google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday, September 14, 2009 Lila Cherry

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Sep 14, 2009

Monday, September 14, 2009 Lila Cherry

Theme: Vowel Progression

17A: London art museum, as it was formerly known: TATE GALLERY

25A: Its seat is Jackson, Wyoming: TETON COUNTY

35A: It shows a book's name, author. publisher, etc.: TITLE PAGE

52A: Photographic memory: TOTAL RECALL

59A: Multi-flavored ice cream: TUTTI FRUTTI

TAT - Make lace
TET - Vietnamese New Year
TIT - Small bird
TOT - Small child
TUT - Mild reproof

Lila Cherry is just Rich Norris, anagram of "Really Rich". He uses this alias name for Monday puzzles.

All theme entries are two-word phrases, and the T?T is the start of the first word. Very consistent. Nice triple stacks of 7's Down fills in each corner. (Notes from Rich: The main inspiration was to see if I could come up with TAT/TET/etc. words which use long vowels, unlike the 3-letter words which all use short ones.)

I'm going to say that this puzzle is just right for a Monday. The pros should have no trouble; the tyros will struggle some, but if they have been solving on a regular basis, they should recognize some from recent puzzles, i.e. 64A: Actor Zimbalist Jr.: EFREM.

Then there is what I think of as the Jeopardy clues: You have no idea so you give the only answer you can come up with, i.e. 25A: Its seat is Jackson, Wyoming: TETON COUNTY. On Jeopardy, they are the answers that usually start a category.

Oh yeah, Argyle here and I feel like putting in a lot of links today. And if you're wondering, no troubles with Across Lite today.

Across:

1A: Places for chickens: COOPS. A-frame style for free rangers with good nighttime protection.

6A: Teapot feature: SPOUT. Teapot

11A: Roman 901: CMI. And 49A: AT&T competitor: MCI.

14A: Comics orphan: ANNIE. Scary

15A: Skier's jacket: PARKA. and 16A: Youthful fellow: LAD. Parka lad

19A: Some MIT grads: EES. Electrical Engineers.

20A: Extreme degrees: NTHS.

21A: LPGA teen phenom Michelle: WIE. With her hair down. She is coming off a bad weekend.

22A: Tibet's capital: LHASA. Chinese call Tibet as Xizang, very scrabbly.

24A: "__ you ready for this?": ARE.

28A: Oinker: PIG.

29A: Proofs of age, briefly: IDS. Identifications

30A: Ones making money: EARNER.

31A: Pointy-eared "Star Trek" guy: SPOCK. "Live long and prosper."

33A: Cookie holder: JAR. Or

34A: Small jazz combo: TRIO.

39A: Parts of the Rockies: Abbr.: MTNS. Mountains.

42A: Boiling: HOT.

43A: Kitchen allure: AROMA. It depends on who's in the kitchen.

47A: Norse mariner Leif: ERICSON. His route. Leif is also the son of "Eric the Red".

51A: King, in France: ROI.

54A: Prickly chestnut case: BUR. Here.

55A: Blackmore's " Doone": LORNA. R. D. Blackmore, (d. 1900). Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor, is a romance novel based on a group of historical characters and set in the late 17th century in Devon and Somerset, England.

56A: Paul Bunyan's tool: AXE.

57A: Piece of sausage: LINK.

58A: Stock mkt. debut: IPO. Initial Public Offering: a company's first stock offering to the public.

63A: Fire, to the French: FEU. Look, it's Monday, they even tell you it's French. Pot-au-FEU is literally "pot on fire", which Dennis hates.

65A: "__ the loneliest number": old song lyric: ONE IS. Not that old, is it?

66A: Ambulance destinations, for short: ERS. Emergency Rooms

67A: Goes bad, as milk: SOURS.

68A: Strolls in shallow water: WADES.

Down:

1D: Short snoozes: CATNAPS. Cats napping.

2D: Traveling away from home: ON A TRIP. And 3D: Very busy: ON THE GO.

4D: Pumpkin desserts: PIES. T'is the season. Yum. And 25D: __ torch: patio light: TIKI. Time to put them away for the year.

5D: Part of a line: Abbr.: SEG.

6D: Bowler's challenges: SPLITS. Remember? We had BABY SPLIT awhile back.

7D: Opposite of neo-: PALEO. A combining form meaning “old” or “ancient.” Paleosong lyric?

8D: Source of iron: ORE.

9D: Kiev is its cap.: UKR.

10D: "Fire and Rain" singer/songwriter James: TAYLOR.

11D: Vacuum __: CLEANER.

12D: Orchestra conductors, formally: MAESTRI. Italian plural of maestro.

13D: "Sounds about right to me": I'D SAY SO.

18D: Dumbfounded: AWED.

23D: Big game tracker: HUNTER. Can you see HUNTER (Torri) on his back?

26D: Twice-monthly tide: NEAP. The tide occurring at the end of the first and third quarters of the lunar month, in which high water mark is at the lowest. The tide at full and new moon is when the water mark is at its highest.

27D: Irene of "Fame": CARA. Image

32D: Radiologist's procedure, briefly: CT SCAN.

33D: Fast plane: JET. Did anyone try SST first?

36D: Norse thunder god: THOR. Image. Two Viking references today.

37D: "The __ Ranger": LONE. Ah, the memories.

38D: "Passages" author Sheehy: GAIL. Her book.

39D: Insurance company with Snoopy on its blimp: METLIFE. Blimp.

40D: State cop: TROOPER. Are all state policemen called troopers?

41D: __ oxide: laughing gas: NITROUS.

44D: Circled the earth: ORBITED.

45D: Canadian cop: MOUNTIE. Not troopers. Great left to right "cop" mirror to TROOPER.

46D: Smooch that even misses the cheek: AIR KISS. A maestro of air kisses.

48D: Political candidate lineups: SLATES.

49D: Adages: MAXIMS. Axioms too.

50D: First symbol on a musical staff: CLEF. For C.C.

53D: Supply party food for: CATER.

57D: Pale-green moth: LUNA. Pretty.

60D: ET's vehicle: UFO.

61D: One-man show about Capote: TRU. He was an American writer who wrote both Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood.

62D: Use oars: ROW. Banacek on the Charles River, Boston. (TV show, mystery).

Answer grid.

Picture of the Day: Here is a photo of today's constructor Lila Cherry (Rich Norris, editor of LA Times Daily Crossword, the taller guy). On his left is the master of tribute puzzles David Kahn, the author of NY Times' Barack Obama "Making History" & Michael Jackson puzzles.

Argyle

66 comments:

Dennis said...

Good morning, Argyle, C.C. and gang - a nice, smooth puzzle today, with one exception: is 'bur' really a word? I couldn't find a credible answer online; every source said it's 'burr'. Other than that, I enjoyed the fresh cluing. Great triple stacks, and I really liked the mirroring of 'trooper' and 'mountie'. The theme didn't reveal itself, to me anyway, until after the third theme entry; it all came to me once I saw 'tit', as so often happens.

Argyle, nice catch on 'Really Rich'.

Today is National Cream-Filled Donut Day. I doubt we'll have any objections that a celebration is certainly in order.

Today's Words of Wisdom: "Some people who are brutally honest get more satisfaction out of the brutality than out of the honesty." -- Richard J Needham

Hahtoolah said...

Morning, All. I thought this was just a tad harder than the usual Monday puzzle. Maybe because I just haven’t had my morning cup of java yet. I enjoyed figuring it out, though. We haven’t seen a Vowel Progression is some time.
My last fill was GALLERY. I got the TATE part early on, but Gallery just wouldn’t come to me.

September 14 Birthdays:

1983 ~ Amy Winehouse.

1947 ~ Jon “Bowser” Bauman, Singer in Sha Na Na.

1914 ~ Robert McCloskey (d. 2003), author of children’s books. My personal favorite is “Make Way for Ducklings.”

1914 ~ Clayton Moore (d. 1999), actor whose most famous role was the (Clue 37D), the Lone Ranger.

1879 ~ Margaret Sanger (d. 1966), Early advocate for birth control.

1869 ~ Charles “Kid” Nichols (d. 1953) ~ Major League baseball pitcher, who played for the Boston Beaneaters.

QOD: Most people would succeed in small things, if they were not troubled by great ambitions. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

Dennis,
Yeah, great mirroring of the "cop". I love those Down triple stacks also. It's always BUR. I tend to confuse it with ARIL and TESTA. BURR is often clued as BURR-Hamilton Duel related.

Argyle,
Superb write-up. Lots of lovely links today. Nice two TRU's. Thanks for the earrings.

Dennis said...

C.C., what's "always bur"? I believe the word is 'burr', as in 'a burr in one's saddle'. Where did you find a definition of bur?

Lemonade714 said...

Chestnut, name for any species of the genus Castanea, deciduous trees of the family Fagaceae (beech or oak family) widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere. They are characterized by thin-shelled, sweet, edible nuts borne in a bristly bur.

Argyle said...

Bur

The organic BUR is one R, usually.

Dennis said...

Lemonade, thanks for that; I'd never seen it spelled that way before. Even when I google 'chestnut bur', it says, "did you mean chestnut burr?".

Argyle said...

neato! They are calling cocklebur "Velcro weed" now.
Can't you just see some kid saying, "Mommy, I got into the velcro weed."

Anonymous said...

40D: State cop: TROOPER. Are all state policemen called troopers?

In Massachusetts The state police are called "staties"


ALL GRAVY NO GRIEF

Argyle said...

ALL GRAVY NO GRIEF, is that OK to call them that to their face?

Lemonade714 said...

Did you all watch Super Troopers speaking of Staties...or Jim Carrey's Me, Myself & Irene ? This puzzle certainly is very instructive as to our fearless editor's idea of a Monday puzzle; I am really curious as to when he writes his own in relation to when they are printed. Is there the same lag time from construction to publication?

What do you all think of actors like CLAYTON MOORE and BOB SMITH who become so associated in their own mind with their character they live life as the fictional person. The movie studios obtained a restraining order against MOORE to stop him from appearing as the LONE RANGER, and HOWDY DOODY producers sued SMITH to get the puppet back. I believe I mentioned SMITH used to come into an office I worked, in his buckskin and otherwise as BUFFALO BOB.

Al said...

Johnny Depp to play Tonto...

Anonymous said...

45D: Canadian cop: MOUNTIE.

I liked this show Due South. It was a big hit in Canada & Great Britain but it never gained appeal with an American audience.

A Mountie tracks his fathers killers to Chicago. His father was also a member of the RCMP. It ran for 5 years in the U.S. 1994-1999

Due South

Anonymous said...

Argyle,

I guess so they call themselves that.

Hahtoolah said...

RSD: I enjoyed "Due South," also. I found it very witty and was sorry when it was taken off air.

The Lone Ranger and Buffalo Bob were a bit before my time.

Andrea said...

Good Morning all -

A very fast puzzle for me this morning - I barely had time to put the pen down. What I didn't know filled itself in. The one I still didn't know even after it filled in was Twice-monthly tide: Neap. But I felt good about the four across fills that made it up, so considered it my new word for the day. Not sure if I'll be able to use it in a sentence today...

Another 80+ sunny day here. Yesterday was the Ironman competition here in Madison. Don't know how those athletes do it, let alone when it's hot! Congrats to all of them!!!

It is quite inspiring to watch at the finish line, especially later in the evening when they've been at it for 12+ hours. The paper reported 1100 first timers this year. Not sure how many of them will be celebrating with cream-filled donuts today!

Enjoy the day!

kazie said...

Fast puzzle for me today too. I actually used ink for the first time in a long while. I also was puzzled by BUR, and never did get the vowel progression theme, not unusual for me. Only slip was misspelling NEAP as NEEP at first, quickly rectified by JAR.

Argyle,
Thanks for all the links. A nice diversion.

RSD,
Thanks. Looks like I have to watch the rest of Due South now--I got into the first part, so now have to finish it. I remember the few episodes on TV too, liked it, and was disappointed when it disappeared.

Went to an 80's reunion of former students Saturday night. Amazing how "students" age in 30 or so years! They're all older than I was then. Interesting to see what they've done with themselves since.

Andrea,
Son and d-i-l also watched the finish yesterday evening after we left them to come home. Looking forward to Friday!

Argyle said...

Update: NEAP tide.
I shouldn't have trusted my memory; I had it 180 deg. off.

26D: Twice-monthly tide: NEAP. The tide occurring at the end of the first and third quarters of the lunar month, in which high water mark is at the lowest. The tide at full and new moon is when the water mark is at its highest.

Lemonade714 said...

C.C., if Rich is the taller one, then David Kahn is standing on Mr. Norris' right.

Speaking of blogging, did anyone read the following story, and what do you think about the premise.

Remember back in January when model Liskula Cohen was the target of a blog called 'Skanks in NYC?' The Google Blogger-hosted site featured embarrassing, personal photos of Cohen, and the anonymous author said of her: "I would have to say that first place award for 'Skankiest in NYC' would have to go to Liskula Gentile Cohen." The site was quickly taken down when Cohen decided to try and take legal action, but Google refused to hand over the blogger's identity, unless ordered to do so by a court.

Well, Miss Cohen has succeeded. According to the Telegraph, the Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Joan Madden ordered Google on Monday to hand over the blogger's e-mail and IP addresses. Google gave the information to Cohen's lawyers, who plan to sue the blogger for defamation.

In court, Anne Salisbury, the lawyer representing the blogger, accused Cohen of simply trying to attract publicity, not repair her reputation, since the blog was not widely known until she attempted legal action.

Cohen told 'Good Morning America' on Wednesday that the blogger was a former acquaintance. She said, "Thank God it was her... she's an irrelevant person in my life. She's just somebody that, whenever I would go out to a restaurant, to a party in New York City ... she was just that girl that was always there." Cohen went on to tell Diane Sawyer that she called the blogger and said, "I just want you to know that if I've ever done anything to you to actually deserve this then I'm really very sorry. I'm sincerely apologetic." The model told the New York Post that the blogger was a bit tongue-tied during the call, responding with "Um, um, um," after being confronted. While Cohen still plans to sue, she may reconsider if the blogger offers an apology.

This is a case that many, especially privacy experts, will be watching closely, now that Google has been ordered to divulge the identity of a customer. If simply calling Cohen a "skank" online is ruled to be defamation, it may open the door for more litigation against the hordes on Facebook, Twitter, and the like who loudly hurl insults at celebrities and one another. In fact, if simply calling someone a name on the Internet is grounds for legal action, some of the commenters on this site are guilty of defamation. But don't worry, we won't be taking legal action against you, no matter how many times you call us stupid, ignorant, or things that we can't repeat. [From: Telegraph, NY Post, ABC News, and CNN]

Moon said...

Good Morning!
A little hard for me than the usual Monday. First problem: I had WEI instead of WIE and hence took time to get SPLITS.
Got the theme after filling TATE, TOTAL RECALL and TUTTI FRUTTI. This helped to get TETON and TITLE.
Unknowns: LORNA and GAIL (got both from perps) and ERICSON (used Google).

Argyle, Lots of wonderful links. Thank you.


Off to work now...have a lot to catch up on.


Have a great day, everyone!

Kelev said...

Lemonade: I think that today's photo may have been transposed (see the word "room" spelled backwards). In that case, CC would be right with respect to who is on whose right side.

Linda said...

Good morning CC, Argyle and gang:
EZ puzzle(s) which I got done before the daily "storm."
As always, spelling slowed me down...wanted Maestro for Maestri, lhasa slowed me down..."lh" being unusual except in xws...roi vs roy, efrem vs ephrem, bur vs burr etc.

"Coops" reminded me of "Why I was late."

Teacher asked the young farm boy and his answer was, "Because pappy sleeps naked." He went on to explain how pappy heard something in the chicken coop around 1 AM, took his shot gun and crawled to the door of the coop with his finger on the trigger. Just then, the red bone stuck his cold nose to pappy and , "Teacher, we been cleaning chickens since 1:30 this morning!."

Lmade714: I think the case you posted is a slippery slope but, we should all be careful what we post...anything we put on the net has the potential to come back to haunt us.

Warren said...

Great job Argyle, my only quibble was your spelling of 'A-Fame' Here's some more pictures of A-Frame chicken coops.

A good puzzle today, I thought it was slightly harder than last weeks. I couldn't remember how to spell 'nitrous' and I never picked up the vowel progression theme until I came here.

Clear Ayes said...

Good Morning All. Good job, Argyle. Not a difficult puzzle, but interesting and fun. What could be better for a Monday puzzle? We can certainly see how Rich Norris might judge a Monday entry.

As with others, BUR was an unknown and, if we've seen it before, I'd forgotten EES.

I loved seeing TATE GALLERY. The last time GAH and I were in London, we had a lovely morning walk from The Eye to Tate Modern. We were in awe of the artwork at the Tate Modern.

My mother was born in "The Land of the Vikings", Erickson Manitoba in Canada. It wasn't named directly after Leif ERICSON, but the area had originally been settled by immigrants from Iceland. Maybe Mr. Erickson, the postmaster was a descendant of the Norse explorer.

Lemonade, That's a very interesting article. Where is the line when "sticks and stones" becomes defamation? Is it just because it appears in a blog? If President Obama has managed to retain his cool over nutso right wing accusations of being a Socialist, a Communist, a secret Muslin jihadist and a Nazi who is planning death panels for the elderly, I think Ms. Cohen overreacted in a big way. But as we often see, there are huge numbers of people who believe that if they see it in an email or on the internet, it must be true.

treefrog said...

As usual I spaced the theme! A typical Monday puzzle to ease me into the week!

I also remember Due South. Think we only watched a couple of episodes.

Clarification about a comment I made yesterday. I said we had a 'special' nickname for our son when he was 15 (sophomore year). The son didn't know the nickname. It was between his dad and me. As in a private conversation, "What did a-----e do today?" Wouldn't have said it to the kid! Realized it didn't look quite right.

Have a great day.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi Gang -

I'm DOUBLEMINDED on the privacy question. Calling someone a skank doesn't strike me as constitutionally protected free-speech. OTOH, being caled a skank isn't exaclty the end of the world, and someone who chooses to live in the limelight ought to grow a thicker EXOCARP.

As Marion Zimmer Bradley used to say, "If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen." On balance, my vote is for privacy. But tough cases make bad law, so it will be interesting to see how this turns out in a time when privacy rights are being ERODED anyway.

Very nice puzzle. I enjoyed this one more than most over the past several days. Probably just my frame of mind.

Nicely done, Argyle.

TET gave the theme way.

Like the cross of MAESTRI and TRIO.

And the adjacency of ORBITED LUNA

Messed up the spelling of TOOTIFRUITI

The Norse Thunder God was sitting one morning after a particularly heavy night of celebration in Valhalla, cradling his head in his hands. But he perked up when a beautiful, HOT Valkyrja passed by.

"Hi," he said, "I'm THOR."

She rubbed her temples and said, "I don't feel tho good, mythelf."

Cheers!

JzB the PALEO trombonist

Bill G. said...

Very nice puzzle and write-up.

To elaborate a little on tides, neap tides occur at half moons (first and last quarter) when the gravity of the moon and sun are pulling at right angles and canceling each other out to some extent. The high tides are not very high and the low tides are not very low. Spring tides occur at full and new moons when the gravitational pull of the moon and sun are in line. Spring tides have very big high tides and low tides that are very low (a good time for tide pooling).

Argyle said...

Thanks, Warren. I sat here wondering what you were talking about when the missing R entered into my consciousness. Now I know why C.C. asked if I meant 'famous' in 1A. So I fixed it.

Re: Picture of Mr. Norris and Mr. Kahn. I don't think the image is reversed because of the clothing/belt overlap(but then, I didn't see I hadn't put an R in 'frame'!)

JimmyB said...

Pretty straightforward puzzle, though I never grasped the vowel progression until coming here.

Treefrog: I hear you. There's something peculiar that goes through the male mind around the age of 15. At least they seem to outgrow it.

melissa bee said...

good morning c.c., argyle and all,

another quick one today. i suppose i should have, but did not know TATE GALLERY, or NEAP. still a speed run though. i never see the vowel progression theme in time for it to help, just noticed the double t's. TITLE PAGE is pretty, right in the middle, and TUTTI FRUTTI is a fun full.

stellar job again argyle, great links. nice to see rich norris.

hiatt fan that i am, TIKI will have me humming this all day.

as far as the cohen story, free speech is about addressing your government, not hurling insults. that being said, i'm in favor of saying ANYTHING you want, as long as you sign your name to it. c'mon .. if you're naming someone else, it's only fair to identify yourself. 'the blogger' doesn't seem too concerned about cohen's privacy.

carol said...

Good morning Argyle, C.C. and everyone - I didn't have trouble with this puzzle aside from my spelling of TUTTI FRUTTI. This spelling seems like it should be pronounced "TUTY" (as in King Tut) "FRUTY" Oh well.

It took me a while to get TETON COUNTY as I put SPARES in for 6D.

Why would A-Frame coops be safer for chickens? They look so small. I know nothing about raising chickens but I would think the poor things should have more room to wander about. Maybe one of you can enlighten me.

Argyle, I really enjoyed all your links today and glad you didn't have the trouble you did previously. Great job.

CA (10:27) Re: defamation. Very well said! I heartily agree with you.

Off to fight with a carpet company and to find an ash trap cover for the innards of our fireplace. We had the old insert (earth stove) removed from the fireplace yesterday and have to cover the trap before we can use it. Also get to pick out a pull screen and grate. It will be so nice to actually SEE a fire and hear it crackling away this winter.

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

Dennis et al,
Notes from Lila Cherry (Rich Norris): "The main inspiration was to see if I could come up with TAT/TET/etc. words which use long vowels, unlike the 3-letter words which all use short ones".

Did you all notice that? I did not.

embien said...

5:06 today. A nice, easy Monday puzzle. I don't think we've seen a "vowel progression" theme for a while now, have we?

I enjoyed seeing 1a: COOPS as we used to keep chickens. I built a 10x12 chicken house (up on blocks so they could get under the house in our Oregon rain) for them. We had many wonderful years with our chickens (mainly New Hampshires).

Jerome said...

Really, Rich, very nice Monday puzzle. A bit unusual, but that's good. You don't often see only 34 black squares in a Monday crossword. It certainly opened up the grid and allowed for those 14 seven letter entries.

Fun fill- I'D SAY SO, AIRKISS, CATNAPS, ON A TRIP, ON THE GO.

TUTTI FRUTTI is outstanding.

I wonder if Windover ever got an award for being outstanding in his field?

A CTSCAN reveals C.C.'S TAN.

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

Lemonade & Kelev,
Should I say "on the left of the picture" or "on Rich's right" then?

Kazie,
Maybe I dozed off when you taught Kiki, Mimi and Miki. What are the full names again?

Linda,
Stay strong, whatever you are going through.

Clear Ayes said...

Fair warning everyone. Here comes an ear worm, Disneyland's TIKI Room Song. It seems old fashioned now, but the whole show, of which the song is only an introduction, was a marvel when it first opened. It must have been far before its time because it is still there after 46 years. My daughter was about three years old when she saw it for the first time. She loved the It's A Small World (oh oh, more ear worm!) ride better, but the TIKI Room was a close second.

Chickie said...

Hello All--A great Monday puzzle. I did find it a little more challenging today than usual. The few unknown names were easily gotten with the perps, and I actually did catch on to the vowel progression after Tate and Teton.

Thank you Argyle for all the links today and for the picture of "Lila Cherry".

Linda, I laughed out loud at your Chicken story. Our family has a skunk story which is true!

Our SIL sleeps in his skivvies. My daughter and her husband were visiting and brought their two dogs with them. We had a large run on the side of the house, so the dogs(usually very quiet) were in the run for the night. About three in the morning they were making such a ruckus that my SIL went to shush them. They refused to quiet so he turned on the light outside. A skunk was between the fence and the run.

SIL gets the hose, puts on MY garden shoes and proceeds to turn the hose on the skunk. He opened the side gate, hosed the skunk across the street and thought at the last minute that he hoped there would not be any neighbors looking out of their windows at that hour. We never heard from anyone, or the skunk again.

eddyB said...

Hello all,

Congrats to Ichiro for his amazing feat!

eddyB.

Lemonade714 said...

C.C., about the picture, I am not trying to be picky, just making certain I know which is which. The short man is standing to the tall man's right, which is confirmed by the buttons, which are always on the right for male clothing, This would not change if the picture were reversed. Yes, on the left of the picture, or Rich's right is apparently the correct answer.

Maybe I had too many years cross-examining people and winning cases based on little details, sorry.

Chickie said...

Dennis--My Webster's Collegiate Dictionary has "bur" defined as a bit used on a dental drill, or bur reed,(1597) any of the family Sparganiaceae of plants with globose fruits resembling burs.

I will be very busy today. Happy Monday to everyone.

windhover said...

Jerome:
never heard that one before........Not
but to answer the question, yes I have. Several times.
But have you ever heard the saying,
in the country of the blind...........?

Argyle said...

Carol, the coop in question is where the chickens go to roost at night. Durning the day, they are free to roam.
The A-frame shape allows the entire area to be enclosed in chicken wire to keep out predators.

FYI
Ichiro Suzuki became the first major league baseball player with at least 200 hits in nine consecutive seasons.

Mainiac said...

Good Afternoon All,

Typical smooth Monday puzzle and typical busy Monday morning, hence the late post. Not much to add that hasn't been already discussed.

My tomato crop has "blight". Seen it with potatoes before but this is a new one on me. I have been able to cut some of it out but it looks as though its in all types of tomatoes except the cherries. Big bummer. Any suggestions out there?

Have a great day!

eddyB said...

Hello again,

Dennis, One word-whoosh. No need for an apology either.

eddyB.

WM said...

Well...another awesome blog by Argyle...thank you sir, and a terrifically enjoyable puzzle. No hang-ups no unknowns and I totally didn't pick up on the theme until I saw it here...Argyle I liked the addition of the short word definitions...very perceptive. I thought it a very cleverly done puzzle for a Monday and think that it must be as difficult to create such fresh, fun fills for an easy puzzle as for a difficult one.

Dennis...I liked the WoW...grew up with that kind of criticsm. It continues to this day...the "well, I'm just being honest". I 've learned to ignore it. But the quote nails it perfectly.

Good news...3 paintings are going into at least a 6mo rental for the Blackberry people WOOT!

Weather continues cool and overcast and it finally actually really rained here last night...AHHHHH. :o)

carol said...

Mainiac, when you say 'blight' do you mean the bottom of the tomato has dark blotches? If so, that is called blossom end rot. It is caused by the lack of calcium in the soil. You can prevent it by working garden lime to your soil a few months prior to planting and then add a small handful to each hole when putting the actual plant in. Hope this helps. It is a fairly common problem.

kazie said...

Carol and Mainiac,
No, it's not blossom end rot. It's a disease they say is the same as the infamous potato blight that caused the famine in Ireland. It's caused by fungus spores, and you need to destroy the vines and not compost them. Burn or deep six them to avoid the spores' survival. We have it here this year too. I've used some of the fruit, cutting out bad spots, but wouldn't try canning with them.

c.c.,
Miki and Mimi could be short for Michelle or Mireille, Kiki for Christine or Christiane, Nini for Narelle. The two I knew were Mireille (Miki) and her sister Christiane (Kiki).

Buckeye said...

Guday all my tattettittottut friends. A fun Monday puzzle. A bit more developed than our usual Monday fare.

That pounding you hear is a new roof going on - a remnant of our Midwestern visit last year at this time when "Ike" spread havoc throughout this, and other, parts of the country.

Which brings me to another complaint. Youse peoples in California have great weather, beaches, fine restaurants, beautiful people, beaches, sun, Hollywood, money, beaches, skiing, wine, beaches and a host of other things, including beaches. Here in Ohio we have corn, pigs, snow and ice storms, tornadoes, pestilence and famine and a host of other things, including corn. For the love of God, PLEASE disband your college football programs. Leave us at least ONE thing we do well.

As you all know, I never make a mistake - I just do and say things correctly in an incorrect manner. Yesterday, Dick Fitzright, our quiet resident intellectual here at GBRV said; "Buckeye, about a month age you quoted 'Malt does more than Milton can to justify God's way to man' and credited it to Auden. It was A.E. Housman. Your blog friends are probably very embarrassed for you. I thought you should know". The little bastard was right. SORRY!

I must be off

Crockett1947 said...

BUCKEYE!! I was wondering if you were out of solitary yet! Nice to see your wacky self surface for at least a cameo.

Barb B said...

Anyone see the movie “the Class”? A French movie about a multi-cultural school in Paris. The teachers clearly came from more privileged background than the students.
A large part of the film is about the teacher alienating his class by calling two rude gurls "petasse", which was translated to English as Skank. The teacher and the principal agreed he may have over-reacted, but didn’t consider it a big deal. The class took it to mean something truly unforgivable.

Bill G. said...

Buckeye said: "Which brings me to another complaint. Youse peoples in California have great weather, beaches, fine restaurants, beautiful people, beaches, sun, Hollywood, money, beaches, skiing, wine, beaches and a host of other things, including beaches. Here in Ohio we have corn, pigs, snow and ice storms, tornadoes, pestilence and famine and a host of other things, including corn. For the love of God, PLEASE disband your college football programs. Leave us at least ONE thing we do well."

Heh heh. If you'd share a little rain with us, Manhattan Beach would be just about the perfect place to live. I went to Cornell where football was something the bright guys who were also big played at. No football scholarships. At USC, football is a business and they run it very well. I'm guessing a better-than-average USC team would be able to beat some worse-than-average pro teams. Of course, they let people like O. J. Simpson in to play football when they can barely read or write.

Crockett1947 said...

@buckeye When were you Far Above Cayuga's waters? I was there for two years, 65-66 and 66-67. In the Frosh dorms and then at Kappa Delta Rho. Sure had a good time when I was there! College Town bars were very friendly, LOL!

Bill G. said...

Er, that would be me who was far above Cayuga's waters. I was there from 1958 to 1963 and lived at Von Cramm. Cornell was a wonderful place, maybe one of the prettiest campuses in the US, but I had a hard time enjoying it to the fullest because the engineering curriculum was so demanding for me. I vaguely remember Johnny's in collegetown and a couple of bars downtown but I've forgotten their names. Still, I managed to graduate and I met Barbara there.

Crockett1947 said...

Sorry, billg. I saw the "Buckeye said" and thought is was he who was there. So if you were in von Cramm (Kramm?) you probably knew my brother Shan, or maybe just missed him.

Anonymous said...

Maniac,

Our tomatoes got hit by the blight several weeks ago. As Kazie said, you need to destroy affected plants. We pruned away the bad parts and were able to save some of the plants. then we sprayed them with liquid copper fungicide. Although we still are getting a few tomatoes, we had to throw away dozens of them. I started picking them just when they turned color; wrapped them in newspapers & put them in a tight plastic box to ripen. That seemed to work for most of them. Only one tomato turned black in the box.

Good luck,

Dot

Argyle said...

Crockett and Bill,
Mennen Hall, fall '66, sliding down the library slope on cafeteria trays.

Liz said...

Fun puzzle, nothing new to add.
Dennis, enjoyed your WoW, I bet everyone knows someone like that.
RedStateDemocrat, nice to meet another "Due South" fan. Would love to see it back in reruns. I have both soundtracks from the show, featuring some great Canadian talent. It was one of the first shows I remember that the music was an integral part of the show.
Liz

Bill G. said...

Crockett said: you probably knew my brother Shan, or maybe just missed him.

I do remember that name though I always thought it was Shawn. I think he joined up my last year there so I didn't get to know him very well. I wonder if he remembers me? It was a living unit with very diverse characters and contributed to my enjoyment of Cornell.

Argyle said: ...sliding down the library slope on cafeteria trays.

I sure remember that. Lots of fun. Walking up lib slope (from von Cramm) with icy paths to make an 8 o'clock class wasn't much fun though.

Annette said...

Great job today, Argyle. Thanks for letting us know about the constructor's anagram - and for providing his photo! It's nice to put a face to the infamous Rich Norris! ;-)

It was a fun puzzle, with my main problem being putting SPARES instead of SPLITS. I knew it was Michelle WIE, but just couldn't get the cross to fit for a while. Totally forgot to even think about a theme until I came here...sigh!

CA, thanks for the Disney tunes! The Tiki Song was the highlight of our first trip to Disney World over 30 years ago. Everyone got into the music and had so much fun chair dancing and singing along!

I've got to make time to come here BEFORE heading to work - It's after 10 pm and too late to go out for a cream filled donut... :-(

My b-i-l's sons (from a previous marriage) use the nickname Kiki for their sister Kimberly.

Goodnight all!
Annette

Annette said...

A different b-i-l was showing me a walking tour of the Cornell campus on their website a few months ago.

Having each bldg pointed out didn't mean a whole lot to me, but seeing his absolute pleasure in sharing it with me made it all worth while! You could tell it held a very special place in his heart too.

I'm guessing he'd have been there in the late 60's early 70's though. His last name is Braun.

It was a beautiful campus, and I really enjoyed the scenery. South Florida can be beautiful, but will never compare to the plush green forests and big hills "up north".

windhover said...

Getting a welcome dose of Buckeye today has left me wondering; what's happened to PJB?

Crockett1947 said...

Argyle, I still have my cafeteria tray!

Climbing the hill from University 4 in the ice was the pits!

I had to get pulled out of Triphammer over by the bridge into College Town because I was out taking "art" pictures in the snow and ice and got into an untenable position.

Ah, the follies of youth...

Annette said...

I'd clipped a quote out of the Reader's Digest last month that I think relates to today's WOW: "Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain, and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving." -- Dale Carnegie ("How To Win Friends And Influence People")

Jeannie said...

I am sorry my crossword friends to bore you with this but this is my life right now. I have no time to even glimpse at the puzzle but take some time to skim the comments. The main buyers; dry, frozen, and fresh meat sit with me to assign the spaces on the layout, then I have to number all the booths (remember it's all booth number driven on the customer's side), then assign the booth numbers in the computer. At 3:15pm I was able to print a viable book for my boss to look at, and with minimal changes I was out of the office by 5:30pm. I am thinking there is much more on his mind. When I mentioned the short time we spent he gave me the biggest compliment...."Jeannie I trust you by now and the show is always a success, and your attention to detail is spot on." I still have a lot to do to get documents ready for the customers books, but that really made me feel good. Patting myself on the back....

Buckeye...hey I resemble that... tattettittottut...don't make me explain that as it has been a long week in ONE DAY. I am pretty sure you can decipher that yourself. Nice to see you SWEETIE, when you passing through MN? I'll feed you and put you up.

gmony said...

On 5D I put SEC for section. I thought about Seg for segment but I don't know why I kept it. Took me 2 hours for the puzzle. (lousy huh)

Crockett1947 said...

@jeannie Good to see you alive and kicking.

@gmony Stay the course. Gotta start somewhere!

Good night, all.