google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday April 3, 2010 Mike Nothnagel

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Apr 3, 2010

Saturday April 3, 2010 Mike Nothnagel

Theme: None

Total words: 70

Total blocks: 30

Multiple word entries abound in this grid. Total 16. And 14 of them are two-word, including all of those stacks of triple 9s in the upper right and lower left corners.

I liked how WISHFUL THINKING (7D. Dreamer's activity) is centered and symmetrically flanked by AS IT IS (8D. In reality) and SO CAN I (45D. Assertion from one who won't be outdone), the only 3-word answers we have today.

How did you fare today? Were you able to mind meld with the constructor in terms of cultural references? I struggled. Mike Nothnagel (in the middle, Doug Peterson on the left & Brendan Emmett Quigley on the right) is a math teacher. He's made lots of late week puzzles for the NY Times. I think this is his LA Times debut.

Across:

1. Some pilgrims: HAJIS. Pilgrims to Mecca. I can only remember the pilgrimage hadj/hajj.

6. Contests on the road: AWAY GAMES. Road games.

15. Enjoy a victory, say: EXULT

16. Ignore, as an insult: RISE ABOVE. Nice clue/answer.

17. More or less uniform: ALIKE

18. Black Sea region: ASIAN MINOR. Turkey region.

19. Holiday pie ingredients: PECANS. I've never had pecan pie.

21. Growth chart data: Abbr.: HTS (Heights)

22. __ torch: TIKI

23. Chateau __ Michelle: world's largest Riesling producer: STE. A winery in Washington. The largest single producer of Riesling wine in the US, a la Wiki. New to me.

24. Deem appropriate: SEE FIT

26. Indifferent grade: CEE. And PLUS (29. 26-Across enhancement). Enhancement made me think of Marisa Miller's boobs, which are actually real.

27. Space balls?: ORBS. Poetically. Poets calls Sun/Moon orb.

30. "Holy Toledo!": EGADS

32. Like a ward for some new hospital patients: NEONATAL. Did not come to me readily.

34. It fits in a lock: OAR. The U-shaped oarlock. I inserted KEY immediately.

35. Chat with someone on the way out?: EXIT INTERVIEW. More familiar with the term EXIT POLL.

39. Pitcher Dwight Gooden's nickname: DOC. Gimme. He's been afflicted with drug problem.

40. Home to FDR's presidential library: HYDE PARK. FDR was born there.

42. Showbiz figure: CELEB

45. Seattle Slew, vis-à-vis Swale: SIRE. Ha ha, I actually know this trivia.

46. "The nursery of England's gentlemen": ETON. Unaware of this Eton moniker.

47. Park in NYC, e.g.: AVE. Park Avenue. Good clue, though clue/answer duplication with HYDE PARK. We also have a cross-referenced RTE (57D. 47-Across, e.g.).

48. "Oops" elicitors: BONERS. Tee-hee!

50. Like "Spring" from Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons": IN E. No idea.

51. "Touch Me in the Morning" singer: ROSS (Diana). Not familiar with the song. Doesn't sound romantic as I expected.

53. "Oh no!": ACK

54. Parasite: SPONGE

56. Church rite site: ALTAR RAIL. And KNEELER (41D. Pew extension).

59. The "Demon Star": ALGOL. Arabic root. Al = The (Al Qaeda = The Base). Gol is rooted in Ghoul, the evil demon.

60. Passé reception aid: TV ANTENNA

61. Jack's partner in a 1982 #1 John Cougar song": DIANE. Here is the clip. Blank spot for me.

62. Tony award category: SET DESIGN. And SERIES (14D. Word on some Emmy awards). I liked the "award" weaving.

63. Join: ENTER. Can you give me an example of how they are interchangeable?

Down:

1. Adds in great quantities: HEAPS ON. Praise/scorn, etc.

2. Cart's wheel attachment: AXLETREE. New word to me.

3. Part of a kid's lunch from home: JUICE BOX. Scrabbly!

4. Chase on stage: ILKA. Nope. Total stranger. I was picturing a chase scene on stage.

5. WWII Mark II's: STENS. The British submachine guns used in World War II. I was ignorant of the Mark II model, or any model. Gimme, Argyle?

6. First name at Notre Dame: ARA (Parseghian). The famous football coach.

9. Baker's supply: YEAST

10. Piece of cheesecake?: GAM. Slang for leg.

11. Somewhat: A BIT

12. 1992 Wimbledon runner-up to Steffi: MONICA (Seles)

13. Called forth: EVOKED. What's the exact difference between evoke and invoke?

20. Like many a residential system: SEPTIC

25. Spark: ELAN

28. Nasty: SNIDE

30. Wasp's nest site: EAVE. I've yet to find a nest in ours.

31. Complaint: GRIPE

33. Distance covered by a first step: A TO B. No problem with parsing this time.

34. Sequences: ORDERS

36. Teacher of Adele Varens, in an 1847 novel: EYRE. Jane Eyre. I sure don't remember the little girl's name.

37. Bothering a lot: EATING AT

38. "Nope, the other thing": WRONG ONE. Another awesome clue/answer pair.

42. Stone figures: CARATS. Gem stone. Carat indicates weight, karat purity.

43. Increase in complexity, perhaps: EVOLVE

44. Vampire played by Cruise: LESTAT. Beat me. I've never seen "Interview With the Vampire".

48. Shows: BARES. Just enough. Gong Li my favorite Chinese actress.

49. Part of a deck: SPADE. Deck of card.

52. Golf hazard, often: SAND. TRAP & LAKE also have 4-letter. Ernie Els is a great bunker player. A green jacket this year definitely is not a WISHFUL THINKING to him.

55. "Enemies, A Love Story" Oscar nominee: OLIN (Lena). I peeked at the answer sheet.

58. PC-to-PC system: LAN (Local Area Network)

Answer grid.

C.C.

49 comments:

fermatprime said...

Hi Everyone,

Haven't been able to reply to blog all week. Some terrific explanations given. Thanks to all.

Trying to get taxes done with very little success.

Music puzzle yesterday great for me! Have been musician since age four.

Learned some great new words too. Today's puzzle really took lots of time though!

My late father adored pecan pie. I made him so many that I am tired of them now!

I still have to use a TV antenna in one room. My DIRECTV bill is horribly obnoxious as it is. From the way taxes are turning out, will probably have to give it up soon.

I have finally been able to swim in my new (warm) pool house (with a friend). Bum left arm not getting any better though (but sure nice to get out of bed and get exercise suitable for decrepit spine).

Any one live near Northridge, CA who needs a warm pool?

Barry G. said...

This one killed me. I'm used to Mr. Nothnagel having his way with me in his Friday and Saturday NYT puzzles, but I thought his style would be toned down a bit for the LAT. ILKA and AXLETREE quickly disabused me of that notion.

I finally gave up, turned on the red letter help, and used the old "enter a letter until it turns black" trick to slog through the puzzle. Most of the answers are things I actually understand after seeing them filled in, but there's just no way I was ever going to get ALTARRAIL, TVANTENNA, SETDESIGN, AWAYGAMES, etc. on my own. They simply didn't occur to me. I did get KNEELERS on my own, but every letter I entered made me think, "this can't possibly be what I think it is, can it?"

Ah well, score yet another victory for Mr. Nothnagel...

tfrank said...

Good morning, C.C. and all,

And I thought yesterday's was hard! This took me almost an hour, with lots of red letter help and one cheat to get the l in the crossing of algol and olin. It includes lots of fresh clues such as first name at ND, park in NYC, and piece of cheesecake. Golf hazard stumped me forever, and I finally got it through the perps.

Nice hearing from you again, fermat. Glad you have your pool house to swim in and hope your arm gets better.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate it.

Unknown said...

Enter the competition / join the competition

Good puzzle.

Al said...

This was toughie indeed. I managed to fill in the entire east half very slowly unaided, but couldn't get a toehold at all in the west, and had to use no less than six red letters to finally finish. I'm sure it was at least an hour. I'm just not on Mike's wavelength, I guess. Had much the same experience as Barry, each answer was like "O RLY"...

I usually don't use G until after I finish. This time I had to look up axletree, which turns out to be a "dead" axle, with a central connection to the rest of the conveyance, where the wheels rotate on spindles rather than the axle itself being able to spin.

Nice to see three constructors in one picture, thanks, C.C.

Lemonade714 said...

I generally like Saturday puzzles, and I enjoyed clues like Stone figures: CARATS, Park in NYC, e.g.: AVE, It fits in a lock: OAR, but I guess the reason I do not do NY Times puzzles regularly is clues like Spark: ELAN , which I know is technically correct, but there are so many other meanings for SPARK, to get to ELAN requires luck in filling in perps first, and there is no indication of anything, either by pun or common knowledge to get there; or SEPTIC while I know residences which have SEPTIC tanks, what exactly in the clue gets us to SEPTIC?


I have always heard the term Communion Rail, not ALTAR RAIL but I am not Catholic, so I struggled with this one as well as AXLETREE . For some reason I remembered ILKA CHASE , who when I was young had an interesting sense of humor while on television shows. I also remember well ARA PARSEGHIAN , who resurrected NOTRE DAME football. ARA also has been a staple of NYTimes puzzles since he coached. His coaching career began under Woody Hayes at Miami of Ohio along with longtime Michigan coach Bo Scembechler. Miami also gave us Paul Brown who founded the Cleveland Browns, and mentored coaches like Don Shula.

Well resting up here in the sun, enjoy all and do hope your arm feels better FP, and C.C. done well, Pecan Pie is wonderful, try it.

Tinbeni said...

Great write up C.C.

I did like GAM, for piece of cheesecake. And PECANS for my Holiday pie. DIANE & DOC were gimmies.

AXLE TREE, beginning of the arcane clues.
ILKA Chase, never heard of, at least I realized it was an actor being looked for.
ALGOL, don't really speak arabic.
IN E, Vivaldi's "Spring," geez I hate "Key" clues.
ACK, well ... I'm not "Bill the Cat."

Knew I was going to struggle when 2A, Contests on the road, didn't give me any traction with my "Drag Races" entry. Didn't help that for 7D, Dreamer's activity, I started filling in "Rapid Eye Movemen" and ran out of space for my 'T' ... which I used at 52D, golf hazard, for Trap.

I rate this one a CEE minus, no PLUS here.

SO CAN I just toss this one in the Septic tank?

Argyle said...

This was a boner. Why the cutesy clue for ILKA? 4D Chase on stage Why not Obscure actress form the 30's and be done with it?

And what holiday in particular are pecan pies associated with? (Ther're good anytime but oh, so rich.)

In other words, I didn't care for this puzzle.

Annette said...

Lemonade714: How exciting about the pregnancy (posted late last night)! So, that'll make you a Great Uncle, right?

The next generation in our family has just started marrying and talking babies. I can't wait! Sadly, none of my nieces or or nephew live in town though, so it'll be similar as with most of them, where you only get to see them once or twice a year.

Long to-do list today, and have already crossed off several items, but probably won't get around to doing the puzzle until this evening. It sounds like a tough one that will need a big chunck of time!

Based on the low number of posts (even lower than usual for a Saturday!), I hope everyone is out enjoying the same beautiful weather we've got!

Bob said...

This one took patience. At first I only had a few fills scattered across the puzzle, but gradually each new solution added traction for the next one. Finally all fell into place without error, but it took 50 minutes. Fun Saturday challenge.

Lucina said...

Good morning, C.C. and Gang.

Holy Toledo and egads! I scoped the whole xwd first and at first thought, "no way" but thank goodness for "Ara," my first fill; that gave m a glimmer of hope, followed by "eave", then "cee" which led to "tiki" which then helped to fill the entire NE corner. After that the bottom because I knew "Hyde Park" and altar rail (which is no longer used in RC churces).

Ironically, the longer answers seemed easier once I had traction with one or two fills; except I started with "away race" for some reason, but realized it had to be "away games".

This is a great puzzle and I'm like a gila monster clamped on a rattle snake, no way is it going to get me.

I did have to Ggle "Touch Me in the Morning" a song I love and could hear in my head but no name came to me. Vaguly recall Ilka Chase but not her name. Perps filled in.

Great clues:
stone figures: carats
parasite: sponge

Pecan pie is wonderful, C.C. but might be extremely sweet for you.

Fermat:
I'm glad you are feeling better. I understand about Direttv: it's a killer to pay.

You all have a spectacular Saturday!

Lemonade714 said...

Annette:

Thank you; I have 7 grand nieces and nephews from my wife's side, and 1 from an adopted nephew, but "he" will be the first from my brothers and I.
Pretty exciting.
Off to the cement pond with my book....

Dudley said...

This thing kicked my butt. Massive red letter help needed - plus coffee. Nothnagel 1, Dudley 0.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning all and welcome aboard to koufaxmaravich.

A real slog today. Had the same trouble as most others. Needed a lot of red letter help today.
Lots of very clever clueing such as EXITINTERVIEW, AVE, OAR, SPADE AND CARATS.

Didn't initially think of ASIA MINOR as a Black Sea region, although it is the south side littoral. Perps helped.

YEAST reminded me that on a Navy ship, the baker is called the Jack o' the Dust, because he was covered with flour dust.

Gonna be 85º here today. Have a Happy Easter.

Clear Ayes said...

Good Morning All, I got up early this morning and went to the puzzle while the coffee was perking. Then I drank two cups during my third and fourth passes.

I probably got two thirds of the fill before I gave up and came here.

Very tough for me. I have never heard of AXLE TREE and (3D) JUICE BOX started out as SANDWICH and then BROWN BAG. I also started out with DRAG RACES for 6A.

My Arabic is pretty rusty (think non-existant), so ALGOL wasn't on my radar either.

Strange but I knew ILKA Chase. I read her autobiography many years ago.

PECAN pies are usually Thanksgiving fare. I love 'em, but only have one piece a year. It takes that long to shed the calories.

I will fall back on the excuse that I have house guests and couldn't concentrate. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Lemonade, congratulations to you, your brother and the expectant parents.

Gotta go, my sister is giving me a funny look..."Who the heck are you writing to?"

Lucina said...

C.C.

invoke: cite, or call upon, ask
often prayers, i.e. We invoked God's help.

evoke: elicit, draw out
The teacher elicited answers from the students.
The puzzle sometimes elicits frustration.

ARBAON said...

What do you call someone who can`t get enough matza? A matzachist!

tinbenni: Fenholloway is yet another scotch/irish town in FL. (I have excellent reasons for not id-ing myself, BTW)

Having watched parades where kilt wearers marched, I once heard someone shout, "If you must wear a skirt, at least shave your legs."!
The kilt-wearer never missed a step and replied, " If ah everrrr wearrr ah skirrrrt, ah wiellll!"

MJ said...

Good day to all,

I thought this was a perfect Saturday puzzle, with very clever cluing. Found it really tough, so had to chip away at it, but enjoyed all the "Aha's" along the way. Getting WISHFULTHINKING and EXITINTERVIEW fairly early on certainly helped with the perps. The only square not completed at the end was the "I" in the cross of HAJIS and ILKA, as I knew neither of these, but have added them to the "something new to know" file.

Lemonade, congrats to you and your family on the welcome news of new life!

A joyful Easter to those who celebrate!

Lemonade714 said...

I enjoy puzzling, and enjoy difficult ones, but my comment on ELAN and SEPTIC is when I managed to fill them in from perps, I never had the V-8 moment. With CARATS, AVE and OAR, I understood the misdirection and loved the answer. I still do not get what would have led me to ELAN and SEPTIC, other than filling in all the other words. I guess I just like the head slap.

And for all of you who will be absent tomorrow for Easter, may you have a blessed day.

Jayce said...

Man oh man this was a hard puzzle. Had to look up several pieces of information on the internet, such as Seattle Slew and the John Cougar song.

All this talk of pecan pie reminds me of when my wife and I were newlyweds and invited some friends over for dinner, and we served pecan pie for dessert. As we were eating the pie my wife and I exchanged questioning looks, wondering why the pie tasted so weird. Turns out we forgot to put any sugar or corn syrup into it! Our guests were very polite in not mentioning how "nutty" it tasted, which actually was not all that bad after all.

Well, gonna go out and light up our tiki torches and rise above it all. Might even see fit to evoke an "egads" from my wife. Then again, maybe that's just wishful thinking.

Best regards to you all.

JimmyB said...

Glad to hear I was not alone in struggling with this one. I guessed right a few times, but mostly could not get on Mr. Nothnagel's wavelength.

For a long time I insisted on DR K for Dwight Gooden, so that prolonged my misery.

I never even think of attempting a NY Times Friday or Saturday, so if that's where our constructor lives, I think I'll continue to stay away. Like Carly Simon would say, "I haven't got time for the pain."

Oberhasli said...

Yikes! I was lost from the beginning on this puzzle. I read through the entire puzzle and only had 3 or 4 filled in. I googled and finally gave in and looked at the answers. I can only give an hour or so to Saturday puzzles without getting frustrated :-(

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Spitzboov said...

ALGOL - Kind of a goofy, very arcane clue. It's only a 2nd magnitude star, and not normally used in celestial navigation. (ie not one of the 57 stars normally used). So other than a professional astronomer, no one would know of it.
A better clue might have been: 'an early programming language.' (from the 50's)

Jerome said...

Lemonade- "...what exactly in the clue gets us to SEPTIC?" The key word in the clue, "Like many a residential system" is system. As in septic system.

Bill G. said...

Hi everybody. I decided against struggling with this hard themeless Saturday puzzle and after reading the comments, I think that turned out to be a good decision. I think I would have been badly frustrated and that's not the way I want to spend a Saturday morning.

Lucina said...

Lemonade:
I just went back to read last night's posts.

Congratulations! I'm sure you are a loving, wonderful uncle and greatuncle.

Wishing many blessings on the new one.

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

Lucina,
Thanks for the EVOKE and INVOKE explanation. I wonder if the prefix E and IN has anything to do with the meaning also.

Lemonade,
Whom do you pick for the Masters? Congratulations on becoming a great uncle!

Bill G,
Why can't your taste for crossword be like your appetite for food? :-)

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

Annette,
Those packaged coconut flakes are OK. In terms of texture & moisture, they are very similar to the fresh coconut flakes I make myself. Do you have coconut grooves in FL? I'd love to have fresh coconut water under a coconut tree.

frustrated said...

there should be a book full of insanely hard puzzles for expert solvers to enjoy. as for the rest of the masses, a somewhat difficult thursday, followed by a difficult friday, followed by a very difficult themeless saturday would be more enjoyable. maybe its just me, but today's puzzle was not even a learning experience.

Bill G. said...

C.C asked, "Bill G, Why can't your taste for crossword be like your appetite for food? :-)"

Heh heh, I think it is kind of similar. I try and like most all kinds of food. But if I were to try something several times and every time it gave me indigestion, I would probably stop trying and look for something else to enjoy. After reading these posts, I think this puzzle gave a bunch of folks indigestion. Also C.C., don't I remember that you said you enjoyed puzzles with themes more than themeless ones? I did the CrosSynergy puzzle today, stared at the finished puzzle trying to figure out the theme. Finally the D'oh moment hit me.

Chickie said...

Hello All--Starting off with Drag Racing, then Auto Games for Away Games caused erasure upon erasure.

I had trouble in other areas as well, so I erased so much that my numbers disappeared! That made it really hard to solve this puzzle, as if it weren't hard enough to begin with!

I had sandwich for Kid's lunch, and didn't know axel tree. I tried putting in cotter pin, then something to do with spokes, and nothing would fit. Frustration was my second name today.

The last three days have been a real slog for me and I've spent way too much time trying to get answers that just weren't there.

My whining is over for today.

Congratulations, Lemonade, on the new family member.

Fermatprime, I hope that the swimming therepy will help your arm.

We'll watch the "final four" games today. I'm not usually a basketball fan, but with two teams from our area in the first group of teams, we were inspired to watch and have become hooked.

Anonymous said...

Ditto on everyone's comments about today's puzzle.

Have a good Easter everyone.

Doreen

Warren said...

Hi C.C. & gang,

My wife and I finished today's in our usual style with me doing the online version in 'red'. She does the hard copy and we team up that way.

I knew that the Chase clue had to be a person with a last name of Chase but I had never heard of the answer name either. Reminds me somewhat of Fremont Older open space, there actually was a guy named that who created a nature open space reserve in Cupertino CA.

C.C. - Here's the Hit version of the Dianna Ross song that I remember hearing.

lois said...

Good evening CC, et al., After reading all the comments, I'm so glad not to have had time for this puzzle. CC, your response to 48A made me LMAO. Some great DF material. Too bad time is an issue tonight.

Fermatprime: the warm pool sounds fabulous. Hope it helps you physically. I would bet it will in every other aspect.

Lemonade: congratulations on the coming attraction and addition. How exciting. I have 2 married and no grandbabies, just grand pets. BTW, Shirley Heights is on the list but it won't be on Sunday. I arrive too late. It sounds like quite the fiesta on Sunday too. Sorry to miss that but I will get to see it.

Spitzboov: Only 57 stars usually used in celestial navigation? That strikes me as being awfully few for the number available. Are you a professional astronomer? You've piqued my interest. I'm going to learn how to navigate the open waters using a grid next week and was told it's no harder than playing bingo. How do you know about celestial navigation? Fascinating stuff. May be my next course if I can find it. What did Columbus do on cloudy nights?

I'm too wired to sleep but I hope you all enjoy your night.

Annette: thank you for the well wishes.. yesterday? I'll share pictures later.

Bill G. said...

Navigation was a big problem for sailors. They could calculate latitude fairly accurately and easily by using a sextant to measure the angle of elevation of the north star above the horizon. But longitude was a much tougher problem. You might enjoy a very good book simply called "Longitude." The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time is a best-selling book by Dava Sobel.

Anonymous said...

Bill G. @5:03 perfect response.

JD said...

Good evening to all you Easter bunnies and E. Bunny has-beens,

"Wishful thinking"was my mantra today; unfortunately, it did not wrap itself around this puzzle. Began with Asia Minor, followed by neonatal and EGADS! Not much traction. Many unknowns, a-ha's and a giggle with the placement of boners.Enjoyed the challenge, but left a few blanks.

fermaprime, so happy to hear you are swimming; hopefully your shoulder will react to the exercise.

Annette and Lois, thanks for your thoughtfulness.

Lemonade,how exciting for you-congrats!

Any ipad shoppers out there? not me; I'm still figuring out the computer!

another question: Do many of you find that some of "your" wasps build their nests near the ground in bushes? Supposedly they are good because they eat bugs, spiders, flies,etc. They use wood pulp to build those nests, scraping out of worn out fences, telephone poles and my house with their mandibles, and then mixing that with their saliva. ech!

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

Bill G,
Yeah, I definitely prefer themed puzzles.

Warren,
Beautiful pictures in your "Touch Me in the Morning" link. Thanks.

Lois,
Have a great trip! We'll be missing (and talking about) you. One question for you: Who do you think is the unsexisest man alive?

Spitzboov said...

Lois said Only 57 stars usually used in celestial navigation? That strikes me as being awfully few for the number available. Are you a professional astronomer?

You only need 3 stars properly spaced to get a good fix. 4 or 5 don't hurt especially in case you have a 'bust' in one of your readings. 2 can get you by and 1 gives you a Line of Position (LOP) which can get you a 'running fix".
I learned navigation in the Navy.
When it's cloudy, they would have used 'dead reckoning' until until a better fix could be obtained. Don't forget, Columbus' time did not have an accurate chronometer, so they would have sailed mostly by latitudes. Longitude capability was not available until the time of Capt. Cook in the 18th century.

Bill G. said...

C.C., OK, so you and I definitely like themed puzzles better. Probably everybody knows the answer to this question but me, but here goes anyway. Do you do other puzzles? Which ones are your favorites? Do they have Chinese crossword puzzles?

~ Bill G.

Anonymous said...

No fun! Hated this puzzle!!!

lois said...

Bill G: Thank you very much for the good response. Living around these historical waters I've seen sextants frequently in museums but nobody ever explained how they work. Thank you for that and for the book ref. I will definately get it. Wish I had it now.

Spitzboov: Great response. Thank you. It's amazing that those early explorers made it anywhere. It occurred to me that If they got lost, who would they have to ask directions from....silly me, they were guys and wouldn't have asked directions anyway, but that's beside the point. (no offense meant) I have always heard the term 'dead reckoning' but never knew where it came from. Now I want to know how that's done. Sounds like you had a very interesting job in the Navy. Did you stay in the navigation field?
What kind of ship?

CC: LMAO Ben Stein was the very first person who popped into my head for the unsexiest man alive, and I like him. I can only read him tho'. Michael Moore is a very close second.

Lucina said...

Lois:
Have a wonderful holiday! I can't wait to hear tales of your adventures.
Bon Voyage!

Spitzboov said...

Lois: In their wisdom I served in the Engineering department. Main Propulsion. But I liked it. My ship is shown in the photo which is my avatar, a Fletcher class destroyer.

Bill G. said...

Lois said: "LMAO Ben Stein was the very first person who popped into my head for the unsexiest man alive, and I like him. I can only read him tho'. Michael Moore is a very close second."

Good choices. I was thinking who were among the unsexiest (well-known) women alive. While I respect some of them for their accomplishments, ones that come to mind are Barbara Walters, Hillary Clinton, Mo'Nique, Roseanne Barr, Yoko Ono, Madelaine Albright and Rosie O'Donnell. Of course, they would probably put me on their lists too. :>)

MR ED said...

It's 'coconut 'milk' and it's good.

Gong Li is for me!

lois said...

Spitzboov: As long as you liked the job, that's all that matters in my book. Your avatar is spectacular! When I looked at it close up, I could see that it's firing! How cool is that! What a picture! I was crossing the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel today and a battleship was coming home. If I had been 30 secs to a min later, it would've been right over me...hmmm, all those men...dang the luck. But what a sight! It was magnificent. I was driving and couldn't take a picture. Sure wish I could have. Thank you for your service. And thank your family too. I'm learning first hand the difficulties of a navy wife. My #2 daughter is married to a Navy man - in Peru right now on the Carl Vinson on his way to San Diego, leaving her here to sell the house and do everything else. It's not a life for sissies. No aspect of military life is.

BillG: Funny guy. Good choices and I agree on all but one. I think Bahbwa Wawa is attwactive, and she's got a good sense of humor, hidden most of the time but she can be very funny. Like your call, my 2 choices would probably say the same thing about me. Probably call me a 2 bagger or worse maybe.

CC: Meant to say also that it's ok if you talk about me while I'm gone...as long as they're all lies. I think Katherine Hepburn said that somewhere. I'll look forward to reading all the comments when I get back.

Anonymous said...

this one really stunk up the place! i am sure a lot of people tossed it.

Anonymous said...

You forgot Andrew Jackson’s Big Block of Cheese with nary a macaroni in sight.