google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, July 28th, 2012, Julian Lim

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Jul 28, 2012

Saturday, July 28th, 2012, Julian Lim

Theme: None

Words: 70

Blocks: 30

A fun solve today from Julian Lim - oh, "F" - just shy of a pangram for a Saturday ( I see OMAN, LEG OF and FESS as a way to squeeze it in; my grid here ). Triple stacks of 9- and 10-letters in a pinwheel fashion, plus two more 9's, including;

20A. Line from one with no match : "GOT A LIGHT?" - Reminds me of two funny things; the first is when someone asks to bum a cigarette, and asks "got a light?" too - the response is "would you like me to smoke it for you?" - and the other you'll have to email me for....

other notables;

1A. Great Basin locale : WESTERN U.S. - Image

12D. Bad copying : PLAGIARISM - great fill

27D. The Fab Five of '80s rock : DURAN DURAN - one of my favorites from these guys (4:23)

63A. Shower needs : UMBRELLAS - I like umbrellas in art, like this, and this

Onward ~!

ACROSS:

10. Shock : APPAL - yep, it's "55A." - from the French to turn pale

15. Angry Birds, originally : iPHONE APP

16. 1972 missile pact : SALT I - had this last week, too, but without the Roman numeral

17. Excoriates : TEARS INTO - my boss at UPS has not had to "excoriate" me in a while....

18. Hospitality giant : HYATT

19. Comic introduction? : SERIO - serio-comic, having a mixture of seriousness and sport

22. Ruminant's chew : CUD - I knew what ruminant meant

24. Like peons : MENIAL

25. Drop (off) : NOD

28. Intercalary event : LEAP DAY - did you make use of your Leap Second a few weeks back?

32. Used (up) : ATE

33. Burden : ONUS

35. Pollo partner : ARROZ - Chicken and Rice, no???

36. Misguesses, e.g. : ERRS - and then you get excoriated

37. Dean's "Lois & Clark" co-star : TERI



38. Lorna of literature : DOONE

39. Vaccine holder : VIAL

40. Kodak film brand : T-MAX - ah, yes, B&W film - took photography in high school; would have been much better with a decent camera

41. Like many a superhero : CAPED - see above for details

42. Barker in early Hollywood : ASTA - D'oh~! barker, as in "to bark"; stuck on Bob Barker, Ma Barker, Clive Barker....more on the dog, here

43. Solo in space : HAN - meet Han Solo, Star Wars

44. Where a belt is almost always required to be worn : CAR SEAT

46. Dues payer: Abbr. : MEMber

47. Final purpose : END-ALL

49. Atlantic City resort, with "The" : TAJ - the Taj Mahal, Donald Trump.

51. 2010 Grammy winner for "Just the Way You Are" : BRUNO MARS - not familiar to me

55. Not shady : LEGIT

59. Continental circulators : EUROS

60. RealPlayer alternative : QUICKTIME - Sorry, I'm a PC

62. Playwright Bernard who created "The Partridge Family" : SLADE

64. Article of faith : TENET

65. Descendants of ancient Mesopotamians : ASSYRIANS - good bottom edge fill with 3 "S's", a "Y", an "R", and an "N"

DOWN:

1. Cards : WITS

2. Event with an attack called a flèche : ÉPÉE - I thought this was the weapon, not the event, but def. #2 says it's also 55A.

3. __-Pei : SHAR - Awww - wrinkly image

4. Like Cheerios : TORIC - its donut-shape, the torus.

5. Fill with spirit : ENSOUL - meh, what can you do....

6. Portuguese royal : REI - we just has this recently, too - king in Portuguese, Rey in Spanish

7. Vietnam's Da __ : NANG - I remember this from the show Magnum, P.I.

8. Plotting : UP TO - hey, what are you up to over there....?

9. Lend, as a fin : SPOT - a fin is a $5 bill

10. "High School Musical" actress Tisdale : ASHLEY

11. Add, as to one's IRA : PAY IN

13. If things continue as they're going : AT THAT RATE - I had 'at THIS rate' to start

14. Bridge coup : LITTLE SLAM - Don't play bridge, but I am familiar with some terms, so I filled in SLAM and waited

21. Floored by : AMAZED AT

23. Sailor's concern : DEAD CALM - no wind, the doldrums, like in Rime of the Ancient Mariner

25. Somewhat lacking : NOT THE BEST

26. Despotism : ONE-MAN RULE

29. Like bowls, at times : AROAR - ah, as in the Superbowl, with the fans a-roar

30. Respect, in slang : PROPS - I have heard this

31. Foundation, perhaps : DONEE - like the Lustgarten, not the concrete one

34. Pack count : SIX

36. Stowe girl : EVA

44. Hanging site : CLOSET - great clue/answer

45. One who runs on : TALKER - I had "SUNNY" for LEGIT, so I had GASSER here

48. Jumping connection : ANODE - Car jumping, that is

50. "The Expendables" (2010) co-star : JET LI - and now there's the sequel, out next month

52. __-Lung : AQUA - diving, here; in music, a Jethro Tull album - not a fan; even less so for getting a Grammy for "Metal" - IMHO

53. Zombie bases : RUMS - ah, the drink, here - Tin, a shout out at sunset? Do one for me, I am off the sauce these days....

54. Sasha and Malia, e.g. : SIBlingS - the daughters of our president - I linked their pic last week

56. River through Yuma County : GILA

57. Model married to David Bowie : IMAN

58. Hardy woman : TESS

61. Call out : CRY

Answer grid.

Splynter

60 comments:

Nick said...

I'm not sure how to post a link, but here's the URL for "Just the Way You Are": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjhCEhWiKXk

I used to stock CDs at Best Buy, and this song came on all the time. (I had to resist singing different lyrics you don't even want to email me for).

Argyle said...

Just the Way You Are.

Blue Iris said...

Here I am unable to sleep again. My eyes are getting heavy so maybe solving cwd will do the trick.
WESTERNUS just didn't look right. APPAL came with perps. Cluing for CLOSET made me laugh.

Our best man sadly died in a car accident a year after we married. His large family adopted my husband and I. His mom made the best ARROZ con pollo and homemade tortillas. Yummy. Never had better.

Think of lorna DOONE as a cookie.

Don't remember TMAX film. I have an old camera with undeveloped film. Need to get it developed while I still can.

SHAR pei puppies are so ugly that they are adorable.

Good night all!

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Not for the first time, Julian (and Rich, presumably) out-clevered me. That SW block resisted all attempts at solving. I tried BILLY JOEL for the Grammy winner even though the date made no sense, because I never heard of the other guy. Duplicate song titles just seem wrong to me.

Not having known what intercalary means, or the location of the Great Basin (was thinking Antarctica), I had to share my eventual solve with Wikipedia. Chalk up a Technical DNF.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Brutal puzzle today, as befitting a Saturday. Had IMAX instead of TMAX for the longest time, which really messed up the Western Seaboard.

BRUNO MARS? Sorry, no. DURAN DURAN? Yeah, I know them, but "The Fab Five"? Uh-uh. LITTLE SLAM? Well, if there's a Grand Slam I guess it only makes sense, but no. ENSOUL? Keep dreaming. NANG? Dang!

And then the clues for the things I did actually know kept me from seeing them. "Barker in early Hollywood" was particularly evil (in a good way, of course).

In the end, I made a bunch of guesses and managed to get through it all. I really hated to let go of IMAX, though...

PK said...

I felt like a Zombie trying to do this. I thought Tomb would be a good base. What a RUM clue.

I knew exactly where the Great Basin is, but couldn't find any words that fit: Salt Lake? Nevada-Utah? I've been there.

"Got a match" wouldn't go away and didn't fit with "grande SLAM". A bridge-aholic tried to teach me that game. Couldn't get it to stick in my mind.

Too many unknowns that made me unsure of what I did know. I had SHAR, REI and NANG. Never heard of SERIO.

I kinda wanted 65A Abysinians, but didn't write it in.

HeartRx said...

Good morning Splynter, C.C. et al.

I wasn’t familiar with BRUNO MARS, but I would have bet that you knew him. I actually like his “Just the Way You Are” video. He was BRUNO MARk for the longest time because I had “kids” at 54D.

The SE nearly did me in. At 50D I stared at J_ _ _ I far too long. I finally started picking away and got a good whack on the head with the V8 can when I finally figured out UMBRELLAS for “Shower needs”. And realized that 54D wasn’t kids, but SIBS. D’oh!

Have a fun Saturday, everyone!

desper-otto said...

I felt like I should have been belted in for this one. I got knocked every which way.

My IMAX made NOT THE BEST a long time acomin', but HAN was solid, so that "I" had to go. DURAN DURAN, BRUNO MARS and SLADE were all unknowns which appeared only via the perps.

I used up my entire minute allotment on this one, but I finally got 'er done. Whew!

Irish Miss said...

Good morning:

This was one tough cookie! I finished but not without some help. Didn't register some of the clue/answers until coming here, e.g., Barker/Asta, which is as plain as the nose on my face, and Zombies/rums.

Kudos to Jeremy for a Saturday stumper and thanks to Splynter for a nice summary.

I will probably post late tomorrow as I'm leaving for Maine, early in the morning, for several days. In the unlikely event I don't get to post, it'll be due to a date with Larry the Lobster and Charlie the Clam!

Happy Saturday to all.

Lemonade714 said...

IM,

Be careful, Larry and Charlie both like pinching. I also wonder who Jeremy is?

WMS, a very nice Saturday, which seemed undoable, but all went square by square. The ZOMBIE:RUM was really clever. AQUA was opened up the puzzle for me. I never put kids in, so when SIBS appeared the solving picked up steam. Then worked backwards and around and finished in a middling time.

Also loved the "RUM CLUE" pun, PK.

Go USA

kazie said...

Splynter must be a genius to have fun with this. I got CUD, ONUS, ERRS, VIAL, EUROS, TENET, MEM, CLOSET, HAN, EPEE, AT THIS RATE and ASSYRIANS. Most clues meant absolutely nothing to me--might as well have been in a (really) foreign language. Sorry to be disgruntled, but this is why I don't usually waste time on Saturdays.

Avg Joe said...

I'm gruntled.

Like everyone, it was a slog.Nearly gave up. But little by little, bit by bit it came together.

Anonymous said...

TTP'er here

Too tough for me. A tale of two puzzles. Filled the NE, E, Center and SE.

Only 2 in entire NW at 3D and 7D. Only 3 in the W, Sw at 43A, 51A, and 64A

To wit, my fills

Down: 3,7,10,11,12,13,14,21,23,29,30,31,36,44,45,50,51,52,53,54,56,57,58

Across: 10,16,18,24,28,32,35,36,38,39,41,42,43,44,46,49,55,60,63,64,65

Hit the Solve button at 2 Hours.

Now, I'll read what every one else had to say.

Anonymous said...

I guess I'm getting to that age. Zombie bases? BrunoMars? I have passed Culture by.

Dudley said...

Oh yeah, for hanging place I was all proud about filling in GIBBET, once gallows wouldn't fit. APPAL? I think he made that one up.

No idea what TMAX film is; I tried TRI X, an old Kodak type if I recall correctly.

Speaking of film, Blue Iris, what fun to discover an undeveloped roll! I've had that happen once or twice. It's worth the cost just to see what's there.

desper-otto said...

TTPer, when are you gonna turn blue?

Anybody heard from Grumpy1 lately? He is conspicuous in his absence.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning Splynter and all.

A tough one today. Invoked RLH for QUICKTIME, and SERIO. Many WAGs including IPHONE APP, EPEE, DURAN DURAN, and GILA. At 65a, thought of Israelites and Aramaeans before settling on ASSYRIANS. I know LITTLE SLAM more as 'Small slam". On our DD, we needed close to DEAD CALM to make a full power run (36 kts). Anything much more and excess pitching would occur. Favorite fill - EUROS and ASTA. least favorite - ANODE. Nice touch with TORIC.

D. O. - re Grumpy. I e-mailed him a couple weeks ago. Said he was into some other projects but looks at the blog late in the day when he has time. He is OK.

Have a great day.

CrossEyedDave said...

If you guys are having a tough time, i don't have a chance!

4D, like cheerios = toric, had me in a mobius.

i still don't get "props" (30D)

& 53D rums ( without the Blog for enlightenment, i might have used this puzzle as a firestarter.)

Dead Calm = Doldrums, has anyone ever experienced seeing the horizon suspended in the sky? (i have)

Argyle, @4:25am???
Just the way you are,,, that link was Awesome!, never seen anything like it! thanks!

Anonymous said...

TTP'er here again

WBS, 80s Fab Five of Rock DURANDURAN ? In my mind, hardly rock, more like a pop group. I'll have to read the write up to see if there's any reasoning as to why Fab Five. And ENSOUL ? I can't imagine any usage of ENSOUL in any context or era.

HeartRX, I had the OMARS from the perps, and BRUN became an oh ? moment. Know the song, but never would have known he won the Grammy, and have only heard the name. Could pass him on the street and not know it.

63A UNDERARMS smelled like a good response for Shower Needs clues, especially with the U from AQUA, the D from KIDS, and the S from TESS. But when I filled in 45D TALKER, nee YAKKER, had to rule out underarms. Then saw there was no misdirection, it was UMBRELLAS.

I've never had a Zombie, but having _UMS, R became the only logical fit if one were to assume it were an alcoholoc beverage, as in a SoCo Sour.

Kazie, I too has ATTHISRATE, but had to change to ATTHATRATE with 27A MENIAL. In my vernacular, it's AT THIS RATE, but it may be like kiddy, kitty, or caddy corner...

Desper-otto, I need to get over my qualms that developed after reading the TOS and collection of personally identifiable information.

Since I failed today and vented sufficiently, I will now read the Write up...

desper-otto said...

CED -- PROPS is a slang short form for "proper respect".

Spitz -- I thought jumping connection/ANODE was one of the more clever clue/answer combos. If you're going to jump-start a vehicle, you connect to the battery's anode (and cathode, I guess).

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. What Dudley said about feeling all proud about filling in GIBBET. Some terrific fill today, such as PLAGIARISM and ASSYRIANS, and clever clues, such as those for CLOSET and ASTA. Nevertheless, I just was unable to get much pleasure from the puzzle today. Good workmanship without much, to me, heart.

Maybe the fact that I had to look up who the heck Ashley Tisdale, Bruno Mars, and Bernard Slade are made me less than gruntled. At least I got SERIO all by myself!

APPAL? Yeah yeah, I know it's LEGIT, but dayum ...

Both Quicktime and RealPlayer are decent players, but both are huge resource hogs. RealPlayer bogs my machine down mightily, but I keep it because it's the only player that can play FLV files.

Best wishes to you all, and I hope you all are DOONE well.

ASTA la vista.

Husker Gary said...

Tin thinks when I post this late, it’s because I’m golfing. Not today, I had to work hard to get this one (and go downtown for Crazy Days) without help and found it very satisfying. Anything worthwhile takes effort! Brain and eraser were taxed today!

Musings
-What Avg. Joe said.
-“Got a match?” “Not since Superman died.”
-So that’s how you spell PLAGIARISM. Intercalary new to this cwd cowboy.
-Comic intro for S E _ _ _ was SEGUE first.
-I saw POLO first and put MARCO. Duh! Muy loco!
-GUNS N ROSES fit for DURAN DURAN too. _ U _ _ N…
-Should Dean and Teri switch positions in that picture?
-I remember Kodak film where you took one picture and waited a week to see if it was any good. Now you can shoot all day until you get one you like!
-When we go to car shows for cars of my youth and see no seat belts or other safety features, I wonder how we ever made it through.
-Just The Way You Are NOT by Billy Joel. Who knew?
-Associating a playwright with schlock TV seems odd
-Spot me a fin? Is this Guys and Dolls?
-PAY IN conjures up IRS not IRA to me. Voluntary/Non-voluntary.
-My jumping connection first was CABLE
-I watched the 1934 Mutiny on the Bounty the other night and in one scene the infamous Captain Bligh was mercilessly having his men try to get the ship out of a DEAD CALM and to some wind by rowing small boats tied to the boat. Who was Fletcher Christian and Captain Bligh in that flick?

Jayce said...

Wasn't Christian Fletcher played by Dirk Bogard?

Argyle said...

More on PROPS.

Jayce said...

Er, Fletcher Christian, sheesh. And didn't Charles Laughton play Captain Bligh? He was awesome in that role, as he was in almost every role he ever played.

Sometimes it's hard to tell which is a person's first name and last name. Reverse 'em and you still have a plausible full name. Eg Daniel Craig, 2 first names! Anderson Cooper, 2 last names!

Argyle said...

Oh, and that was Nick that provided the link for "Just the Way You Are". I just made it clickable.

Irish Miss said...

Lemonade @9:46 ~ Thanks for the warning about the"pinchers"; I'll try my best to tame Larry and Charlie.

Apologies to Julian. I don't know why I typed Jeremy unless my mind was too busy thinking about what is awaiting me in beautiful Coastal Maine.

Jayce said...

Pierce Anthony, Anthony Pierce ...

Kevin James, James Kevin?

Anyway, it's all fun.

Jayce said...

I spent my leap second staring at the sweep second hand on my watch, knowing already that it would not stop for a beat. But I just HAD to look. Before I knew it, the moment was over!

Misty said...

Well, I got the NE corner pretty quickly and so felt confident this was going to be a good one for me. 'Twas not to be. Struggle, struggle, and finally had to cheat to get it done. In the end I felt old and weary and a bit ticked off at some of the clues. I'm not familiar with the term TORIC and kept thinking, come on, Cheerios can't be TOXIC! I'm with Splynter on giving ENSOUL a meh. Make that a double meh meh. But, hey, at least I learned some stuff. So thanks, anyway, Julian.

Hope you got some sleep, Blue Iris, and am glad to hear that Grumpy's okay.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Husker Gary said...

Clark Gable played Mr. Christian. He wanted to keep his trademark moustache but was convinced to shave it off for this role; which he never did again. Charles Laughton did play the horrible Captain Bligh (talk about your ONE MAN RULE) and Gable hated working with him. Instead of trying to work out a compromise, the director let the bad feelings between the men feed into the antipathy the characters felt on the screen. Trailer

The Marlon Brando/Trevor Howard version was good too and I did not see the Mel Gibson’s The Bounty.

Avg Joe said...

On the name topic, I went several years before I figured out it was Anais Nin, not the other way around.

Spitzboov said...

D O @ 1141. I guess it's just the way the ANODE clue hit me. Jump 'start' connection would have been better. We always say "jump start". Jump a car is what someone on a skateboard might do. See Skateboard jumping a car

PK said...

Gary, re the lack of seat belts in old cars: My air force son took me to task a few years ago because we hadn't used proper safety methods when he was a small child. He rode between his dad and I in the front seat on the fold-down arm rests. He thinks that was awful.

I tried to tell him that in the 70's and early 80's, there weren't child protective car seats on the market that I ever found. And I looked.

We had seat belts then, but didn't use them except when we went to the big city.

PK said...

I did have some straps that went all the way around the back seat with a harness for little kids. That worked well for my three older kids. The air force pilot to be, rascal that he was, figured out how to get out of that thing long before he could be reasoned with.

HeartRx said...

Jayce @ 11:59, Marc Anthony, Bruce Wayne, Dick Tracy and James Kirk...

H.G. I think I was watching "Mutiny on the Bounty" at the same time as you were, and I also briefly thought of those poor men rowing the boats.

Argyle, thanks for the PROPS link. I had heard the term, but didn't really think about where it came from!

Jayce said...

HeartRx, yes, thank you, Bruce Wayne is an excellent example.

So it wasn't Dirk Bogard, eh? In what movie did he play a seafaring, SALTI dog character, if any? Captain Horatio Hornblower? No, I think that was Gregory Peck. Dang, I can't think of it.

As for the belt is almost always required clue, at first was thinking along the lines of Tai Kwan Do, Ju Jitsu, Karate, Dojo, etc.

Bill G. said...

Mostly WKS. Also WCEDS. I got it done with red-letter help but like most Saturdays, it wasn't much fun for me. I keep doing them so I'll feel OK about participating in the blog on Saturday.

Mostly, I think I will watch bits and pieces of the Olympics in between innings of the Dodger game. I sure enjoyed the opening ceremonies. The last opening ceremonies was impressive in its scope. This one had a lot of heart.

My daughter just bought a new car. Pretty big. Also sophisticated. She let me drive it. When you put it in reverse, you get a TV picture of what's behind the car as well as it's projected path. It beeps if you get close to something. Seems much more useful than wipers than turn themselves on when it starts to rain.

Blue Iris said...

Just noticed I finished comments at 5:04 AM... no wonder my eyes were getting heavy. I have no idea how long it took me. I do know son arrived home from college at around 2:00 am and he told me BRUNOMARS fill-in. Had no idea. I was watching DVR opening ceremonies at the same time.

PK, I remember sitting my daughter plastic infant carrier on the floor, in the front seat ,by my feet. It was cooler down there because we had no air-conditioning in the car. I'd be arrested for child abuse now.

Avg Joe said...

Jordan Larson from the little town of Hooper, NE is playing on the USA volleyball team right now. US leads So Korea 15 to 11 in the first game.

HeartRx said...

Jayce @ 1:30, do you mean the film "H.M.S. Defiant" with Alec Guinness and Dirk Bogarde?

Seldom Seen said...

Re: Safety in the seventies.

I remember cruising down I-75 at about 75mph in the back of a Mercury station wagon. It had some folding seats in the cargo area. The floor had started to rust away so you could see the road whizzing by just inches below you feet. I don't remember if it had seat belts since us/we? three kids were constantly crawling all around the back seat and cargo area(along with a 100-pound St. Bernard). I still tease my mom about this.

I had never heard of Bruno Mars until his 2012 Grammy Performance. I have not heard of him since.

I'm glad to hear that Grumpy1 is ok. I've missed his contributions.

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Didn't get much sleep so puzzle was hard! After awhile I cheated.

Good work, Julian and Splynter.

Got ASTA pretty quickly and QUICKTIME fell in from the Q. Loved CLOSET. Never heard of BRUNO MARS or SLADE. Learned new word INTERCALARY--which I probably will never see again.

Still in gum hell. Mostly everything still being pureéd.

Have a happy Sunday!

Anonymous said...

Short and sweet "yuck".

Lucina said...

hello, Splynter and all. Fun? Really? Good for you!

I did this while watching the DVR recording of the opening ceremonies so it took longer than usual but some parts were a slog anyway. I'm just not current on modern slang like PROPS which when it emerged with the aid of CAPED had no idea about it. Thanks for explaining it.

The SW and SE corners were the first and easiest to finish as AQUA brought ASSYRIANS to mind. Up in the NE hand up for AT THIS RATE but then PLAGIARISM changed DAZZLED to AMAZED AT and MENIAL slid through.

BRUNO MARS is another unknown and finally looked it up and ClOSET was clever.

Intercalary has expanded my vocabulary aided by my handy dictionary and LEAP DAY finished off the center.

We have seen TORIC many times with images provided and that is the best way I learn so it has stuck.

Enjoy the Olympics, everyone!

PK said...

Blue Iris: I, too, put the plastic baby carrier on the floor. The baby was out of the sun at least. I had the carrier fall off the seat a couple times when it was propped up on the armrest.

My friend's mother said, "It's really amazing how many babies survive first-time mothers."

Jayce said...

HeartRx @ 2:28, yep I think that must be the movie I was trying to remember the name of. The name sure sounds familiar. I don't know why I thought of it other than I must have been very impressed when I saw it.

I fell asleep watching the opening ceremonies last night. The ceremony was fine, but it was the unending parade of athletes from so many countries that got me sleepy. I took a break for 15 minutes, came back in and China was parading by. I thought, "Jeez, only up the C's so far? An awful lot of alphabet left to go." So I went to bed. Didn't see the lighting of the cauldron or the queen proclaiming the official opening of the games.

Blue Iris and PK, my wife and I have had that conversation. "How did our kid ever survive us?" In spite of all, he turned out pretty doggone well :)

CrossEyedDave said...

Hmm, i jump started just about everything, so i thought i could offer some advice on anode vs cathode, but it appears it can be a bit more complicated than i thought.

All i know is red to red, & black to bare metal on the engine. The reason for the last connection being on the metal engine, was before sealed batteries, a charging battery generated hydrogen, which explodes in the presence of a spark, sometimes exploding the battery, & covering the unsuspecting jumper in battery acid!

HG, (re: Teri Hatcher,) this was as close as i could find

Bill G said "WCEDS" woohoo! Lemonade,,, i am halfway to no longer being a newbie!

Husker Gary said...

They may not be real, but they are spectacular Dave!

Tinbeni said...

Splynter: Excellent write-up & links.
GEEZ ... what a mess!!!
Wish I had done this on computer, not in Black Ink on Paper.
Then I could have turned on the "Red-Letter-Help" and said I got it done.

BUT Noooooooo!
So now I have the ultimate (erotic) INK BLOT.

At least I got the Zombies RUMS.

So Splynter, YOU get the First Toast at Sunset.

Cheers!!!

PS Husker: I figured you took the day off from golf today, after throwing out your back on the 14th hole yesterday.

Lucina said...

Blue Iris, PK and Jayce:
I am in absolute awe of what a marvelous adult my daughter is now. Since parenthood doesn't come with a manual, it's always a wonder, right?

Still watching the opening ceremonies off and on and even skipping the commercials the march is only up to letter L.

PK said...

The opening ceremonies were sooo long, I was fighting sleep big time. I wanted to see the USA march in. Figured I had time to take a quick shower. USA came in while I was toweling off so I missed it--the only time I've ever thought a TV in the bathroom might be beneficial.

Can you imagine what happens at the rehearsals for something like that? Can you imagine beating a drum without your arms falling off while all those athletes march in? Where'd they find that many people with cast iron bladders that didn't need to visit the loo half-way through?

Bill G. said...

PK, I agree. I would have never made it through the opening ceremonies in person and not even constantly in front of a TV for that long. I take it you don't have a DVR? That's what saves me. I record it and start watching it. Then I pause it while I do something else. Then I skip over the ads. Then...? I never thought it would so completely change my TV-watching habits but it has.

My son recommended a fellow who came to our house and washed our cars, waxed, vacuumed, etc. Everything looks really shiny and new.

Bill G. said...

We've been watching the men's beach volleyball. The two US players are from this area. Their coach, Mike Dodd, owns a restaurant here in town.

CrossEyedDave said...

HG, i thought the Seinfeld Episode (firmly) established they were real!

Anonymous said...

Bill G.
Men's beach volleyball???
Misty May and Kerri Walsh are the only
ones I want to see in a tiny speedo.
Ahh.. Here they are now.

Lemonade714 said...

CED, you are officially not a newbie and IM, I was suggesting you might have someone named Jeremy on your mind. Off for a walk.

Lucina said...

Bill G:
That is exactly what I do, record and watch for a while then do something else. Can't imagine the rehearsals and 10,000 volunteers! It was announced that they gave up weekends and evenings to do that. Kudos to them.

I'm sorry if anyone missed the lighting of the cauldron and the grand finale. It truly was spectacular!

Yellowrocks said...

I just got home from a perfect day in the PA mountains sitting by a stream, enjoying nature, lovely vista, good chat with my little sis, cool and pleasant weather until it started raining at 4:30 PM. We moved indoors and continued our great time.

I enjoyed this puzzle, but had to work at it some . Y'all have said about everything there is to say. I enjoyed catching up with you. Ensoulment is a philosophical/theological construct.
Link ensoulment

Abejo said...

Good evening, folks. Thank you, Julian Lim, for one tough puzzle. Thank you, Splynter, for the good review.

Just finished. It is 12:00 midnight. The NW was my big trouble.

Thought EPEE was a sword, not an event.

No idea what SHAR was

TORIC came real slowly.

SERIO ?????????

UP TO was tough to dig up.

Other than those, simple.

The rest came a little easier.

Liked ANODE for 48D. Clever.

See you in a few hours.

Abejo