google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday, October 28, 2013 Steve Blais

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Oct 28, 2013

Monday, October 28, 2013 Steve Blais

Theme: Trick or Treat - Or give us something crunchy to eat. We find we've gotten four entries with a decidedly crunchy finish.

17. Computer storage medium : MEMORY CHIP

24. Quick-on-the-uptake type, in slang : SMART COOKIE

37. Carton-cushioning unit : STYROFOAM PEANUT

46. Showy authority figure : WHIP-CRACKER

58. Tense pre-deadline period ... or when to eat the ends of 17-, 24-, 37- and 46-Across? : CRUNCH TIME

BOO! Argyle here. What was (or is) your favorite Halloween treat? This grid has rectangles in two corners and a triangular shape in the other two. A gridspanner in the middle. It reminds me of a candy bar. I'll share it with you. (BTW, there are some more crunches in the puzzle.)

Across:

1. Forget where one put, as keys : MISLAY

7. Pedro's eye : OJO. Spanish.

10. Golf great Ballesteros : SEVE. Also Spanish.

14. Crumbly Italian cheese : ASIAGO. Aged Asiago cheese resembles Parmesan cheese in flavor.

15. Lao Tzu's "path" : TAO

16. Slangy prefix meaning "ultra" : ÜBER

19. When repeated, island near Tahiti : BORA. Northeast of New Zealand.

20. Male sibs : BROs

21. Kadett automaker : OPEL. Produced between 1937 and 1940, and 1962 until 1991.

22. Apple music players : iPODs

23. Vintner's prefix : OEN. Oenophile - a connoisseur of wines. 58D. French vineyard : CRU

26. Athenian walkway : STOA

28. Otherwise : ELSE

29. Persian rulers : SHAHs

31. Irene of "Fame" : CARA

33. Used-up pencils : NUBS

40. Latin being : ESSE

41. Latin love word : AMAS. Amo, Amas, Amat.

42. Muslim pilgrim's destination : MECCA

43. Tombstone lawman Wyatt : EARP

45. Mischievous trick : DIDO. More often clued as the Queen of Carthage. There is a singer so named, also.

51. Facebook notes, briefly : IMs. Chat with Instant Messaging.

54. Put back to zero : RESET

55. Orator's place : DAIS

56. Vivacity : ELAN

57. Fitzgerald of jazz : ELLA

60. Bedframe part : SLAT

61. Notes after dos : REs. On a different note from 51-Across.

62. Pop singer Spector who fronted a '60s girl group named for her : RONNIE

                                       LINK

63. Alley prowlers : TOMs Cats

64. Function : USE

65. Chuck who broke the sound barrier : YEAGER. Some tidbits I didn't know. WIKI

Down:

1. Up-tempo Caribbean dance : MAMBO

2. River of Grenoble : ISÈRE. France.

3. Kids' imitation game : SIMON SAYS

4. Vietnam neighbor : LAOS

5. Part of USDA: Abbr. : AGRiculture

6. Multiple Grammy-winning cellist : YOYO MA

7. Catchall option in a survey question : OTHER

8. They're related to the severity of the crimes : JAIL TERMS

9. Caveman Alley : OOP. Administered justice with a club.

10. Summoned as a witness : SUBPOENAED

11. Novel on a small screen, perhaps : E-BOOK

12. "Falstaff" was his last opera : VERDI

13. Wipe clean : ERASE

18. Tax pro: Abbr. : CPA. Have you noticed sometimes CPA isn't indicated as an abbr.?

22. Cyclades island : IOS


24. Nothing to write home about : SO SO

25. Applaud : CLAP

27. Feats like the Yankees' 1998, '99 and 2000 World Series wins : THREE-PEATs

29. Opposite of NNW : SSE

30. 6'3", 5'4", etc.: Abbr. : HTs. (height)

31. Close associates : COMPADRES. From Spanish.

32. Roadside assistance org. : AAA

34. Preparing to use, as a hose : UNCOILING

35. Tampa Bay NFLer : BUC

36. RR stop : STAtion.

38. Jamie of "M*A*S*H" : FARR. Cpl. Klinger.

39. Arabian leader : EMIR

44. Play a part : ACT

45. Discern : DESCRY

46. Take by force : WREST

47. "Is anybody here?" : "HELLO?"

48. Quran religion : ISLAM

49. Underlying reason : CAUSE

50. Relatives : KIN

52. Mrs. Eisenhower : MAMIE. The First Lady, 1953 to 1961.

53. Snide smile : SNEER

56. Sicilian volcano : ETNA

59. Earth chopper : HOE


Argyle


57 comments:

OwenKL said...

I MISLAY things at a frightening clip.
My wife thinks I'm losing my grip.
I blame my son for this crock,
A chip off the old block --
I'm afraid it was my MEMORY CHIP!

From home ec., I used to play hooky,
So at baking I'm still just a rookie.
In the toll-house dough,
Where chocolate chips go,
I dropped microchips, and got a SMART COOKIE!

The porn shop stocks all kinds of smut.
They have things you can stick up your butt!
And if Lucy Van Pelt
Makes your self-control melt,
They've a latex and STYROFOAM PEANUT!

Black BROS ain't your typical hackers.
They don't do it just for the smackers.
They want to make Honkies
Look like so many donkeys,
Their goal is to always WHIP CRACKERs!

They ought to make it a crime,
In a car by your daughter to climb.
Teaching her how to drive
Gave me ten kinds of hives!
In our family, it's still known as CRUNCH TIME!

[Maybe it was just a lingering effect from yesterday, but I found this harder than a typical Monday. ASIAGO & DESCRY I got mainly from perps, DIDO I got only by looking it up in the dictionary. I wonder if DIDO was on my mind when I wrote the third limerick today? SUBPOENAED needed the dictionary, too, but not because I didn't know the word. I just spell it like I do hors d'oeuvres -- and any similarity to characters found in real life is purely coincidental.]

Barry G. said...

Man, this has got to be the crunchiest Monday puzzle I have ever seen. Or maybe I'm just just extra brain dead this morning after staying up late to watch the game last night...

DIDO? OPEL? DESCRY? SEVE? ISERE? STOA? RONNIE? I managed to eventually get them all via the perps, but each one made me pause and wonder what day of the week it was.

Always nice to see substantive words like SUBPOENAED in the grid, but once again an odd choice for a Monday I thought.

Bottom line: Fine puzzle, but what the heck was Rich thinking putting this out on a Monday???

[givernge]

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Argyle and friends. I must have slept through the early part of the week. I really had to check the calendar to be sure this was really a Monday. Ouch!!!

LAOS was my first fill. It isn't a good sign when I can't fill in 1-A or any of the downs in the first word on my first pass.

Still, the Snack Time theme was fun.

QODS: Your dress should be tight enough to show you'd a woman, but loose enought to show you're a lady. Edith Head (Oct. 28, 1907 - Oct. 24, 1981)

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Steve served up an extra crunchy Monday offering. I liked it, though it took some time changing COWORKERS to COMPADRES. It timed out in typical Monday fashion, so I'm happy.

MEMORY CHIP reminds me just how inexpensive computer memory devices have become. I picked up a 1 TB (that's terabyte -- 1024 gigabytes) external hard-drive so I can back up my new IMac. With rebate it came in under $50.

ETNA made the news this weekend for yet another eruption, proving it's still the most active volcano in Europe.

Limerick #2 was your best today, Owen.

HeartRx said...

Good morning, all!

I have to agree that this seemed like a CRUNCHy Monday puzzle…oh, wait - it was supposed to be crunchy!!

I wanted "misplace" at 1A, but knew that would never squeeze into the spaces allotted for it. YO YO MA showed me MISLAY. Then there was the J in OJO that had to wait until I had *AILTERMS at the crossing. Oh, "J." Same with the "D" in *ESCRY, since I din't know (or remember) DIDO.

Ah well, hopefully tomorrow will be the flip side and be Monday easy-breezy...

Yellowrocks said...

This had a cute theme. Because you could not slap down the first word that came to mind and needed some perps, it was more like a Wed. puzzle, but quickly solved with no unknowns,
MISLAY did come immediately to mind. Three times yesterday I had to search for items I had laid down only two minutes before.
STOA and TAO are common crosswordese.
I admire YO YO MA's playing, so that was easy. The O led to OPEL, the only car I know which starts with O.
Hand up for waiting for perps to spell SUBPOENAED. My spelling skill is deteriorating.
I wanted COMPANION for 31D but it left no room for the plural. At 33A STUB also left no room for the plural.
For me WHIP CRACKER is a stern, task master. Today I learned it also can be an ostentatious or showy authority figure.
I was totally opposed to EBOOKS until I received my Kindle Fire. I love it. I guess I assumed it would be like reading books on a desk top. Not!

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

I bollixed up the NW by too hastily entering Romano in the ASIAGO slot. MEMORY CHIP showed me that the river had to be ISÈRE and that cleaned up the rest of it. No other white-out was used. Liked the CRUNCH TIME theme. Not familiar with DESCRY, but the perps helped. I think ÜBER is über used in English. Overall I thought the puzzle had much freshness and it was fun to work.

Have a good day.

Husker Gary said...

I’m a muncher and not a cruncher and wondered how Steve was going to tie those snacks together in a lovely Monday exercise.

Musings
-The onus of being a SMART COOKIE
-I MISLAY but never lose. Still…
-ORO, OSO, OJO
-Joann will tolerate crumbly cheese only on one of these
-My iPod, camera, flashlight, calculator, etc. are all in my iPhone. Oh yeah, it makes calls too.
-JAILTERMS are cut in half for “good time” in Nebraska
-Why am I linking MECCA again? I like it!
-Video games can always be RESET to zero ‘til you get better
-Great sound barrier info, Argyle! Shuttle breaking sound barrier
-Professional Simon Says Caller. How would you do?
-Some B-listers can strike gold like Jamie Farr did with M*A*S*H. Gotta love those residuals.
-What haunting song contains the lyric “And here she’s ACTING happy, inside her happy home”

TTP said...

CC, sorry to read that Boomer did not fare well in his birthday quest to capture the Midwest Senior Classic. I thought of him at today's 63A Alley Cats and went back to read last evening's late night comments.

Eddie Money paid homage to Ronnie Spector in his 1986 hit "Take Me Home Tonight" featuring none other than Ronnie Spector. "...just like Ronnie sang, oh oh oh oh oh..."

Count wise, packaging PEANUT fit. A fellow GI - "Pork Chop" - bought a used Kadett. I had a LeMans. He couldn't keep up on the autobahn.

Three-peat. Trademarked by Laker coach Pat Riley. He didn't benefit much then. The Lakers lost. Maybe he jinxed the team ? But he collected big when zen master Phil Jackson coached the Michael Jackson and Scottie Pippen led Bulls to two three-peats in the 90s.

Well, another puzzle that did not yield the melodic TADA until the option was changed from Master to Regular to point to the errors. They were the intersecting O of MAMBO, OEN. Why did I think it was an A ? If it was a snake it would have bit me.

And then there was the intersecting D of DIDO, DESCRY. I had D and took it out. I have cousins (sisters) nicknamed DODO and DIDI, but never heard of DIDO.

Owen, I agree with Desper-otto on # 2. Better copyright that one. :>)

Hahtoolah, welcome back from where ever you have been.

Hand up for thinking it would be COMPAnions.

Thank you Steve Blais. I think your puzzle could have been a Tuesday or Wednesday level.

Argyle, I enjoyed your write up. Especially when I got to Ronnie Spector. Went and listened to Be My Baby, where Ronnie sang "oh oh oh oh oh..."

See all y'all later n'at !

Yellowrocks said...

HG Professional Simon Says caller? You can earn money for that? I've done it a thousand times. Seven- years-olds are just as good or better than the stars.
JAIL TERMS are often not related to the severity of the crimes, but to the severity of the judges. Some people serve long terms for relatively minor crimes, sometimes longer than the terms of those who commit major crimes.

Anonymous T said...

G'Morning All:

I was looking forward to today to feel like a SMART COOKIE again and Steve played a DIDO(?) on me. DNF - I had MAMBa/aEN at 1d/23a. Still a fun CRUNCHy puzzle.

WBS re: these words, on a Monday?

Fav. COMPADRES just because it was the 1st thing that came to mind & was right! #2 was YEAGER; one of the Right-Stuffers if IIRC.

Owen #4 is the best IMHO. Perhaps its due to my line of work that I found it particularly humorous.

HG - Love the Shuttle Pic. I like how you can see the sound wave shift the spectrum around the Shuttle. Pretty.

And just 'CAUSE, a a Plethora.

Cheers, -T

Husker Gary said...

Great offerings as usual Owen. I taught my daughter to drive where she proceeded to crunch the car into the garage wall and so I really related to the last one. My B-List offering:


A snobby American oenophile
Thought only French vino worthwhile
He said wines from California
Tasted more like ammonia
Turns out he was just a xenophile

desper-otto said...

HG, that song would be Taxi. Harry died too young.

TTP, did you mean Michael Jordan?

Anonymous T said...

D-O & HG: The only Chapin song I knew was Cat's in the Cradle. It brings tears to my eyes ever time I hear it (hit's a little too close to home). Thanks for sharing Taxi. C, -T

Husker Gary said...

Harry is right Otto. This is a lovely summary of youthful dreams (great potential?) that went unfilled – in print to supplement Otto’s link:

But we'd both gotten what we'd asked for,
Such a long, long time ago.
You see, she was gonna be an actress
And I was gonna learn to fly.
She took off to find the footlights,
And I took off for the sky.
And here, she's ACTING happy,
Inside her handsome home.
And me, I'm flying in my taxi,
Taking tips, and getting stoned,
I go flying so high, when I'm stoned.


-YR, 7 year olds have less clutter in their brains ;-)
-AT, I love that picture too. Kids always ask what is going on then when the shuttle seems to “puff up” during a launch
-CC, sorry to hear Boomer didn’t fare so well but I’ll bet he had a better time in Minnesota this weekend than the SOSO Huskers.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I agree that this was more challenging than a normal Monday puzzle but with perps and wags, finished it smoothly. Cute theme and some fresh fill made for a fun solve. Thanks, Steve and thanks, Argyle for the neat expo.

My only complaint is Cruciverb being down and trying to do the puzzle at the LA Times user-UNfriendly web site. I could have done it on paper in less than half the time it took electronically. Oh well, lesson learned.

Happy Tuesday.

TTP said...



Desper-Otto, you are correct. Must have happened because they were talking about the lawsuit on the news this morning.

Quincy Jones Files $10M Lawsuit Over Michael Jackson Music

Avg Joe said...

WEES about this puzzle. Tougher than typical for a Monday and with some stumpers. Didn't know either Dido or Descry, but did a mental alphabet run and couldn't think of any possibility other than D, so went with it and finished without error.

It's not widely known that Harry Chapin wrote a sequel to Taxi. Not quite the epic that was the original, but it does provide some closure.

And last, RIP Lou Reed

CanadianEh! said...

Definitely crunch for a Monday! I finally had to turn on the red letter help to finish as I had UNCURLING instead of UNCOILING and couldn't get the TADA.

Didn't know DIDO or DESCRY.
Had CATS before TOMS and had to check the spelling for SUBPOENAED!

Loved Alley OOP!

Our Toronto Blue Jays could not get a THREEPEAT but maybe next year!? Hope springs eternal.

Lemonade714 said...

For those of you who do not read late in the day posts, or Sundays, Manac has some inexplicable doozies, celebrating bowling. The each left me speechless, with last leaving me wondering if the man got any spin on his balls?

I am glad I am not an editor because I too do not understand this as a Monday. I was not familiar with that definition of DIDO. ELLA and ELAN next to each other, ISLAM and MECCA; overall a fun solve.

Sorry Boomer

desper-otto said...

Can't believe it. I was actually correct on a sports matter!

Avg Joe, thanks for that link. I vaguely remember hearing it before. Maybe you linked it before?

Lucina said...

Hola, COMPADRES y comadres! Crunchy review, Argyle, thank you.

And thank you, Steve Blais, for a Monday challenge. Whew! DNF today?? With OJO at the top I eyed this as a quick sashay and most of it was until the Natick of DESCRY/DIDO. It didn't help that I had UNCURLING and not enough caffeine to jolt me aware of the error.

I have a question about UBER being slang but not OJO OR COMPADRES, not that they are but since all are simply borrowed from another language (German and Spanish)that should not mark them as slang. IMHO.

I haven't read last nights final posts but I'm sorry to hear that Boomer did not fare well. There is always another time, Boomer.

Have a fantastic Monday, everyone!

kazie said...

Never heard of DIDO as something tricky, or a THREEPEAT, but never having had any interest in team sport is why the latter. I eventually got it all, but like others, I found it extra CRUNCHY for Monday.

Anonymous T said...

Lucina: UBER as slang has finally started to replace awesome - i.e. "Oh, that's uber-cool." I'm sure there will come the day that we all long for "Awe..sommme" again :-)
C, -T
*I only think this because I hear my kids & kids' pals say uber-whatever incessantly.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Happy Monday, everyone!

Glad to see I wasn't the only one who was shocked, (shocked, do you hear?) by the severity of today's pzl. I am used to doing Monday with one eye closed and less than half a brain. But this required some thinking! Well, maybe not all that much-- but still, it was a doozy for a Monday.

Lucina said...

Does anyone else have a problem with Google going dark? If they are going to require only voice searches I'm switching to Bing or Yahoo. I really dislike voice activation as it takes too many repetitions to finally have access. Oh, well. Life goes on.

Lucina said...

Thanks, AnonT:
I understand and have certainly heard UBER enough but I still wouldn't classify it as slang anymore than awesome. They are simply overused words, very, very overused.

Bill G. said...

Hi everybody. I managed to finished but didn't enjoy it as much as usual. That's maybe my fault for not knowing DIDO or RONNIE. I barely know of DESCRY and have used 'Crack the whip' but have never heard of a WHIPCRACKER though I figured it out. So not the usual walk in the park for a Monday. WEES.

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, The comment section is at the bottom of the blog again,instead of on the upper right side. Change is hard to get used to!!

Owen, you are one Smart Cookie!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this was a bit "crunchier" than most Monday puzzles. Maybe because of the theme--Crunch Time?

Dido and Descry, Compadres and Subpoenaed, all had to wait for perps to give me clues as to what the answer was or how to spell them. However even after I filled in Dido I wasn't sure it was correct. Sigh.

Isere and Stoa I've learned from doing CW's. It's amazing how some words just stick and others fly out of your head without even making a mark.

I did get the theme today! Hooray!

Have a great day everyone. I'm off to shop, then home to clean for a meeting here this evening.

Misty said...

Was glad to see that others thought this a bit of a Monday toughie too. But what a cute theme! Many thanks, Steve! Somebody brought COOKIES to our Saturday night party, and yesterday I ate the whole CRUNCHY bag. My first cookies since I was diagnosed with high blood sugar two years ago. It was worth it!

Never heard of DIDO as a mischievous trick. Any explanation, Argyle? Surely not named after the poor mythical lady abandoned by Aeneas, was it?

Does THREE-PEATS stand for three-repeats? See, I'm trying to spruce up my sports lingo, such as it is (which is 0).

Loved KLINGER on M.A.S.H.

I missed the news about Boomer. Did I miss his birthday?

Have a great Monday, everybody!

OwenKL said...

HG: Very good limerick today! You might be able to quit your day job one day after all!

Speaking of which, Anon T, what kind of job do you have to like #4 CRACKER best?

I think my favorite is #3 PEANUT, for its ribaldry as much as its ridiculousness.

desper-otto said...

Lucina, where did you hear about Google requiring voice-only searches? I know Google had some technical problems last Friday and actually "went darK for a couple of minutes. But I'd heard nothing about voice-only searching.

Misty, according to Merriam Webster DIDO is defined simply as a mischievous trick. The origin is unknown, but it was first used in that sense in 1807.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! I thought it was a cute theme after I was done. I caught on to it being a food group, but was struggling in the same places as others. But intriguing, Steve.

Main Duh du jour: CAUSE. I had struggled with this _ause. When the "C" perped in, I parsed it as CA(Y)use and wondered what the clue had to do with a horse. LOL!

I forgot SUBPOENAED had a "B" & "A" in it. Red letters yelled, "Wrong, Stupid," with several entries.

Then there was Chuck YEAGER that I tried to start with an "S". With two aviators in the family, there is just no excuse for that.

MANAC, was that a selfie you linked last night? If so, looks like you're in your own little private hell. (No offense, man?) Mercy, just look at all those tats.

Condolences to Boomer on a bad day at the alley. He's still a high roller to us all for bringing C.C. to USA.

PK said...

My husband used to talk about "cutting DIDOs". I thought he meant spinning around on a snowy pristine road to make car angels.

JD said...

Good morning Argyle, C.C., et al,

I agree. This was crunchy for a Monday, and thanks Argyle for your great write up.Otherwise, I would have not seen the theme. Liked it though.
Peanut should not have taken me so long to fill. Besides Barry's list I can add ojo, oen, cru, ims and dido to my list that had to be perped..some more than others.

Owen, loved your 2nd limerick the best today. Gary, a fun read too.

Caramel apples would be my favorite treat at this time of year.Has anyone ever scooped little balls out of crunchy apples, and then dipped them in caramel- serve with a toothpick?

desper-otto said...

JD, do you call 'em Rocky Mountain apples, or maybe Neutered Apples?

Tinbeni said...

Argyle: Great write-up (as always!).

Hmmm, What was (or is) your favorite Halloween treat? Gal-Pal ... I like her tricks, too. LOL !!!

Glad to see I'm not the only one who thought this was more like a Wednesday puzzle.

The 'D' in DIDO / DESCRY was a total wag.

I'm not aware that the Tampa Bay area has an NFL team called the BUC's .
Seems to me they changed their name to the YUCK's!!!

Cheers to all at Sunset.

Argyle said...

Word Origin & History: dido

"prank, caper," 1807, Amer.Eng. slang, perhaps from the queen in the "Aeneid." Usually in phrase to cut didoes.

But pk, husband may have been cutting dadoes : Carpentry. a groove or rectangular section for receiving the end of a board.

Tinbeni said...

Just read Sunday's write-up ...

A belated Happy Birthday Boomer!

Manac: UBER bowling pics!
(Thanks Lemon for telling me to "check them out").

Lucina said...

My favorite Halloween treat is Snickers fun bars. Yum. Yum. Children no longer roam our streets for treats as the local churches, parks, etc. have parties for them so I buy a bag for self treating.

For dinner tomorrow I'm planning to create "ghost" treats with jell-o, chocolate chips and cool whip.

desper-otto:
When I click on Google now only a microphone graphic appears where once the query rectangle used to be and I read on the MSNBC news site that Google is "going dark" because of privacy issues. Apparently all their searches were being monitored and noted by third parties. Surprise! Surprise!

CrossEyedDave said...

I thought the puzzle was pretty easy,
(except for a total Natick @ 2D & 22A).

HG, I never saw that pic of the Shuttle breaking the sound barrier! I had to check it out again...

Don't park here!

& here is a crunchy commercial that I do not remember being on TV...

JD said...

desper-otto, tsk, tsk

Anonymous said...

I was looking forward to an easy Monday puzzle. This was a bit harder than Monday fare, but fun and done.

At 8D I had sentences before JAIL TERMS. That messed up a lot of answers before the perps started to sort things out.

Tinbeni: if you have any interest in an a capella men's group, look up Straight No Chaser. Gotta love that name! My favorite is 12 Days of Christmas.

Belated Happy Birthday, Boomer!

Happy Monday!

Pat

Husker Gary said...

-Manac, I couldn’t find the gutter ball in the picture of the first bowler and couldn’t believe the second one could even walk! In both cases, who cares?
-Chuck Yeager and that bunch at now Edwards Air Base were wild men and here is a clip from their story in The Right Stuff (7:29)
-Dave, I have used that video teaching and it always generates a lot of raised hands at that moment
-I too love mini Snickers bars and that is part of the bags of candy we will be dispensing. We are prepared for 175 kids and will probably still run out.
-Keith, how might the Bard have described the difficulty of today’s puzzle?
-Owen, don't encourage me even though I appreciate it ;-)!

Lemonade714 said...

I have not had a trick or treat person in many years, the sad aspect of living is South Florida old neighborhoods.

Tinbeni, you know we all like to share knowledge here.

Anonymous said...

lemony, you commit more typos than a healthcare.gov code writer!

Yellowrocks said...

On April first my teaching colleagues cut many an outrageous DIDO.
They would place pink paper in the copy machine covered with two sheets of white paper.
They would stuff a fake snake into a teacher's desk drawer and it would pop out when she opened it.
They sent around a memo that said we had to have an enormous portion of curriculum writing
finished by Monday morning. All of us were in on it and initialed it. Then it was sent round to Mary, who went storming to the office about how unfair that was.
One teacher found all her furniture piled in one corner.
We could DESCRY self-satisfied smirks on the faces of the perpetrators.

Al said...

Some plastic goobers
And intelligent baked goods.
Puzzling food for thought

JD said...

For the kitty lovers

Bill G. said...

Well, this isn't the usual Animal Tracks slide show but I found it very interesting. They are award-winning shots of the microscopic world. Really cool stuff I thought. Slide show

Avg Joe said...

We haven't had trick or treaters since leaving the urban environment 6 1/2 years ago. With 7 people living in our section, and all of us over 58, demand is light. I honestly don't know where the nearest pre-teen might live. I'm not sure we miss it that badly, but it has cut down on the pre holiday season candy intake, so that's a good thing. Still, it's kinda nice to sneak in a few peanut butter cups and Crunch bars.

Lemon, I'd argue that the worst thing about older neighborhoods in S Fla is jalousie windows. :-)

Ol' Man Keith said...

Husker Gary ~

Once more unto the crunch, dear friends, once more,
Or close your mouths up with some English Toffee!

For Monday's puzzle demands more of us
Than some may be ere Thursday capable.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Bill. G. For that wonderful, wonderful slide show of nanotechnology and scanning electron microscopes.photographs.

Some of the 'colored', artificially that is, photos are spell binding. I used to work as a microscopist so I'm familiar with the techniques, but it's still a marvel to see the talents, and the areas of research where the technology is being used. ,Bill g. You've made my day.

Manac said...

Yes, Did not expect this for a Monday puzzle but remembered most answers from previous ones.
Lemon, Who knew bowling could be so much fun??? No Trick or Treaters here.
We are so rural that tradition here is to donate candy to the rec dept. and it is given out to the houses in the center of town where all the trick or treating takes place.

Looks like a Nice cold night for us New Englanders. Who said " Better keep the brass monkeys in tonight"?
HG... No Fair if you answer it!

Manac said...

Oh crap, I forgot!

HG, If you look below her left..er..um cheek, you may get a better view :)

Husker Gary said...

Lovely, Keith!
Manac, the view was just fine. If she was bowling next to Boomer, that would explain his sub standard scores.
See ya tomorrow!

Abejo said...

Good Tuesday afternoon, folks. Thank you, Steve Blais, for a great puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for a fine review.

Yes, it is Tuesday. I did the puzzle yesterday, but had not time to log in. Had a wild weekend (working, doggone it?).

Yes, the puzzle may have been a little more difficult than a normal Monday, but I never thought about that until I read all your comments. I still got through it quite easily.

ASIAGO cheese we have had many times before. A couple letters and I had it.

YOYOMA was easy.

ISERE we have had quite a few times.

I agree, SUBPOENAED, was easy, but the spelling was a challenge.

Had BAIL BONDS before BAIL TERMS. I saw the light after a couple crosses.

COMPADRES came slowly. I wanted some form of Companions.

UNCOILING was excellent. Great clue/word.

Well, now I have to report in on Sunday's puzzle. saturday I still have to finish. That was a tough one.

See you on Wednesday.

Abejo

(maajust)