Theme: None
Total blocks: 28
Total words: 68
A few notes first:
1) If you solve today's puzzle via Cruciverb's website, there is an error for 5A. The answer is ADDER instead of ADDED. Rich Norris (LA Times Crossword Editor) has notified Cruciverb, but it's not been been updated yet. Click here for the correct Across Lite grid.
2) Rich acknowledged the error for LOOIE ("Certain NCO, slangily") clue immediately on Thursday morning in an email to Dennis. I should have put his response on the blog main entry. Rich said these recent problems are all the result of last-minute changes requested by Tribune. And they've smoothed out the process, which should soon put an end to the glitches.
3) Today's puzzle is the first themeless by Don "Hard G" Gagliardo (Congratulations, Don!). He kindly provided us with his creating process:
"The September 12 themeless puzzle happened from a desire on my part to expand my challenges. I had never done a themeless, and wanted to see what it is like. To try something a little different, I thought it would be interesting to cross six 15-letter entries (three across, three down) and have them spread out in the grid. Rich pointed out that this does not work well on two accounts: it makes it difficult to have other long entries, and at least a couple of the 15's are probably not going to be very interesting. Rich referred me to Barry Silk's puzzle that week, and how he got , I believe it was, 22 entries at least 7 letters long. It was a beautiful puzzle and so I was inspired. I decided on two 15's to cross at the center. My novelty was to try to clue them the same way (I don't know if it made it this way to publication). Those two long entries determined a great deal how the rest of the puzzle filled in. I tried for variety, and answers that could have interesting clues. At that time, I did not have Crossword Compiler. It was extremely hard to create this puzzle with paper and pencil! My first version was almost acceptable. With a small revision, Rich accepted the puzzle. BTW, Rich was noted as being Mr. Saturday at the New York Times. To have him accept this puzzle was a great honor. Rich has a book of puzzles out, "A to Z Crosswords", which explores the themeless style at great length. Amazingly, each puzzle in the book is a pangram. It is extremely enjoyable solving."
The two grid-spanning 15's are:
32A: "See?!": WHAT DID I TELL YOU?!
7D: "Sound familiar?": DOES IT RING A BELL?
Great intersection at the very center of the grid. Such vibrant colloquial phrases.
Not a very focused solving for me. Got distracted by the error warning and then peeked at the answer sheet way too early.
Across:
1A: Absorbed: RAPT. "Wordplay" is a very absorbing documentary on NY Times crossword.
5A: Snake with a puff variety: ADDER. Dictionary says Puff ADDER inflates its body and hisses when disturbed. Extremely venomous.
10A: Shakespeare's Avon calling?: BARD. The BARD of Avon, Shakespeare's nickname.
14A: Become equitable in the long run: AVERAGE OUT
17A: Remote measuring devices: TELEMETERS. No idea. It measures/transmits/receives data between a ground station and an artificial satellite. Can also be a verb.
18A: Cheese coated in red paraffin: EDAM. Named after the town in the Netherlands where the cheese originated.
19A: China's Zhou __: ENLAI. Mandarin spelling. Cantonese is Chow ENLAI. The only high-level Chinese leader who survived Mao's Cultural Revolution purge.
20A: That, in Madrid: ESO. Sometimes it's ESA.
21A: Museum in Madrid: PRADO. Both Goya's "The Naked Maja" & "The Clothed Maja" are housed in PRADO. Nice consecutive Madrid clues.
22A: "Tea for Two" for two, e.g.: DUET. "Tea for Two" is a DUET in musical "No, No, Nanette".
23A: Country singer Yearwood: TRISHA. Oh, it's she who sings "How Do I Live" in Nicolas Cage's "Con Air".
25A: Geometric fig.: CIR (Circle)
26A: Show featuring agents 86 and 99: GET SMART. Watched Steve Carell & Anne Hathaway's "GET SMART" a few weeks ago. Just plain silly.
28A: Web search tool: ENGINE. My first reaction: GOOGLE.
30A: Lumberjack, at times: AXER. And RUER (16A: One with regrets). Remember we used to get lots of RE, ER, EST, ED, S, ING affixes in the old Saturday puzzles?
31A: 1980s-'90s Buick sports car: REATTA. No idea. Wikipedia says it's a hand-made luxurious sports coupe by Buick. Short-lived. From early 1988 to 1991. One more T than the rodeo rope REATA.
37A: 1993-2001 White House maiden name: RODHAM. Hillary Clinton 2016? Possible!
38A: Symbol on a staff: NOTE. Musical staff.
39A: Like most piano technician services: IN-HOME
40A: Football setting: GRIDIRON. Favre + Vikings = Superbowl? Possible!
45A: Peg under a dimpled ball: TEE. Such a vivid clue. Golf ball weighs 1.62 ounces or less.
46A: Legal term that's French for "on a bench": EN BANC. BANC is French for "bench". Wikipedia says this legal term refers to the hearing of a legal case where all judges of a court will heard the case (an entire bench), rather than a panel of them. Unknown to me.
48A: Sushi wrapper: NORI. Love NORI seaweed. Sometimes I crumble them in my soup.
49A: Chelmsford's county: ESSEX. Have never heard of Chelmsford. Quite close to London. What is it famous for?
51A: Blood typing letters: ABO. Shouldn't it be "Blood type letters"?
52A: Photons' family, in physics: BOSON. Named after the Indian physicist S. N. Bose. Both the clue and the answer mean nothing to me.
53A: Elec. supplier: UTIL (Utility)
54A: 2002 film for which Adrien Brody won a Best Actor Oscar: THE PIANIST. It's on our Netflix queue.
56A: Ruse: PLOY
57A: Used car dealer's spiel, say: SALES PITCH
58A: Dict. offerings: SYNS (Synonyms)
59A: Clay bakers: KILNS
60A: Southwestern art colony town: TAOS. In New Mexico.
Down:
1D: OK for kids, filmwise: RATED G. Do let your kids watch "The Greatest Game Ever Played". One of the best golf movies I've ever seen. So inspiring. Everything begins with a dream.
2D: Michigan in Chicago, e.g.: AVENUE. No idea, Sir. Michigan AVENUE is a major north-south street in Chicago. Too clever a clue for me.
3D: Bit of buckshot: PELLET
4D: Dog training aids: TREATS
5D: Time of your life: AGE. Wow, so simple. I'm 38 and I am a pig.
6D: Checked: DETERRED. I was in the "verified" direction.
8D: Continental currency: EUROS. Such a straightforward clue for a Saturday.
9D: ACLU concerns: RTS. Is it a common abbreviation for rights?
10D: Rabbit or Bear's title: BR'ER. Uncle Remus stories.
11D: Gall: AUDACITY. Thought of CHUTZPAH first.
12D: Interpret by inference: READ INTO
13D: H. G. Wells's island researcher: DR. MOREAU. No idea. "The Island of Dr. MOREAU" is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells.
21D: Like some den walls: PANELED
23D: Cabbies in Canterbury: TAXIMEN. We just call them taxi drivers in China.
24D: One seriously straying from the flock?: HERETIC. Was thinking of MAVERICK.
27D: Sargent portrait of a mysterious Frenchwoman: MADAME X. Here is the painting. Both the portrait and the painter were strangers to me.
32D: Newspaper accounts: WRITE-UPS
33D: With no deception: HONESTLY
34D: Bonding: ADHESION. Tricky clue. I thought the clue is asking for an ING ending verb.
35D: Even if, informally: THO'
36D: Like gift wrap on Christmas morning: TORN OPEN. I open some on Christmas Eve, and save some for Christmas morning.
41D: Like con artists' shills, e.g.: IN ON IT
42D: Bilingual Muppet: ROSITA. Forgot. The "Sesame Street" character. She speaks Spanish and English.
43D: Pitcher Jesse, who had the most career appearances: OROSCO. Total 1,252 games pitched. Can't believe I've never heard of this guy. He was with the Twins in 2003.
44D: Final innings: NINTHS. I like how OROSCO paralles NINTHS.
47D: Mideast religion that preaches equality: BAHA'I (buh-HAH-ee). Founded in Persia in the 19th century.
50D: Bridge expert Culbertson et al.: ELYS. The authority on contract bridge.
52D: "Southern" relig.: BAP. Southern Baptist. Not a familiar abbr. to me.
54D: "For shame!": TSK
55D: Unit of Time: Abb.: ISS (Issue). D'oh, Time magazine. I did not even pay attention to the capitalized T.
Answer grid.
Picture of the Day: Here is great Father's Day photo of our fellow LAT solver Jimmy B, his wife Diane and their three boys. Their middle son (on the left) had just finished the police academy, hence the buzz cut.
C.C.
Total blocks: 28
Total words: 68
A few notes first:
1) If you solve today's puzzle via Cruciverb's website, there is an error for 5A. The answer is ADDER instead of ADDED. Rich Norris (LA Times Crossword Editor) has notified Cruciverb, but it's not been been updated yet. Click here for the correct Across Lite grid.
2) Rich acknowledged the error for LOOIE ("Certain NCO, slangily") clue immediately on Thursday morning in an email to Dennis. I should have put his response on the blog main entry. Rich said these recent problems are all the result of last-minute changes requested by Tribune. And they've smoothed out the process, which should soon put an end to the glitches.
3) Today's puzzle is the first themeless by Don "Hard G" Gagliardo (Congratulations, Don!). He kindly provided us with his creating process:
"The September 12 themeless puzzle happened from a desire on my part to expand my challenges. I had never done a themeless, and wanted to see what it is like. To try something a little different, I thought it would be interesting to cross six 15-letter entries (three across, three down) and have them spread out in the grid. Rich pointed out that this does not work well on two accounts: it makes it difficult to have other long entries, and at least a couple of the 15's are probably not going to be very interesting. Rich referred me to Barry Silk's puzzle that week, and how he got , I believe it was, 22 entries at least 7 letters long. It was a beautiful puzzle and so I was inspired. I decided on two 15's to cross at the center. My novelty was to try to clue them the same way (I don't know if it made it this way to publication). Those two long entries determined a great deal how the rest of the puzzle filled in. I tried for variety, and answers that could have interesting clues. At that time, I did not have Crossword Compiler. It was extremely hard to create this puzzle with paper and pencil! My first version was almost acceptable. With a small revision, Rich accepted the puzzle. BTW, Rich was noted as being Mr. Saturday at the New York Times. To have him accept this puzzle was a great honor. Rich has a book of puzzles out, "A to Z Crosswords", which explores the themeless style at great length. Amazingly, each puzzle in the book is a pangram. It is extremely enjoyable solving."
The two grid-spanning 15's are:
32A: "See?!": WHAT DID I TELL YOU?!
7D: "Sound familiar?": DOES IT RING A BELL?
Great intersection at the very center of the grid. Such vibrant colloquial phrases.
Not a very focused solving for me. Got distracted by the error warning and then peeked at the answer sheet way too early.
Across:
1A: Absorbed: RAPT. "Wordplay" is a very absorbing documentary on NY Times crossword.
5A: Snake with a puff variety: ADDER. Dictionary says Puff ADDER inflates its body and hisses when disturbed. Extremely venomous.
10A: Shakespeare's Avon calling?: BARD. The BARD of Avon, Shakespeare's nickname.
14A: Become equitable in the long run: AVERAGE OUT
17A: Remote measuring devices: TELEMETERS. No idea. It measures/transmits/receives data between a ground station and an artificial satellite. Can also be a verb.
18A: Cheese coated in red paraffin: EDAM. Named after the town in the Netherlands where the cheese originated.
19A: China's Zhou __: ENLAI. Mandarin spelling. Cantonese is Chow ENLAI. The only high-level Chinese leader who survived Mao's Cultural Revolution purge.
20A: That, in Madrid: ESO. Sometimes it's ESA.
21A: Museum in Madrid: PRADO. Both Goya's "The Naked Maja" & "The Clothed Maja" are housed in PRADO. Nice consecutive Madrid clues.
22A: "Tea for Two" for two, e.g.: DUET. "Tea for Two" is a DUET in musical "No, No, Nanette".
23A: Country singer Yearwood: TRISHA. Oh, it's she who sings "How Do I Live" in Nicolas Cage's "Con Air".
25A: Geometric fig.: CIR (Circle)
26A: Show featuring agents 86 and 99: GET SMART. Watched Steve Carell & Anne Hathaway's "GET SMART" a few weeks ago. Just plain silly.
28A: Web search tool: ENGINE. My first reaction: GOOGLE.
30A: Lumberjack, at times: AXER. And RUER (16A: One with regrets). Remember we used to get lots of RE, ER, EST, ED, S, ING affixes in the old Saturday puzzles?
31A: 1980s-'90s Buick sports car: REATTA. No idea. Wikipedia says it's a hand-made luxurious sports coupe by Buick. Short-lived. From early 1988 to 1991. One more T than the rodeo rope REATA.
37A: 1993-2001 White House maiden name: RODHAM. Hillary Clinton 2016? Possible!
38A: Symbol on a staff: NOTE. Musical staff.
39A: Like most piano technician services: IN-HOME
40A: Football setting: GRIDIRON. Favre + Vikings = Superbowl? Possible!
45A: Peg under a dimpled ball: TEE. Such a vivid clue. Golf ball weighs 1.62 ounces or less.
46A: Legal term that's French for "on a bench": EN BANC. BANC is French for "bench". Wikipedia says this legal term refers to the hearing of a legal case where all judges of a court will heard the case (an entire bench), rather than a panel of them. Unknown to me.
48A: Sushi wrapper: NORI. Love NORI seaweed. Sometimes I crumble them in my soup.
49A: Chelmsford's county: ESSEX. Have never heard of Chelmsford. Quite close to London. What is it famous for?
51A: Blood typing letters: ABO. Shouldn't it be "Blood type letters"?
52A: Photons' family, in physics: BOSON. Named after the Indian physicist S. N. Bose. Both the clue and the answer mean nothing to me.
53A: Elec. supplier: UTIL (Utility)
54A: 2002 film for which Adrien Brody won a Best Actor Oscar: THE PIANIST. It's on our Netflix queue.
56A: Ruse: PLOY
57A: Used car dealer's spiel, say: SALES PITCH
58A: Dict. offerings: SYNS (Synonyms)
59A: Clay bakers: KILNS
60A: Southwestern art colony town: TAOS. In New Mexico.
Down:
1D: OK for kids, filmwise: RATED G. Do let your kids watch "The Greatest Game Ever Played". One of the best golf movies I've ever seen. So inspiring. Everything begins with a dream.
2D: Michigan in Chicago, e.g.: AVENUE. No idea, Sir. Michigan AVENUE is a major north-south street in Chicago. Too clever a clue for me.
3D: Bit of buckshot: PELLET
4D: Dog training aids: TREATS
5D: Time of your life: AGE. Wow, so simple. I'm 38 and I am a pig.
6D: Checked: DETERRED. I was in the "verified" direction.
8D: Continental currency: EUROS. Such a straightforward clue for a Saturday.
9D: ACLU concerns: RTS. Is it a common abbreviation for rights?
10D: Rabbit or Bear's title: BR'ER. Uncle Remus stories.
11D: Gall: AUDACITY. Thought of CHUTZPAH first.
12D: Interpret by inference: READ INTO
13D: H. G. Wells's island researcher: DR. MOREAU. No idea. "The Island of Dr. MOREAU" is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells.
21D: Like some den walls: PANELED
23D: Cabbies in Canterbury: TAXIMEN. We just call them taxi drivers in China.
24D: One seriously straying from the flock?: HERETIC. Was thinking of MAVERICK.
27D: Sargent portrait of a mysterious Frenchwoman: MADAME X. Here is the painting. Both the portrait and the painter were strangers to me.
32D: Newspaper accounts: WRITE-UPS
33D: With no deception: HONESTLY
34D: Bonding: ADHESION. Tricky clue. I thought the clue is asking for an ING ending verb.
35D: Even if, informally: THO'
36D: Like gift wrap on Christmas morning: TORN OPEN. I open some on Christmas Eve, and save some for Christmas morning.
41D: Like con artists' shills, e.g.: IN ON IT
42D: Bilingual Muppet: ROSITA. Forgot. The "Sesame Street" character. She speaks Spanish and English.
43D: Pitcher Jesse, who had the most career appearances: OROSCO. Total 1,252 games pitched. Can't believe I've never heard of this guy. He was with the Twins in 2003.
44D: Final innings: NINTHS. I like how OROSCO paralles NINTHS.
47D: Mideast religion that preaches equality: BAHA'I (buh-HAH-ee). Founded in Persia in the 19th century.
50D: Bridge expert Culbertson et al.: ELYS. The authority on contract bridge.
52D: "Southern" relig.: BAP. Southern Baptist. Not a familiar abbr. to me.
54D: "For shame!": TSK
55D: Unit of Time: Abb.: ISS (Issue). D'oh, Time magazine. I did not even pay attention to the capitalized T.
Answer grid.
Picture of the Day: Here is great Father's Day photo of our fellow LAT solver Jimmy B, his wife Diane and their three boys. Their middle son (on the left) had just finished the police academy, hence the buzz cut.
C.C.
40 comments:
Good morning C.C. and all, a nice puzzle for a Saturday. A couple of sticking points, but doable with the crosses. I sort of got hung up a bit on 40A as I got brain lock and kept thinking arena and stadium and then the aha moment. I managed to get the two long fills, 7d and 32A, quickly and this really helped to complete the crossword. Otherwise the puzzle flowed smoothly and easily.
Great pic Jimmy B, you all look very happy.
Hope you all have a great Saturday.
Good morning, C.C. and gang - congratulations to Don G. on his first themeless puzzle; this one was most entertaining. We're very fortunate to have such a gifted bunch of constructors providing us with daily 'fun'.
I normally do the puzzles in the morning, but we were home early last night and I decided to take a look, just to see what I was in for. You can't just look, I found out. Ended up printing it out and had an enjoyable time solving it while watching the Phillies.
I needed a few perpassists throughout the puzzle, but for the most part, it was smooth sailing. The two long fills were apparent with the first few letters, and that certainly helped. I don't think I've ever seen the word 'telemeters' before; usually all you see is 'telemetry', most often when talking about something NASA-related. Unknowns for me were 'nori' (can't ever remember it), 'boson' (I'd heard the word used before, but didn't know what it was), and 'Rosita', the Spanish-speaking muppet.
C.C., I think 'blood typing' is ok; when they test to determine your blood type, it's called 'typing'. Also, I had no idea the Reatta was hand-made - it wasn't all that great a car, as made obvious by its short production life.
Today is Chocolate Milk Shake Day, and National Video Games Day.
Today's Words of Wisdom: "Literature has neglected the old and their emotions. The novelist never told us that in life, as in other matters, the young are just beginners and that the art of loving matures with age and experience." -- Writer Isaac Bashevis Singer
A couple good relationship quotes:
"The perfect lover is one who turns into a pizza at 4am." -- Charles Pierce
"The only time a woman really succeeds in changing a man is when he is a baby." -- Natalie Wood
JimmyB, outstanding picture - now that's one happy family.
Did quite well on this puzzle with the exception of the SE corner. Things just didn't click for me, and not knowing OROSCO or remembering ROSITA didn't help much. But a fun puzzle otherwise. Other complete unknowns were ENBANC and TELEMETERS, and probably others too. The long fills were doable though.
CC you will like The Pianist. A little depressing, but well done. We just recently watched The Soloist, and it is also very interesting. Similar themes with music being the driving force behind survival.Get Smart was fun wasn't it? I remember liking the TV show very much also.
Jimmy B, what a lovely picture of your family. You are a stellar looking group. My son often will ask me to buzz cut his hair too. I have had to shave it off for swim meets at times. I like the short hair look though.
CC maybe you can clarify. I am trying to figure out if I am a rat or a pig. I was born in 1960, the year of the rat. But my birthday is January 15th, so am I really a pig as the new year hasn't begun as yet?
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Happy week end, I really enjoyed this puzzle, though it did go much faster than a Saturday. I applaud the matched cluing 15 letter center cross, and the wit which inspired clues like Michigan in Chicago, e.g.: AVENUE, and Symbol on a staff: NOTE.
While ELY CULBERTSON is a giant in bridge, there are many who would dispute your statement naming him ‘the authority’ choosing instead CHARLES GOREN . The five card major versus four card, still rages on….
Finally, one of the continuing joys of doing puzzles comes from learning things, and from realizing how much I do not know; physics has always been beyond me, and when the perps gave me BOSON I was curious and read about this concept, and I can only say ?????? Please, if one of you can break that down to English, HELP!
Rain again, ah well, need to do laundry anyway, cheers
good morning c.c. and all,
great puzzle, a few head scratchers for me. themeless are not my favorites, there's nothing to hang onto and i just never feel like i'm in the groove. i do like long fills though, and definitely felt puzzled.
liked: symbol on a staff NOTE, dog training aids TREATS.
head-scratchers: ENBANC, BOSON, ENLAI, TELEMETERS. not sure i've seen BAP or CIR abbreviated that way before.
i'm sure i'm the only one who saw this, but IN HOME, which could also be clued 'like many massage therapist services,' crossed ADHESION, which is the technical term for a knot. it's actually a sticky spot, where connective tissue and muscle are stuck together.
nice pic jimmyb, mom looks happily outnumbered.
Good morning, C.C. and all,
Two excellent puzzles in a row! Dan's of yesterday was very challenging, as usual, but doable. Well done, Don. I sailed right along until I hit the SE corner and stalled out, like others, on Boson, Orosco, Nori and Rosita. Finally got them with red letter help.
Great news from South Texas! Our drought seems to have broken. It has rained every day for the last six days, and measured about six inches on my rain gauge. We are still about nineteen inches below normal for the year however.
Great picture, JimmyB; nice family.
Have a great weekend.
@ Don: I had more fun with your themed puzzles.
Morning all -
An enjoyable Sat puzzle. Got almost all on my own. Loved the crossing of the two 15's in the center.
My favorite by far was the the Michigan in Chicago clue. For everyone's Magnificent Mile enjoyment, here's Oprah's flash mob dance party. Pretty cool. At least from my POV - it didn't reroute my commute!
Very nice family, Jimmy B.
Enjoy the day. Go Badgers!
Andrea
Good Morning!
Loved the two 15 letter fills crossing each other. And since they were common phrases, I was able to piece them together.
However the crossing of REATTA and DR MAUREAU caused a problem along with the entire SE corner as I didnt know NORI, ROSITA, OROSCO or TAOS.
Loved the HERETIC and BARD clues, though it took me some time to get them.
Off to a 10 mile run/walk now before it gets too hot.
Have a great weekend, everyone
Mornin' All,
My first thought for 2D: Michigan in Chicago was hot dog but I remembered that you Mid-Westerners aren't familar with what we back East call Michigans.
Oops, forgot to mention:
Jimmy B, wonderful looking family. How does your wife feel, being the only lady in the house?
We are three sisters and Papa was always outnumbered :)
Another great family picture; I also grew up in a household of three boys and parents, and I believe my mother liked being the queen. It also is where I learned to do these puzzles, as my parents considered the Sunday NY Times an unbreakable ritual. On Sunday, the NY Times always has another puzzle, either an acrostic or a puns and anagrams, which reminds me of the amazing anagrams found in the world. Here are a few, and maybe we will find some more later…
PRESBYTERIAN: BEST IN PRAYER
ASTRONOMER: MOON STARER
DESPERATION: A ROPE ENDS IT
THE EYES: THEY SEE
GEORGE BUSH: HE BUGS GORE
Jimmy B, I enjoyed the picture. A happy-looking crew. What did you have for dinner?
I don't look forward to Saturday's themeless puzzles but I did surprisingly well with this one. Still, I think a theme adds to the enjoyment.
Let me second Don's recommendation of Rich Norris's book! There are 26 themed puzzles (one based on each letter), and 36 themelesses (not clued as hard as Rich's hundreds of NYT Saturday puzzles), and all of them pangrams.
You're more likely to find this book with the title USA Today A-to-Z Crosswords - don't worry, it's the same thing and has absolutely nothing to do with USA Today!
@Lemonade, the anagram hall of fame page.
As I emailed Dennis last night, this was mostly a pretty easy puzzle for me, more like something in between a Wednesday and a Thursday. The SE corner had me held up awhile until I could see a Spanish name and managed to dredge BOSON out of my physics class memories. Didn't know the pitcher's name at all, but finally filled it in via perps. Overall a fun puzzle, but I expected a Saturday themeless to be a bit more difficult.
Good Morning All, Even with last night's puzzle error kerfuffle, I liked Don Gagliardo's puzzle a lot.
I had to do "The Weekend Dance", jumping up and down, across and back, kind of a mental version of Oprah's flash mob (Thanks Andrea 1263).
Lots of fills I didn't know, TELEMETERS, REATTA, EN BANC, BOSON, ELYS, OROSCO and ROSITA. But they were all perpalicious and yielded gracefully to their crossing neighbors.
The eight letter fills, AUDACITY, DR MOREAU and ADHESION were very inventive and satisfying to fill in.
Jimmy B, DNA has worked well for your family. You and your lovely wife obviously started with great genes and produced three very attractive sons.
Linda, Whether approached from a religious or secular view, you and your family are wished a good solution to the current problems.
Good morning everyone.
Too hard for me, although I did get quite a few. I'm afraid I give up too easily, but I don't want to spend hours on a puzzle. Would rather come here and find out what I couldn't figure out.
BillG and jimmyb: Love to see the pictures of you and your good looking families.
Thank you, C.C., for having the pix up and for your explanations and links. Makes this addictive for me.
Cheers
Good morning CC and all,
Can I buy a vowel? Just kidding; I loved the 2 long fills, but had trouble "seeing" Does it ring a bell.Had to write out HO-ESTL- to get it.Such great words like heretic, audacity, adhesion. I G'd "The Pianist", although I should have known it, and Ely.
Didn't know enbanci, en blanc,boson or even Prado, but perps and WAGS helped me zip right along. Nori should have been a gimme. grrr
Jimmy, loved the family picture!
Andrea, that was a fantastic clip, and, like Oprah, I wonder how they got the group to do that.
Dennis, I didn't understand the pizza quip.
Well, Al you certainly found the be all and end all of anagram sites, perhaps a bit overwhelming but amazing. I was going to throw a few out to see if anybody wanted to guess at them, but...
I recently heard from a cousin of mine who I had not spoken to in years, and she keeps asking me if I have retired, I told her I would never retire; I was wanted to be like Harold Schlumberg. He has an inspirational attitude about life. He says, " I am fortunate enough to have a background in chemical engineering. Now in my spare time, I find that I am able to convert prodigious amounts of beer, vodka and scotch into urine. This is my contribution, and I am damn good at it."
Since Hahtool hasn't given us the hurricane report, I found this to be interesting.First of all, we may be getting rain in our area today and tomorrow because of the left over moisture from "Linda". We never get rain in Sept.
There were 4 other hurricanes reported on this day also. Names were not given to hurricanes until 1953.
1928- 6000 died from a hurricane in FLA.
1944- 389 died in NC
1965-Hurricane Betsy hit FL and LA, killing 75
1992- H. Iniki pounded Kauai
On a happier note,
1953- Sen. John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier in Newport, RI. Archbishop Cushing performed the rites in front of 800 guests.
Happy Saturday,
Enjoyed today's puzzle. SE corner gave me fits though. Just guessed at a couple entries.
Nice looking family Jimmy B.
Granddaughter is having her kidney stones 'blasted' on Tues. She will have some metabolic tests to determine why she has stones. Dr said it's very unusual for kids to get kidney stones. Guess the kids didn't want that new patio cover this year:}
Muggy here today. Supposed to cool down starting tomorrow.
Do something fun today.
Hi C.C. & gang, I think that this was the first LAT Saturday puzzle that we were able to finish without cheating! Either we're getting better or?
Here's the scoop on the short lived Buick Reatta
$45K - no wonder it failed.
JD is right, heavy clouds and thunder in September? It is making a racket out there right now. We have our fingers crossed for rain!
I thought about today's WOW. I couldn't think of a novel that was about elderly people, except as the conclusion of a book about young people. Poets, on the other hand, can't seem to write about old people enough.
This lovely poem is by Joseph Campbell, the Irish poet, not the famous mythologist.
The Old Woman
As a white candle
In a holy place,
So is the beauty
Of an aged face.
As the spent radiance
Of the winter sun,
So is a woman
With her travail done,
Her brood gone from her,
And her thoughts as still
As the waters
Under a ruined mill.
- Joseph Campbell
KQ,
You are a pig too. Happy and honest.
Dan Feyer,
Thanks for the additional information on Rich's book.
Al et al,
FYI, Don G said he clued both the 15's with "See" as the only word, but "apparently it was not accurate enough for DOES IT RING A BELL". I like the new clue myself. He also anticipated that the SE might cause some problem.
Quick hi... have to go grocery shop for my mom in a few. AM hoping to finally have time to paint today...this week has not given me any opportunity.
I actually thought I was going to complete this puzzle and was my own worst enemy, yet again. Breezed through the top half and SW corner with no problems at all, then started second guessing myself, had ABO for blood group and erased it, NORI stayed where it was as I seem to do fine on all food things, I thought it should be THE PIANIST, an extraordinary movie, and I actually saw that particular awards show. I actually had ENBANC...who knows? and now that I look at the filled puzzle, if I had just written down all my original guesses, it would have filled itself in...*sigh*
JimmyB...another great looking family...we apparently have a whole blog of terrific looking and very smart people.
Dennis, I can work on that milkshake thing.
Tarrajo from last night, glad things are ok and you can pretty much treat winter squashes like pumpkin...Also it can be skinned and cut up into cubes and frozen for later use. Cut into 1/2 in cubes and lightly steamed it is a great addition to risotto...
Lovely day and much cooler and the thunder storm passed through last night on the way to the Sierras...CA...enjoy.
Linda...positive thoughts your way as I totally understand family issues...I live with it almost daily...just don't let it drag you down. Stay positive...
KQ and Kazie,
Thank you for your kind words. Her cancer counts have gone done .That is good news. She has ovarian cancer.
My eldest son had leukemia 20 years ago and my youngest son donated his bone marrow.
Happy to say that today they are both doing well!!
There is always hope at the end of that rainbow.
Best to all,
Geri
All good for me today except that dang SE corner that tripped up so many of you here. Offline, I'd gotten stuck on the inner r and o of Orosco, and had to resort to a little g-spotting to sort that out.
I vaguely remember reading Well's Island of Dr. Moreau years ago. It spawned a number of (mostly awful) horror flicks.
Re "Michigans" as hot dogs, that's a new term for me. Michigan Avenue came easily for me though, having been a frequent visitor once.
Speaking of the Windy City, anyone here read Erik Larson's 2003 book The Devil in the White City (from 2003)? I found it a fascinating read, but of course your mileage may vary. One normally well-adjusted person I know told me they found the book so nightmare inducing they were unable to finish the thing.
Best,
anon-hp
The Pianist was an excellent movie, but I had never thought of Adrien Brody as a sexy guy.....until the kiss. Halle Berry looked like she enjoyed it very much!
Anon-hp, I read The Devil In The White City several years ago. My maternal grandparents were "keeping company" during the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. No couple dating allowed so they, with groups of chums (her word), attended the Fair several times. I heard about it later from my mother, who had been told wondrous tales by her mother and father. The serial killer parts of the book were scary, but the two stories were so well woven that it didn't bother me at all. A very good read.
Best wishes to your sister, Geri. As you so positively said, "There is always hope at the end of that rainbow.
treefrog, we are all hoping for a quick recovery for your granddaughter. Send us a happy smiley photo when she is feeling fine again.
10:20 today. A pleasant, relatively easy, themeless. I think my time is faster than most Saturdays but I don't keep track, so who knows.
The puzzle would have been even more elegant if the editor would have left the clue for 7d as "See?!" For me, that fits perfectly.
@c.c. I was all set to call you out on REATA, but I went to dictionary.com and found that REATA is indeed a secondary spelling of the more familiar RIATA. Who knew? reata
BTW, by the time I got to the puzzle (1PM Pacific), the error with ADDER had been corrected on cruciverb.com
@dennis, is there no stopping you? Bad enough with perps, but now I have to deal with perpassists? Too much, my friend.
Kudos, Don, for making a successful jump from themed to a themeless puzzle. The intersecting 15's are great. Wide open grids must be a bear to fill. I admire that you tested the waters and then dove right on in. Such AUDACITY... of hope.
So, do the Brits stand curbside and yell, "Hey, TAXIMEN,I AM NEXT!"
Can you HONESTLY be ON THE SLY?
In some orchestras THE PIANIST, HE'S IN A PIT.
And it's always tough to make a SALESPITCH about STALE CHIPS.
Embien,
It's still ADDED when I checked a few seconds ago. I like perp and all perp related words.
Geri,
A belated "Happy Birthday" to your sister. You are often in my thoughts.
Geri,
Glad to hear of the encouraging news for your sister. Thanks too for the hope inspired by your sons' experience. I haven't heard recently, but my student has a brother too, maybe that will be done for him too.
I actually did the puzzle this morning before leaving and didn't need any outside help despite some unknowns: TELEmeters, TRISHA, REATTA, BOSON, AND ELYS. Really quite enjoyable.
Jimmy B,
You've got a seriously good looking family there. Those boys all look like heartbreakers!
Tarrajo,
Good to hear from you again, and that all is well.
I had a problem getting where I was going today because I decided to take what looked like a shorter way (according to google map directions), but found one highway closed and on returning to the main road and trying a different way, found that was closed further on too. Fortunately, stopped and asked a local in a truck, and was able to follow him all the way to where I needed to be on back roads. Total driving time: an hour and a half. Coming home I took the normal route: 45 minutes. A lesson there to be sure!
7 Down Sound Familiar?
Does it Ring a Bell
Enjoy this classic from the disco era.
Ring My Bell by Anita Ward
Anita Ward
tarrajo, I'm glad everything's ok.
geri, great news on the cancer count - keep those positive thoughts!
treefrog, I was thinking the same thing - highly unusual for the little guys to get stones. Hope everything gets blasted to bosons.
JD, re the pizza line -- I'll email you when I think of a good way to explain it, if that's ok.
embien, sorry you have to deal with my posts. Perhaps you could just ignore them. 'Cause I'm sure as hell not changing.
No muss, no fuss.
Hi c.c. and all:
Haven't been on lately as I have been inundated with company, but loving every moment. My niece and her boyfriend came first and then my hubby's two friends came last night and stayed the night to go out fishing early am (4am). I believe they are getting in rather late so expect they will stay an additional night.
Enjoyed this puzzle today because I didn't have to google very many words, and on a Saturday pretty impressive for me, lol! Only unknowns were Orosco, Boson, Nori (why can I not remember that)and Enlai.
Jimmy B: Great looking family!
Hello All--I almost finished the puzzle today with no outside help. The SE corner was not hard for me, as the perps filled in the unknown, Boson and Enbanc.
However, I fouled up on the SW corner which should have been much easier. I didn't know that Culbertson was a Card playing(Bridge) expert, so put in Engs for Engineers. That gave me a terrible time until I realized they were looking for a first name--Duh. Once I looked it up in Google the rest was fairly easy. I, too, had an ing ending for adhesion and that didn't help matters.
Jimmy B., Your family looks like they were having a great time.
Andrea 1263, I can't imagine Chicago's streets being shut down for all those people. It must have been a nightmare for the commuters.
Geri, I'm thinking positive thoughts for your sister.
CA, Let's hope the thunderstorms don't trigger some more forest fires with lightening strikes. That is what they were concerned about on the weather reports last evening.
Postponed work on the puzzle today to go to Salinas to attend our little guy's first cross country meet of the season. He finished 2nd in his race so it's been a good day!
Just caught up on the blog: thanks for all your kind remarks regarding the picture. Yes, Diane's gotten used to being outnumbered. She grew up with two older brothers so she's used to all the testosterone. Actually she's quite okay with all boys. Not quite the drama as with girls, or so we've heard.
As for the crossword, I struggled with the NW and SE. BOSON and NORI were totally new to me.
Melissa Bee - Regarding your question how I recognized Chickie. I had recently reviewed all the pictures and clicked on a few profiles. So her name kind of rang a bell when I saw her name tag. And then I realized "that's the lady by the fountain in Berlin!"
CA: Thank you for the kind thoughts...what doesn`t kill us just makes us stronger...or so they say.
Hey all, I have been very busy, started back at school to retrain for a new career. I am still doing the puzzle everyday, but I haven't had the chance to check in with this site. I hope everyone is doing well.
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