17. Negotiator's assets : BARGAINING CHIPS. I love Lay's Salt & Vinegar potato chips!
25. Utterly squashed : FLAT AS A PANCAKE. Anyone for a potato pancake?
45. Easily identifiable teams, in casual games : SHIRTS AND SKINS. I had "SHIRTS AND tails" at first. D'oh, what was I thinking? How about some nice baked potato skins?
Is anyone hungry yet? I think the people in the unifier might be! And the unifier is:
58. 1885 Van Gogh painting (whose subjects may have appreciated the ends of 17-, 25- and 45-Across): THE POTATO EATERS.
Marti here for your Thursday amusement. The puzzle is just missing a Q for a pangram. Lots of sparkly fill, starting with the first one...
Across:
1. Elegant trinket : BIJOU. I meant literally - sparkly!
6. Yam or taro : TUBER. Our theme is also a tuber.
11. "Talk of the Nation" airer : NPR. National Public Radio.
14. Not proximate : APART
15. "The Princess Bride" kidnapper ___ Montoya : INIGO. No clue - needed every single perp. The role was played by Mandy Patinkin in the 1987 movie.
16. Rivière contents : EAU. French for "river" in the clue, and eau = "water."
20. Textbook updates, e.g.: Abbr. : EDS. Editions.
21. Pricey screens : HD TVS. DH saw a 152 inch Panasonic HD TV, and is making plans to put an addition on the house...
22. Nuts for soft drinks : KOLAS
23. Stage signal : CUE
24. Synthesizer pioneer : MOOG. Robert Moog. I got turned on to classical music when I bought "Switched on Bach" in the 60s. 2:07
32. Come undone : GO APE
33. Be just too sweet : CLOY
34. Inkling : HINT
35. ___ Lopez: chess opening : RUY. I have seen this one before, but I misspelled it as ReY at first.
36. Mickey D's breakfast item : SMALL OJ. Why Mickey D? I was trying to think of a Mc-something!
39. In : MOD. Short for "modern." I hesitated to fill it in, because I thought "mod" was a bit of old-fashioned lingo from the 60s!
40. Before, to the Bard : ERST
42. "Actually, that's not true" : I LIE
43. Reasons for returns : FLAWS
48. Shared currency : EURO. Currently shared by 23 countries, and used by over 320 million people.
49. Really quiet, in music : PPP. Pianississimo. I vow to get that word into a puzzle some day. Just look at all those S's!!
50. USS Missouri nickname : BIG MO. Total WAG.
52. Digital image unit : PIXEL
55. Through : VIA
61. Angkor ___: Cambodian temple : WAT. Beautiful!
62. Die (out) : PETER
63. Trio with notable beards : ZZ TOP. Ironically, the guy without a beard is named Frank Beard!
64. "Star Trek: DSN" role : ODO. A "Changeling" on the Deep Space Nine series.
65. Below-average Joe : SCHMO. I was off in the "coffee" direction for Joe at first...
66. Eternities : AEONS
Down:
1. Big screen pig : BABE. From the 1995 film.
2. Third-generation release of 2012 : IPAD. I have an iPad, iPod, iPhone, iMac and Macbook. But this still didn't appear without a few perps!
3. 24-Down containers : JARS. And 24-Down. Subway addition? : MAYO. From the sandwich chain, not the commuter rails.
4. Part of ILO: Abbr. : ORG. International Labour Organization, a UN agency.
5. Pacific-12 member, e.g. : UTAH UTES. And 7-Across. Pac-12 member, e.g. : UNIV.ersity.
6. Windshield application : TINT.
8. Some troughs : BINS. Again, a simple one that I just did not want to fill in at first.
9. It's usually broken before use : EGG
10. "You da man!" : ROCK ON
11. Author of "The Sandman" graphic novels : NEIL GAIMAN. Needed every single perp to get this guy's name.
12. Respected Smurf : PAPA
13. Muscovite, e.g.: Abbr. : RUSS.ian from Moscow.
18. Think tank product : IDEA
19. Cheap sauce : HOOCH. "Sauce" being the euphemism for "booze."
23. Keep from going higher : CAP. Like, "Put a cap on..."
25. Club with the motto "To Make the Best Better" : FOUR-H
26. Beset : LAY SIEGE TO
27. Milan's La ___ : SCALA. Actually, it is "Teatro alla Scala" in Italian.
28. Fully committed : ALL IN. Am I the only one who loves to watch the World Series of Poker? Check out this "all in" call that lost to a royal flush! 1:40
29. Traveled down the Grand Canal, say : POLED. Meh...
30. Has met before : KNOWS
31. JFK Listings : ETDS. Estimated Time of Departure(s). And then we have 38-Down. Named for a prez, Philly public square also known as Love Park : JFK PLAZA.
32. College srs.' tests : GRES. Graduate Record Exam(s)
37. Soup with a bento : MISO. A "Bento Box" is the epitome of Japanese take-out, usually delivered by Bento Drivers on bicycles. I don't know if MISO soup is typical in a bento box, since it might be a little sloppy by the time it arrived at its destination?
41. Master card? : TRUMP. Of course, I was thinking in terms of the credit cards in my wallet.
44. Golf hole's edge : LIP. Husker G., how many times have you claimed "Paint!!" when your putt lipped out?
46. Uniformed forces : TROOPS. Celebrated on Monday this week!
47. WWI German vice admiral : SPEE. Total WAG. I had the "S*EE," and somehow I dredged it up from the dim recesses...
50. USAF stealth plane : B-TWO. I originally had B-Ten, but Angkor Eat and Ndo didn't make sense at 61 and 64-Across
51. "___ to do it!" : I HAD. ("Oh no, you di-ent!!")
52. Trail : PATH. Nailed it! I immediately thought of some hiking trails in the Alps.
53. Brangelina, e.g. : ITEM. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are a real "item" in the gossip columns. Why did he ever leave sweet Jennifer?
54. Tic-tac-toe option : X OR O
55. Quash : VETO
56. Element in hemoglobin : IRON
57. Egyptian dangers : ASPS
59. Dick : TEC. "Detectives" are known as "Dicks"
60. Philosopher Mo-___ : TZE. 墨子 C.C. has explained to me that Cantonese has no "Z" word. So I suppose this would become Mo-Tse in Cantonese. He studied Confucianism, but came to the conclusion that their philosophy was fundamentally flawed. He developed his own philosophy of "Universal Love," so was probably the first Flower Child, right?
And that's it for this week!
Hugs,
83 comments:
Morning, all!
Man, this one bashed me around and left my head bloodied and bowed.
I've never heard of THE POTATO EATERS, so that took nearly every perp to get. I did get SHIRTS AND SKINS right away off the initial S, but the other theme answers required a lot of perp help as well. On the bright side, I threw down NEIL GAIMAN based solely on the clue with no perp help whatsoever.
Wasn't too crazy about little stuff like I LIE [Who actually says that? Isn't this normally clued as the first name of some obscure athlete?] and SMALLOJ, and it took me forever to get the final T of ERST (I couldn't get ERE out of my brain).
That's all minor stuff, though. What killed me was the SW corner. No idea whatsoever about RUY. Even after getting RU_ from the perps, I had no idea. Similarly, I just couldn't figure out BIGMO to save my life (it didn't help that I incorrectly guessed U-TWO instead of B-TWO for 50A). Those two gaps kept me from getting LAY SIEGE TO and I finally had to turn on the red letter help and start guessing letters.
Good Morning, Marti and friends. Interesting puzzle, but not one of my favorites. I new the Van Gogh POTATO EATERS, which helped with the CHIPS in the Bargaining Chips. I knew SHIRTS AND SKINS immediately because my husband used to play pick-up games.
It was actually Robert MOOG who invented the Moog Synthesizer. Wendy (nee Walter) Carlos who collaborated with him and made the synthesizer come into common usage.
Interesting timing to have ALL IN in this puzzle.
BABE was an adorable movie. When this movie first came out, my husband and I decided to see it. We were standing in line to get out tickets and there were a few young college men in line trying to decide what they wanted to see. They say the name BABE and discussed among themselves whether to see it. They had no idea that BABE was a pig! Not what they expected!!
I had the same experience as you, Marti, with the iPAD, and I have the same toys that you have!
Can you believe that today is Petula Clark's 80th birthday?
QOD: To some lawyers, all facts are created equal. ~ Felix Frankfurter (November 15, 1882 ~ February 22, 1965).
Delightful puzzle and write up, I saw the potato link early on and was confused by small potatoes oj in the middle of the grid. It turned out not to be part of the theme. I was really impressed by finding phrases where the link word had such different meaning.
Also I liked the foreshadowing of tuber.
3 lousy letters. No idea on kidnapper INIG_ and crossing 10D R_C_ON and it's cross of 22A Nuts for Soft drinks with _O_AS but is not cOcAS. I know I'm going to be disappointed when I look at the answers for 10D and 22A.
Had just 2 words across and 9 words down at first pass. Wonder how many others will have entered ETAS instead of ETDS ?
Big breakthrough was getting FLATASAPANCAKE with ----ASAPA-_C--E
Also at 46D, Not Armies but TROOPS, which was a big slowdown. Time to read the write up...
Good morning everyone,
Julian kicked my butt pretty good today. I solved all the theme fills, but some of the little stuff did me in.
Neil Gaiman was unknown. Had all the letters via perps except the M. For 31D I had ETAS and I had no guess for the first letter in -OA.
The philosopher in 60D was a ??? as was ZZTOP.
I had the wrong bomber for 50D .... BTEN. Dumb mistake on my part . BTWO is/was no stranger to me.
Finally for 1A, I had BICOU, because I figured CARs were an appropriate addition for a subway system. And I only know BIJOU as the name of some theaters from days past. BICOU/BIJOU neither made me think of any type of trinket.
Very challenging and enjoyable puzzle, except for "In : MOD," which is lame.
Good morning, Marti, C.C., and gang.
This one looked like a train wreck...then just a fender-bender. I finally got it parked safely with no damage. As usual, I didn't get the theme until it was too late to be of any use. I misread "Uniformed forces" as "Uninformed sources." That slowed me down!
Marti, when I saw all those S's I thought you'd added an extra syllable. Nope! I agree that SMALL OJ isn't particularly Mickey-D-ish. I needed all the perps to get NEIL GAIMAN also -- total unknown to me. Tough Thursday! Thanks Mr. Lim. ROCK ON!
Hahtoolah, you must have read the blog the instant it came up, because I changed Carlos to Robert Moog around 5:31...LOL!
I also was very familiar with "The Potato Eaters," so I think that was a tremendous help in solving this one. I'll be curious to read others' experience with it.
I questioned the "Mickey D" clue for SMALL OJ, but C.C. pointed out that the clue has a shortened form of McDonalds, to hint at the shortened form of "orange juice" in the answer. Clever!
Got everything very slowly with perps help for words like "Gaiman" --except the "e" in spee and potato "e"aters. I didn't remember that painting's name, so I kept trying to think of one of those paintings where workers are out in a field. But couldn't think what they could be doing in that field to fill in that space (not reapers or sowers or farmers :).)
Ooooof! What a chore!
This took over 45 minutes to wrestle to the ground. Many of the same hangups already mentioned. Oddly, my first theme fill was The Potato Eaters, but I'd never heard of it. It filled with perps in reverse order and I then wagged "The P". Having that helped a lot, but it was still a crawl to the finish. No clue on Neil Gaiman and wanted Wok instead of WAT. Finally wagged the Big after getting MO and could not parse B-II as B-Two to save my ass. Finally, finally got it done without error.
And you beat me to the punch on the trivia about Frank Beard, Marti. I always thought that was an odd tidbit.
Very nice write up Marti, thank you!
Too tough for me as I noted above. Twice in the last week where I got down to three letters and just couldn't get it done.
Hondo, yes, I was at the same _OA for the longest time, and decided that it might be ETDs, and then walked the alphabet to get to MOD.
Have a good day all.
Can't let the moment pass without a little ZZ. Blue Jean Blues live.
Yikes this was tough! I didn't know of INIGO, RUY, PPP, WAT, ODO, TZE or NEIL GAIMAN. Great learning experience.
I only heard her called the Mighty Mo (never BIG MO).
Always look at the bright side: I got to use the words SCHMO and HOOCH in the same puzzle!
Have a great day :)
Flame me all you want, but this was a Saturday style toughie. Don't enjoy (or do) sat puzzles, and wish they would'nt make weekly puzzles this hard, obscure, and vaguely clued.
Obviously DNF, and I don't care, because I like to enjoy the puzzle.
Good morning Marti and all.
Tough one today, real cranky; But liked the theme after I finally got it. Invoked red letter help with UNIV and ODO. I think BINS from troughs is a stretch. Liked the shoutout to BIG MO. Always knew it as the Mighty Mo. Took awhile to get LAY SIEGE TO. Thought TRUMP and GO APE were cleverly clued.
Michele @ 10:52 last night. Swiss chard would work. So would escarole. A good sausage substitution is Polish kielbasa.
Off to play some bridge and draw TRUMP.
The POTATO is my waistline’s enemy since you can’t do anything to it that makes it unpalatable to my system. I enjoyed Julian’s POTATO theme as well and am sure Marti will have info on the painting for this philistine of the arts.
Musings
-Have you ever played in a SHIRTS AND SKINS scrimmage Marti ;-)?
-BIJOU is still a theater to me and YAM and TARO are just more carbs!
-Me too on SMALL OJ, I’ve had a lotta Egg McMuffins on the way to, well, you know where
-MOD? Dang, I tried ETA and ETD and MOD never came to my pea brain. One bad cell!
-In pol speak, I LIE becomes I MISSPOKE
-Fav ZZ TOP TUNE. Couldn’t find the incredible video. Remember when MTV actually played/showed music videos?
-Our Joe is not below Avg. or merely Avg.
-iPad is wrong size for me – too big for pocket and too small for desk
-MAYO doesn’t live here just Lite Miracle Whip
-EGGS QOD - Ya gotta break a few to make an omelet
-That guy can have bargaining chOps too
-Baseball has no salary CAP and Football does. This makes the NFL more competitive.
-I’m a poker fan too, Marti. Talk about some characters
-MANY TIMES, Marti. I shot a 40 on the back nine Mon. and left 4 putts on the lip. Damn game, I love it.
-I couldn’t get SR 71 or Blackbird in and finally saw B TWO
-PETER crossing DICK, hmmm…
-QOD corollary – Lawyers argue legal/illegal not right/wrong.
-56°F today, sunny and no wind. FORE! T-shirt and shorts Tin!
This puzzle took quite a while, but it was fun. I missed two letters, which I should have gotten. GRR. At 50D I was looking for all initials. I didn't know ODO but B-TWO now makes sense. For 60D I had TSE. Z didn't seem right, but now I realize I have heard of ZZ TOP.
In Japan we bought bento boxes in the train station and ate them on the Shinkansen, a high speed train. The boxes usually are arranged in partitioned compartments with meat or fish, rice, pickled or cooked veggies, and sometimes sushi rolls. The Japanese use a lot of fancy packaging, beautiful but wasteful.
My DIL makes bento boxes in non disposable containers for Kenny.
Miso soup does not come in the bento box.
Addendum
-We just had our furnace, humidifier and water softener checked out and all were fine. The tech was a former student who works for a company owned by my neighbor and let’s just say I received service above and beyond what I was due. There is an upside to living in a small town of only 25,000 peeps.
-The tech had red-tagged a furnace (very high carbon monoxide level) in a bad rental property last week and turned off the gas. The landlord was upset and told AJ he couldn’t do that and the he would simply turn the gas back on when AJ left. AJ told the guy it was the law that the furnace had to be shut down and not run again. AJ then took out some wire cutters and cut all the electrical connections (he’s 6’3” and very fit). He told the guy he could use the furnace in his own house but not someone else’s. Suicide? Your call. Homicide? Not so much. What a SCHMO!
Anon@9:31
While a lot of anons deserve 'flaming', you do not rise to that level so your vent is acceptable and perhaps understandable.
Re: SPEE: It is more often clued to the battleship, Graf Spee, named after the Admiral. CED gave a good link about it and I'll repeat it. Link.
Marti: Nice write-up & links.
Though I disagree that the POLED was Meh.
(Probably because it was my third entry.)
Surprised how many didn't know BIG-MO (my 1st entry).
As for the rest ...
Well my yams were ROOTS and Not proximate was EXACT ... and that about sums up my solving experience.
(can it be called a "solving experience" when so many squares were left blank?)
DNF ... was not on Julian's wavelength. Not even close!
At least there's a Sunset I can toast later.
Or now ... Cheers !!!
PS Our Avg.Joe is NOT a SCHMO!
"My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." These lines from one of my all-time favs, "The Princess Bride" still crack up my family.
I highly recommend this movie which is based on William Goldman's book. (He is a two-time Oscar winner for screen writing, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "All the President's Men".)
The sword fighting scenes are amazing.
Certainly never expected to see Inigo in a puzzle. Cool.
The Princess Bride
This puzzle kicked my butt, red letter all the way. I came to the Blog to try & figure out wtf btwo was. (my parsing is terrible, i had it ending in "O" not "2") & XorO i thought was was strange relative of Zorro!
I actually saw The Potato Eaters in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, however it did not help in this puzzle.
Poled = Meh? i actually liked it. I wanted to link a relaxing ride on the Grand Canal in Venice, but this was all i could find on short notice. Besides, i am sure Marti would prefer to do the Grand Canal this way. (skip the 1st minute)
44D paint? I'm confused. Why would HG paint a golf green???
52D Alps clip was excellent, (however the singer was terrible!)
One story i remember about Big Mo, besides being the ship the Japanese surrender was signed upon, was in her 1st action, firing all her guns at once, led the fleet to believe she was hit & sinking due to all the smoke from her guns! Unfortunately there are no video's from that time. But this might give you an idea...
Good morning and happy Friday eve to all. Thanks Marti for your write up. To Mr. Lim congrats a toughie for me. Lots of learning moments for me.
To HuskerG, Miracle Whip is a staple in our house too, and speaking of potatoes how about McHashbrowns with that O.J. I too have never met a spud I didn't like.
Have a great day to all RJW.
Ron Worden can confirm that "No REAL Floridian" would ever order a SMALL-OJ at Mickey-D's.
(I thought LARGE was the smallest size!)
Plus a Shout-out to the Rays David Price on the Cy Young award.
This puzzle was pure Limsanity! Loved it.
CED, your mention of Big Mo firing all guns reminded me of a story.
Back in the 70's I replaced a kitchen for a guy who had spent his entire career in the aircraft industry. I was on the job for over a week and got to know him pretty well. Among his many interesting tales, he had a picture on the wall of an airborne T-37 taken from an escort plane that was fully engulfed in flames...all you could see was wings. They had developed a prototype of this normally unarmed aircraft that was very heavily armed. IIRC, it had at least 4 air to ground missiles and 2 mini guns. When the picture was taken, all armaments had been fired simultaneously and the fuselage was shrouded. He also mentioned that it dropped the airspeed to near zero and stalled the plane. Talk about air brakes!! The pilot recovered and no damage had been done, but I doubt they ever tried that again.
Well, it made me feel a little better to see that I'm not the only one who struggled with this puzzle. I've accepted the sad fact that Saturdays defeat me nearly always, and Fridays sometimes, but I can usually do Thursdays. This one was a bear. I got FLAT AS A PANCAKE and so got a toehold in the middle, but finally had to start cheating.
My biggest frustration was that I could picture that Van Gogh painting perfectly but couldn't think of the title to save my soul--until practically the very end when the perps had done most of the work. Ah, getting older is not for sissies, as someone once said.
Anyway, have a great day, everybody!
Hi gang -
I continue to marvel at the cleverness, creativity, and productivity of our constructors. Earlier in the year, Julian was averaging about 1 puzzle/month. it has since tapered of to one every 2 or three months, but that is still a lot of output.
This puzzle is magnificent: NEIL GAIMAN, LAY SIEGE TO, BIG MO, ZZ TOP -- just awesome!
I had lots of trouble with the compounds - SMALL OJ, FOUR H, GO APE, UTAH UTES.
Took a swag at IDO, which gave me B-TWI. Like I never heard of a B-2. D'OH! Got everything else, though.
Eventually.
Speaking of clever and creative, NEIL GAIMAN wrote the novel that the very amusing movie STARDUST was based on.
Cool regards!
JzB
Next Veterans day, do not forget the Honorable Potato!
Ok, That was just silly...
AvgJoe, 2 Wows in 1 day,,, 1st ZZtop, then the T-37! what a pretty little plane!
Tx for Yest, Tim Wilson, 1st Baptist Bar & Grill!
My first official THUR DNF! SW middle & SW bottom got me. Never got the last letter for RU?,LA??IEGETO,BTW?. As for "THE POTATO EATERS", I got it but I would have gotten it much sooner if it had been something like "most Irish families", I wouldn't have been offended and I'm 100% Irish. Gotta find humor somewhere when you get a DNF.
Avg Joe,
"...on the job for over a week..." Doesn't sound bad.
This guy has been on his home remodeling project for over 1900 weeks and still doesn't have it done. Even though this news item is from a couple of months ago, it captures the essence. It's an ongoing saga. Plenty of stuff on the web about it just by searching his name and address.
Construction Project
Don't know for sure, but doubt this guy is married.
IMHO This was a Saturday Puzzle.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who tanked on today's QWP.
Tinbeni: A bolt of HOOCH to you at sunset.
Hello. Marti, ROCK ON!! Love your analysis.
Very late to the party today as I had to go collect my granddaughter's birthday/Christmas gift, a play yard swingset and deliver it to their house. My SIL will have fun assembling it! Her bd is Dec. 7, same as Windhover's.
Wow! Limsanity! Well stated. The theme answers were easy to suss as were some of the small fill. MOOG and WAT for example I've learned from crosswords. Loved seeing INIGO. It's a well used Spanish name so also easily sussed.
Like CED I have seen THE POTATO EATERS in Amsterdam.
However, the SW did me in and I finally researched (read Google) RUY Lopez, had LIL MO not BIG MO so all kinds of trouble there and never did see LAYS SIEGE TO.
But thank you, Julian Lim, for the fun today. No TRUMP for me today but I love the challenge.
I hope your Thursday is a blast, everyone!
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Julian Lim, for one tough puzzle. Thank you, Marti, for the great review.
Well, this puzzle really beat me up. Much tougher than a typical Thursday.
Way too many unknown words for me. Got a lot of them with perps and wags.
I never heard of ZZ TOP, or ODO.
ROCK ON was too obscure.
Liked the theme. Got all that pretty easily. Potatoes are my favorite food.
Had JFK PLACE at first, then changed that to JFK PLAZA.
Thought X OR O was clever.
Anyhow, off to the rest of my day. Hope tomorrow's puzzle is easier than today's.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
24D You cannot get mayonnaise at Subway; all you can get is one of the eggless substitutes, like Miracle Whip. It's a "health" thing. When I go to Subway for lunch, I have to take my own MAYO. It is not a "Subway addition."
great write up--not a great puzzle, too much obscurity and "what's the creator thinking" clues for me.
HG @ 9:36, of course you are probably familiar with some of Van Gogh’s later works like “Starry Night” or “Sunflowers,” but “The Potato Eaters” is considered to be one of his greatest pieces.
(Oh, and I have been asked many times to play in a “Shirts and Skins” game, but I always wisely declined…)
Boona @ 10:40, C.C. reminded me of that famous line this morning, too. I have never seen “The Princess Bride,” but your clip has me curious now, so I guess I’ll have to order it from Netflix…
CED @ 10:41, awesome water flying!!
I mentioned that i had missed the Saturday Silkie due to hiking in the woods. I failed to mention the tiny furniture we kept finding in the roots of trees.
This is an actual pic i took Saturday. In addition to the bed, and chair, that shiny thing hanging to the right is a frying pan!
Somebody has a strange hobby!
Hello everybody. I thought this puzzle was very hard, for 2 reasons: (1) some answers, such as NEIL GAIMAN, JFK PLAZA, and MO TZU are not well enough known for a Thursday puzzle, and (2) some of the clues, such as Some troughs and In, were a far stretch away from the answers. More a Saturday difficulty, as others of you have opined.
Is it a no-no to have JFK in an answer and also in a clue?
Hand up for filling ETAS and then not being able to figure out _OA. Also for entering ROY and then having to change it to RUY.
I liked Below-average Joe = SCHMO. Gave me a smile.
I knew that it was going to be difficult for me when I saw Julian Lim was the constructor.
My wife, who is a native Cantonese speaker, says that "tzu" character is pronounced something like "zee." Interestingly, it can mean Master, as in Master Lao (Lao Tzu), and it can mean child or little as a diminutive.
Best wishes to you all.
Hi everybody. Fun puzzle but pretty hard for me. Marti, you've got to watch Princess Bride, one of my favorite movies. Inigo reminded me of his very famous movie quote: "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!"
I see that quote's been covered already but what the heck. I already took the time to type it...
Marti, yes I watch the World Series of Poker. However, I skipped the final the last two times because they stop showing the hole cards. Very boring that way.
To Tinman and all,yes no native would ever be satisfied with a small O.J. In fact for many years and several residences I could go out in the backyard and pick them and squeeze my own.
To HuskerG, unless it is really cold,maybe once a year,or I have to go to a funeral I wear shorts everyday. RJW
I enjoyed this puzzle, mainly because I got all the theme lines which helped me get some of the fill. I would say I finished but I LIE! Top two lines in NW & NM wouldn't come. Great help from Marti!
Didn't know the meaning of BIJOU. Papa John Phillips and little mama named one of their daughters BIJOU. She's also a singer. Odd name!
B 2's used to fly low & slow over an area just west of our farm house. Training flights were out of Offut AFB at Lincoln, NE. Very strange to see them sort of hang over the tops of trees below the second story level of our house on the hill.
I did a Picture Lady talk at the elementary school on the Potato Eaters years ago so a gimme. We knew some people of Dutch ancestry who looked like those in the picture. 'Nuff said.
Coming off SHIRTS & SKINS, BIG MO, PETER and "Dick" were so suggestive.....made me GO APE! I'm too old for such excitement!
Beards? Smith Bros. cough drops more apt for me.
Good afternoon:
Late to the dance due to haircut appt., grocery shopping, errands, etc. (While checking some roasts in the meat case, I noticed a rib roast that weighed either just shy of 5 lbs. or a tad over and was priced at $58 and change.)
This was a toughie for me. I had the exact same problem as YR. I was looking for initials for B Two but never heard of ODO. Also, had Tse as I have never heard of ZZ Top. And, I agree with Jace that some of the answers were too obscure for a Thursday.
In any case, thanks Mr. Lim for a definite challenge and thanks, Marti, for a great expo.
BTW, two of my favorite new shows, Vegas and Elementary, have been picked up for the rest of the season. Unfortunately, Chicago Fire, has not been.
Happy Thursday.
Good afternoon all, Saw who the constructor was and just knew this was going to be a hard one for me. Some wavelengths are just not in my realm of consciousness, and Mr. Lim's are at least half of them. I threw down the yellow flag almost right away and went on to enjoy Marti's splendid write up. Excellent links, great music that brought back happy memories (Moog being 3 of them). Good stuff, Marti! Thank you.
Carol, JD, and CED, thank you for the kind words yesterday. It's always good to "see" you all.
I have to go quickly. Have to go meet my friends for some Royal Flushes...that I drink. I may be 'all in' before too long if I'm not careful. Gotta be good, ya know. Santa Baby is always watching, and I do want to stay on his Good List. Wonder if Naughty but Nice is a Good thing. Well I would get references and affirmations strong enough to make his cheeks blush, beard curl and eyes twinkle but obviously that's been done. I'll think on this one.
It's all good..so they say.
Dynamic Duo, i just picked up your fun NYT Tuesday puzzle and completed it quickly. Great theme and great fill. Congrats.
Forgot: Melissa, I'll take you up on your kind offer one of these days. I'll give you plenty of warning though. How fun would that really BEEEEEEEE!!!!
If someone has already linked this, I apologize. Link(3:52)
PK, Your comment about B-2s flying out of Offutt piqued my interest. (First, Offutt is in Bellevue, not Lincoln, but you knew that). We get a lot of touch and go traffic from Offutt over our house since the Lincoln military air strip (and surrounding airspace) is a lot less congested than Omaha metro. Mostly KC-135s, less frequent T-38s and the occasional E-4. But I've never seen a B-2 near Lincoln unless it was some special and pre-announced flyover for some occasion....usually out of Whiteman AFB.
However, back in the late 70's and early 80's they used to have British Vulcan bombers stationed at Offutt and I wonder if that's what you were seeing. A very strange looking plane, and it does bear a serious resemblance to the B-2. Could that have been what you're remembering?
Bill G.
When I was (non) solving this morning, at 15-A, "The Princess Bride" kidnapper ...
I knew you were gonna be grinning as you entered INIGO.
You've mention, on many occasions, that it is one of your favorite movies.
Soooooo, NOW, as my Sun is Setting, this "toast" is to you!
Cheers !!!
(Mari, LOL, Pinch is NOT HOOCH (one of my few fills today).
Speaking of the B Two, at the time the company I worked for was sold, the aircraft was still in development. Due to cost overruns, DOD was only planing on building two of them. Does anyone know how many actually were put into service?
Hondo, if I recall, it's about two dozen. Original plan was for well over one hundred.
Honda, per the article I linked, 21 were built, 20 remain in svervice since 1 crashed,
Good one Argyle. Will be showing that to DW for sure.
So what did you think Avg Joe ? That guy started his remodeling in 1975 and still isn't done. Judge going to decide in Jan 2013...
My kitchen gut and rebuild was floor to ceiling, wall to wall, removing a pair of exterior windows, relocating plumbing, some electric and some forced air duct took about 6 months... That was mostly just weekends, but still...
Wow, this was a DNF for me. the SW corner was a bear.
CEDave, I wonder if you are seeing leprechaun furniture on your hikes?
We toured BIG MO when we were on vacation. Fascinating. I was thinking Mighty Mo, though.
TTP, I'm the son of a carpenter then was one in my earlier adulthood. We've never lived in a complete house. The article you cite is an extreme example for sure, but like the cobblers kids having no shoes, the carpenter's family never has a house that is "done". We owned our last house for 23 years, and most of the projects that were planned were finally completed in the final months of ownership when it was being sold. Our current house is complete above grade since we had it all contracted, but the basement remains unfinished, and that will no doubt take years. C'est la vie.
Tinbeni, thanks. Back at ya. It's a favorite for sure, right up there and maybe even ahead of "Love Actually."
No comments on Max Raabe from yesterday? I had never heard of him before until mentioned by Julianna Marguilles on Letterman. He may be an acquired taste but I love those old 20s/30s/40s songs. I think I would have enjoyed living in that era. But ooh, that included the Great Depression so maybe not. But I like the music, the styles, the culture...
I have enjoyed Vegas but haven't been able to get into Elementary or Homeland. The characters haven't grabbed me. Maybe it because I was late to the party.
Avg.Joe ... Love the NEW avatar !!!
In your honor, Joe's Simple Song
Note: It's 1:22 (but the WHOLE song is from :34 to 1:08).
Salute !!!
Yes, I understand. Though this guy has just been messing with the local government zoning and building departments on purpose all of this time, and now the judge, who has already found him in contempt, may rule to give the city authority to raze the house.... Just glad I'm not his next door neighbor or even in the neighborhood. He should have probably just moved out into the country somewhere...
Glad you like it Tin. Been saving that one for the final week. Thanks for the tune. I had forgotten that Cheech was in Miami Vice. He's better than most people give him credit for....even in the old days:-)
TTP, I don't mean to suggest that I'd like to have that guy for a neighbor, and could never live that way myself. But I've seen enough instances where people actually had a reasonable excuse for living in an incomplete "project" house for a long time that it doesn't tweak me too badly unless it's a serious health hazard.
And I forgot to mention earlier that my biggest learning moment of the day was that Mandy Patinkin played Inigo Montoya. Love the movie and even the character, but had no recollection that he played that role until today. I guess that's the hazard of having a favorite movie on VHS but not DVD.
So is it 5 posts per avatar now?
anon@5:52, if you want to take over policing the blog, you're gonna have to a) identify yourself, and b)gain C.C.'s permission to do so. Otherwise, you're irrelevant.
Dennis/Ave Joe
Thanks. Did not realize that many B-2's were put into service. I recall 64 +/- of the fighters were built, but the fleet has been retired. I understand the maintenance cost was too steep.
Cripes, were talking about 30 year old technology!
While wandering around YouTube, I stumbled across this version of "La Paloma" played in front of an audience in Mexico. It's obvious that this song spoke to their hearts. I'm guessing Lucina will enjoy it.
La Paloma.
Photos of tiny stuff.
And we just had a crash of an F-22 in the Florida Panhandle. Plane's been plagued with oxygen problems. Hopefully the F-35 will perform as advertised.
Anon@5:52
looks like you should
start policing the blog
See above post @7:45
I know. Security has been lacking.
AvgJoe: I think what I'm remembering would have been around 1990 when I was teaching my youngest to drive. "Stealth plane" was what I remember hanging over the highway when I was in the right seat telling my future AF pilot to "forget about the damned plane and watch where you're going".
I didn't know there were more than one model so thought now it would have been the B2. My husband and son identified whatever it was at the time and asked around then said it was from Offut which I recall because my SIL was born on the base. I stand corrected. I understood that base was near Lincoln.
Argyle, I just showed DW your Spuds video. As expected, she loved it. Unexpected was the pause in that demeanor when they showed the chocolate covered potato chips and she exclaimed "OOH, I haven't had those !" Now I'm either have to find them or make them.
I know the remodel woes. We moved into the big old stone house in 1972 on a farm my husband had been share-cropping for years. In lieu of rent, we were to fix it up some each year. Ceilings fell, I ruined parts of my body working on the place, one room a year.
We finally purchased it in 1985 with much left to do. I told my husband, "Either I hire some carpentars and get this done or I'm going to hang myself in the barn." He pulled in the barn the next night, had a vision of my body swaying in the dimness and told me to hire guys.
I did. He left town to harvest wheat for the summer. I worked with a marvelous crew, called electricians & plumbers as needed and brought that place into the 20th century. Worked May-Nov. I did all tear out then painting, papering, finish of woodwork.
PK, you brought back memories of teaching my kids to drive. I started them all out on an automatic to get the basics down like braking, turning, signalling, etc. Then we graduated to our 1965 VW with a stick shift. I spent a lot of time explaining and demonstrating how to operate the clutch. "Let it out until the car starts to move. Hold it right there for a bit until the car gets moving then slowly let it out the rest of the way." I could have saved my breath. They all stalled the engine at first. With the first one, the most terrifying thing was to pull up to a stop sign or red light while going up an incline. Then another unsuspecting driver would pull up close behind. GEEZ... that was scary! With the second and third child, I found some streets in a neighboring town with no traffic and with only a slight incline. That worked much better to learn on. They all turned out to be very competent drivers.
I even had a mother of a girl I was tutoring ask me to teach her daughter to drive a stick they had gotten her for a birthday present. I appreciated their confidence in me. After three kids, I had become an expert.
First time though, only had 12 fills and one long fill. Red letter help most of the way and still enjoyable. Liked tuber placed @ middle top. My family used to tease that we were such poor Irish that we had potatoes growing out our ears. I know... weird.
Ced, never heard of fly boarding till now. When and where did it start? Also I wonder if little furniture under the tree was part of geocaching(sp?)
My son guarded B2 in Guam for two years. He had permission to have picture taken with "Spirit of Kansas" but never happen as that is the one that crashed.
Two favorite movies in puzzle today. If you haven't seen Babe and/or Princess Bride don't bother to rent them, just go out and purchase immediately. We've watched them over and over.
Hahtoolah, it seems like yesterday that my parents made big purchase of large wooden radio/turntable console. Remember listening to Petula Clark albums.
AvgJoe: I went back and saw your links to the planes. What we saw in 1990 was a B2. Don't know what they were doing there or whether my husband got correct info. Just know it was a heck of a thrill for father (ex-AF) and son (future AF pilot) and for me.
BillG@7:05
I love La Paloma! It was my Dad's favorite song and one of mine, too. Thanks for posting it.
I was busy earlier so didn't play the links until now. For some reason they keep stalling with the little wheel going around in the middle. Anyone else have this trouble?
I'm betting it is my cable/internet provider. I get the same mess when I'm trying to scroll down through available on-demand movies.
BillG: We had some close calls with my four learning to drive. My older son had been driving for his dad in the field and thought he knew everything. Wouldn't listen to a thing I said. Went to take his driving test from the state examiner and flunked with a very long stern lecture from the cop. As we left, I mouthed, "Thank you!" to the cop behind my son's back. After that my humiliated son cooperated and did everything I asked of him and became an excellent driver. Passed the test next time.
Lucina, you are welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed it. in addition to the beautiful song, I really enjoyed seeing the reaction of the audience. That song seemed to transport them into a happy place that was filled with pride. That made me happy too.
All this remodeling talk hits home with me right now cause I'm on one from hell! Was trying to swap out a 30 inch exterior door to a 36 inch door in a double lined brick wall. All was going well until owner showed up and tried to tell me how to do it.
I asked "how many of these have you done! Aah! silence! A lot of remodels are not cut and dry but we deal with anything that comes up and don't fret over it.
True their are some out there that give us a bad rep but I have always
strived to be honest with anyone I deal with.
And by the way.. Anyone who knows about hanging a door, The floor was out of level 2" on 3'run. Try to make that one work. It was a challenge but I "got er done"
Boy, I truly hate to agree with an anon, but let's remember the post limit.
Bill G.
I almost forgot
Teaching my last child how to drive now. Reminds me why i started to drink
during the first two. (just Kidding).
Good evening all,late to the blog as usual. Thanks for a great writeup today Marti. I learned that some Thursday puzzles are beyond me! This time Julian won. I have void before VETO so that held me up for a while. I finally got the southeast side completed and then worked my way north. I only took GRE once. Glad of that as those kind of tests are not my forte. Spitz, and Bill thanks for comments re swiss chard. This cold Texas weather has me thinking of soups/stews. I plan on trying that one very soon. Does anyone else here like miso?
A DNF for me which is unusual when I have completed all the theme answers as in this case. Learned some new things like who Neil Gaiman was. And The Potato Eaters looked familiar, though it took the other three theme answers to suss it out. Think I'll remember it after that. Misses included MOD, ODO. GOAPE, BIGMO-Oh Well! Still enjoyed it.
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