe forwarding service.
My favorite today was "Frank's cousin", especially when Lemony added the wurst comment of the day. Thanks to both you guys.
Good morning Cornunites,
I BAWLed at the natick of ABBESS and BILBO 'cause I had to buy a B which did, however, allow me to complete this beast. I had no idea what either word meant. Thank you Mr. David Poole for this TGIF CW.
26A Oenophile etc. I never know what the phile or phobia is all about. This word might mean a "C"onnoisseur of fermented grape juice. That "C" word is as hard to spell as banana or Mississippi.
Thank you Le Mon for "Spicing up" my day.
Dave
Good Morning:
This was pretty easy for a Friday, although there were some bumps: Emil, Ezra, Boo Boo, and Marat. My only w/o was Wine/Year. Hi, CM, I like the crossing of Obi and Obie and the duo of Tao/Tso. I knew Abbess was the answer but struggled with coming up with the word, but STOL popped right up as we've had it before. Funny what you remember. I won't say how long I spent trying to figure out who Frank was but he turned out to be a Brat! Big CSO to Bill G at Ithaca, Cornell's home. I'm putting Nip into my canine streak rather than the way it's clued. All's fair in love and word play! I thought the theme was very clever and well-executed.
Thanks, David, for a fun solve and thanks, Lemony, for the informative summary.
PK, I hope your missing neighbor's mystery has a happy ending like Hatoolah's dad's experience did.
Have a great day.
Good morning everyone.
I liked this puzzle for the reasons Lemonade stated. The theme was real 'cool beans' with its geographic sweep and positioning. Many excellent clues. CSO to YR with YELLOWSTONE. Nice how the two homonyms OBIE and OBI crossed each other.
KNAVE - In bridge, we call it the 'Jack'.
I had trouble in the NW. I did not know BILBO. The Hobbit turns me off. I forgot STOL, but seeing it does rings a bell. So I wrote STALLS for the circus animals and thus missed LABEL. The I and the last L in stalls turned red when I checked, so I thought of stilts and completed the puzzle. I always try to learn how I could have FIR. Certainly was easy enough. DUH! I only checked for LAB in the fatal NW. If I had checked for lab in the other theme answers I would have gotten LABEL and then the others.
We get too soon old and too late smart.
No nit on EXTRACTOR. I have heard of extracting promises, money or payments. The person who extracts is an extractor (with an o).
“…they extracted almost $2 billion from PrivatBank through dishonest transactions.” Reuters, Jan 24, 2018
Franks, brat, wurst, clever Lemony.
Pretty please and Can I? make me think of little kids. Can I? Can I? Can I?
Anonymous @5:57. Why opine when you could LIU?
Merriam Webster. “plural panini or paninis.”
We have discussed La Brea Tar Pits here ad infinitum. It is not logical but that is its real name.
Very cold again today and back up to the 50s soon. I think these yo yo temps are harder to take than a spell of colder weather. You cannot become acclimated to the cold this way.
Spitz thanks for the shout out. I missed my own CSO.
It wasn't a hard fill for a Friday even though I had a few unknowns and two that I kinda knew but really didn't- MARAT & BOO BOO- never saw the "blue" tie because we only had B&W televisions. EMIL Nolde, BILBO, and SHEREE NORTH &Christian SLATER(or their movies) were perps; never heard of them. Slater was my dad's middle name and my nephew's first name. Seeing the LAB under the YELLOW, IRISH, & NORTH SEAs was not noticed.
Technicality -the official US Navy's names were 'SEALAB-I, II, & III. UNDER was not part of the name.
RONSON is a name from the past. ZIPPO wouldn't fit.
I wonder when the murderous thugs CHE and MAO will be sent to crossword hell. I guess STALIN, POL POT, HO CHI MINH, and HITLER are not convenient three-letter fills.
Good morning. Thank you David Poole and thank you Lemonade.
Well nuts. The streak continues.
Wagged the M in EMIL and MARAT after taking a chance on ESTHER. But never heard of the movie nor the actress SHERRE NORTH. Before my time, and I'll assume it must not have been very, very popular, despite the title. Read the Wiki on her. She starred opposite Tom Ewell in The Lieutenant Wore Skirts.
Can't recall the last time I changed the game from Master to Regular, but I caved today. The M and Y in MAYI lit up. DOH ! Changed it to CANI and it was soon solved. Had three of the four SEAS id'd so NORTH was an easy finish.
"Frank's cousin: BRAT. This is one of the wurst clue/fills ever!" I like what you did there Lemonade, but I am confused by "...but this CREATION by Debbie seems imprecise." Who is Debbie ?
We had YELLOWSTONE. BOO BOO's home was JELLYSTONE. There are 79 Jellystone Campgrounds. Don't know why I decided to find out how many there are.
Musings
-Even after a got ‘er done, I had to grok out the cool theme in which the reveal also played a part. How dare David hide it out in the open!
-C’mon, someone else had to put in BANG for more than a whimper like I did
-How do you protect yourself if you fall while on these STILTS? (:10)
-In Goodfellas, Ray Liotta played Henry Hill who in real life SANG on the mob
-I remember LA BREA smelled like my hometown when we re-tarred the streets
-Shall we take on CAN I/MAY I today like we did fewer/less earlier this week?
-Fill in the blank: ________, FORD every stream, Follow every rainbow, 'Til you find your dream
-A handle Tom Hanks was staring at in the Apollo 13 liftoff difficulties
-We bought 3 trees last year and birds have already built CRIBS in them
-Seinfeld PILOT facts
-Tomatoes bloom and set large green fruit quickly and then seem to take forever to RIPEn
7D: Beta test is a customer satisfaction and feedback cycle. Alpha test is the debug cycle.
OK, grammarians, are you qualified to be a copy editor for the New York Times? Take this quiz to find out.
HG, you asked for it. LOL.
Grammar Girl says, " In short, it’s OK to use “can” instead of “may” if you’re speaking informally, but if you’re being formal or polite, use “may” when you’re speaking about authorization."
May vs Can
Thank you, David Poole, for today's grid!
It was mostly easy though some sections took longer to fill. E.G., BOOBOO. I'm not sure of ever hearing that name. RONSON and SHEREENORTH, now, those popped out of the gray recesses where they had lain for decades.
I liked the cluing for BRAT and ABESS. But almost got tripped by EZRA; I had EZEKiel first then SANG spilled the beans.
Somewhere in some movie, I saw an unforgettable scene of MARAT in the tub. Might have been The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Thanks again to DP and special thanks to Lemonade who gave us an excellent expose including the theme which I forgot to seek out.
PK, can't wait to hear about your neighbor's fate.
Have a peaceful day, everyone!
d-o:
I found the errors.
Methinks we all need to think of LaBrea Tar Pits as the Spanish name followed by the English translation rather than a redundancy in the multicultural setting of California. Probably why they started saying both.
Jinx, thanks for your offer of help, but I don't know if I have Cox Outlook. Right now I'm not feeling well enough to mess with it -- just BAWL about it.
D-O: I looked over the test. I couldn't see much wrong with the copy other than run-on sentences. Thank goodness, I'm retired and don't need the job.
Whew! A lot of hard work and worry, but I got this Friday toughie! Yay! Many thanks, David, for a clever and challenging puzzle. Lots of unknowns--especially RONSON--never heard of it and feared it was wrong. And I couldn't imagine how a BRAT could be Frank's cousin, and assumed it must refer to some TV show or something that I never saw. Couldn't believe Lemonade's WURST solution to this little mystery. So lots of fun, and delightful write-up, Lemonade, thanks for that too.
C.C., I was so excited about getting yesterday's puzzle that I only talked about myself and never really congratulated you for the immense range of knowledge your constructions exhibit. Your puzzles always make me reflect on what it takes to make them happen and yours always simply amaze me. So thank you, again, a day later.
PK, sorry to hear about your internet problems, and hope they can be resolved.
Imaginative poems, Owen.
Have a great end of the week, everybody!
I was slow to catch the theme, but I enjoyed it! I love all things about UNDER SEA science.
I took this photo of Sylvia Earle here a few years ago. She holds the world record for most hours in an UNDER SEA LAB.
The LA BREA tar pits is a favorite place for me to bring visitors in Los Angeles. It used to be free, but now they charge to see a lot of it. Yes, we have discussed the redundancy of the name before, Yellowrocks and Anonymous. We have a local peak called La Cumbre Peak. La Cumbre means "the peak".
I have many photos there and at YELLOWSTONE. Perhaps another time.
Here are a few of me at YELLOWSTONE up close to elk.
Sometime I need to edit photos there that are more scenic.
No TUX for me at our wedding.
I was wearing traditional GARB of my DW homeland.
Hand up we only ever had black and white TV, so I had never seen BOO BOO in color. Learning moment.
My father EMIL was a CELL biologist. I did not know this EMIL Nolde. Learning moment that AMOR is Cupid's alias. Thanks, Lemonade!
Unknowns: EZRA, NIP/DRAM.
FIW (NW)
I don't get it...
Lemonade: Thanks for the STOL video.
I have only ever seen a VTOL aircraft. Here is my video of the Osprey taking off vertically at the Camarillo Air Show.
Notice how the rotors change from vertical lift to forward propellers. I think it makes it a dangerous aircraft to fly, but it sure is cool to watch!
Finishing a Friday with no cheats is always a thrill for me! Hooray for me! Thanks, David. And no, I didn't see the theme. Thanks Lemon for 'splaining it and special thanks for the wurst.
Owen, I'll never think of St Francis the same way again!
Yellowrocks, I think we can agree that names like La Brea Tar Pits don't need to make sense. I'm sure there are other examples but I can't think of any.
Sorry we can't have a war over mayI / CAN I. YR explained it OH SO well. Like so much in life, it depends.....
OwenKL 355A
I see your FLN and raise you a WAG. I got your message, CSO. I am not sure what the thousand words mean, but time will tell. Time will heal all wounds, and wound all heels.
While I have your attn., I liked each of today's lims. I had to squeeze my brain muscles really hard to remember what ABBESS meant before I could proceed with that lim.
Desper-otto 1-24, 515P
Wrote "Dave2, I think you need to cut down on the meds. Or increase 'em. Not sure."
I wasn't sure either, so I took both actions.
There are two words that instantly cause my BP to increase, and make me very nervous. They are insurance and taxes. My hat is off to you for being able to help others prepare tax returns. I'll see you after the Ides of April.
Dave
Lemon: Nice, informative write-up explaining my D-N-F.
(At least, when I have a D-N-F ... I admit it).
Faves today, were 22-d, Happy hour perch, STOOL and 64-a. Dram, NIP ...
I've enjoyed both of them many times.
Well the "Sun is over the Yardarm."
Cheers!
Picard, liked the elk pix. When we were at Mammoth Hot Springs (I think) in Yellowstone, there were several elk laying up at the top where people were warned not to go.
We saw an Osprey at an air show when my son was in high school. He wanted to join the Marines and fly them, but we talked him into joining AFROTC instead. He enjoyed his career as an USAF pilot while Osprey was crashing a lot. I asked him later if he was sorry not to fly the Osprey and he said a definite. "NO!"
May we know what is your wife's homeland? She is lovely. At my niece's wedding, the men all wore tuxedos with long-sleeved shirts & vests, no less, outdoors in 105* summer weather. Mexican wedding shirts would have been so much more comfortable. I was afraid my brother would have a heat stroke he was so red. The girls in the bridal party all had strapless dresses.
I just caught the lady mail carrier. She said they found my missing neighbor in a hospital. Someone brought her home then, but my other neighbor went to check on her and found her on the floor unable to get up. She had to call the EMT's to get her up, which is when I saw them leaving yesterday. Mail lady thinks she is over there but didn't respond to a knock today. So truly sad to be in that shape with no family.
Hi everybody. I really liked this one. For a change, I could easily explain the theme if asked. I struggled with lots of the clues at first but then the V-8 would kick in and I would be pleased with myself for figuring them out. Woohoo! Thanks David and Lemon.
Cornell is a beautiful place with two gorges cutting though the campus. It's especially pretty in the fall. Those memories are somewhat offset by the testing philosophy in the engineering and physics department. They seemed to take pride in giving tests where the average was always below a passing grade. Needless to say, this caused a lot of stress in my college experience.
Say, have you ever heard the term BRF (Bitchy Resting Face)? It applies to people who have an unpleasant relaxed facial expression. I've started to notice it more often. I would say it applies to President Trump and Mitch McConnell among others.
Ronson lighters were smaller and more decorative than the manly Zippo lighters.
I've enjoy our visiits to the La Brea tar pits many years ago.
A rather easy Friday puzzle, but the theme was not...So LAB is under each SEA....big whoop.
PK:
Thank you for the report on your missing neighbor. That is very sad to be without family or anyone close. It's wonderful to have good neighbors that look out for each other.
Re: LABREA Tar Pits, as a Spanish speaking person, it doesn't bother me to hear that redundancy though I recall the first time hearing it, I did a double-take then laughed.
laying/lying; amount/number
Those are two examples of the errors in the NY Times quiz
All the others are similarly used words or phrases that, as has been discussed here at the Corner, are so misused that we have become inured to them.
OwenKL:
I really liked your rhymes today and chuckled at your vision of St. Francis!
Friday pzls have been getting easier of late, and Mr. Poole is staying within recent parameters.
Ta- DA!
This was a pleasant romp, with quite a few "gimmes," including YELLOWSTONE, MARAT, & ERNESTO. I thought a theme of assassinated revolutionaries might be developing, but I don't know General TSO's story - or EZRA's or ESTHER's for that matter.
PK @4:15, Sorry you're having "issues" similar (but not the same) to ours. If I didn't know better I would suspect Google of some sort of conspiracy.
Hey - wait! I don't know better!
____________
Diagonal Report: An interesting arrangement of 3 diagonals, interesting because they are splayed over both sides of the grid. On the mirror - verso - side we have a center line, running from square 15 to 211 (NE to SW). On the recto side we have two flanking diagonals, 2 to 210 & 16 to 224, but no center line.
No hidden message.
PK @ 1:14 ~ I'm glad your neighbor is no longer missing but it's sad that she's alone and, apparently, not in the best of health.
CED, I'm still chuckling at the Under Sea Kitty!
Hi Puzzle Pals!
Nope, Nada, Zip(po) [bzzt! right, BigE?], Zilch. This puzzle was easy until it wasn't. I got the reveal early and that helped put in LABEL and not 'pants' @20a [all my work slacks are Perry Ellis - they have this cool smaller pocket inside the right pocket that perfectly fits iPhone 5's profile... I digress]
Thanks David for another puzzle that kicked my bum. Never heard of cHEREE [sic] nor her movie and couldn't think of another sea!*. I Googled ELLERY after Lem's expo [am I the only one that never heard of this digest?]. Block #38 is blank. VTOL stayed in place as did MAY I stubbornizing those areas [yeah, Dudley, you did that!] even after I TITT.
Thanks Lem for throwing me a bone here. Fun expo too - I liked the grid at the top; a nice change in HG's footsteps.
WOs: Eros b/f AMOR; Or SO @31d before cheat.
V8 of the day: B-AT. ABC-Run and nuthin'. Then Google'd Ms. NORTH. BRAT? (Sitter's nightmare) is how I kept pronouncing it until I saw the wurst joke ever.
Props to both David (for the c/a) and Lem for the follow-up rim-shot.
Fav: I was pretty happy at OBI xing OBIE.
{B but chuckle worthy, B-}
Thought of BillG @Cornell and at RAG Syncopation [BillG shared Joplin w/ me a while back]
YR- that's sad to hear about your neighbor. And worse you can't help w/ flu remnants. You get well'r first.
Lucina - I'm sure you know Yogi and BooBoo @JellySTONE [eh, TTP? - I thought of that 1st @17 after having STONE & BooBoo filled :-)]
Picard said: "Sometimes I need to edit photos there that are more scenic." HA! D-O WARN'd us.. Green-screen :-)
Magilla-Go. - Ever use SaaS or Agile-developed software. It's debugged in production :-)
Cheers, -T
*Yes, I know my company extracts Texas Tea in the NORTH sea; I've been summarily flogged by my masters...
Sad to note that the Village Voice ceased its print edition in September last year. I appreciate that it may be in the vanguard of a new digital dispensation of news and arts coverage, but I will miss getting the smudge of newsprint on my fingers.
I lived in NYC for just a couple of years, in the very Village heralded by the paper's title, and I grew to enjoy my roommate's subscription to the Voice.
Even though I currently enjoy reading the digital editions of the New York Times & Los Angeles Times, I still yearn to have the print editions flopping over my breakfast table, collecting butter and syrup stains before they're tossed in the recycle bin.
And even while I appreciate that the digital copies are brighter and clearer and far easier to navigate on my iPad, I crave the touch and rustle of newsprint!
And how else can I do my crosswords?!!
(And PLEASE don't explain how I can do them on line ...)
I was a little frightened when I got so far on today's puzzle without stumbling, or giving up. I was even more frightened at Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday's difficulty (well, at least for me). I missed the theme until I read the comments. Couldn't for the life of me remember BILBO's name, but knew it when it filled itself in. Liked the cross of OBI and OBIE. Had WAIL before BAWL, but a WETAS made that a rub out. LA BREA Tar Pits aren't far from me, Glad I got this one done. Doesn't happen that often on a Friday.
Are you a Yogi? Song(2:14) 1960
I disagree with many here. Theme is WAY too convoluted for me. I hate having to see the solution with highlighted words to figure out the theme. And, tell me in what sport are subs called the "BTEAM". I call clues like these " stretch to fit" hints.
PK: glad to hear your neighbor wasn’t abducted. Sad that she is alone. Sounds like she should consider other living arrangements.
OMK: I print out a blank version of the crossword puzzle so I can write in my answers. I gave up my newspapers subscription a few years ago when I realized there was very little news and virtually only sports. I was only using the paper for the crossword puzzle and to line the cat box. No longer have a cat and can find the puzzle on line to print out.
Bobbie - Um, all sport. The backups, bench-warmers, second-string-ers sit there until someone on the ATEAM is flagging, tossed-out, wounded, and/or suspended for PEDs. Gotta have a deep bench of B-Players to compete. Keep playing and chime in more oft.
OMK - I'm w/ you BRO.... Ahh, the smell of pulp and ink; sound of the page turning, touch making slight smudges, it puts one in the experience of reading (if you're so inclined, lick it to get all 5 senses involved). I must be the only Gen-X'er that still has a paper land on his lawn and gets books in print... there's nothing better IMHO. -T
I cancelled my dead-tree version in September, and still get a copy dropped on my driveway every morning. Plus, my print subscription was for 5 days/week only. Now I get home delivery 7 days/week. I notified the circulation dept, and I notified the driver. I feel I've done my "due diligence" and can now enjoy the free newspaper guilt-free.
Hahtoolah, thanks - I think - for ignoring my plea NOT to tell me how to do the Xwd online.
Anonymous T, Yes! I doubt I'll ever give up my attachment to the real thing, by which I mean hard copy books & papers.
I split my reading habits now. I have several bookshelves of accumulated books, many leather bound, and all of them my "friends."
When I order a new book, however, I will probably go for the Kindle version - for the ease of carrying it with me, reading it in bed w/o waking my wife, and for looking things up.
But if it is a classic or a book by a favorite author, I will order the real thing. I have a responsibility to my collection. (My sons can decide later on how much responsibility they feel.)
Caught between the two worlds, I often laugh at myself when I have a real book on my lap and am pressing an unfamiliar word with my finger - expecting the instant dictionary to pop up!
Hands up, who else has done this?
And with a digital book, you can always search for the first time Character X made an appearance - long after your ol' walnut of a brain has forgotten...
AnonT & OMK:
Amen! I love receiving my newspaper, slogging outside in my pajamas and slippers to retrieve it, followed by my morning coffee, etc. What you both said including books. It's my morning ritual and I would sorely miss it should it ever change. BTW, I take all used ones to be recycled.
AnonT:
Re: YOGI bear. As I said before, you fill the gaps in my education. I'm only partially acquainted with those cartoons and recall nothing of BOOBOO. Remember my sheltered and secluded previous life.
D - O 646A
Wrote "the ZuiderZEE." This was new to me so I LIU. It is merely one of the seven wonders of the new world. Wow!
Dave
Bill G 1:20 - I agree, the people you nominated for BRF are solid examples.
Can I assume you’ve seen the YouTube video on the subject? I tried linking it, but Blogger didn’t like it, so here’s the URL:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3v98CPXNiSk
Good for a chuckle!
AnonT, I mostly agree with you (as usual). I do puzzles online though cuz that's how I started. Also, I'd rather resort to red-letter help than be stuck with a DNF. Also, I'd rather read a dead-tree book but it is very convenient to be able to push a few keys and have a new book in seconds.
I'm glad to have introduced you to Scott Joplin. He was very clear that his rags shouldn't be played too fast, not like boogie-woogie or stride piano. His classic piece is "The Maple Leaf Rag." His prettiest piece is "Solace." Beautiful!
So do you notice people who have a BRF? (Dudley, cute video!)
oddly enough, BOO BOO was a fill in today's King Syndicate puzzle as well.
I liked this puzzle. (It seems I say that a lot.) Thanks for explicating on it, Lemonade.
FWIW, when I saw "Frank", I at once thought, "Aha! Sinatra!", and went chasing the Rat Pack. Didn't work.
Overall, today's exposition was great, but the puzzle just didn't sizzle. (IMHO, YMMV, and other wafflings.)
Bill G, I agree Solace is beautiful.
AnonT, you too still use iPhone 5? I keep debating a new phone and came close while I was in Thailand.
Dudley's LINK.
Readin bed is one of the many reasons I gave in to Kindle - mow what to fo with all the books I own. My kids do not want them.
PK: Glad to know the mystery of your neighbor is solved, even if it is not (yet) a happy ending.
Glad you enjoyed the YELLOWSTONE elk photos. Yes, AnonT and desper-otto have figured out that I have never really been to any of these places or done any of these things. The real question is why I picked those places and things and not others!
Glad that TTP and AnonT also noticed the similarity of JELLYSTONE and YELLOWSTONE.
As for my wife's homeland, she is from the island of Mindanao. Here is a map.
I took out kidnap insurance to go there. The only time I have ever done that. She thought I was being silly. Except that when I suggested going almost anywhere she admitted that it was too dangerous to take that particular road. She has some scary stories from growing up there, but claims they were no big deal. They were a big deal.
Still curious about my second post yesterday: Is anyone else familiar with the ERIE CANAL song? It is really called "Low Bridge, Everybody Down".
For those who did not know, the cousins who wrote many,
many books as ELLERY QUEEN long before they started the Magazine.
Lucina - I do appreciate the convenience of a digital paper. It used to be when my paper carrier forgot to protect my Times from the rain, I would have to slowly & carefully separate out the pages I really needed, and fold them to fit in the toaster oven to be dried out.
I still do that, but in the meantime I can read other pages on my desktop or iPad.
Another convenience is knowing I can toss the paper when I'm done without reviewing each section in my head to see if I need to hang onto any articles. Sometimes, with the fat Sunday papers, I would really sweat through this process.
If I make a mistake now, I can go right to the paper's online archive.
Funny, I've never, ever had to go back for an article.
What a fun discussion this puzzle has birthed!
Yes, Lemonade, I knew of the many entries in the Ellery Queen series, and loved them all. Interesting phenomenon .
As for iPhone 5 vs later (expensive ) versions, I think the 5 was the best. The later versions added lots of bells and whistles I didn't need or want, at the expense of useful features they eliminated. JMHO
I, also, sang Low Bridge, Everybody Down in school. I thought that was the name!!
I thought the Erie Canal song was very well known. I have known it since I was a kid.
I thought I would never want a Kindle, but I am on my second one.It can be loaded with several books at one time, great when going on vacation. I have a cover that makes it feel like a book but it is lighter than a book. I can chose a new book at any time, midnight, if I wish. Rather than buy books I get ebooks free from the library. Those titles not in ebooks I get on paper The Kindle gives me access to my email and the Corner. I can Google on it.
If I do not have the newspaper I download and print the puzzles from my PC. I like to see the entire puzzle at one time.
Yes, I try to turn the page on my Kindle and swipe on a paper book. I am unaware of which one I am holding.
Thanks you for the link Lem; I only found the Wiki on the digest (I didn't try that hard). Never heard of ELLERY Queen - I kept staring at the CELLS and yelling "How can it NOT be Agatha Christie?"
Dudley - Funny BRF. That looks like a Funny or Die production - like It's not about the Nail.
//My fav Funny or Die, of course, was Paul & Jason meet RUSH.
Yes the iPhone 5se. I like the profile -- it fits in the little inner pocket keeping the screen away from keys and such. I tried to put DW's iP6 in the pocket -- it'd rip the seams in short order of use.
My problem with eBooks (and I have a few) is I forget they exist. Pulp sits there, staring at you, until you finish and give it a place on the "read" shelf.
Now, wasn't pulp vs. eStuff a better tangent than MAY / CAN I and LA BREA (or, heavens forbid another REHASH of ICE'd TEA) :-)
Bill G & Jayce - thanks for Solace.
Picard - You seem stable enough to know D-O & I are just joshin'. Now the travel/kidnap insurance... That's no joke. Glad you made it back in one piece and joined the Corner
Lucina - To add to your unsheltered life after life... - The ABBESS returns [MA & sacrilegious - The Blues Brothers].
-T
Oh, Yellowrocks, you have rattled my cage! I intellectually prefer Real paper books, but my Kindle has been a life saver on vacations and just easy access to books when I can't get to the library . I have reluctantly joined the electronic age!
-T, you are so right. I’ve seen The Nail before, but not Rush. Good stuff! Thanks for the Solace, too - easily my favorite work in the Joplin canon, with Maple Leaf in the #2 position.
Lemon, thanks for fixing the link. Blogger was complaining about the https and I was in a hurry.
AnonT:
Again, thank you. I think. It's almost distressing to realize that I laughed throughout that scene; such a different reaction from what it would have been long ago.
OMK:
LOL. RAIN is something we don't often have to worry about here! And the newspaper arrives in a plastic sleeve so even dust doesn't penetrate it.
I thought this was reasonably difficult but it moved quickly once I got going. BILBO had a tough time giving up the Ring.
I definitely thought of Frank and the BRAT pack until lemonade straightened it out. Love your write-ups L.
And same for Owen's l'icks. Anybody else have an uncle loaded with loot? I liked traveling back to 2010 and to read Lem's DP write-up. The term "Jap" came up. My son informs me the term is not objectionable among Japanese. Of course, 80 years ago they were plotting with the Nazis to bomb Pearl Harbor.
YR, The Hobbit, indeed started out as a children's book but the LOTR saga is very much adult and a true classic. I was a sceptic but couldn't put it down.
I got a kick out of SHEREE North's movie. Only the fifties could produce such stuff. I'd love to watch it. A whole new meaning to LOST ART.
Now for some Saturday crunch.
WC
Greetings!
Thanks to David and Lemonade!
Pretty easy for a Friday, I thought. Only think I did not have in memory banks was STOL. Perps clued me in on several answers.
PK: I can certainly sympathize with your neighbor. I have an emergency dohickey (evidently not a word) on my wheelchair.
Hope to see you all tomorrow!
WC:
Yes, I had an uncle loaded with loot which he obtained through nefarious means from my grandmother. He was a master manipulator. The story would rival any fictitious account.
This DoohicKey gives a new meaning to the term "Skull Key or Skeleton Key."
Dave
YR - Adding to Wilbur’s post. The Hobbit is definitely a book for children, like Treasure Island. I have read that Tolkien wanted to do a bigger story, with a more adult style, after The Hobbit was published; it was said that he started developing the background for the new story, intending to keep it separate from The Hobbit, but that it didn’t work out that way. Instead, the new work shared the landscape with the old. Thus the enormous LOTR work grew out of the Bilbo Baggins story and carried it much further. The tone of LOTR - not to mention the length - seems to me to be much less suitable for children. Personally, I wish the two works had been entirely separate, because Hobbit has a certain innocence that LOTR does not.
Fermat - whew - w' PK's story and not seeing you 1st thing made me worry a bit. Thanks for posting.
Agree w/ Dudley & WC: The Hobbit was certainly more approachable than TLOR - Two Towers (book 2) took 3 reads to get through -- so many characters to keep up with. Now, I see the value in an eThing to find their introduction (right, OMK?)
D4 - The best two dohick-needs-no-keys-ickies are my bolt-cutters and lock pics (it's a hacker-hobby; for what it's worth, most Master locks are penetrable in 1m, the hardest to pick (for me) are the round locks)
Lucina, as one of the salty Cornerites (was that you that said that Spitz?)... I've got so much more new for you :-). Cheers & Nite. -T
Lucina,
Yes, you're very lucky if on none of those rare days when it rains in Arizona your newspaper deliverer ever forgets to seal off your paper's plastic wrapper!
Sadly, out here in SoCal's renowned Mediterranean climate, we will get either an unwrapped or a poorly sealed paper on a rainy day two to three times a year.
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