google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday November 14, 2009 Frederick J. Healy

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Nov 14, 2009

Saturday November 14, 2009 Frederick J. Healy

Theme: None

Total blocks: 30

Total words: 72

A quintessential LAT Saturday themeless. Multiple words abound. Some are short (I HAD, I CAN'T, I LOST, HIT AT, IT BE, etc), some are long, such as the triple-stacked 10's in upper left/lower right as well as the four long Downs. Total 20 (excluding the proper nouns), if I counted correctly, a few of them are sports related.

What's your entry point today? Mine was INS (19A), which proved to be quite important in my overall solving. Cheated big and earlier on JIM BACKUS. Had a total mess in that J area.

Across:

1. Hide: KEEP SECRET. Rarely does 1A come to me immediately, today was no exception.

11. Video CD file format: MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group). I can never remembe what it stands for.

15. "Land sakes alive!": I DO DECLARE. Both the clue and the answer are new exclamations to me.

16. Hipbone prefix: ILIO. Filled in the hipbone ILIA first.

17. Overdid it: WENT TOO FAR

18. Woodworking groove: DADO. Like this, the receiving end.

19. Helpful contacts: INS. Helped me nail down the intersecting KIWI (1D. Flightless bird).

20. Hares' tails: SCUTS. New word to me as well. Dictionary says it's also the short tail for deer.

21. Brickell and Falco: EDIES. The former is a singer, latter an actress.

22. "__ no idea!": I HAD

23. Cooperative after-dinner offer: I'LL DRY. Not from my husband.

24. One in a hole: DEBTOR. In a hole = in debt. I kept picturing hole in one and the golf ball.

27. Does over, as an ascot: RETIES

29. Player's lament: I LOST. Toughie for me. Player can lament anything. I wonder if I was the only one who thought of golf Hall-of-Famer Gary Player first.

30. Voice of Mr. Magoo: JIM BACKUS. Did not ring a bell. He looks like a whiner.

33. Island off the Tuscany coast: ELBA. Where Napoleon was exiled.

34. Artificial movie background: MATTE. Not familiar with the film term "matte shot".

35. Old Italian capital: LIRE. The singular is lira. Old capital/bread always refers to money on late weekday puzzles.

36. French capital?: DES MOINES. Capital of Iowa. Literally "of the monks" in French. The clever clue fails to impress me.

38. Jeep in the movie "Cars": SARGE. No idea. Have never seen "Cars".

39. Department store section: LINENS

40. Fit one within another: NESTED. Got the intersecting SEED (32D. Nutmeg or sesame) early on, so I knew fit is past tense here. The E from SEED also prevented me from wobbling between LIRA and LIRE.

41. Rapid river thaw: ICE RUN. Spring is such a long way to go.

43. Lukas of "Witness": HAAS. I simply forgot. Here is a picture of him as a kid.

44. Score settlers?: CODAS. D'oh, musical score. Clever play on "settle the score".

45. Like a cool fall morning: BRISK

47. Rx amt.: TSP. And our old pal TER (10D. Rx specification). Barry G probably still wants TID.

50. "High Voltage" rock band: AC/DC

51. West Coast racing venue: SANTA ANITA. Another unknown to me. Wikipedia says its parent company filed for Chapter 11 in March.

53. Carolers' offering: NOEL

54. Shaq, 15 times: NBA ALL-STAR. Kept thinking of his NBA championship rings.

55. Shipping deduction: TARE. The empty truck's weight. Don't forget the waste allowance TRET.

56. Like Hail Mary passes: LAST- SECOND. I like how a football reference is placed under a basketball fill.

Down:

2. Steinbeck title site: EDEN. "East of Eden". The movie (with James Dean) is pretty good.

3. Hundreds of centuries: EONS

4. Nevada summer hrs.: PDT

5. Basketball two-hander: SET SHOT. Not a basketball fan. Free throw is a "two-hander" too, isn't it?

6. Green vehicle: ECOCAR

7. Sun screen?: CLOUD. Great clue.

8. Pond floater: RAFT. Thought of SCUM. Do you like "On Golden Pond"?

9. Diamond stats: ERAS. I gambled on RBI first.

11. Large group with upper and lower segments: MIDDLE CLASS. Did not come to me readily.

12. Many a kilt, essentially: PLAID SKIRT. Essentially yes.

13. Down source: EIDER. From eider duck.

14. Foolish: GOOSY. New word to me. I felt goosy not knowing the English word for plunger yesterday.

21. "Popular Fallacies" essayist: ELIA. From "Essays of Elia". Unknown to me also.

22. Revival meeting shout: IT'S A MIRACLE. Wish it were a gimme to me.

23. "Never let __ said ...": IT BE. Is this an idiom?

24. Stopped running: DIED

25. That femme: ELLE. French for "her".

26. Winter Olympics competitor: BOB SLEDDER. Just learned that bob sled was invented by an Englishman called Robert Sleigh. Always wondered why it's not called mary or judy sled.

27. Church practices: RITES

28. 9-1-1 respondents, briefly: EMTS

30. Rolling Stone co-founder Wenner: JANN. Unknown figure to me also. Mick Jagger seems to have been on the cover of "Rolling Stone" a lot.

31. Push for: URGE

34. Bearing: MIEN. This word always bring to mind the Marlboro marine. Gritty mien.

37. Unpleasant duty: ONUS

38. Coastal plant with collard-like leaves: SEA KALE. Of mustard family. Looks like real kale. Is it edible?

40. French "gn" sounds, e.g.: NASAL

41. "Out of the question": I CAN'T. I always have trouble with I CAN'T, regardless of how it's clued.

42. Warming drink: COCOA. Sweet!

43. Try to strike: HIT AT. Baseball. I was in the "stop working" direction.

45. Cake with a kick: BABA. The kick comes from the rum.

46. Protein-building polymers: RNAS

47. Longtime Yugoslav president: TITO. Long time indeed. Tito was very well respected in China when I grew up. He was defiant to Stalin.

48. Laurel in films: STAN. Of Laurel and Hardy.

49. Ranch chum: PARD. Bet this makes Melissa groan again.

51. NBC show that began its 35th season in Sep. 2009: SNL

52. Defense advisory gp.: NSC (National Security Council)

Answer grid.

C.C.

57 comments:

  1. I was born and lived here for almost 70 years and GOOSY is a new word to me also.
    R

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  2. My wife hates doing dishs, so I get to wash and dry. It's either that or buy a dish washer, and I'm to cheap for that.

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  3. 52. Defense advisory gp.: NSC

    I wanted NSA.

    41. "Out of the question": I CAN'T.
    I wanted NO WAY

    6. Green vehicle: ECOCAR I wanted Prius.

    9. Diamond stats: ERAS I wanted RBIs

    39. Department store section: LINENS. I thought of Ladies

    MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group). What does JPEG mean?

    22. Revival meeting shout: IT'S A MIRACLE is also a big hit for Boy George and the Culture Club in 1983.

    Boy George

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  4. Morning, all!

    This one was... more difficult than I was expecting. Thank heavens I actually knew who Jim BACKUS was or I probably never would have finished. Unknowns today included JANN, SANTA ANITA and SEA KALE.

    The NW corner ended up giving me the most amount of grief, though. I guessed ECO CAR right away, but really hoped it wasn't the right answer since it seemed very contrived. Same for TER (which I am indeed totally sick of seeing). After I got __OD_____E for 15A, though, I confidently put in GOODNESS ME and took out ECO CAR. I couldn't come up with anything for "Basketball two-hander" and "Pond floater" had me thinking ALGA or SCUM instead of RAFT. And all I could think of for "Flightless bird" was RHEA, which didn't help any.

    Fortunately, I did know SCUTS and that kept me a bit anchored. I eventually guessed RAFT, which led me to I DO DECLARE, and then I finally guessed WENT TOO FAR, which let everything else fall in place. But it took a (relatively) long time for that light to dawn...

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  5. Good morning, C.C. and gang - loved this one. Loved the triple stacks, loved the long downs, loved the fresh clues, loved the clever clues, but.....goosy? Really?

    I didn't get any traction until I hit the NE, then things started opening up fairly well. Never heard of sea kale, never knew nasal was a noun, but the perps always bailed me out. I thought 'score settlers' was ingenious, and as C.C. said, I liked 'pard' because I knew it'd make Melissa groan.

    Today is Operating Room Nurse Day. Many, many years ago, when I was home on leave, I was smuggled into the student nurses' dorm by the girl I was then dating; a night I'll not soon forget.

    Today's Words of Wisdom: "The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder." -- Ralph W. Sockman

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  6. Good morning, C.C. and all,

    A fun puzzle today. My entry point was the NW corner where I was able to get most of the down clues right away except for kiwi, ecocar, and raft, for which I wanted scum. This gave me enough to get all three of the long across fills, and I was on my way. The SE corner was pretty easy, except I tried last chance for last second, but saw that was wrong by the red letters. My time was 33 minutes online.

    I was familiar with jpeg, but did not know mpeg, but got middleclass pretty quickly. Favorite clue was sunscreen.

    I wash and Jean dries. We put silverware and plates in the dishwasher, and only fill it up every three or four days. We usually do pots and pans by hand.

    We have had a great string of weather lately; lows of about 58, highs of 80, with low humidity. My electric bill came yesterday with a credit of $16.00!

    Have a great weekend.

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  7. Morning!
    "Goosey" yes; "goosy," um, no thank you. Mirriam Webster doesn't list the variant as far as I could tell.

    Still, enjoyed the triple "ten stacks" (always sounds like a can of Pringles to me!) especially "I do declare" which is a phrase that I "aver" I've never uttered aloud in my life, but find it quaint and maybe southern. I also really could say the same for the expression "Land Sakes Alive." In both cases, I couldn't offer a very good explanation of what it actually means. So much for me being good at English...

    Hard words: MATTE (as clued), DADO (should have known) and SCUTS. (forgot it). SANTA ANITA? Hardly knew her. We corn-fed midwesterns stick to more "normal" saints, okay?! Odd words: RAFT (in a pond? I think pool, maybe a proper lake. Ponds are for golf balls and algae, goldfish and scum...) Des MOINES as a French capital was a stretch for me, even with the "?" in the clue. Montpelier, anyone? Does that make VERMONT a French state?

    Nice clues/fill. IT'S a MIRACLE. CODAS, NASALS and ECOCAR. Best answer? PLAID SKIRT.

    All in all, a nice challenge despite some rough twists and turns for me. I've read the expression I'LL DRY before in fiction but never heard anyone actually pronounce those words. "I'll do the dishes" is the 21st century expression for "I'll put a couple plates in the washer for you." Remember that, and you will be a happier person, spouse, host and citizen.
    Promise!

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  8. PJB,
    At least Vermont looks more French than Iowa! I agree, using Des Moines as a French capital was dirty.

    I thought cloud was the cleverest. I had to google several today, after even working at it on the toilet failed to bring enough answers. At first I wanted RHEA, NETSHOT, HYBRID, SCUM (or LILY), RBIS, TID across the top. Took a while to change all those and decipher the out of date exclamations for 15A.

    For I'LL DRY, I was thinking about designated driver phrases and they wouldn't fit. Didn't know JIM Backus and had TIM, giving TANN which looked OK to me. BABA didn't come because I had CRISP for BRISK, so never saw KALE either. I wondered if CABA was something drug related.

    All in all a mess, and far too much time spent.

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  9. Good morning, C.C. and all,

    Another great puzzle today, more challenging than recent Saturdays, with fresh cluing even for some of the usual fill such as ELIA. The NW was the last to fall for me because even though I thought KEEPSECRET might be right, I couldn't, for the longest time, think of what floated on a pond beginning with "R". When I finally erased ALGA, the corner fell. I had to laugh at 56A LAST SECOND since until I had the answer completely filled in, I was thinking of rosary beads.

    Unlike others, I don't have a problem with GOOSY. It's a word I've often used, especially when our boys were young and they were acting childishly silly, sort of like a goose running in erratic circles when flustered or nervous. Our Webster's New World Dictiionary lists both spellings.

    C.C.-"Never let IT BE said that..." is an expression that one might make when asserting that one would never do/say such a thing. Sort of like "You'll never catch ME doing that!"

    PJB-SANTA ANITA is a race track located in Arcadia, CA, NE of Los Angeles. How anyone outside of SoCal would be expected to know this is beyond me. Same with San Fernando VALLEY in yesterday's puzzle.

    Enjoy the day!

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  10. Good morning, everyone!

    This was a toughie for me. I hit the G-spot multiple times. Forgot JIM BACKUS, wanted RHEA, ALGA, TID, etc. Finally wrestled it to the ground, but it was a struggle.

    Have a fantastic weekend!

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  11. Good Morning All, As a recent purchaser of a Honda Insight, I was sure that 6D was HYBRID. That was one of last entries I gave up on in the NW corner. SCUTS stayed blank until the perps took care of it. BTW, we are loving the Insight and its 43 MPG.

    Starting with DES MOINES, the SW was the most difficult for me. I tried every currency unit I could think of, but EURO, CENTIME or FRANC didn't fit. EURO-CENTS did fit, but by then I had filled in most of the perps, so I knew it had to be something else. DESMOINES, along with ICE RUN and CODAS made that the last area to be finished.

    I guess knowing Southern California SANTA ANITA made up for not knowing snow country ICE RUN.

    JIM BACKUS was as well known for his role as Thurston J. Howell, III, on the TV show "Gilligan's Island". My daughter loved Gilligan and my ex loved Mr. Magoo cartoons, so that one was a gimme.

    I've heard of "loosey goosey", but not GOOSY.

    Jerome, do constructors email each other with notes like, "Hey, I've found a new three letter fill....TER"? Seems like it is the word du jour lately.

    I'm a lucky woman, GAH does both the washing and drying more often than I do.

    It was mentioned yesterday that some of us seems to look down on using the perps (crossing words) to complete an answer. That isn't so in my case and I'm sure that is the same most of us. I expect to have to rely on crossing words to complete a puzzle. (I haven't been surprised yet.) Talk of using perps is just a way of remarking that some Across or Down help was needed. A puzzle that could be completed going straight Across, or straight Down would not be much fun.

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  12. Good morning CC and all,

    Never got my foot in the door on this one. For some reason, I could not think "out of the box".Did like cloud though.

    My slang dictionary has goosy or goosey meaning touchy; jumpy; sensitive.Ex: I feel a little goosey about the whole thing. It says it's been in use since 1906hmmm, that earthquake must have made the whole city of SF a little goosey.

    JzB, I loved the plunger link last night.

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  13. My entry was in the far south today. Couldn't get anything int the north, so I worked from the bottom up. Somethings seem to work that way better.

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  14. loose as a goose/loosey-goosey: very relaxed, perfectly easy=cool or a big party place;people slept with each other, it was loosey-goosey

    2nd def:
    1950's hot rodders Of a car engine, needing new bearings and other repairs

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  15. good morning c.c. and all,

    wow, great puzzle, took quite a while to get a foothold. lots of tricky clues. never heard MATTE used that way.

    PARD ... groan.

    tfrank, such great news about jean.

    jd, welcome back! our sharks are doing great.

    greg kihn sang the star spangled banner at a recent game and handed his phone over to my daughter to video him.

    happy weekend all!

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  16. Hi C.C. and all,

    Head scratch/V-8 time today again...but I liked the fresh clues except for GOOSY. I put goofy in. Had trouble with INS..still don't really understand it but if I think politics, it makes some sense.

    I put LILY in for RAFTS and did not know SCUTS at all.

    Never heard of SEA KALE, it is very pretty. I sometimes plant ornamental kale in the late fall, I use both the purple and white kind - sort of brightens up the flower bed area where the annuals were in the front yard.

    We don't have a dishwasher other than me. I had to choose between that and space under the counters. Since there is only the 2 of us, I chose the space.
    I never minded doing dishes.

    I also put in CRISP instead of brisk so that screwed up that area for a while.

    I am going to look up CODAS - did not know what it meant.

    I sure learned a whole lot of new words today!!! :)

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  17. A little difficult today, but not as much as yesterday's.

    My hangup is that I want one long, $1M word for the long clues, not an idiom or colloquialism. It used to be that xwords would put ("# words") notation at the end of the multi-words clues. I've stopped doing other xwords, so maybe it is just the LAT that doesn't do that anymore?

    Did not know several, but the only one I g'd was "Haas." The others came from the fills.

    The cleverest clue was "Score settlers?" for "codas." In 1959, while at Sul Ross College in Alpine, Tx., I made the acquaintance of a poet named Lillith Loraine. She had a small coffee house (she was ahead of her time for that small city) called "The Green Parrot" so-named because of her parrot "Coda." We corresponded for a while and she sent me one of Coda's feathers after he died. She was poet laureate of Texas at one time.

    It is shaping up to be a really nice day - 73º, balmy. It is supposed to get colder tomorrow or Monday, though.

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  18. Carol, I didn't have a dishwasher for years. In the past, they have become storage places for paper towels because I never used them for washing dishes. I don't mind doing dishes by hand, either. However, we put one in during this latest remodel. I reasoned that it would be a selling factor if or when the house has to be sold.

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  19. Here`s an opportunity to feed or starve the trolls.

    People who brag about past conquests are:
    1. Fourteen
    2. Insecure
    3. Middle-aged
    4. Two of the above.

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  20. anon troll @1:00pm, what's the obsession with dennis?

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  21. This was like two separate puzzles for me today. Draw a diagonal dividing line between the only black squares on the top and bottom row. The east was pretty easy, and the west was more challenging. I usually solve by getting a start somewhere and then use that to go alternately across, down, across, down, etc where I have solved letters, and fill in "boxes" wherever I can along the way. So, the east fell really quickly and so at first I was thinking, "crud, how disappointing", but then the west made up for it. Didn't have to Google, came pretty close to giving in a couple times, but then I'd get one more word and just kept going. Pretty much ran into the same traps as Barry G. For French Capital, I was thinking money at first. Apparently, unlike a couple others, I kind of liked being fooled by that one. It's good to make your brain make unexpected turns. Also tired of seeing TER already. A new crosswordese-only answer lately, too many times in too short of a period.

    After finishing, to me it was mostly the tricky cluing that was interesting; I couldn't come up with anything thought-provoking about any of the answers, although I appreciated that mostly they weren't stale. Better today than a couple weeks ago, but still not back to how it used to be.

    Oh, I almost forgot, did anyone remember the comment from the other day about protein templates and then get RNA right away?

    JPEG=Joint Photographic Experts Group.

    What's the plural of Prius? Priuses? Those are “one of the most environmentally damaging processes seen today.” Well, not the car itself; production of the nickel-battery for the car. Here's a page on the worst carbon-footprint offenders.

    @melissa bee, can we get a WAV (Waveform Audio Format) file of that groan?

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  22. The Sudbury Ontario mines/smelters have been in operation for over 100 years and there was extensive pollution when I spent some time there in the 1950's. That was long before any Prius connection. In the Topography section of Wikipedia's article about Sudbury Ontario there is information about the reclamation efforts.

    BTW, Rush Limbaugh has been in the forefront of discrediting hybrid cars. Rush talks about Sudbury in just about the same words as The Green Expander...strange bedfellows.

    Thank goodness, I've never worn a suit or tie, so I'm ahead of the game.

    About dishwashers: during a plumber's visit (no plunger involved), he told us that diswashers are a "use it or lose it" appliance. If it isn't used once or twice a week, the seals and hoses will dry up, crack and possible serious repairs could be the result. Even though there are only two of us, we now stack up the dishes and glassware in the machine and run it once a week.

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  23. anon-troll..hmmmmm. Yeah, I like that! and BTW, who is donald or what`s his name?

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  24. C.C., You do an excellent job giving out the answers. The comments you make are cute and the links are very interesting. Do you ever post on the this blog?
    I liked this puzzle very much. There are a lot of clever clues.

    The Breeders Cup was held at Santa Anita last week. A fillie (girl horse) beat the boys in the one mile classic with a tremendous stretch run. it was very exciting, and unusual, since girls very seldom beat the boys in horse racing.

    Can anyone tell me how to embolden s word or phrase for the blog?

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  25. @mred. To make something bold, you need to put a left caret, b, right caret in fornt of the word, then a left caret, slash, b, right caret to the right of it. Look just below "Leave your comment" to see what other HTML tage you can use (italics is one). Remember that you need and opening and a closing tag. OK?

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  26. @Mr Ed, to illustrate Crockett's explanation:

    <b>this is bold</b>

    <i>this is italicized</i>

    To create web links, CC has an instruction page that also contains additional links for what little HTML markup that blogger allows in the comments section.

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  27. Hi C.C. & gang, my wife and I managed to finish 90% of today's puzzle before getting stuck. I had to look up Jim Backus and we finally corrected a couple of mistakes in the top left that had us stumped by filling in the answers online.

    Here's a Wikipedia link to Matte film making
    "Mattes are used in photography and special effects film making to combine two or more image elements into a single, final image."

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  28. Hello All--A very difficult puzzle for me today. I finally got a hold on the middle-east and south-east section, but never did finish! It has been a long time that I couldn't finish the puzzle with a little help from Mr. G.

    I put in too many incorrect answers to start with so had a hard time relenquishing those to ones that fit. I had Rhea for Kiwi, Hybrid for Eco car, Alga for Raft, Goofy for Goosy, etc. etc.

    My new word for the day was scuts. That I didn't know!

    I liked clouds for sunscreen, and debtor for one in a hole. I did get both of those!

    One thing about drying dishes. I just leave them in the rack to airdry. Though for big family dinners, my girls all pitch in to help dry and my SIL's usually alternate washing. That is one perk I won't give up!

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  29. Carol,
    I associate INS with "having an in with someone", meaning having a connection that lets one into an elite group somehow.

    Having a dishwasher is something I think you don't miss if you've never had one--I didn't until 12 years ago when we moved to our present location. But when it went bung a few weeks ago, I sure wondered how I'd survived so long without it! Same thing with a microwave.

    MJ,
    DH got the SANTA ANITA clue out for me--I'd never heard of it, but at first I thought he was making it up, because I couldn't figure out how he'd know it--he likes to just go through a puzzle or sudoku and put random things in, so I'm always suspicious. I did guess San Fernando Valley yesterday, because I had heard of it somewhere before.

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  30. Good Night Nurse! This was hard for me, which is not saying much....

    I will take the "I was whipped" for $200, Alex....

    JD, I like your explanation of loosey-goosey the best.

    I don't wash or dry, I take out

    Say Thank You to your OR Nurse, they can be your best friend in the Operating Room.

    Have a lovely weekend all.

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  31. Re MJ @ 11:05

    MrEd beat me to the punch about Santa Anita. I live in Texas and spent most of last Saturday watching the Breeders Cup races telecast from Santa Anita. If you like horse racing, it is a great way to see great horses race on great tracks. Seeing that filly beat boys was a real treat.

    I have never been there, but Santa Anita is supposed to be one of the most scenic tracks in the country, with those mountains in the background.

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  32. Anon @ 1:00,
    as the eminent Kentuckian and Heavyweight Champion of the World, Muhammud Ali once said:

    "It ain't braggin' if you can really do it".

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  33. Okay folks, I usually don't solve Saturday puzzles but gave this one a whirl. First off..."I do declare" my southern Mother is still known to say that. Finally we saw AC/DC clued as a band. Score settlers-Codas new to me. Woodgroove-Dado new to me. Some clever clues...sun screen-cloud, on in a hole-debtor, ranch chum-pard. I got I'll dry but for the life of me didn't put together as what you would offer "after dinner."

    Dennis, triple stacks and long downs begs for um...something.

    Crockett, working from the bottom up probably helped the g-spotting.

    JD, I concur with Robin, your loosey goosey description was spot on.

    Robin, you ROCK!! Nurses are so under appreciated in my book. I might buy a truckload of Whoppers and fries but in no way could I do your work. Thank you for what you do!! BTW...enjoy your sense of humor too.

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  34. Bragging is when young, insecure or middle-aged people describe their current love affair. An amusing and affectionate reminiscence about a long ago encounter is hardly bragging.

    Poets reminisce about romantic encounters all the time. It just sounds fancier when it is in verse. If it's good enough for Browning, it's good enough for me.

    Meeting at Night

    The gray sea and the long black land;
    And the yellow half-moon large and low;
    And the startled little waves that leap
    In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
    As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
    And quench its speed i' the slushy sand.

    Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
    Three fields to cross till a farm appears;
    A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
    And blue spurt of a lighted match,
    And a voice less loud, thro' its joys and fears,
    Than the two hearts beating each to each!

    - Robert Browning

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  35. forgive the off-topic - in the spirit of veteran's day - i have to mention this.

    The University of South Carolina Gamecocks and University of Maryland Terrapins wore specially designed uniforms for their Game Day match-ups today, versus the University of Florida Gators and Virginia Tech Hokies respectively. The teams took the field in black and desert camouflage uniforms featuring the Wounded Warrior Project logo.

    my cousin, john melia, is the founder of WWP.

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  36. 14:07 today. Well, I DO DECLARE, if this keeps up I'll start liking the themeless Saturdays a whole lot more. I actually enjoyed this themeless (and I don't usually).

    The whole thing flowed easily as I filled in SET SHOT with no crosses (I solve "downs first") when SLAM DUNK wouldn't fit. (c.c., hardly anyone shoots free throws--or any shot except dunks--two handed in the modern era). Well, I guess I did put in SHORT SKIRT initially instead of PLAID, but that didn't last long.

    My only real problem was not knowing Lukas HAAS (or is it Haas Lukas? I dunno.), but the crosses were easy enough that even the unknown guy wasn't a big deal.

    SANTA ANITA was a gimme as the biggest horse race outside the Triple Crown used to be the Santa Anita Derby (the winner of which would quite often go on to the Kentucky Derby). One of the few horse races on national television back in the 60s-70s. Santa Anita Derby

    @DCannon: very few puzzles still use the old (# words) hint for multi-word fill anymore. I haven't seen it in any of the major puzzles for years. Part of the fun is figuring out whether the answer is one word or several (the old days of a puzzle full of straightforward dictionary definitions are over, as @ClearAyes said).

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  37. Melissa Bee, a thanks to your cousin for much needed work.

    Thanks to all nurses, OR and otherwise.

    Robin, my best friend is a retired nurse. She is one of the nicest, most caring people I know. I've had some encounters with OR nurses and other specialty nurses. Every one of them has been wonderful. I suspect you fit the mold very nicely.

    Lorraine, that means, you will be in excellent hands.

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  38. Thank you for all the kind comments on nurses. I am just lucky to have found a profession that have so many great examples, that I, can humbly glom on to and be a part of.
    Thank you Melissa Bee on that wonderful link to your cousin. He truly has done a wonderful thing with WWP.

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  39. @Robin, WTF you're a flight nurse, then we see a plane, now a horse? What else do you have up your sleeve? All I can do is cook, add things up, garden a little bit and be a bit humorous (so I am told). Oh, I forgot I sail too...Oh, and I am good at one other thing too...ummm hmmm ohhh Use your imagination ANON.

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  40. Kazie (3:02) Thanks - nothing like being 'In with the in crowd'...that from an old song from the '60's. I should have picked up on it.

    Robin (3:05) LOL .. You have a great sense of humor, love your comments.

    Melissa B, Thank your cousin for me too!
    Wonderful of him to do that.

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  41. Awww thank you! Jeannie you are my inspiration and so hilarious. Carol I love your posts, Heck, I love everyones posts. Such a glib, intellectual, hip group of people. Y'all got it goin ON!
    Jeannie, I'm sure someone is calling 911 for anon right now! Maybe now we can figure out who the lil' devil is?? :)

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  42. Melissa B, thank your cousin for me for the wonderful organization that he has founded. It takes a real commitment to do something like he has done.

    Also,Robin, I do thank all nurses for the great work that they do. My avatar is my nurse daughter, who just finished her Masters in nursing at UCSF. She has been a trauma nurse for 16 years.

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  43. windy@3:53
    were you talking about yourself or this dimness guy? and if it is him...how would you know it`s not just bragging?!

    seesee:
    I really do complete the puzzle. I just prefer not to "turn blue", even though I may be bidden.

    the one from the bottle:
    I`ll not take the bait.

    troll anon

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  44. I started at the NE corner, and that was the last to fall for me!

    "Hail Mary" made me think of the Immaculate Reception! I don't think it was exactly a "Hail Mary" pass, but it was at least as miraculous, maybe more so!

    Clear Ayes: I agree with your explanation on the use of perps. When I reference using perps, it's usually an admission that although I say I completed the puzzle (easily or painstakingly), it wasn't because I actually KNEW all the answers.

    I think CLOUD was my favorite fill today too. I couldn't decide if I felt DES MOINES was really clever, or was pushing it... I don't know musical terminology, so has no ideas what CODAS meant.

    This is off-topic, but I feel the need to vent this: A Bud Light commercial just came on where a woman affixes a carnation to her spouse/dates lapel using a nail gun. Obviously it's supposed to be funny since she does it several times and all he says is "Ow!" Does anybody else find NOT humorous?! I don't normally do this, but as soon as I finish here, I swear I'm going to their website to complain. How long before we see some young child doing that and innocently saying they didn't realize it would kill their friend/sibling/parent? Rant over...

    My sister was a nurse, but since retiring several years ago, has been so helpful and comforting to the entire extended family. It's great having someone interpret and fill in the blanks after doctors visits. I don't know what I'd have done without her a few weeks ago when I was so sick that I could barely stand. Her daughter's following in her midical footsteps, having recently graduated at the top of her paramedic class, although she didn't pass the firefighter agility test a couple weeks ago, but will keep trying. Very disappointing, but I'm sure it helped that she finally received a marriage proposal from her long-time on-again/off-again boyfriend tonight - WOO-HOO!!! :-)

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  45. I love it!

    TROLL-ANON: a self-help group for trolls.

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  46. ANON what are you like 12?

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  47. Fortunately, "I'll dry" are words I hear quite often when the family is all together. There are so many dishes, pans. etc. that have to be hand washed.

    On a daily basis, I'm the one who dries and husband washes if we can't get everything into the dishwasher. For years, I never had a dishwasher - my husband said why buy one when I have him. However, after getting one (just to use when we have company) it wasn't long until we were using it on a regular basis. As Kazie said, its surprising how quickly you can get used to a convenience.

    The only things I knew in this puzzle were the sayings that other people didn't know. A generational thing?

    Dot

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  48. Hello My name is Troll- Anon I'm an idiot.

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  49. OK, sorry, but I had to try this and this. So what does this do?

    Well, I guess I've learned a little something new. I don't know how much it will help though. I'm using my wife's PC while my iMac is in the shop.

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  50. I apologize for all of the disruption I have caused this blog. The things I have said are unforgivable. Why do I do this? I guess for attention. I am sure that you think I am an extremely maladjusted person. I am not, just a little misguided. I wish you all the best.

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  51. @Robin, not sure what you meant about ANON calling 911 ;) but he'll probably get a run for his money.

    Okay, Stuffed Mushroom Appetizer:

    On second thought...leaving you hanging.

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  52. ANON TROLL if you are the one that loves me don't go away...if you are the one that doesn't please do.

    I am generally not pleasant to YOUS" guys but if you are the nice one...go BLUE. It's not hard to do.

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  53. Good evening everyone.

    Let's please go back to the protocol of not feeding the trolls. Ignore them.

    I didn't have time to do today's puzzle, and reading through the comments it looks like it's just as well.

    Good night to all of you.

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  54. Isn't Des Moines the capitol of Iowa, not the "capital"? (36 across).
    35 across had it right -- "capital" refers to money, not government centers.

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  55. We have had this discussion before. Capitol is limited to the stucture or building where the government meets. Capitol applies to all else , cities or money.

    ReplyDelete

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