google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday December 11, 2009 Mark Feldman

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Dec 11, 2009

Friday December 11, 2009 Mark Feldman

Theme: DOUBLE PLAY (37A. Baseball coups, and a hint to the homophonic relationship in the sequence of first words in 18-, 24-, 54- and 61-Across).

18A. Barely came out on top: WON BY A NOSE. Won = One.

24A. Overly taxing: TOO MUCH TO HANDLE. Too = Two.

54A. Temporarily: FOR THE TIME BEING. For = Four

61A. Really enjoyed something: ATE IT UP. Ate = Eight.

Great puzzle, isn't it? Such a innovative theme. Lively, natural theme phrases. And nicely "doubled up" sequential order.

All the theme clues are quite straightforward. And I grokked the theme early on. So, a rare smooth Friday for me.

Favorite clues today:

29A. Group with a lot of hits?: MOB

53A. Caligula's card count?: LII. 52 cards in a deck. LII is Roman numeral 52.

44D. They can be offensive: LINEMEN

Across:

1. Young ones: LADS. Are you bothered by "ones" in the clue?

5. Court smash: SPIKE. Volleyball.

14. Attending to the assignment: ON IT

15. "Alas": SO SAD. Now I won't be able to eat my Larabars without thinking of "hair of the dog". Awful Dennis/Buckeye!

16. Biblical twin: ESAU. Jacob's twin.

17. Check out: CASE. Before the heist.

20. How some bonds are bought: AT PAR

22. John abroad: LOO. In Britain. Toilet "john".

23. Irked: RILED

27. Some dashes: EMS. Or ENS.

28. Farm cry: BAA. MAA too.

30. Series opener?: ESS. The opening letter of Series is letter S.

33. "Kidnapped" author's monogram: RLS (Robert Louis Stevenson)

35. Big cheese: VIP. Normally there's no abbr. hint for VIP.

43. You might make one with a Hamilton Beach DrinkMaster: MALT. Had trouble obtaining the answer. Thought Hamilton Beach DrinkMaster is like my Jack Lalanne veggie/fruit juicer.

46. Classical dance gp.: ABT (American Ballet Theatre). Simply forgot.

58. Achille __: hijacked ship: LAURO. Was unaware of this hijacked event in 1985.

59. Ivy League nickname: ELI. Yale.

60. No spendthrift: SAVER. The clue seems to be asking for an adjective, doesn't it? "Not a spendthrift" would be a noun.

64. Lansbury Broadway role: MAME. Auntie Mame.

65. Dole: METE

66. Soft fleece: LLAMA. And SUEDES (13D. Soft leathers). I kept reading "Soft fleece" as "Soft cheese".

67. Hot times in Paris: ETES. French for "summer".

68. Winged god: EROS. Cupid.

69. Another name for hopscotch: POTSY. New to me.

70. Kerry and Kirk of Mass., e.g.: SENS (Senators). Paul Kirk is taking the seat of Ted Kennedy.

Down:

2. Gray topic: ANATOMY. The TV series "Grey's Anatomy" is derived from "Gray's Anatomy". And DYED (31A. No longer gray, say). Nice "gray" echo in the crossing.

3. Inclined (to): DISPOSED. Just had INDISPOSED yesterday.

4. Iron horse power: STEAM

5. Vienna-to-Rome dir.: SSW

7. Playground comeback: IS NOT

8. Comics explosion: KABOOM

9. Joseph of ice cream fame: EDY. Easy guess.

10. Russian revolutionary: LENIN. Big hero when I grew up.

11. She had a tryst with Tristan: ISOLDE. Love the alliterativeness of "tryst" and "Tristan".

19. Mecca's peninsula: ARABIA. This one connects three theme entries. So does its symmetrical partner UPSHOT (38. Result).

21. Obstacle: RUB. "Ay, there's the rub", Melissa!

25. Semiautomatic rifle: CARBINE (KAHR-been). Not in my vocabulary. He looks like a good sniper.

26. It's reserved for ones in a pool: HOV LANE. Carpool. HOV = High-Occupancy Vehicle. Not fond of duplication of the clue "pool" and answer POOL HALL (6D. Place to find cues).

34. Match unit: SET. Tennis match.

36. British novelist Barbara __: PYM. Nope. Total stranger to me.

39. Coverage charges: PREMIUMS

40. Show great anticipation, informally: SALIVATE. Great fill.

45. Jungle female: TIGRESS

46. Burning: AFLAME. Did anyone try ON FIRE first?

47. Traditional barbershop quartet hat: BOATER. Mine was BOWLER.

48. Honest with: TRUE TO

50. Opera with the aria "Qui trarrĂ² Cassio": OTELLO. Verdi's opera based on Shakespeare's "Othello". Stumper for me.

52. Baby docs: OBS (Obstetricians)

56. __ ease: ILL AT

57. Chair designer Charles: EAMES (Eemz). I can never remember this guy's name.

62. Matterhorn, e.g.: ALP. Had no idea that Matterhorn is a mountain on the border of Switzerland and Italy.

Answer grid.

Ming tian jian!

C.C.

56 comments:

Dennis said...

Good morning, C.C. and gang - good, not-so-easy puzzle today with a clever theme; most enjoyable.

Out of force of habit, I immediately wrote in 'at it' for 14A, which caused an early snag. Never heard of Barbara Pym or 'potsy' as another name for hopscotch.

Favorite clues were 'it's reserved for ones in a pool' and 'group with a lot of hits'. Fun puzzle.
C.C., regarding 25A, 'carbine', the M4 you have pictured is a carbine, but most definitely is not considered a sniper rifle. If nobody's done it by the time I get back from the gym, I'll post a picture of a true sniper rifle. In simple terms, a sniper rifle would be long-barreled and scoped.

Today is National Noodle Ring Day. I have absolutely no idea what the hell that is.

Today's Words of Wisdom: "Some drink deeply from the river of knowledge. Others only gargle." -- Woody Allen

And some more Fun Facts:

- Scissors were invented by Leonardo Da Vinci.

- Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

Lemonade714 said...

C.C. you have a typo on BARBARA PYM . Dennis you said it all, except how long I dawdled over JOHN : LOO.
Happy Hanukkah to those who enjoy the lights

Argyle said...

Typo corrected. Thank you.

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, CC and Friends. This was an easy Friday puzzle for me today. I knew answers that I didn't even know I knew! There were some fun clues.

I never heard of POTSY, either. It wasn't a term in my childhood vocabulary.

I misread Place to Find Cues as Place to Find CLues, so that took a while to figure out.

Charles Eames' wife, Ray, was also a designer. They collaborated on many projects.

Favorite Clues today were Gray Area (ANATOMY) and John Abroad (LOO).

Chanukah begins at sundown tonight. Enjoy the candles.

QOD: There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding one another. ~ Eric Hoffer.

Anonymous said...

53 across?

Anonymous said...

What is the meaning of Ming tian jian?

JerryO said...

53 across
number of cards in a deck

Annette said...

I had a much better time with today's puzzle than yesterday's! I just clicked with it better. Maybe because I was doing it online at 3 am since I'd had iced tea at dinner and couldn't sleep after the caffeine. No distractions, other than typos because I was typing in the dark.

Have a great day, all!

Annette said...

I even got the theme right off, and filled all those in right away. It's a happy Friday!

Anonymous said...

Good morning, CC, how would
[It's reserved for ones in a pool: HOV LANE] help you guess at [6D. Place to find cues: POOL HALL] ?
The two pools have nothing to do with each other.

--SAMIAM

Mainiac said...

Good Morning CC and All,

Nothing easy on this one for me. Early problems were Kids for Lads, Won By A Hair instead of Nose, Lap Lane for HOV and I spelled Suede wrong. Red letter help got me through it and my major DUH moment was realizing I kept reading the Double Play clue as Phobic not Phonic. I need to go back to the river and drink this time! Once that popping sound occurred things fell into place. Favorite clue was They Can Be Offensive. I didn't understand Hov until I read CC's write up. I drive 10 minutes to work and my wife gives me shit frequently because I rarely leave the island. Nice puzzle overall.

Dealing with multiple employee issues today so its going to be a unique one.

Have a great one!

kazie said...

Hi all,
I also had AT IT. As well as AM NOT, which made SPAKE be meaningless. And TOTS for young ones--LADS is so male chauvinist, when the clue was sexless, I expected a unisex answer.
I got the theme answers before the theme clue, not knowing anything about baseball (and not wanting/needing to, except for here). I've never heard of POTSY, or PYM either, but most of it fell in except the NW corner which I got fed up with and left blank to come here with my tots and at it leading nowhere. I've never called a LOO a JOHN, so that always gives me grief too. "Abroad" is too broad, I think, for the clue. I was trying to come up with something like Jan--John in a different language. Loo is really only general usage in GB. I also was looking for CLUES instead of CUES, and living nowhere near a freeway, HOV has no frame of reference for me either--I had to guess the O because MOB means nothing either.

Others have referred to keeping lists of things, and I don't do that, because I want to train my memory rather than just look up things to get answers, but it doesn't retain the trivia like it used to.

Anonymous said...

@SAMIAM, the blogger only pointed out the pool clue and answer dupe.

kazie said...

D'uh--I see, THE mob, OK.

Clear Ayes said...

Good Morning All, The NW was a tough area for me. (1A)LADS could have been (and were for a while) KIDS, TOTS and TADS. Of course 14A began as AT IT. (20A)AT PAR was an unknown and even though we've probably had (27A)EMS before, I sure didn't see it coming.

Luckily, it got a little easier after I moved to the NE and worked backward and then down. All the proper names and initials, with the exception of PYM were not a problem.

I filled in (45A)"Jungle female" TIGRESS before I got the rest of 44A "They can be offensive". I had the MAN part first and thought, "Well, any man could be offensive to a jungle female" I was on the verge of putting in GOLF MAN, but Tiger Woods has had enough problems in the past week.

I've never heard of HOV LANE or POTSY. They are always Carpool Lane and Hopscotch where I come from.

Dennis, re:Noodle Ring Day. Here is your basic baked noodle ring, and then th pièce de résistance filled with creamed tuna or creamed chicken. Always a wonderful addition to the mid-west Church Supper and a pretty tasty comfort food. Maybe Jeannie has a nice Minnesota recipe.

MJ said...

Good morning C.C. and all,

I'm afraid I don't understand what it means by "one, two, four, and eight" being baseball coups. Also, I'm curious if anyone has ever heard of hopscotch called POTSY?

The puzzle seemed easy to me for a Friday. Some great clues. Favorites were 29A: "Group with a lot of hits?" and 2D: "Gray area."

Have a great weekend!

Dennis said...

MJ, never heard of potsy either.

The theme refers to a double play, and each successive theme answer is double the previous one.
Hope this helps.

Clear Ayes said...

In 1887, the novelist and poet, Robert Louis Stevenson (33A)RLS, lived in Saranac Lake, New York for about six months. Saranac Lake had a well-known tuberculosis sanitarium at the time and Stevenson who suffered from poor health for most of his life thought that perhaps "taking the cure" would help him. The following poem was written there. I hope all of you snow country people have a fireplace to enjoy on your now snowy evenings.

Winter

In rigorous hours, when down the iron lane
The redbreast looks in vain
For hips and haws,
Lo, shining flowers upon my window-pane
The silver pencil of the winter draws.

When all the snowy hill
And the bare woods are still;
When snipes are silent in the frozen bogs,
And all the garden garth is whelmed in mire,
Lo, by the hearth, the laughter of the logs --
More fair than roses, lo, the flowers of fire!

Argyle said...

Dennis, I'm waiting to see your choice for sniper rifle.

In the meantime, I'm trying to think of a Homophobic Relationship Sequence that Maniac suggested. ;~)

Crockett1947 said...

Good morning, all.

Hand up for "ON FIRE." Had no traction until the NE, then filled in that corner and backed across the puzzle. Took me a while to get off the tennis court and into volleyball for 5A. Wanted HERE for 10A, ATIT for 14A (down, Lois, that's AT IT), liked "John abroad" for the clue for 22A, originally had MOO for BAA, didn't grok the theme or 53A until reading the write up, thought there were too many winged gods to get the correct one easily, and never heard of POTSY or PYM. A nice puzzle, albeit a bit challenging.

@dennis Re: WOW And some only choke om it.

@kazie I remember seeing LOO in Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, so it's a bit more widespread than just GB.

@clearayes My original fill for 45D was LIONESS, but the double L on 43A made me revise.

Have an outrageous Friday, blogites!

Argyle said...

Here's the skinny on POTSY/hopscotch. Included are versions from other countries, too. POTSY is at the bottom and they say it has been played in Brooklyn for decades.

Argyle said...

Oops! forgot the link.

Spitzboov said...

Good challenge. Had trouble getting traction in NW until STEAM fell.

Knew 26D had to do with a traffic lane for commuting; just couldn't get the HOV part. (No hov lanes in upstate NY.) Thought 29A had something to do with baseball, so missed out on MOB fill

Haven't seen EAMES in quite a while. Thought LOO was well clued and 'Gray topic' was superb.

g8rmomx2 said...

Hi c.c. and all:

c.c.: yes, I was bothered with "ones" in 1A. I had tots in for the longest time. I think young boys would have been a better clue.

Also, I did not get the theme until I got here, thanks c.c.!!!
I kept trying to sound words alike for each one of the clues first words and of course that didn't work out at all.

Never ever heard of Hopscotch being called "potsy".

Needless to say lots of problems today, and some googling!

Have a great day everyone!

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

I agree that 1A is poorly clued. Even without the sexism, the clue and answer don't have a tight correspondence. I tried KIDS and TOTS. Also, wanted something by Zane Gray for 2D. So the NW corner was intractable, even though
I didn't fall into the AT IT trap.

Tried AM TOO and AM NOT for 7D, and took forever to come up with SPIKE.

I like this theme a lot - very tight with the homophones, the literal doublings, and the double meaning key clue in the middle. Wow!

But spelling out a letter is a supremely lame fill, and the false cleverness of "Series opener?" only makes it worse. BAA!

On balance, a pretty good puzzle, though.

Other thoughts:

I might have WON BY A NOSE, if I hadn't spited my face.

Trying to write Air Music, Fire Music, and Earth Music along with Water Music was TOO MUCH TO HANDEL.

Quasimodo didn't have much food, but he always left some out FOR THE TIME BEING who haunted the clock tower.

The Time being, of course, ATE IT ALL UP.

Cheers!
JzB the DOUBLE PLAY trombonist

Jerome said...

Anonymous- MING TIAN JIAN, loosely translated, is an ancient warriors cry- I'M GIANT NINJA. How it relates to today's puzzle I don't know.

Dennis said...

I KNEW she was a ninja; didn't realize she was that big, though.

DCannon said...

A little difficult, but not as bad as yesterday's.

NW was easiest for me because I read those clues while I was printing the puzzle. I had "located" "anatomy" and "steam" right away. Also had "Lenin" "Isolde" and "suedes" in NE before it finished printing. The entire bottom was harder for me. I knew "llama" after I got "alp" because I used to have a llama rug my sister gave me when she lived in Peru.

Like most others, I was not familiar with "potsy." I had heard of the British author, but I don't know when or in what context. I've not read her work. I was not familiar with "hov lane" either. Don't have them here. It was even harder because I wanted "MLB" instead of "MOB" at 29A

The theme clues were easy enough and I thought the theme would be easy with won/one and too/two, but they threw "double" in there, which confused me.

Favorite clues: 53A, Caligulia's card count and 12D, art supporters.

Bill said...

Got a half dozen answers and then it hit the recycle bin. Fridays are a no go for me again. But I do have an issue with the answer for 52d. Should be PEDIATRICIAN.

This is from www.jobprofiles.org.

An obstetrician closely monitors their patient's health during pregnancy and delivery. They diagnose fetus abnormalities or health issues of their patient and offer healthy living advice and treatment. They see their patients on a regular basis for health consultations, ultrasounds and any of their patient's prenatal medical needs including forming a birth plan. The frequency of a patients check up often depends on risk factors and resources.

Not a BABY DOC but a pregnant woman doc.

Jeannie said...

A little bit of a challenge today. I did have to do some g-spotting but just a little. One of them was looking up “Caliqula” then it dawned on me they wanted the Roman numerals for 52 cards. I too have never heard of potsy for hopscotch. Favorite clue today was “group with a lot of hits” – mob. I was a huge Soprano’s fan. Anyone notice all the three letter answers today? Ess, ems, RLS, loo, VIP, ABT, Eli, obs, alp, SSW, Edy, rub, get, Pym? Seemed like a lot of them to me.

Dennis, Clearayes has the right idea on the noodle ring. I personally have never made a noodle ring, maybe a noodle sing…

Dennis said...

Argyle, how's this for a sniper rifle? A .50 caliber, no less. You not only reach out and touch someone, you blow them into the next area code.

Spitzboov said...

Agree with Bill on the baby doc clue. But not having seen a short abbreviation for pediatrician, went the OBS route. Looks like a specious clue on purpose.

Unknown said...

@Jerome

LoL!

Lemonade714 said...

Wow, Dennis, that would make any man's thumbs bleed!

Robin said...

Good Morning Ming Tian Jian and All.

This puzzle was a little rattling for me. I have never heard of 'potsy' either, thanks for the link Argyle.

I don't consider a baby doc an OB. More a PED I would say.

Anywho, Happy Chanuka all and TGIF!

Hope everyone is warming up.

Robin said...

Ming tian jian "See you tomorrow" makes more sense eh? See you tomorrow C.C., you little ninja goddess!!

Crockett1947 said...

Ming Tian Jian = See You Tomorrow.

Crockett1947 said...

@robin Looks like we cross-posted. To the early bird goes the worm!

Annette said...

I never heard of POTSY used for hopscotch either. And I agree with the comments about 1A LAD.

I’d heard of the author PYM in passing somewhere too, but was surprised that it came to me. We do have HOV lanes, and it took me forever to learn what HOV stood for when they first started showing up, so now it was a gimme. I liked LINEMEN too. And MAME is a favorite movie would also work as a homophone for ‘maim’, especially with those carbines!

Was initially thinking of tennis for 5A too, but perps directed me to SPIKE.

DrinkMaster had me thinking along the lines of something alcoholic rather than a MALT, but couldn’t think of any blended drinks with such a short name.

I tried MLB before getting MOB, but still was thinking it referred to a MOB “scene”, until I came here and got my DUH moment for “The” MOB. I don't know what we'd do without you and this blog, C.C. - but it probably wouldn't be crossword puzzles for long!

Warren said...

Hi C.C. and gang. See you tomorrow eh? I thought the Ninja one was cute too. For today's puzzle I went online and my wife did it in pencil at the same time. I tried 'at it' for 'on it' too.

For Dennis and et al:

Did you see this Myth buster episode of a big gun cutting a tree down?

Robin said...

yummmmmmmm......worms lol!

Chickie said...

Hello All--This was a difficult puzzle for me, but Friday is usually harder than the rest of the week. I put in tots, then kids for Young ones, and so the NW corner just sat there empty for too long.

I managed to get all of the theme answers and actually understood them, but the short, easier answers eluded me today. I couldn't for the life of me think of a drink that ended with a t. I had to come back to the puzzle a couple of times before malt hit me. Duh!
I'm with everyone else on the word "potsy" for hopscotch. I had never heard that name before.

Thanks to C.C. for the At Par and Gray topic so I could finish up the top portion of the puzzle.

I thought Group with a lot of hits=Mob, and John abroad=Loo were the most enjoyable clues.

Enjoy the weekend, everyone.

PJB-Chicago said...

Hey, Hello. TGIF and please, do feel free to observe National Noodle Ring any way you like.

Puzzle's theme was fine, but some of the of the clues seemed a little dodgy to me. Agree about LADS and OBS. I knew HOV, somehow, but its use doesn't appear to be national. Barbara PYM and POTSY were gettable (and forgettable) head scratchers but perps helped out.

Reading the blog, I'm always glad that people much more experienced at solving and with broader knowledge bases struggle a little too with some spots not just me. Confusion loves company!

Happy Chanukah. Any story about a maracle is worth telling and retelling! Good food helps. too!

Am off to rehearse something "comedic." It's newish material that's still finding its way in the world. We'll see what happens!

Hahtoolah said...

With all this talk about sniper weapons, how's this for weaponry trivia. Mikhail Kalashnikov, the father of the
AK-47, just turned 90 years old. For his invention, he was recently awarded Russia's highest honor ~ he was made Hero of the Russian Federation as a birthday present.

MJ said...

Dennis@8:38-Thanks for the explanation. I was focusing on the word "baseball" in the clue when the key word was "relationship". DOH!

@Jerome-TOO funny!

Buckeye said...

Guday all.

kazie: I think that writing down things increases my memberatude. (See Fred). Once it's written, it impresses the mind, and eventually you can erase the written word because your rememberer part stores it. IMHO. Don't depend upon your mind to retain all things, because as you get older, as most men will tell you, things shrink.

CA; "Any cat could be offensive to a female"? NA HUA! The female always waits until males destroy each other, then mate with the winner. SELECTIVE BREEDING!!

I agree with jAZZ, that clues should not be so obscure that the fills can only be done through the perps. However, I'm a purist.

My older sister (reared in the '30's) said Hopscotch was a regular "lay out" but "Potsy" could be anything you want to design. Comments????

Can't comment too much on today's puzzle. I had a breakfast ceremonial gathering, a luncheon and our yearly golf league appreciation dinner. So I didn't spend too much time on it.

Needless to say, with my vast history in golf, I took home all the "hardware". I didn't win a trophy, but I left with all the silverware. (I may not be a good golfer, but my prestodigisthaloltosis skills took home all the sterling). (In other words, I'm a thief.) BUT, as Robin Hood, I give all I take to the poor.

I want to be like Dennis. I'm growing a beard. What a joke. I'm flicked impaired along the beard line, but my Van Dyke (which I had in college) is great - except for one thing. It's coming in a color with which I am not familiar.

I'm blond in the summer, dirty blond in the winter,(with some silver among the gold), but my beard looks like I swallowed a calico cat with it's butt exposed. It's black, brown, grey. blond and something I can't describe.

I don't want to shave it off because it think Guinness may find a way to use it.

What a crappy Xmas!!

I must be off

Buckeye said...

Flicked impaired? How about Follically impaired.

Sorry. Too much Austraiian SheepHurter in me.

INBO

Dennis said...

I want to be like Dennis. I'm growing a beard.

Not this Dennis. I couldn't grow a beard if my life depended on it.

I can, however, relate to the multi-colored hair you're experiencing -- albino hairs have taken over my moustache. Let me know if you have any luck with Guinness.

Jeannie said...

Took the afternoon off to prepare for the "little" get together at my house tomorrow night. The little one has grown as the word has spread in this little town.

Fought with a woman over the last wheel of brie...check (I won)

Trudged through about 8 inches of snow to harvest a tree....check.

Set said tree up...check.

Made marinara sauce and meatballs...check.

Made the apple compote for the fought over brie...check.

Prepared the spinach/artichoke dip for baking tomorrow...check.

Made the BLT dip...check.

Made the cucumber/dill sauce for the poached salmon...check.

Trimmed the tree only to find out that one of the strands of lights keeps blowing a fuse when plugged in and made 3 trips to the hardware store only for it to repeat itself...check.

Drinking a big Bacardi/diet...check.

Did I get any cleaning done??? Do you see a check?

Argyle said...

Do not use the strand of lights that blow fuses...Please check.

Jeannie said...

Argyle, I gave up on them and am a little bit more "lightless" this year. My glass ornaments collected from all parts of the globe more than make up for it. As I said, "she's a beaut". It was just frustrating as I replaced the fuse twice and when I tested the strand (in different sockets) the fuse blew again. They are in the garbage and I didn't want to make the 4th appearance at the local hardware store to purchase another strand...I might get the "ditzy blonde" stigma. Besides, the cute guy wasn't working today.

Argyle said...

Ah, I'll sleep better now.

Buckeye said...

CRAP!! If we don't set fire to GBRV at least three times, we've mis-wired it improperly.

We only hope we die in the fire; ( Taking Nurse Rarchet with us").

Afganistan??

"Have the elder races halted?
Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied over there beyond the seas?
We take the tasks eternal, and the burden and the lesson,
Poineers! O pioneers."

In hoc signo vinces!

IMBO

Jeannie said...

Argyle, nice to know someone worries about me ;) Sleep tight.

Frenchie said...

Good evening C.C. and friends,
Overall, an enjoyable puzzle. Annette closely touched upon points I agree with. I enjoyed the theme and the clues and had a lot of fun working from one to the next. I did find the nw to be pesky, so I worked my way around and came back to it last.
...loved the hov, though my first flash was country club related. I think it would be convenient to be able to use the hov! A character on "Happy Days," a 60's sit com was nick named Potsy...wonder if there is any word play there?
Happy Hanukkah, friends. Also, enjoy your noodle rings (when I first read 'noodle ring', it sounded like a clue for Spagettios)...None for me, though. I'm gluten free!

rich scholl said...

i would have preferred 'caligula's card count' to be XII which is one short of a full suit because he was crazy.