google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 Julian Lim

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Dec 29, 2009

Tuesday, December 29, 2009 Julian Lim

Theme: "On a Roll" - Progressively better bowling scores.

20A: Panhandler's request: "SPARE CHANGE?". Knocking all the pins down with two tries.

27A: Hit the mother lode: STRIKE IT RICH. All the pins fall with one try.

48A: Certain tour bus: DOUBLE DECKER. Two strikes in a row.

58A: Easy job, in slang: TURKEY SHOOT. Three strikes in a row.

Argyle here. This puzzle must be right up Boomer's alley. A good step up in difficulty from Monday. A new constructor for us, too. One problem: 35A: Object of a doctor's office phobia: NEEDLE. so close to 41A: Demur: OBJECT.

Turkey shoot: (This is the best description I found and I believe it is true. They use paper targets these days.) "In the old days they would put a live turkey (with a foot tied to the ground) behind a large log. They would scatter corn on the ground and as the turkey pecked at the corn his head would appear and disappear behind the log. Each participant(for a fee) would be given a shot (with a rifle). If you hit the turkey you claimed the bird."

Across:

1A: Tibetan capital: LHASA. Lhasa Apso

6A: Winged stinger: WASP.

10A: Tool in a wood shop: ADZE. A tool used to square-up beams, not often inside a shop.

15A: "At last it's clear!": "I SEE!". "D'oh!"

17A: Kiri Te Kanawa specialties: ARIAS. Born: March 6, 1944 - Gisborne, on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island. The Maori soprano, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, is the adopted daughter of an Irish mother and Maori father and had a highly successful international opera career between 1968–2004. Not an aria, I believe.

18A: "Beautiful Girls" singer Kingston: SEAN. Sean Kingston (born 1990) is a Jamaican-American reggae fusion singer and rapper. He is best known for his debut single and #1 hit Beautiful Girls.

23A: New Orleans-to-Detroit dir.: NNE.

24A: Anacin Aspirin Free competitor: TYLENOL.

25A: Parking places: CURBS. Who started "kicked to the curb"?

31A: Third deg.?: PHD. After your B.A. and your Master's, you get your Doctorate.

34A: Invitation encl.: SASE. Self-Addressed,Stamped Envelope.

36A: Cathedral cross: ROOD. The rood from the website of the Church of the Most Holy Trinity, Reading, England

38A: Coll. helpers: TAS. Teaching Assistants

40A: Gradually disappear, with "off": WEAR.

51A: Oliver who directed "W.": STONE. Also directed...Platoon (1986), Wall Street (1987), Talk Radio (1988), Born on the Fourth of July (1989),The Doors (1991), JFK (1991)...to name a few.

52A: They may be tossed in an Easter contest: RAW EGGS.

62. Not at all bored: RAPT.

63. Piglet's creator: MILNE.

65. List-ending abbr.: ET AL..

66. Former forest near the River Avon: ARDEN. The Forest of Arden is stated by Shakespeare to be the setting for As You Like It.

68. Voluptuous: SEXY. Big can be beautiful .

Down:

1D: Minimum: LEAST.

2D: Shrew: HARPY. In classical mythology, harpies are a lot worse than just a shrew. Harpies

3D: Sans serif font: ARIAL. No curlicues.

4D: Catches: SNARES.

5D: Green lights: ASSENTS. Give the "go ahead".

6D: Letter to Santa, e.g.: WISH LIST. Done for another year.

8D: Medium session?: SEANCE.

9D: Umbrella-toting "Batman" villain: PENGUIN. Danny DeVito as "The PENGUIN"

11D: Drawbacks: DOWNSIDES.

12D: Utah national park: ZION.

13D: Alternatively: ELSE.

21D: Julius Dithers's wife, in "Blondie": CORA. Mr. Dithers is Dagwood's boss.

22D: Art Deco designer: ERTE.

28D: "The Family Circus" cartoonist Bil: KEANE.

30D: Rescuer, often: HERO. As in the movie with Dustin Hoffman. Good film.

31D: Cajole: PROD.

32D: Vagabond: HOBO. The HOBO does get around lately.

33D: Appreciate properly: DO JUSTICE.

37D: Borrowing consequence: DEBT. But if you're big enough, you don't have to pay the consequences. What a country!

39D: How plots are planned: SECRETLY.

43D: Lengths of service: TENURES.

45D: "Sounds good!": "OKAY!".

46D: One working on columns: NEWSMAN.

49D: Lower the assessed electrical capability of: DERATE. The clue is almost word for word from the dictionary.

50D: Bring back to the firm: REHIRE.

53D: Meir of Israel: GOLDA. Elected Prime Minister of Israel, 1969 until 1974.

54D: One surrounded by the enemy, maybe: GONER. But only maybe, if he is the star of the film.

55D: Old British guns: STENS.

57D: Word with sign or strategy: EXIT.

59D: 2001 Spacey film: K-PAX.

61D: Work on a seam: SEW.

There won't be Answer Grid until C.C.'s computer is fixed. Should you have any question, please feel free to go to the Comments section and ask.

Argyle

55 comments:

Lemonade714 said...

This was a challenge, an interesting combination of very old information (CORA from Dagwood) and new stuff (SEAN Kingston) as well as the bowling theme. A workout for a Tuesday.

Coincidence is such an interesting phenomenon; I went for a walk with my cousin who is visiting and we passed a homeless man asleep on a bus stop bench. This prompted a discussion of various words, and the derivation of the term HOBO . Next thing I know, here it is in our puzzle.


Dennis, you brought the cold!

tfrank said...

Good morning, C.C., Argyle and all.

I agree; this was definitely a step up from yesterday, but doable. I confess I did not see the theme until I came here - never did much bowling, so the lingo did not ring any bells. Two unknowns for me were Erte and derate; we have probably had the former before, but that is the kind of name I don't remember.

Best clue for me was parking spaces.

C.C., I am sorry you are having so many problems with your computer. It must be very frustrating. When they work right, we take them for granted; without them, we are really at sea. I have been tempted to make the switch to Macs, but the learning curve is too much at my age. I hope you get it fixed pronto.

Argyle said...

tfrank, it might help you to remember if you know that ERTE is not a real name. It is the spelling of the man's initials, R T (Romain de Tirtoff). He was born in Russia but became a French illustrator and designer, during the Art Deco era

Anonymous said...

9D: Umbrella-toting "Batman" villain: PENGUIN

Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, a short round man with a long pointed nose, fancies himself a gentleman of crime.

I prefer the original penguin Burgess Meredith 1966 To me Adam West will always be Batman.

If I had to pick a current Batman it would be George Clooney.

Burgess Meredith

24A: Anacin Aspirin Free competitor: TYLENOL.

Is anyone aware that the person or persons who tampered with Tylenol back in the 80's were never caught.

Tylenol cyanide

Spitzboov said...

Relatively easy and fast puzzle for me. Had smallCHANGE before the perps made it SPARE. Wasn't sure about ARDEN but was a good guess.

Kire Te Kanawa is my favorite opera singer. Beautiful voice.

ADZE - Agree with Argyle. Commonly used outside. Great tool for debarking.

One of the greatest American naval air victories in WWII was the Marianas TURKEYSHOOT.

0ยบ here this am.

tfrank said...

Re Turkey Shoot,

I just remembered a scene from the movie, Sergeant York, where he, as a hillbilly before he enlisted, won a shoot just as Argyle described. The prize, as I recall, was the turkey. He was a great hero in a horrible war that wiped out a whole generation of British, French and German soldiers.

kazie said...

G'morning all,
As already stated, this was definitely harder than yesterday, especially in the south. I had no problems until I hit the bottom third, and then it slowed, but I finally got it all without assistance, but with much guessing.

Last fill was DO JUSTICE. I had to change SNEAKILY to SECRETLY, GOAD to PROD, TARGET to TURKEY. Never saw the theme--no bowling experience here.

I do hope C.C. has her computer back soon. I couldn't survive without mine!

Dick said...

Good morning Argyle, C.C. and all, for some reason today’s solve was a real slog. I never did get the theme, but was able to complete the fills without any help.

Harpy was a new word for me and was attained only by the perps. It seemed to take me forever to get spare change as I kept thinking along the lines of spare me a meal, dime or something to eat and then DOH. I had put newsmEn for 48D which gave me erden in lieu of Arden and I did not see that problem until the very end when I reviewed the puzzle.

Three inches of snow and 18 degrees here this morning. I had to plow snow before doing the puzzle. Oh well it is almost January in Pittsburgh!

C.C. I hope the Geek Squad arrives quickly.

Hope you all have a great Tuesday.

JD said...

Good morning Argyle, CC ,etal,

I got the theme! Yay! But since I didn't know that a turkey was a bowling word(sorry Boomer) I had to work that one out.I had only one little empty box, the i in arias/arial. I'm not familiar with Kiri Te Kanawa, not too "keane" on opera.Didn't know Kingston either but the perps filled in Sean.

fav. clue-3rd degree
Zion is on my list of places to go.

Argyle, with your excellent write up no one should need an answer grid.Thanks for the info on erte (RT) and I'm so glad paper targets have replaced the trapped turkeys.

Lemonade, enjoyed that article. I had to look up the word eugenics though..another new one: the science that deals with the improvement of races and breeds.

CC, hope your computer is up and running soon.

Bill G. said...

JD said that Zion National Park was somewhere she wanted to go. When you plan your trip there, be sure to include Bryce Canyon National Park too. Beautiful!

tfrank was concerned about a learning curve switching to a Mac. I don't think it would be much of a problem. Most things just work intuitively. If you got anybody to give you just a little bit of help, I don't think you would have much of a problem at all.

Best wishes on your computer woes C.C. I know that's no fun.

fermatprime said...

(AKA LorraineL)
Have really been enjoying the blog but have not written, mostly because I had another fall and reversed my shoulder operation, caused horrible pains up and down that side and broke a few more foot bones. Pain is now middle name.

tfrank--The Mac is inherently easier and extremely durable. I have had 15 since 1987, because I had the money to buy faster and better. 5 still in use. 5 given away. (Can't begin to spend money on new 27" iMac, drool, drool.) It is short around 70,000 viruses and other bugaboos.

A very intelligent Russian girl (age 14) is staying with me while her parents (former colleagues) globe trot, separately. She wrapped all of the presents I bought! Brings me cold and hot packs too.

Christmas dinner was cooked here by my son. 7 people. Blue Willow dishes. I turned 71 (at least a prime) Christmas Day. Was not usual dysfunctional family gathering. Hooray!

Thanks to CC and all other contributors for very interesting blog!

Anonymous said...

tfrank: There is no learning curve with a Mac. That's why we who have them love them. Even my DH, who has been using a pc since they were invented practially, uses my Mac for various things. And has commented on how easy it all is. He can't give up his pc because of all the info in it.
I put up a website in about 2 hours one afternoon, just following Apple's instructions. DH has not been able to do so on his.
And when all is said and done, the cost is not that much more what with all you get.

Anonymous said...

A very doable puzzle, and coming from Milwaukee, a bowling mecca, the theme was good for me. I didn't, however, get it until the puzzle was completed. So it didn't help me at all. Fun still. HARPY and CORA were completely new to me.

CC, I hope your computer challenges abate. I feel like maintenance of a computer can really suck away time.

I have not found my Mac to be terribly difficult to acclimate to. However, I know that I am not using the full capabilities. I plan on using the One-on-one (only $99/yr.) to see if I can get some good training on this. They are, however, expensive. But I will say the support is outstanding. Couldn't ask for more help - something that you don't get with Windows based computers as the manufacturer is always pushing that it is a software issue and vice versa. Who to call? There is never a clear answer with a pc.

Hope everyone has a great day.

Crockett1947 said...

@lorrainel I'm so sorry to hear of your fall. Please take care of yourself. I hope that you are able to keep the pain under control.

@all, I queried Embien, and he's just taking some time off from the LAT crossword at the moment. He's still doing the NYT, but is busy with other projects.

clownqueen said...

Did not know this existed til I got stuck on a forest near the River Avon. Good to get answers instead of waiting for "Houston Chronicle" tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

VERN said:
Bryce Canyon & Zion National Park are two of the prettiest sites to visit. We stayed at both on our honeymoon in 1955. At Zion Park a brand new motel had just opened, with a mountain as a backdrop. All at the cost of $10 a night!

P.S. IMACs are great and easy to use.

Mainiac said...

Good Afternoon Argyle and All,

Rain that turned to a couple inches of wet snow, then the temperature bottoming out made for a busy morning.

Got to the puzzle at lunch and really had fun. Very similar experience as others have already written. I'm not a bowler so I didn't get the theme until coming here. Thanks for the explanations Argyle.

We had a huge rainstorm Sunday which turned the snow in the yard into ice. It also revealed a mine field of doggy doo which didn't get picked up do to the snows we've had. Being great a delegating duties I tasked the boys with the clean-up. All was going well until they complained that some were frozen in. I gave them my ice chisel to complete the job. Next time I looked out from the shop a frozen turd fight had broken out. I put an end to it and got them back on task with the shovels. Of course they went inside and told there mother what they had been up to. Great! She felt she needed to completely sanitize their clothes and bodies. When I got in I caught hell because somehow this was all my fault for giving them the chisel!??

Boys will be boys!

Have a great day.

Anonymous said...

Fun theme!

Crockett1947 said...

@mainiac ROFLMAO! Boys WILL be boys! Remember, you're male, so of course you were at fault/wrong/to blame, etc.!!

Bill G. said...

I just made a small donation to Wikipedia. It seems worthwhile and fair since I use it about once a day.

~ Bill G.

Bill G. said...

Yesterday, our cleaning lady brought us two home-made Christmas tamales. Yummy. The ingredients included pork and a couple of green olives. She is from Guatemala. Hers were wrapped in banana leaves instead of corn husks that are used in Mexico.

~ Bill

MJ said...

Good day all,
Thought I had the bowling theme with SPARE and STRIKE, then figured I was wrong because I didn't know how DOUBLE and TURKEY fit in. Had to come to the blog for the explanation. Favorite clues: "Third deg.?" and "Work on a seam".

My hand is raised as a Mac owner. The Apple people do a great job of keeping them secure, including free downloads when potential security risks are detected.

@Annette-Thanks for the carteddate from yesterday.

@Lorraine-Hope you heal quickly. Take care. And a belated Happy Birthday to you!

@ Mainiac-LOL at your story. Our three sons are all adults now, and were reminiscing the other day about some of their "boys will be boys" antics of their youth. We sat around laughing at some of their goofiness of the past, and I imagine your family will, too, years from now.

IRISH JIM said...

Good afternoon CC and all.

Whew, Glad others had some difficulties with this one. Was beginning to doubt myself after last Thur/Fri/Sat.

JD Thank you, had same prob with
Arias/Arial.

Nice to see my favorite comic strip Dagwood get a mention.
Did not get theme(not unusual) until coming here

Isnt it amazing how dependant we have become on the internet. Its almost like losing a limb when we dont have it.
CC hope you get it fixed soon.

Went to see Invictus last week and enjoyed it very much.

Best wishes to all for, can you believe it, 2010

Robin said...

Hello C.C. and all. Fun puzzle and a cute theme. I just learned how to bowl this year and find it a lot of fun!

Argyle I do enjoy your write ups and links. Funny story Maniac!

What is your New Years tradition? Bill G reminded me.... Ours has been tamales and black eyed peas on New Years day. Yummers! When we lived in Hawaii, It was pounding the mochi rice on New Years Day with plenty of Hawaiian food to go around. My avatar is my favorite Lhasa, Riley. Have a great evening.

Annette said...

The top half went pretty quickly for me, but the bottom half had a lot of empty squares. When I came back from lunch, I got DOUBLEDECKER, and the rest fell into place. I didn’t get the theme though. I've never heard the last 2 bowling terms.

So that’s an ADZE! I’ve seen the tool, and heard the name, but never together. Wow, what a hard job that must be!

I liked “46D: One working on columns: NEWSMAN”.

Lorraine: I’m sorry to hear about your added pain. Nice to hear you had a pleasant Christmas though. Happy belated Birthday!

kazie said...

Lorraine,
Sounds like your 2010 has to be better than 2009! Get well soon!

Mainiac,
Your story reminded me of our two boys when they were kids too. Also of my Dad relating how my grandmother, tears streaming down her face, heard for the first time about 20 years later, and laughed so hard at stories of what some of her nine sons had got up to in their youth and never told her before.

I spent most of today double-checking my second issue of the newsletter that I started being reponsible for in October, and the mailing lists of members it will go to. This time I feel a lot more confident. It's at the printer's, and the mailing lists are at the mailer/finisher's office, so hopefully it can be mailed out in a week or so with not much further effort on my part.

DCannon said...

@Lorraine, I'm so sorry to hear about your fall. Reinjuring something is so discouraging. I hope you heal soon.

@Mainiac, LOL at your story. I've heard some confessions from my two boys about their childhood that have me laughing - and cringing.

@Argyle, thanks for the info on ERTE. I have seen the name in crosswords often and heard it on "Antiques Roadshow" from time to time, but never knew it was anything but a routine name.

Like most of you, I had trouble in the last third or so today. Had to go back over it several times, filling in one word here, and one there until it finally all worked. Didn't 'g' at all today.

I used to bowl a little, so once I got spare and strike, I knew the theme involved bowling. Didn't remember they related to one another, though.

Did not know Sean Kingston, so I penciled in "Trio" on first pass. Anyone remember them? Sean had to come from perps. Also had "duos" instead of "twos" at first.

We had a smidgeon of snow this morning. It existed primarily in the imaginations of the overwrought weather persons. Guess they love to have something more to talk about than the "clear and dry" we usually have. Temp never got below 30ยบ, though.

Anonymous said...

Last question BillG - with the mac do you use a firewall? How do we protect passwords, or can no one really get in. I am planning on doing my banking and a little sheepish.

Jeannie said...

It's good to know that others had a little trouble with this one. I had to hit the g-spot for Piglet's creator and got lots of red letter and perp help. I did manage to figure out the bowling theme and immediately thought of Boomer. Any 300 games this season? I used to bowl on a league and whenever someone would follow up on a "double" we would all gobble like a turkey. Might have been the cocktails...I don't know.

Mainiac, sounds like you have some rambunctious boys. I can't imagine how your wife lives around that much testosterone!

DCannon, what part of the country are you from? Robin, been to the pool lately? We are still sitting on about a foot of snow with cold temps. Only reached the teens today but at least the wind died down.

My New Years Eve tradition is crab legs, corn on the cob, and Budweiser beer.

Bill G. said...

KQ asked: "Last question BillG - with the mac do you use a firewall? How do we protect passwords, or can no one really get in. I am planning on doing my banking and a little sheepish."

I'm not sure but I think there is a firewall built in to its operating system. I've never had any sort of problem with passwords. I do all of my banking on it and access my account at Fidelity. When my wife wants to see how our investments are doing, she doesn't check on her PC but uses the Mac instead. I don't want to convince you that it's impossible to have a problem, but I've never had one and haven't heard of anybody else either.

Is there an Apple store in your neighborhood? You could ask one of their "Geniuses" or I'll bet you could find some helful information online. Good luck.

~ Bill G.

JD said...

Vern and Bill, yes to both places AND the arches!

Lorraine, sorry to hear about your fall.We are glad you are here with us, and that you have such a caring helper.

Crockett, thanks on the Embien update.

Mainiac--too funny!!I had girls so I missed that kind of stuff, although one did a "work of art",finger painting, all over the wall above her crib-not a fun clean up for mom.

JD said...

Some of you may have seen this. I sent it to a few people who thought I should post it.

In 1929 the Manchester Guardian offered two prizes (two guineas and one guinea) for the best original story of not more than 200 words making the maximum use of words deployed only by crossword setters. The response was enormous and the prize went to a Mr RH Edmondson of Windermere for the following:

"Ena sat under the lee of a tor, singing an aria in Erse. Her molars gleamed; her ebon tresses shaded the tan on her nose. Idly she drew tunes in the loam. An erne rose from the mere, and the evil cry of an otter rang o'er the lea.

"Beside her sat a gallant tar, full of ale and รฉlan. 'Fly with me,' he cried, 'my liner is at the quay and I have a store of taels and liras.' And he talked on Eden and of far manors of taro and copra where errant emus are, and beys and emirs dine on dates and all the denes team with irate asps and boas.

"But she must stay with her sire to ted the hay and ret the flax, tend the ewes and drive the bats out of the buttery. And what about her fiancรฉ? A man of title, an Earl; he would slit his carotid with a snee if she eloped and she had no alibi."So she wended her way home, and the tar took his taels to some other damsel and the Earl jilted her. And she lived at home and did the crossword puzzles ever after.


And there you have it, CC,-wended! LOL

Bill G. said...

Heh heh. Good story. The words haven't changed much over the years, have they? If only he could have included OBOE, OREO, OLEO, OLIO and OREO but I guess only oboe and olio were known then.

DCannon said...

@Jeannie, I live in West Texas, at the very edge of the Llano Estacado, about 50 miles from the Chihuahuan Desert. If you look SE from where the borders of Texas and New Mexico form a right angle, Odessa is right there on I-20. (Waving!)

Spitzboov said...

@ JD Re: ted the hay. We had a tedder, a wheeled horse-drawn unit with backward pointing forks that cycled up and down. Used to fluff up curing hay after it had been rained on to get it to dry faster.

Bill G. said...

I was working on Merl Reagle's puzzle and one of the clues was So ___ (three letters). I couldn't figure it out. So I worked on the surrounding crosses and ended up with DOI. What is a DOI? Where had I gone wrong? I stared and stared until D'OH... Merl had outsmarted me again.

~ Bill G

Argyle said...

A modern hay tedder in action.

Mainiac said...

Crocket,I definitely get it!

MJ, Kazie and JD, Its a laugh a day with these two!

DCannon, Although most are humorous now, there already have been some cringing details. I keep using my own body as evidence that there are consequences of your actions.

Jeannie, My wife is a true sport! I try to convince her that the one female dog and two female cats even it out. To that end we dote on her weekend mornings! She's definitely a jewel in the rough.

Late post for me. The wind is howling, woodstove cranking and time for bed.

Have a great night All!

Robin said...

Hot Tub Jeannie, waiting for you...and so are the guys.

JD said...

Spitzboov and Argyle, I'm soo impressed! I had no idea what tedding the hay was all about. Now what is she doing to the flax? I guess she is soaking it..so she can make linen???????

Spitzboov said...

An old style hay Tedder

Argyle said...

For JD...and myself.

Flax requires much hand labor. Before the seeds are quite ripe, and while the stalks are brownish yellow, the flax is ready to be pulled. It must be pulled up by the roots. The pulled flax is laid on the ground with the roots together and the stalks parallel. The stalks are then bound like the wheat, and stacked in STOOKS. The next process is to remove all the seeds without injuring the long fibers. The machine for this looks like a comb made of iron teeth set in a wooden frame. This frame is placed on a cloth so as to collect all the seed as it falls. This is called RIPPLING, and is done in the fields. The seed pods are drawn across the teeth which remove the seeds. Then the flax is bound in bundles for the next process, which is RETTING, which means rotting the outside woody portion of the stem so as to get the flax fiber. The flax is sometimes RETTED by dew; just left on the ground at night. So the dew, rain, air, and sunshine decompose the outside woody bark. This is a very slow process. More often flax is RETTED in water. The bundles are placed in crates or boxes, and left for about two weeks under water.

After RETTING, the flax is spread to dry in the fields and is then ready for the next process, called BREAKING. Breaking means removing the dry wood portion which has been decomposed by the retting. This is sometimes done by means of a hand break or by passing the flax between rollers of a machine which is run by power. These power mills are called SCUTCHING mills; SCUTCHING means cleaning and breaking. After this process the flax lies in long bundles of parallel fibers.

Note the double 'p' of RIPPLING. Ripple: a toothed or comblike device for removing seeds or capsules from flax, hemp, etc..

Anonymous said...

Lorraine: You've had a bad year! 2010 has to be better. Glad your Christmas was a winner and that you have some help. Best wishes.
And happy birthday.

JD said...

Thanks Argyle.. we sure take a lot for granted! I think nothing of it when grinding up those little golden flax seeds for a shake.Can't imagine separating the fibers to weave them into cloth BY HAND.Ah, they didn't even have aloe.

Spitzboov said...

@ JD re: they didn't even have aloe.
Bet they had something like bag balm

HUTCH said...

re kiri te kanawa specialties is listed "i dreamed a dream". with all due respect Susan Boyle is superior.her voice is fuller and full throated.not bad for a comely irish lady.

Bill G. said...

HUTCH said... "re kiri te kanawa specialties is listed "i dreamed a dream". with all due respect Susan Boyle is superior.her voice is fuller and full throated.not bad for a comely irish lady."

Beautiful I agree but I'm pretty sure Susan Boyle is Scottish as am I.

Anonymous said...

bill g, lets stick to c.c.s post limit of 5, not 7.

Jeannie said...

I can't even come to terms with what most of you have offered this Gal last year. I can only hope that I have offerd the same to you through recipes.

C.C., your blog has made many of us a bunch of friends. You should be proud.

Happy New Year (early) to all of you!!

Special note to Linda...THANKS.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

I'm very late checking in today. Did the puzzle first thing this morning - so long ago it is a vague recollection. I think I like it.

Argyle - great find on the Kire Te Kanawa link.

We went to T-town today and saw the Harlem Globetrotters with my wife's two brothers. Great entertainment. Their clown prince now is a guy they call Special K. Lots of fun, but not quite the Trotters of old. I guess there will never be another Meadowlark Lemon.

Lorraine - so sorry to hear of your re-injury. Sounds like you have good hands taking care of you. Good luck and heal quick.

Mainiac - what a great story.

We have a Sony laptop and an I-Mac desktop. Lots of difficulties with the laptop. Mac is trouble free. Going back and forth is pretty painless. Win 7 is the most Mac-like version yet, but still a rather poor knock-off.

I'm out of gas. 'Til tomorrow -

Cheers!
JzB the I-75-trotter trombonist

Robin said...

I am stripped down to my fragrance and jewels...... Argyle, that is the sexiest explanation of anything I have ever seen. Thank you!

Argyle said...

Just the flax, Ma'am.

Bill G. said...

OK, I guess this apology counts as my eighth post. Sorry. Maybe I shouldn't have posted anything about tamales, or answered questions about Macs, or posted about Wikipedia or Bryce Canyon. The Merl Reagle crossword post and Boyle Irish vs. Scottish were definitely unnecessary. Sorry again. I'll do better, maybe by combining some of my posts together into one. Geez. At least, sign your name so I'll know who is doing the complaining. Sorry again for any offence. No more posts tonight.

~ Bill G.

kazie said...

Robin,
That quote was on the Kennedy Center Honors tonight--did you watch it too?

Bill G.,
You're right--Susan Boyle is Scottish. And I agree that her version is better.

Chickie said...

Hello All--I'm very late in posting tonight. I didn't get to the puzzle until after dinner. I, too, had trouble with the lower 1/3 of the CW after sailing through the top portion. I had to Google Oliver (Stone) and K-Pax. Once those were in the rest of the words fell into place as I had most of the letters in, but just couldn't get my thinker going.

Maniac, Great Story and good for an out loud laugh. Of course Boys will be boys. You should know that!

Argyle, thanks for the Flax lesson. I didn't realize all the time consuming tedious work that went into claiming the fibers for linen. No wonder linen is so expensive.

Lorraine, I'm so sorry to hear about your setback. Take care, and may 2010 be a year of healing for you. Also, a belated birthday to you.