google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday June 12, 2010 Brad Wilber

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Jun 12, 2010

Saturday June 12, 2010 Brad Wilber

Theme: None

Total words: 68

Total blocks: 25

Quite low black square count. Brad places four multi-word grid-spanners in his puzzle:

14A. Source of overcompensating bravado: NAPOLEON COMPLEX. Overcompensate for their short stature. Type of Inferiority Complex.

17A. Stay away: DISTANCE ONESELF. Nice one.

46A. 2009 addition to Wimbledon's Centre Court: RETRACTABLE ROOF. My favorite answer today, esp since I nailed it.

49A. Like a master criminal: SLIPPERY AS AN EEL. Lively entry.

I had a slightly easier time with this Brad offer. I normally struggle mightily with his puzzles. Probably because I nailed a few long ones. Or the ladders (those strings of black squares along the diagonal line) gridding made the puzzle more accessible, as many entries share the same starting letter.

Still had to cheat.

Across:

1. One in a coup group: USURPER. Assonance in the clue. Brad has six 7-letter & 8-letter entries today.

8A. Tenochtitlán founders: AZTECS. Tenochtitlán was the capital of Aztecs. Present day Mexico City. Unknown to me.

18. Old Greek theater: ODEON. My first toehold.

19. Carpenter with drums: KAREN. Boomer loves Karen Carpenter. He just bowled a 300 yesterday.

20. Van Halen's "Somebody Get __ Doctor": ME A. Not familiar with the song.

21. Start of an intermission?: ENTR. Start of Entr'acte (intermission). Got me.

22. Seedless greenhouse denizens: FERNS. Always associate "denizens" with animals, not plant.

23. Judicial seat: BANC

24. Flare, maybe: SOS. Got it via crosses.

25. Makes an example of: CITES

26. Declaration in a playground game: NOT IT. "Tag" declaration.

27. Vitamin K source: CHARD. So are most dark green veggies. Need fat to best utilize the Vitamin K. Or any vitamin, right, Al?

28. Over: FINITO

29. Yin and yang, e.g.: DUALITY. Yin & Yang is factored in my cooking.

32. One who doesn't do Windows?: MAC USER. Nailed it.

33. Native Alaskans: INUITS

34. Seemingly charmed entrepreneur: MIDAS. I don't get this clue. Why "charmed"?

35. Rival of Sparta: ARGOS. I can only think of PERSIANS.

36. Like unsorted mail: PILED

37. Beaut: GEM

40. Course objectives for many: PARS. Golf course. I'd be happy with a bogey on a par 5.

41. Black-tie events: BALLS

42. Florida's __ Chica Key: BOCA. Have never heard of this island. It's about 3 miles east of Key West. Wikipedia also says Boca Chica is literally "small mouth" in Spanish.

43. Ophelia's niece, in "Uncle Tom's Cabin": EVA

44. Actress Palmer: LILLI. Nope. Not in my radar. German actress.

45. Peer's realm, perhaps: DUCHY. Oh, Duke's realm.

50. Impertinent: SNIPPY. Much better than our normal edge word SASSY.

51. Loses all its water: RUNS DRY

Down:

1. Annuls: UNDOES

2. Declined: SAID NO

3. Sports page headline grabbers: UPSETS. Did not leap to me quickly.

4. Turning part: ROTOR. So simple in retrospect.

5. Design: PLAN

6. Morn's opposite: E'EN

7. Hobby involving launches: ROCKETRY. Sign up and ride along with all the punks.

8. Nuts in cupules: ACORNS. Cupule is a new word to me.

9. Tunes (out): ZONES

10. Bootleggers' nemeses: T-MEN

11. Mini-albums, for short: EPS

12. Showy arbor vine: CLEMATIS. The one with the red flowers.

13. Crystalline gypsum variety: SELENITE. Named after Greek moon goddess Selene. And then mineral suffix-ite. New word to me also.

15. Approached: NEARED

16. Unknown: X FACTOR. Noun "Unknown".

22. Edicts: FIATS

23. Employee of the Month incentive: BONUS

25. Markers: CHITS

26. Battery acronym : NICAD (Nickel-cadmium battery)

27. Madison Avenue honors: CLIOS. Advertising awards.

28. Diminishes: FADES

29. Nursery supply: DIAPERS. Was picturing plants/flowers.

30. Figures out: UNRAVELS

31. With a browned crust, as potatoes: AU GRATIN. I like oven fried potatoes. You?

32. Air pressure unit: MILLIBAR. Another new word. Milli = One Thousandth.

34. First woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: MILLAY. Edna St. Vincent Millay. Was unaware of this trivia.

36. Meager: PALTRY

37. Expand the admission pool, in a way: GO COED

38. Parrot: ECHOER

39. Bass prey: MAYFLY. Had no idea that bass eats mayflies.

41. Arm wrestler's pride, as it's commonly called: BICEP

42. Seethes: BURNS

44. Reindeer herder: LAPP. The northern Norwegian. Kept thinking of Santa and his reindeer, Argyle!

45. Academic list keeper: DEAN

47. Engineering sch. on the Hudson: RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute). Learned from doing Xword.

48. Sch. with a yearbook called the Gumbo: LSU. Interesting trivia. Good to know.

Answer grid.

JD's Crossword Story continues. See her C installment.

C.C.

54 comments:

Argyle said...

Good Morning, C.C. and all your followers,

Were there a lot of foreign words that weren't clued as such or was it just me? Maybe not WTF but a few "Oh, really?".

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

The top half of this puzzle went smoothly enough, but I really went off the rails in the bottom half.

Things I did not know include LILLI, EVA, ARGOS and BOCA. Things I could not guess without crosses include DUCHY, RPI, LSU. And things I initially got wrong include GALAS instead of BALLS, DRIES UP instead of GOES DRY and SCANTY instead of PALTRY. Add in those looooong answers at 46A and 49A, and the result was not pretty.

I did finally manage to UNRAVEL the whole thing, but it wasn't helped by the fact that I refused to consider that 42D could be anything other than BOIL or ROIL for the longest time. I suppose seethe can mean BURN metaphorically-speaking, but it literally means BOIL.

Anyway, favorite clue today goes to "One who doesn't do Window".

Have a great one!

Dick said...

Sorry, but Brad Wilber can keep this puzzle. There was absolutely no fun in this solve and it remained a slog the entire way.

Barry G. said...

Hey -- I thought I was the official curmudgeon around here...

Tinbeni said...

C.C. Great write-up. It explained all the clues (many) I had "No idea" what was being referenced.

If you asked me who won the last Pulitzer Prize in Poetry I would probably say CA. Millay did the perp walk and that was an easy area for me this morning.

BOCA Chica Key got a WTF? Not the most well known Key even for a Floridian.

All-in-All a big Ink Blot DNF, **it happens!

Bob said...

Pretty straightforward Saturday puzzle. 28 minutes to complete.

Raymond Bednarz said...

Ray B. Sarah Teasdale won The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1918. Edna St. Vincent Millay in 1923. A little discrepency here

Splynter said...

I was OK with this one -

At least I had it filled in...cheated on seleNite (baNc?)and I did not know who Lilli was - I thought elves herded reindeer...I did ONE semester at RPI; not a social outlet, let me tell you...I got started with SOS for a Flare, X factor, and I KNEW that Wimbledon got a new roof, too. All in all, 24mins, and I consider that a win on Sat. I liked "don't do Windows" the best. Dropping friends at the airport, gotta go.
Enjoy the weekend

Tinbeni said...

Per Wiki:

The Pulitzer Prize in Poetry has been presented since 1922 for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author.

However, special citations for poetry were presented in 1918 and 1919.
(Sara Teasdale, Special citation)

Per Wiki:
1922: Collected Poems by Edwin Arlington Robinson (First man)

1923: The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver: A Few Figs from Thistles: Eight Sonnets in American Poetry, 1922. A Miscellany by Edna St. Vincent Millay
(First woman as clue indicated)

I still think it goes to CA.

Anonymous said...

Where's the main man this morning?

Lrc said...

Good morning.

Very difficult top third for me until I finally gave up on LYCEE for 18A; then things finally came together. Lycee reminds me of Jr High days; I seem to recall that we had "Lyceum" day 1 or 2 years but I do not recall what we saw or did. Was it a play or concert? Just wondering if this was common to others in the 60's?

Is 23A BANC a xword abbreviation for banquette? Or am I missing something?

Andrea said...

Morning all -

I think it would be faster for me to tell you the answers I got on my own today, instead of the ones I didn't know... Lots of help required to get through this one.

Zoe and I are off to space - thanks Lois!

Lemonade714 said...

Like BOCA CHICA KEY, EN BANC is a concept known to a limited few, mostly attorneys who do appellate work.

Funny, my first pass through this puzzle, I thought it was ridiculously hard, then when the 15 letters all filled it was done, and not as hard as many Saturdays. These hard ones are supposed to be hard, and are how we learn to be better. have a good week end

Dudley said...

Morning, Puzzlers - An impressive construction, I'd say. Took a while to piece together some of the long entries. I gather AU GRATIN is common enough not to be foreign, but what about FINITO? Is that even a real word? I didn't trust it.

Managed a solid no-peek finish, ultimately.

About millibar: it's from the metric system. One Bar is the pressure of the atmosphere at sea level, a tad less than 15 pounds per square inch. The prefix
"milli" means a thousandth; its use makes things easier, since pressure changes of just a few millibars are routinely measured and recorded all over the world, every day, every hour.

Al said...

@C.C., There are two kinds of vitamins. The fat-soluble ones are A,D,E, and K. The water soluble ones are the B complex and C.

Whether vitamins are fat soluble or not is a very important distinction, as fat is stored in the body, so it is possible to over-accumulate those types if you take too many supplements. It is also possible to be deficient if you don't eat enough of the right fats; one of the reasons a no-fat or even a low-fat diet is not a good thing.

You don't need to worry much about taking large doses of water soluble vitamins, as the excess will simply wash out.

Another reason fat is important is that it helps absorb phytonutrients. They have been found to inactivate cancer-causing substances, stimulate the immune system, protect the heart from disease, and help prevent cataracts. Phytochemicals promote human health by strengthening the human immune system and blood vessels, by fighting tumors, and through other activities. Many of these non-nutritive substances have potent biological activity and may help to lower risk for many chronic diseases.

You should try to eat a rainbow of veggies using home-made dressings with olive, almond or avocado oils. If you use fat-free dressings, then you aren't absorbing everything you need from your food. Almost all store-bought dressings have HFCS as their first or second ingredient, and they mostly use omega-6 oils, which you already get too much of. Cruets have fill line markings for the vinegar/water/oil proportions, so making your own dressing is as easy as filling and shaking, and you had to do the shaking even if you bought it.

JD said...

Good morning CC and all,
The theme of this puzzle for me was "What letter fits here?" or Ah-ha ha ha.I actually finished the whole thing!My 1st rotation gave me only 6 A's and just as few downs. From then on it was Mr G (Millay & millibar), thesaurus (fiats...who knew?), and WAGS(Midas, ferns, Boca).

I did mental abc's too many times to figure out the one correct letter: _ites,c_ios, and my last fill: ma_user!I read morn as mom :-( and Athens would not fit into Argos.I had pass for pars and then had that a-ha moment.Actually, most fills were a-ha moments.LOL!

Love red potatoes cut up into 1/4'' slices, tossed with olive oil , parmesan, and some rosemary.Cover with foil and bake for 40 min @ 350.Easy and yummy!

Clear Ayes said...

Good Morning All, I blinked once, twice and three times when I saw the grid on this one. WOW! Stacked and packed is hardly descriptive enough. Brad Wilbur did his best to give us a Saturday Stumper....he succeeded!

Three letter shorties EPS and RPI were unknowns and had to wait for the Acrosses to fill them in. Both SELENITE and MILLIBAR were best guesses.

The NW was bad for me. (1A) USURPER was terribly stubborn. The worst was the SE. Struggling with GO COED and MAY FLY (Who knew?) made RUNS DRY almost impossible. I had RUNS OUT and RUNS OFF. RUNS DRY was my last fill and I had to come here to make sure.

With the help of the perps, the 15 letter across fill were probably the easiest.

I thought of Sara Teasdale for 34D, but MILLAY was perpable AND fit. I G'd to make sure and while I was looking up MILL..., I checked on MILLIBAR.

Tinbeni, LOL thanks for the vote of confidence about poetry skills, but "those who can, do. Those who can't, post on a blog"...or something like that.

JD, I love roasted red potatoes with rosemary too. Delicious!

Clear Ayes said...

I bet you thought I'd post an Edna St Vincent Millay poem, but she can wait for another day. This one is for Al, who mentioned avocado oil and the importance of fresh veggies. Avocado is a fruit, but it is also full of important nutrients. Just kidding around here, Al. Your posts are always interesting and informative.

The following poem is from "Collection" by Bruce Boston, which won the 2008 Stoker Award for poetry. It is a lovely guacamole of horror and humor.

AVOCADO HORROR

An avocado is
the choicest of fruits,
for fruit it is,
even though its
flesh is not sweet.

The dark green
grainy variety
yield the best meat.

Cut it up on
a bed of lettuce,
add salt, ground pepper,
and toss vigorously
with balsamic vinaigrette.

Or whip up a spicy
guacamole with fresh
tomato and onions
and jalapeno peppers.

One way to eat an avocado
is to cut it in half,
remove the seed,
and fill each
curvaceous cavity
with the finely sliced
flesh of your victims.

To savor this rare
delicacy raw is
the rumored delight
of the discerning
gourmet cannibal.

Meat, flesh, and all,
it remains an avocado,
choicest of all fruits.

- Bruce Boston

Jerome said...

C.C.- Entr' acte: Intermission between acts in a play.

Everything Midas touched turned to gold, so it seems he was charmed. Charmed meaning "lucky" or "prosperous"

Anonymous said...

@al, what vinegar do you recommend?

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. Whooo boy, this was a hard one! As is my wont, I started out all the acrosses first. Got nowhere until INUITS, and even then I thought, "Naw, too easy. It can't be right." Then when I knew LILLI Palmer I started to feel a little less despairing.

The I started on the downs and immediately pencilled in WHEEL for "turning part" and EVE for "morn's opposite." Of course that really screwed me up. Putting in GMEN instead of TMEN prevented me from getting AZTEC, which, in retrospect, I really should have had no trouble with. But I guess that's the forehead-slapping feeling one usually gets when viewing things in retrospect.

I pencilled in BONUS right away, and misspelled CLEMETIS, which made BENC as "judgicial seat" seem like a typesetting error. Scratched my head a lot over that one, and even when I finally spelled CLEMATIS correctly, I still didn't know what the heck a BANC is.

And FINITO? Jeeeeeeeeeez.

MIDAS made me scratch my head, too, since I always thought he was a king, not an entrepreneur. Of course I put in TRUMP at first, which was WAAAY wrong on so many levels!

LAPP was a gimme, but since I already had LILLI, it didn't help much.

As an electronics engineer, I really really should have gotten NICAD right off the bat, but my brain kept trying to squeeze LI ION (lithium ion) in there.

The barriers began to finally fall when SLIPPERYASANEEL emerged and I got rid of WHEEL and EVE. That allowed NAPOLEONCOMPLEX and DISTANCEONESELF to emerge, and the rest, like the walls of Jericho, or maybe like Rapunzel's hair, came tumbling down.

In retrospect (hehe) I really liked this puzzle!

Favorites: MACUSER and GOCOED.

Least favorites: ENTR and FINITO.

So Boca is "mouth" in Spanish, eh? So what does Boca Raton translate to? (I could look it up but it's more fun to just ask yawl here.)

Congratulations to Boomer for bowling 300! That doesn't happen often, I'm sure.

I, too, like potatoes cooked in the oven, but good ol' steamed is great, too.

Nice "Cee" work there, JD!

May Yin and Yang be balanced within you all this fine weekend.

Jayce

MJ said...

Good day to all.

I sure missed the train on this one today. Far too many unknowns for me to complete without help. However, I do think the grid layout is lovely.

Congratulations, Boomer, on your 300 game!

Dudley, belated best wishes for your anniversary. What a fun way to celebrate.

JD, I'm enjoying the "alphabet soup". Fun, fun fun!

Enjoy the day!

JimmyB said...

No shared wavelength with Mr. Wilber today. Stalled out in the SE corner, especially with BOCA and ECHOER.

Lemonade714 - Thanks for explaining BANC. Never heard of that one. And Al: thanks for the nutrition lesson and the link to phytonutrients.

Way to go Boomer! That's about three games worth of points for me.

Anonymous said...

Folks - Brad Wilber puzzles are supposed to be hard. Don't be discouraged.

Bob

JD said...

Al, love your blogs. I always learn something useful from them. Great phrase: "rainbow of veggies."

Dudley, is that how hurricanes are detected?

CA, mmmm, nothing better than an avocado/salami sandwich! When I was a child we had 7 avocado trees in the backyard, but I wasn't allowed to eat them as my parents thought I was allergic to them. I wasn't.I had a rash on my neck and arm whenever I got nervous or embarrassed.I was teased constantly by my 3 older sisters.

Someone please explain: Peer's realm...duchy. Who is the duke? All I could think of was Peer Gynt from Norway?!??

Are we all enjoying the buzzing of the vuvuzelas? Annoying, but I'm enjoying the games.In 1994 the team from Brazil was staying here in Los Gatos. What a hoot that was. There actually was dancing in the streets!

JD said...

D

Discouraged and feeling drossy, Dre dangled a dobber into the Daa, deftly dapping for dace, while dining on dates and dasheen. A dray of ditsy donkeys dandered down the dene. Like asses, the deck of dummies endeavored to encircle the dude. Deeming that the drink was wadi wady, the dolts decanted and drowned.
If an ass falls into the depths and no one hears him, did it really happen? I think not.

Chickie said...

Hello All--My first pass through the puzzle gave me exactly a half dozen answers. I almost gave up, then the bottom half began to fill in and I finished all but the two long across fills at the top. Usurper never did come and I had about four other synonyms for annul. It was a duh moment when undoes revealed itself! Sometimes the easiest is the hardest.

I didn't finish the puzzle on my own today, but it was a learning experience. That's what it is all about for me.

I've heard of the Napoleon Complex before, but the words just wouldn't emerge. The words I did have were all correct, so thanks to C.C. I could fill in the missing letters.

I finished up while the TV had the US/Britsh soccer game in progress. A 1-1 tie isn't bad.

Maybe I shouldn't try to do two things at once!

Have a great Sat. everyone.

Chickie said...

JD, I just had to compliment you on the D's today. Your stories actually make sense and are very creative. Huzza!

I had to leave the room while the last half of the soccer game was going. The buzzing on the TV, even with the sound turned down, was too much.

Dudley said...

JD - Yes. Keeping track of barometric pressure has been a means of weather prediction for centuries, and it's still a big part. Of course, we have better means of spotting hurricanes today (satellite imaging especially) long before their pressure signatures can be felt in the U.S.

BOCA RATON came up a few months ago, I think, and as I recall it's Rat's Mouth.

Opinions: is NiCad a true acronym since it uses more than just the first letter of each word (nickel and cadmium)?

Avocado, mmmm. Roast potatoes and rosemary, MMMMMMM.

Thanks all for your kind anniversary wishes. It's #2 for us, got off to a late start! We really lucked out on having just good enough weather to get to our destination by air, since today we're back to soggy weather.

Tinbeni said...

Chickie
Trust me the USA Won.

1 to 1 vs England.

Ah, I know that is a DRAW.
Tomorrow's papers in London will report it as a loss.

JD
Thank god they have turned down the "live" sound to overcome the vuvuzelas.
Game has been over for a half hour and I can still hear the bees buzzing in my head.

MR ED said...

Thanks Al.

Dennis said...

Good afternoon, C.C. and gang - had a very late night last night followed by a softball game this morning followed by a one-hour nap followed by a bbq party, so I just now finished the puzzle. Wow. I truly hope that the previous 24 hours negatively affected my few remaining brain cells, 'cause I had quite a go with this one. Looks like many of us had the same problems, so I'll not rehash them. A couple of my unique ones were putting 'aleuts' for 'Native Alaskans', and 'uncovers' for 'Figures out'. Oh, and 'galas' for 'Black-tie events.' Great, tough puzzle; lots of enjoyment from this one, especially with the long fills.

anon@9:50, there is no 'main man' here. There is a 'main woman', and that would be our leader, C.C. The rest of us are her ardent admirers and 100% equal among ourselves. Except for a couple anons, of course, who were premature escapees from the gene pool.

Here's the story behind the name of my current favorite haunt, Boca Raton.

JD, so far your alphabetical anecdotes are amazing!

Time to plant my ass on the dock and vegetate for a while. Hope it's a great weekend for everyone.

Annette said...

Boomer, 300 - way to go!

Wow, it's pretty intimidating to see all that white space and long fills when you first see a blank puzzle!

I made a half-hearted attempt at the puzzle late last night before deciding I was too sleepy. It wasn't going well AT ALL, so I planned to skip it today.

Well, I broke down and tried it anyway, and was doing slightly better...the next thing I knew, I was "gettin' 'er done!" It wasn't easy by any means, and I did have a few accidental cheats like having glimpsed some posts about MILLAY and BOCA that I didn't know. I'm not sure if I'd have figured them out on my own or not.

Others filled in themselves, because I sure didn't know them, but somehow I guessed right! Where in the world did I ever hear of Lilli Palmer before, and guess at spelling it right?!

I read Morn correctly at 1 am, but hadn't saved the puzzle since there was so little solved on it. When I tried again this evening, I MIS-read it as Mom!

JD, does that mean if I'm a clutz who trips down the stairs to the dance floor and makes an ass of myself (actually happened years ago...), as long as nobody saw me do it, then it really didn't happen? YES!!! :-)

Anonymous said...

Want to get an insight into what Brad Wilbur thinks and a free puzzle to boot? This is his new blog.

JD said...

Annette, I'm sure it never happened, but if you got any ouchies, it "might" have happened...
and @mom, maybe we should break down and wear our reading glasses while doing these puzzles.I couldn't understand why pop or dad did not work.

Hard life, Dennis, sitting out on the dock.

Speaking of no balls, isn't it docking time Windhover? Nasty job.

Dennis said...

Hard life, Dennis, sitting out on the dock.

Speaking of no balls,....

Lol, JD, nice shot.

Lemonade714 said...

Dennis:

You picked a nice write up for BOCA, where even the people begging at street lights wear shoes designed by BLAHNIK .

Peer = member of nobility, part of the House of Lords, PEER of the REALM.

As explained earlier, BANC means bench in Legalese; you all have hear the phrase, “The Bench And Bar?” .

Go USA!

Speaking of respect and no balls, ANON it is WILBER not WILBUR, he is not a talking horse, of course. They have no fingers and cannot do CW puzzles

I bowled three hunred last time I went, but it took me three games, show off!

Janet said...

From Anon 5:08. Sorry I misspelled Brad WilbEr's name Lemonade714. I was trying to be helpful. I thought you all might be interested in a free Wilber puzzle. I don't have a blog account. I didn't think my name mattered as long as I wasn't being rude, although Lemonade714 was rude in his reply to me. My name is Janet. Is that somehow better? I guess new people who don't have an account aren't welcome.

Wilbur said...

looks like lemonade714 could use a lemmon714!!

Tinbeni said...

Janet 6:18
Before the night is over, probably 10 people will welcome you to this blog.

Those who comment rarely and don't desire to set up an account did just like you did, clicked on the name button and enter whatever they want.

But if you have read the comments here ... we do have an Anon lurker who can be a little out-of-sorts.

Oh, well ... welcome to the party.

MJ said...

Dennis, your 4:30 post nailed it.

In honor of potatoes, and Al's "rainbow of veggies" suggestion, here are the fixings for (most of) our dinner for tonight. Red potatoes with green and red bell peppers and onions, to be pan sauteed. Salad of romaine lettuce with persian cucumber and tomato. Cole slaw with red and green cabbage, grated carrot, diced jicama, and maybe a bit of the peppers, as well. I'd better get busy. I'm hungry just thinking about it.

Welcome Janet! Please go blue and join this fun, and at times, zany group.

JD said...

Hey Janet, thanks for posting the Brad Wilber site. I enjoyed reading it. When did Lemonade become the spelling police? Maybe he was trying to be humorous, but it did sound rude, especially to a new comer.We all make errors and don't bother to fix them since CC lets us have 5 posts a day.I hope you will continue to post as this is a fun group.

windhover said...

You can relax, Dennis. Docking is removing the tail of the lamb, usually at about three days of age. The other procedure, removing the, shall we say, seeds, is no longer done at Windhover Farm. The guys enjoy their entire but brief lives completely intact in that department. And the pair adds about $8 to the value when the time comes. Some people consider them a delicacy. I personally would not want to live without them.
Lemonade714, in addition to be one of two (that I know of) resident blog legal resource, is a noted wit. His posts should be read and received that way.
Janet: You aren't up to ten (as predicted) yet, but here's one more welcome. You will need a sense of humor and occasionally a thick skin. We have a history of irresponsible Anons, so most are viewed with suspicion. For whatever reason, tacking a name at the end of your post, even a fake one, seems to smooth feathers.
Again, welcome, but lighten up. He's really a nice guy.

Jerome said...

Janet and JD- I found not the slightest bit of rudeness in Lemonade's post. But I can see how someone might. In this case it seems obvious to me he was trying a little jocularity- "... he is not a talking horse, of course." Remember the theme song?

Janet, you're absolutely welcome.

JD- your love of words is wonderful! One of the things that makes it so damn cool is that you're having fun with it. I must say, however, when you get to X... good luck.

Argyle said...

Janet, I welcome you and thank you for you mistake. I had the same mistake on my blog and had to rush over and change it!

dodo said...

Atfirst glance this puzzle looked like a killer but once I got going it fell together nicely until I got to the SE corner. I still question 'burns' for 'seethes'. My
pocket dictionarydefines 'seethes'
as 'becomes violently agitated'. The unabriged Random House will no doubt have more, but 'burns?'

Jayce, I did a lot of the same things you did: Gmen messing up Aztec, which, like you,I should have had as a gimmie and 'eve' for e'en. The abbreviation threw me! But I won't fault 'finito'; I think it's sort of accepted casual slang(?) these days. And how in the world did you know Lilli Palmer? You must be older than I supposed. I thought she was great and disappeared much too early. Didn't she do some things with Rex Harrison?

Clearayes, you've really done it again! What a cute one even with its Hannibal Lectorish tinge! I don't know a soul who doesn't love avocados, and they're so good for you! It's just the @#$%@# calories!
And if you tend to too much potassium, don't over-indulge.

JD, each one of your alphabet essays gets better! I especially liked this one with its terrific alliteration. Of course, you're dealing with my alliterated initials!

Somehow I failed to notice any mention of Boomer's 300 bowling score but congrats, Boom!

Janet, welcome! Pay no attention to Lemonade. If you had heard his joke face to face you'd know he was joshing. I hope you'll go blue, which means set up an account, putting up a profile and an avatar and letting us know something about you. You can read some of ours by clicking on the blue names. I think this is an exceptional group! And thanks for the info about Wilber's blog and free puzzle! Take the plunge!

Dennis said...

Janet, welcome, and thanks for the link; well worth the trip. Hope you hang in with the blog -- it's also well worth it.

windhover said...

BTW,
I really don't give a damn about eating lamb fries, it's my own that I would not want to live without. Just clearing that up.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

I was about done with a brilliant post when my computer blew up. It took so long to bake it, and I'll never have the recipe again.

So, I'll just welcome Janet, and call it a night.

It's a night!
JzB

Dudley said...

JzB - MacArthur Park meets blitch! Funny stuff!

Lemonade714 said...

LEMMON 714, awwww.

Janet, if I appeared rude, I am sorry, but I really thought my MR.ED reference was pretty funny (no back up Mr. Ed?) I appreciated you taking the effort to enlighten us about Brad's Blog. Thank those of you who had my back (thanks King J), I guess I will also get chided for making fun of shoes or people from Boca, or my lack of bowling prowess...hmmm, I wondr, does Blahnik do bowling shoes? Oh, Sarah Jessica....

Jazzbumpa said...

Lemonade -

You don't got no bowling prowess,
Na-na-na-na-nah!

(Neither do I, if that's any consolation.)

Cheers!
JzB

Anonymous said...

Au Gratin means with cheese...not browned, although they may be.

Argyle said...

Anon, if that is your real name, look it up. Au gratin means topped with the scrapings from the edges and bottom of the pan. (But hey, I always thought it meant cheese, too.)