Theme: How Now Brown Cow
20A: Feeling Okay?: HOW ARE THINGS?
29A: Occasionally: NOW AND THEN
46A: Rolling Stones hit: BROWN SUGAR
56A: Farmer's outing contest: COW CHIP THROW
I was bewildered by Barry's choice for 46A. I wanted a BOW* phrase, thinking of a WOW rhyming theme. (Addendum: I was not aware of "How now brown cow" phrase. Thanks, Chris.)
I've never heard of COW CHIP THROW. I did not know the meaning of COW CHIP. How can people stand the smell?
Are you OK with the HORNET clue (67A: Charlotte pro)? Shouldn't be "New Orleans pro"? I also don't understand the STRIP clue (55D: Get into your birthday suit?). How so?
Across:
1 Math proof letter: QED. Have not seen ERAT (Often clued as "Part of QED") for a while.
4A: Triton's sch.: UCSD (University of California, San Diego). I did not know that Tritons is their mascot.
14A: Verse starter?: UNI. No guts to clue it as "Sex starter"?
15A: Lanai neighbor: MAUI. I wonder why Hawaiian language are so vowel intensive.
16A: Having a tapering end: POINTY
18A: Tournament passes: BYES
23A: Luke's Jedi mentor: OBI-WAN. Do you know how the author came up with this name? It sounds very Japanese.
33A: Glum drop: TEAR. Very unexpected clue. I like it though.
44A: Linguist Chomsky: NOAM. I forgot. Saw this clue before. Is he very famous?
48A: Key with 3 sharps: A MAJ. I suppose "3" indictes that the answer needs to be abbreviated.
53A: QVC rival: HSN (Home Shopping Network). QVC will be a very scrabbly answer for "HSN rival".
54A: Court decree: ASSIZE. This is a new word to me. I thought of WRIT.
59A: #1 hit by the Fleetwoods: MR. BLUE. Here is the song. New to me also.
62A: Purim's month: ADAR
65A: Soda brand: NEHI
68A: C. Everett __: KOOP. I googled. He was Reagan's Surgeon General.
Down:
1D: Cape Cod clam: QUAHOG
4D: Eclipse shadow: UMBRA. Partial shadow is penumbra.
6D: Mutton fat: SUET. Is it the same as lard?
9D: Beatnik instrument: BONGO DRUM. BONGO was clued as "Drum type" in Barry's last puzzle. Here is "Let There Be Drums" again.
12D: MO town: STL. I am used to the "Cardinal's letters" clue.
13D: Part of a wd: SYL And PHRASE (64A: String of word).
27D: Cameo stone: ONYX. This ONYX tile looks broken.
31D: Injustice: WRONG
32D: Bo's number: TEN. Very sexy bellyrolling scene.
33D: Brownstone, perhaps: TOWNHOUSE. Or this brand of cracker, perhaps.
37D: Roof with removable panels: T- TOP
40D: Nonvenomous snake: BOA. I had no idea that it's nonvenomous.
43D: Comparable to candy or kisses: AS SWEET. How old is this sign?
45D: Plains tribe: ARAPAHO. Sigh, I forgot again. It's been in our puzzle 3 times since I started blogging.
49D: Desert illusion: MIRAGE. Do you like "The English Patient"?
50D: Portuguese islands: AZORES. See this map. It's in North Atlantic. New to me.
51D: Gems: JEWELS
57D: Slugger Aaron: HANK. We often see AARON clued as "Slugger Hank".
59D: Radar gun meas.: MPH
C.C.
20A: Feeling Okay?: HOW ARE THINGS?
29A: Occasionally: NOW AND THEN
46A: Rolling Stones hit: BROWN SUGAR
56A: Farmer's outing contest: COW CHIP THROW
I was bewildered by Barry's choice for 46A. I wanted a BOW* phrase, thinking of a WOW rhyming theme. (Addendum: I was not aware of "How now brown cow" phrase. Thanks, Chris.)
I've never heard of COW CHIP THROW. I did not know the meaning of COW CHIP. How can people stand the smell?
Are you OK with the HORNET clue (67A: Charlotte pro)? Shouldn't be "New Orleans pro"? I also don't understand the STRIP clue (55D: Get into your birthday suit?). How so?
Across:
1 Math proof letter: QED. Have not seen ERAT (Often clued as "Part of QED") for a while.
4A: Triton's sch.: UCSD (University of California, San Diego). I did not know that Tritons is their mascot.
14A: Verse starter?: UNI. No guts to clue it as "Sex starter"?
15A: Lanai neighbor: MAUI. I wonder why Hawaiian language are so vowel intensive.
16A: Having a tapering end: POINTY
18A: Tournament passes: BYES
23A: Luke's Jedi mentor: OBI-WAN. Do you know how the author came up with this name? It sounds very Japanese.
33A: Glum drop: TEAR. Very unexpected clue. I like it though.
44A: Linguist Chomsky: NOAM. I forgot. Saw this clue before. Is he very famous?
48A: Key with 3 sharps: A MAJ. I suppose "3" indictes that the answer needs to be abbreviated.
53A: QVC rival: HSN (Home Shopping Network). QVC will be a very scrabbly answer for "HSN rival".
54A: Court decree: ASSIZE. This is a new word to me. I thought of WRIT.
59A: #1 hit by the Fleetwoods: MR. BLUE. Here is the song. New to me also.
62A: Purim's month: ADAR
65A: Soda brand: NEHI
68A: C. Everett __: KOOP. I googled. He was Reagan's Surgeon General.
Down:
1D: Cape Cod clam: QUAHOG
4D: Eclipse shadow: UMBRA. Partial shadow is penumbra.
6D: Mutton fat: SUET. Is it the same as lard?
9D: Beatnik instrument: BONGO DRUM. BONGO was clued as "Drum type" in Barry's last puzzle. Here is "Let There Be Drums" again.
12D: MO town: STL. I am used to the "Cardinal's letters" clue.
13D: Part of a wd: SYL And PHRASE (64A: String of word).
27D: Cameo stone: ONYX. This ONYX tile looks broken.
31D: Injustice: WRONG
32D: Bo's number: TEN. Very sexy bellyrolling scene.
33D: Brownstone, perhaps: TOWNHOUSE. Or this brand of cracker, perhaps.
37D: Roof with removable panels: T- TOP
40D: Nonvenomous snake: BOA. I had no idea that it's nonvenomous.
43D: Comparable to candy or kisses: AS SWEET. How old is this sign?
45D: Plains tribe: ARAPAHO. Sigh, I forgot again. It's been in our puzzle 3 times since I started blogging.
49D: Desert illusion: MIRAGE. Do you like "The English Patient"?
50D: Portuguese islands: AZORES. See this map. It's in North Atlantic. New to me.
51D: Gems: JEWELS
57D: Slugger Aaron: HANK. We often see AARON clued as "Slugger Hank".
59D: Radar gun meas.: MPH
C.C.
Martin,
ReplyDeleteHow can "The Dark Wolf" be anagram of Wolverine?
Kittyb,
"I must spell situationally." What does it mean? Did you watch all the Thelma Ritter movies you listed yesterday?
Emmietee,
Welcome!
Crockett,
Any European thrills to share with us?
Good morning CC etal,
ReplyDeleteCC: glad you noticed the error on 67A - the Hornets are the NBA franchise in New Orleans now (and have been for last 3-4 years), while the new NBA franchise in Charlotte are the Bobcats - which also fit and threw me off for a few moments.
"How Now Brown Cow" is an old elocution (pronunciation) exercise - kind of like "the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain".
8D offends slightly - "unrestricted" should = "open ended" IMHO. Also, I don't think the number "3" is sufficient to indicate an abbreviation of "A Maj(or) for 48A. Otherwise, no major difficulties today.
TGIF to all!
Chris,
ReplyDeleteThanks for "How now brown cow". I did not know this phrase before. I have no problem with OPEN-END. What's the difference between a regime and a government?
Dr. Dad,
Thanks for the glutamic acid information yesterday. Now I know why I love mushrooms so much (I am not into meat). I suppose "glutanmic" is related to gluten? Wheat gluten has a very strong umami flavor.
Dennis,
I finally made a perfectly coddled egg several days ago. It's my latest thrill.
Richshif,
ReplyDeleteInteresting how scientists can analyze the chemical components of the stalagmite and connect them with monsoon. I always associate monsoon with South China/Asia. The cave in your article is in Northwest part of China.
So, what's your take on the "Another prop has occupied my mind" line in R.E.M.'s "The One I Love"? What's the irony behind it? One night stand? I simply can not grok it. Do you know why they named themselves R.E.M.?
HOW NOW BROWN COW is a tongue twister. There are at least 2791 tongue twisters in 109 languages. They were all coined either as challenges amongst children (ie "Say this ten times fast!") or as serious exercises in pronunciation. Mother Goose wrote the Peter Piper nursery rhyme back in the early 1600s and Dr. Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat in 1957, the year after My Fair Lady (based on the 1913 play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw) came out and the song "The Rain in Spain" became a hit.
ReplyDeleteOTTAWA and NOAM were gimmes for me but I had to guess to get ARAPAHO, STRIP, ASSIZE, ADAR, NEHI and KOOP. (I did it online today.) When I got COW CHIP THROW I thought "Really?" Would Barry Silk be talking from personal experience or is this some city slickers stereotype? (Say that ten times fast!)
People in their "birthday suit" are naked. See, it's what you are "wearing" when you are born. Get it?
For HORNET the clue should have been "Green hero".
I don't know why Hawaiian is so vowel intensive but I do know that Japanese is also. Maybe they are related. :)
C.C., "The Dark Wolf" is an amalgam of Batman (The Dark Knight) and Wolverine.
Martin
Good morning, C.C. et. al.
ReplyDeleteThanks Barry Silk. An easy puzzle today - no "G" spot.
Remembered fob this time.
Grape Nehi was Radar O'Reilly's favorite drink.
I have been to a cow chip throwing contest back in the days of my youth on the plains of Nebraska. Didn't participate, though. C.C - when the cow chips are dried and hard (almost like a rock) there is not much smell at all. As an aside, cow chips and buffalo chips were used for burning in fires back in the not so old west. There is also a game known as cow chip bingo. People pick a numbered square from several marked out on an area of ground. A cow roams around in this area and whoever has the square that the cow leaves its "chip" in is the winner.
Didn't catch the "hornet" mistake. Yes, they are now the New Orleans Hornets.
Can't really stand Bo Derek. Did anyone make the mistake of going to see her and Miles O'Keefe in John Derek's bust of a film "Tarzan The Ape Man"? And when I mean bust, not only was it a bad film, it centered mostly on Bo's busts.
Today is Hug A Bear Day so break out your teddy bears. You can sit down with them and read a magazine because it is also Magazine Day. And do them both while enjoying candy because it is National Bittersweet Chocolate With Almonds Day.
Have a great Friday.
CC:
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your question re: "regime" vs. "government" I think it's more of a perception thing than a definition thing. Theoretically a regime is a government, but it's my perception that a regime exists when the government feels it has no accountability to those who are governed which, IMHO, is how the current administration has acted over the last several years and may well be the reason it has been replaced by the people who are apparently tired of being ruled in this fashion.
Carpe Diem!
Good Morning, C.C. and all,
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your question, C.C., yes, I've seen all those Thelma Ritter movies, and more. As for "I must spell situationally," I knew that sentence was going to come back to haunt me. What I should have said was that many times I understand a word because of it's context. When I saw CANON, rather than thinking of the brand of camera, as I was supposed to, I was thinking of CANNON, which sounds the same but has a very different definition. Because there was no "situation" to guide me, I misread the word. If that explanation is not enough for you, perhaps clear ayes can make a stab at it. She's much better at explaining things than I.
Life must be lovely when a perfectly coddled egg is your greatest thrill. *S*
I love Barry Silk's puzzles. There were plenty of words I didn't know, but they all came from the fills. I laughed when I saw the theme. I hadn't caught it.
ENROLL, UNBOX, BROWN SUGAR AND MR. BLUE were slow in coming, but solvable. I didn't know ADAR or ETRE.
Is this a "V" away from being a pangram, or am I just overlooking that letter. I'd never heard of a pangram before I started reading this blog, and now I look for them in all the puzzles I do.
C.C., by the time I post this, I'm sure someone will have explained. Your "birthday suit" is how you come into the world...naked. If you are wearing clothes you have to STRIP to be in your birthday suit.
The rain has passed, bringing cold with it. I hope I have help putting the gardens to bed for the winter.
Have a great Friday, everyone!
OH, I forgot....
ReplyDeleteThe picture that shows next to my post is of the old-fashioned gym suits that we talked about ages ago. Someone sent me an e-mail with this picture, one of those "Do You Remember These" posts, and it brought to mind that discussion. The suits were blue, one-piece construction, and had elastic in the legs to make them like "bloomers."
That would be my trivia for the day.
Morning, folks!
ReplyDeleteNot a particularly difficult puzzle today, but definitely a bit on the weird side. I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't realize that the Hornets are no longer in Charlotte, but I would have expected Mr. Silk and our esteemed editor to know better.
OPEN END just seems wrong to me. I'm familiar with the phrase (excuse me, PHRASE) "open ended," but that's it.
And COW CHIP TOSS is just bizarre!
Unknowns today were UCSD, ASSIZE and MR. BLUE. And, I must admit, I completely missed the theme despite the fact that I've heard "How Now Brown Cow" all my life.
Hi CC, strip is to take off anything. An exotic dancer who takes her clothes of a piece at a time is a stripper and she works in a strip club
ReplyDeleteHi again CC. Cow chips have dried in the sun for months and have no odor left.
ReplyDeleteC.C., it turns out that Hawaiian belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian language family which also includes Filipino. Oddly enough, Hawaiian is not listed as one of the
ReplyDeletelanguages of the world by Wikipedia, probably because young people in Hawaii don't speak it and it is considered a language in danger of going extinct. According to this site of the top 6000 languages in the world, "52% are spoken by less than 10,000 people, and 28% are spoken by less than 1,000 people". Meanwhile, there are only about 20 languages (seven European languages and thirteen Asian languages) with 60 million speakers or more and well over half the world's population speaks one of these languages as a first language. There may come a day when the top 20 languages of the world may be the only languages anybody speaks: the vast majority of the world speaks one of these languages as either a first or second language with about one in four people in the world able to speak English alone.
Martin
Good morning CC, DFs and DFettes...I struggled a bit with this one. I never heard of assize and had to Google it after It filled to see if it was a real word. Also, I was too quick to put opal in lieu of onyx for 27d which made that area harder than it needed to be. I am not very good at artists so I struggled with Brian Eno, Brown Sugar and Mr Blue but was able to complete them with the perps.
ReplyDeleteAt our local farm shows we always had cow chip throws, cow chip bingo and on occasion rattle snake bagging contests. The bagging contests were later outlawed when the rattle snake became a protected species.
@CC it looks like there is a new dick on our blog. If so I can change my name.
ReplyDelete@CC this is late but thanks for going to five posts. It makes things more interesting.
ReplyDeleteRe: Dennis' question from yesterday.
ReplyDeleteThe most exciting thing for me was actually two! In the mid 70's the group I worked with had the honor of being the opening act for (then very popular) Billy Joe Spears.
Great day. Later, in the early
90's another group I was with got to open for Jim Ed Brown and Helen Cornelius. It was during their reunion tour and we had a blast.
Xword wasn't real bad today except for SUET. As many times as I have fed it to the birds I just couldn't get it. I had UCLA and MALI which didn't help.
Also not able to see real well today. Sometime in the last few days I've lost the vision in my right eye. Got in to see the Dr. yesterday PM and found out I have a detached retina. Surgery is scheduled for Monday and he hopes he can fix it. Needless to say my activities for the next few days will be VERY limited.
And looking at this keyboard with only one eye is challenging. to say the least.
OK, that's all.
CY'all later.
@Bill Good luck with your surgery Monday. I understand that now they use a laser to do the reattachment and it is a much faster healing process.
ReplyDeleteKittyb,
ReplyDeleteYes, V is missing. Are you good at coddling eggs? What's your secret?
Papajim,
Did you fight in Vietnam also? Which years?
Dick @ 7:01am & 7:04am,
Thanks. Would you mind changing your display name? We've got a Dick here.
Bill,
Good luck with your surgery. It pains me to think that you can only use left eye.
Martin,
I am going to digest what you write later. I've never thought "Every Breath You Take" as creepy. Controlling & Possessive, yes.
Barry G, Chris et al,
ReplyDeleteHere are some of Barry Silk's original clues:
48A: Key related to F# minor. abbr. A MAJ
67A: Stinger: HORNET (Clearly our editor made a factual mistake.)
68A: Surgeon General under Reagan: KOOP
8D: Unrestricted, as mutual funds: OPEN-END
12D: Busch Stadium team: abbr.: STL
27D: Jet-black stone: ONYX
57D: "Dennis the Menace" cartoonist Ketcham: HANK
http://viewlinerltd.blogspot.com/2008/09/wisconsin-state-cow-chip-throw.html
ReplyDeleteWe have a cow chip toss in Wisconsin every year.
"Hey" evertbody,
ReplyDeleteCan't say that I would consider "How Now, Brown Cow" a tounge-twister, not like "Sally sells sea-shells by the sea-shore".
Does "cow chip throw" count as part of the theme?
Of course it is part of the theme. Perhaps it is an enhancment on the theme.
ReplyDelete@buckeye Nice Groucho quote -- a classic!
ReplyDeleteMartin,
ReplyDeleteAs a personal observation, if you compare words in Hawaiian, Tahitian and Maori, thery are very similar except for the consonants. There are a lot more words with "t" in Tahitian, replacing "h" in Hawaiian. According to legend, the Maoris all got to NZ in one of 12 (or was it 10?) canoes, but I can't remember from where--Hawaii or Tahiti. They can all trace their heritage back to which canoe.
Wiki deals with only part of this.
c.c., a boa kills its prey by strangulation, hence they don't need venom.
Judi, where are you in WI?
bill,
ReplyDeletesorry, I forgot to add my best wishes for your surgery. I'm sure eye surgery is pretty scary to have to anticipate.
The xw was good for me today though I didn't know Mr. Blue, or assize. I was missing the "m" from MPH--for some reason I was thinking of sci-fi movies and lasers rather than speed traps. Everything else fell in.
Not too much trouble with the puzzle today, but did have to googlePurim's month, because i can never remember the hebrew months.
ReplyDeleteBill, I'm sorry to hear about your eye. The laser surgery is much faster and healing time quicker. Good luck to you.
Kittyb
Did you by any chance go to high school in the Chicago area? Those gym clothes sure look familiar!
Good morning, c.c. and gang - late workout this morning.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this puzzle - Barry Silk always comes up with unique clues/answers. Only word I didn't know was 'assize' -- it looks like a word that would be something most women would worry about.
martin, there's no such thing as negative g's?? I've experienced them, and I'm sure Dick will second this, the sensation is most unpleasant, with a condition called 'redout' occurring pretty quickly with all the blood rushing to your head. Oh, and burst blood vessels in your eyes. Check out Wiki or any of the others for much more on negative g's.
c.c., I'm sure you've had a bigger thrill than a perfect coddled egg. Anyone else have one to relate?
bill, good luck with the surgery; with today's technology, you'll be back to 100% in no time.
Have a great weekend.
dennis,
ReplyDeleteIt's very hard to come up with one thrill greater than the others. I was thinking yesterday of the whole 18 months I spent in Europe in 70-71, and then realized meeting my husband had to top it all. But getting the Goethe Institute scholarship in the first place was what got me there.
Later, traveling all around Europe and realizing how far we were from that spot on the map we called home, was another thrill. Spending time in places you've read about all your life and never thought you'd get to (eg. Moscow). A first Christmas away from home in the Ardèche of France.
The month with my cousin in Hawaii on the way home was pretty wonderful too.
My first trip on my own with a friend--sea liner to Perth, Trans Continental train to Adelaide, tour coach to Melbourne and flying home to Sydney in 1965 while on college summer vacation.
As several have mentioned, birthing your first child, seeing that child's wedding. Visiting and touring Alaska with our other son and a friend from Oz.
Isn't life itself a thrill? And another thought--isn't HOPE a great four-letter word?
Easy one today, didn't know assize.
ReplyDeleteMartin, thank you for your explaination of g forces, I defer to your knowledge on this matter. You can't believe everything you read on Google I guess.
Good morning, C.C. and gang. I thought this might be more difficult, but it worked out clue by clue. I was stuck on OAHU for 15A, but finally remembered MAUI. As they say in the Islands, Maui no ka oi. Maui is the best.
ReplyDeleteWOTD:
EPONYMOUS ih PAH num mus
adjective
of, relating to or being one for whom or which something is or is believed to be named. (Whew!)
The Robert McCullough bridges of Oregon are a lasting tribute to their eponymous architect.
The Greek word "onyma" meaning "name" is also found in anonympous, pseudonymand anonymous.
Have a great day, all.
C.C. I have never eaten and never cooked a coddled egg. I like to have the yolk cooked through. I think this might be a question for xchefwalt.
ReplyDeleteAs usual, I like Barry Silk's clues much better. I think the clue for A MAJ is more obscure for those who are not musicians, but we all have areas where we shine and areas where we haven't a clue. A Major and F# minor have the same three sharps in their key signatures. F# minor would be called the "relative minor" of A Major.
Bill, you have my best wishes and prayers for a successful surgery on Monday.
crazyhorse, I went to school in the far southwest suburbs of Chicago. I graduated in 1966, and by then we had shifted to the same blue unigorms with legs that were short shorts. I think those miserable outfits were pretty universal! lol Did you grow up in Chicago?
Dennis, how's your foot (toe?) coming along?
Good puzzle today but I had to look up assize also to see if it was a word.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that none of the blog replies (this morning) really answered your question: “I wonder why Hawaiian language are so vowel intensive.”
My wife and I have been to Hawaii several times and this URL should help explain the use of vowels: http://www.alternative-hawaii.com/alpha.htm
Their entire alphabet only has 12 letters and 5 vowels so almost every word has a vowel in it.
Warren
@Martin: Thanks for your commentary on world languages. It is a little scary that English is so common.
ReplyDeleteHawaiian has only 12 letters,
A E I O U and h k l m n p w. There is also sort of a Hawaiian "pigeon English" (Hanglish?) I used to hear in my years there. I think it is the vowel consonant alterately that give it a bit of a Japanese sound.
@Bill: Please add me to the well-wishers for good results on your eye surgery.
@Drdad: Thanks for the commentary on the food chemistry. Very useful.
@C.C. Nice use of UMAMI. I like to see the WOTDs in use.
Good Morning All, I'm always happy to see Barry Silk's name on a puzzle. I think he likes to tease us with one letter short of a pangram. Then every few months he tosses in the final letter to see if the solvers get it.
ReplyDeleteI didn't get it at first, but after getting UNI, ARM and OBI-WAN, I came back and filled in QED. I wasn't familiar with Brian ENO, AMAJ, or ADAR. But the surrounds took care of any problems.
Kittyb, Loved the gym suits. Here's another beauty girls's calisthenics, from my high school in Ontario Canada circa 1956.
Bill, Good Luck with your surgery.
C.C. RE: R.E.M., According to the MTV website, in 1980 "at the time, the group was played under the name the Twisted Kites. By the summer, the band had settled on the name R.E.M. after flipping randomly through the dictionary". REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement, which is when we dream during sleep cycles.
I tend to agree with Martin about "Every Breath You Take" being somewhat creepy. Anytime someone declares "You belong to me" and then goes on to say, "Every move you make
Every step you take
I'll be watching you"....
that has "stalker" written all over it.
Now for controlling and possessive, you can't beat The Rolling Stones Under My Thumb. I had to laugh at this video, watching Mick Jagger strut his "bantam rooster" best.
Good morning c.c. and all, when I saw this puzzle was by Barry Silk, I thought it would be the hammer I have been waiting for. I was surprised that I was able to do all but few words. Missed 23A and 4D. Also 19A.
ReplyDeleteC.C. I agree with you on the song "Every Breath You Take". I sounds like it was written by a stalker!! After hearing only part of it years ago, I refuse to listen to it, it actually makes me angry. My husband, on the other hand, has an entirely opposite view of the meaning. Strange how we all interpret differently.
Bill, I wish you a speedy recovery from your surgery. They do great things today so you should come through just fine..we'll all be thinking of you.
As to thrills: as a child I went on a roller coaster ride for the 1st time..it was a BIG DIPPER, and that 1st drop was a huge thrill (after I felt terrified as the cars creaked to the top of this huge thing).
My trip to New York, New Jersey, Mass.,Conn. in 2004 was a thrill too.
We wished we had more time but doesn't everyone say that?
I was anticipating a tough puzzle today, but instead it was an easy one. I did not know what QVC was and thus had to get HSN from the crossing words. T-TOP was new also. My big slip-up was UCSF instead of UCSD, making 7D Fish instead of DISH. Fish seemed an acceptable answer for a “menu entrée” after all. NEHI was easy to recall: grape NEHI was Radar’s drink of choice in the M*A*S*H television program. I did not check to see if the puzzle was a pangram, but with J, K, Q, X and Z in the puzzle, I suspect it might have been.
ReplyDelete@cc: I saw the movie The English Patient and really liked it. I bought the book after it won the Mann-Booker award in 1992 but have yet to read it. The Mann-Booker is the only literary award I follow. I have concluded that if a book makes even the short list I am sure to enjoy it. Currently I am reading this year’s Booker winner The White Tiger by Indian novelist Aravind Adiga.
@chris in la: LOL…I was so busy completing the puzzle that I missed the “how now brow cow” theme.
Hi c.c. and all:
ReplyDeleteAs a couple of others have said I did not get the theme until I read it here, although heard it many times in my youth. Had to google UCSD. I had Townhomes for awhile until I realized it was singular and changed it to Townhouse. Never heard of assize, but got it from the perps. As always I liked Barry Silk's clues better!
Bill: Good luck on your surgery on Monday!
Kittyb: I wore a gym suit in elementary school in New York like that, but white. (snaps down the front and elastic legs.)
Have a wonderful day everyone!
Bill - I also give my best wishes and luck for your upcoming surgery and recovery.
ReplyDeleteGood morning all! No problems with this one at all today. I enjoyed the clue for 33A. When I got to 54A with the Z I looked and discovered that this was a Barry Silk puzzle. Just a "V" short of a pangram. Nice construction.
ReplyDeleteC.C., no thrills, just had an excellent trip. We got to know parts of Munich very well, and saw enough castles and palaces to last the entire trip. Vienna was marvelous, and we got to go to a concert in the Musicverein. Had a terrific time in Slovenia. Lake Bled and the nearby Vintgar Gorge were very nice. Verona, Vicenza and Padova were also very nice. The crown was Venice! I could spend a lot of time there. I'm still working on catching up on my travel blog and working on our over 6000 pictures! Thanks for asking.
I think the cow chips that are thrown are thoroughly dried, and thus not very fragrant. I was OK with the clue for 67A. Did they move? To get down to your birthday suit (your skin), you need to strip off your clothes. There's another slang phrase to confuse you. Noam Chomsky is well known in language education circles. I'm sure there is a difference between suet and lard -- maybe xchefwalt can expound on that for us. Are you sure your onyx link is really onyx? I always think of onyx as being black. That was a sexy bellyrolling scene! Why rolling instead of dancing? The kisses sign looks like the 20's to me.
@bill That is disturbing news. I hope the surgery is a success and your vision returns to normal soon.
My earlier comment on buckeye's Groucho quote was the last post from yesterday -- at 1:07 a.m. this morning!
@dennis at 9:25 LMAO!
I don't know what was with me today but I just couldn't concentrate enough to work through the puzzle so I gave up. It's snowing here in Mpls area. It's actually kind of pretty, just floating down and not really accumulating.
ReplyDeleteI too,had to wear one of those stupid gym suits. Mine was made out of t-shirt material. Blue on the bottom and blue/white stripes on top and zipped up the front. Very unbecoming, but functional
Well, this weekend is the BIG game between the Vikings and the Packers. Go Vikes!
Wow, cow chips, striptease and biggest thrills. I would share mine with you but don't think it is appropriate on this site.
ReplyDeletegood morning c.c. and all,
ReplyDeletenot sure what it was about this puzzle .. just couldn't get into a rhythm with it. c.c. i thought you would be bothered by the 46a answer BROWN sugar and 33d clue BROWNstone. never heard of umbra or assize, and didn't remember mr. blue.
as to michael stipe's lyrics, in the january 1988 issue of musician magazine he said that the song was "incredibly violent" and "it's very clear that it's about using people over and over again."
then in a 1992 rolling stone interview he said: "that song has a real twist in it, too: 'a simple prop/to occupy my time.' That was a little harsh. I didn't want to put that on the record. But I wanted to write a song with the word love in it, because I hadn't done that before."
stipe has said that once a song is recorded, it's up to the listener to decide what it means. i guess if you want to interpret it as romantic, you could infer that the song is the prop.
@jeannie That doesn't sound like the old ...... Come on, be brave and share!
ReplyDeleteCrockett, lets just say it had something to do with assize of jewels that made things pointy in my t-top.
ReplyDeleteI did some further research and found more on negative g forces, including formulas for calculating them, so I'm going to revert to my original postion as re-inforced by Dennis.
ReplyDeleteAlso, how, now, brown, cow is/was an elocution exercise to demonstrate rounded vowels. Try saying "toy boat" ten times very fast, you'll feel like a drunk. That's a twister!!
Hi, all. Gotta rush. No problems today. Always like Silk's clues rather than the editor's.
ReplyDeleteGood luck, Bill. I'm sure it will go well.
Thanks, Crockett. 1:07 am (2:07 my time) generally allows me to be the last post and rarely read. My "thrills" are there, too.
Here's a switch to George Burns.
"Sincerity is everything. If you can fake that, you've got it made".
I must be off.
8:01 today. A nice Barry Silk puzzle with lots of fresh, interesting fill (at least I don't know that I've seen COW CHIPs in my puzzle before!). ASSIZE was a new word for me, but no other unknowns.
ReplyDeleteI have to confess that 62a: Purim's month (ADAR) may as well have read "fill in the only Jewish month you think you know". I would have put in the same answer.
@c.c.: I grew up on a cattle ranch, and I can verify what others have said: when the cow chip has dried, there is very little odor (or even none at all). Native Americans and settlers routinely used the equivalent buffalo chips as fuel for their fires on the plains. There are vast stretches of treeless areas and the buffalo chips were the only available fuel.
I recall seeing an interview with Sting on TV years ago where he expressed wonderment that Every Breath You Take was being played at many weddings. He said "I guess people don't listen to the words of their wedding songs." He went on to say that he intended the song to be a dark view of obsessive (even stalkerish) love and not the "adoring" "loving" type of love as assumed by those in the wedding party.
Melissa bee, Thanks for Michael Stipe's multiple descriptions of "The One I Love" lyrics. I kind of agree with the quote from last night "prop in the sense of a theatrical prop, (short for property), an article used temporarily and then discarded."
ReplyDeleteYour interpretation of the song itself being "the prop" for a love song is very interesting twist.
I guess Michael Stipe meant it when he said he wants listeners to decide for themselves.
Buckeye, Skydiving AND a double eagle! I like to keep my feet as close to the ground as possible, or at least with a plane under me. Always loved George and watching his reactions to Gracie's stories about her family.
G.A.H.'s big thrills were undoubtedly his two holes in one, both Par 4's, both officially witnessed!
There was some pretty serious discussion going on yesterday. So to lighten the mood, here is a poem from a 17th Century DF. Chrisinla, Herrick was another "carpe diem" kind of guy. Robert Herrick wrote the more famous poem, "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time". The first stanza of that one is
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.
I prefer this one, that has nothing to do with virgins and more to do with lust.
Delight In Disorder
A sweet disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness :
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distraction :
An erring lace which here and there
Enthrals the crimson stomacher :
A cuff neglectful, and thereby
Ribbons to flow confusedly :
A winning wave (deserving note)
In the tempestuous petticoat :
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility :
Do more bewitch me than when art
Is too precise in every part.
- Robert Herrick
clear ayes, the poems you share with us are wonderful!
ReplyDeleteBuckeye, my stepdaughter has always had a touch of Gracie Allen in what she says. It's fun to hear something from either George or Gracie.
clearayes, that poem sounds suspiciously like my greatest thrill!
ReplyDeleteBill,
ReplyDeleteAll the best!
Geri
Thank You ALL for the good wishes!
ReplyDeleteI'm surem all will be fine. The only thing I am really sure of is that two more days of doing nothing will surely drive me up a wall! The Doc said NO activity of any kind. I even had to give up two playing jobs this weekend and THAT really p**** me off.
Oh, well, a couple weeks off to keep my eye will be worth it,.
Thanks again!
Hi C.C. and all,
ReplyDelete@Bill, Good Luck on surgery.
C.C. Since I dn't get to post until late in the evening, I see that Clear Ayes has given an answer to REM's name. As far as the song lyric for The One I Love, I have to say that I agree with everybody so far about "another prop" being another person being used. I definitely agree that The Police's I Be Watching You is about an over obsessive person smothering a relationship.
As far as cow chips, in our area we called them cow pies. My Dad has told a story that when he was a young child living on a farm that they would play baseball and use the cow pies as their bases. One time he went to slid einto a base (cow pie or chip) and it was fresh.
Good evening Cc & DF's: Fun puzzle with the same unknown as Dennis...man, do I feel smart! Love the Noam Chomsky reference as we study him in lang. dev't. Laughed hard at Cow chip throw...
ReplyDeleteone of my best events at picnics &/or fairs. Thanks to that practice, I can sling some bull 'now and then' ...have put some bulls in slings actually. And Nehi grape is wonderful...as a mixer. Gonna fly the 'koop' and play like a light switch...on/off, on/off...it's so hard making a decision.
Enjoy your night.
Bill, good luck on Mon. You're in my thoughs and prayers. Let us know as soon as you can how it went, ok?
ReplyDeleteWe just got a last minute invitation to a deep-pit goat BBQ tomorrow afternoon. It may wind up to be a "thrill of a lifetime".
ReplyDeleteHas anybody had BBQ goat meat before? Both G.A.H. and I are goat virgins. We were asked to BYOB, which is probably a good thing. I have an extra big bottle of Pinot Grigio to bring along. Xchef, will that go well with goat?
Ah, life is always an adventure!
whoa, Clear ayes, you and GAH are brave people, I would need 2 large bottles of pinot to even attempt goat meat. I think it would be an acquired taste, sort of like mutton - blahhh! But in fairness, lots of people would blahhh at some of the things I like. Let us know what you thought of it (if you can remember) :)
ReplyDeleteBack from a fabulous Elderhostel about China. I learned more than I did in the month trip to China.
ReplyDeleteBill, best wishes on your eye surgery Monday. I've had six, but none as serious as yours. My black eyes were marvelous to see!
Eponymous is one of my favorite words. My examples are bloomers and crapper. It's true; a Mr. Crapper invented the toilet. And a Mrs. Bloomer invented bloomers.