google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday July 17, 2010 Barry Silk

Advertisements

Jul 17, 2010

Saturday July 17, 2010 Barry Silk

Theme: None

Total words: 70

Total blocks: 27

Average Word length: 5.66 (Our normal Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday is often under 5.)

This puzzle is anchored by two 12s:

26A. Plotting problem, perhaps : WRITER'S BLOCK. Story plotting.

43A. Plan to minimize losses : EXIT STRATEGY. Could be the seed entry.

Barry also placed triple stacks of 8s in the NW & SE quadrants and triple columns of 9s in the NE and SW quadrants.

No scrabbly J/Q/Z, normally a Silk hallmark.

Across:

1. Voter reaction of sorts : BACKLASH. Had BA* immediately.

9. Come forward : STEP UP

15. Liqueur often used to flavor tiramisu : AMARETTO. Also WHISKEY (37. Jell-O shot ingredient).

16. Benedict XIII's family name : ORSINI. No idea. Wikipedia says the Orsini family has produced three popes.

17. Emeril might make one with provolone : TUNA MELT. Emeril is a fun guy.

18. Slangy "got that right!" : BETCHA. You betcha!

19. Certain Honshu native : OSAKAN

20. Followers: Suff. : ITES. Filled in ISTS first.

22. Auntie Em's st. : KAN. "The Wizard of Oz".

23. A transfer might entail one, briefly : RELO. Thought of plane/bus transfer. Not job transfer.

24. Gang follower? : STER. Gangster.

25. High guy : ALTO. Oh, high voice guy.

30. Office efficiency meas. : WPM (Words Per Minute)

33. Jungian archetype : ANIMA. Jung's inner self, as opposed to "persona".

34. Café drinker's request : LECHE. "Milk" in Spanish.

35. Big talk : ORATION

39. Simple organism : MONAD. New word to me. Single cell.

40. Milo, e.g. : GRAIN. I've never heard of milo, an early-growing, usually drought-resistant grain sorghum, resembling millet.

42. Tom Hayden's '60s org. : SDS (Students for a Democratic Society)

46. Luxor's river : NILE. Luxor is city in Central Egypt. On the Nile. I bet our Mr. Ed knows.

47. High in the French Alps? : HAUT. The feminine is Haute, as in Haute Couture/Cuisine.

48. Organization with many boomers : AARP

52. Wee : SMA. Small.

53. __ Mawr : BRYN

54. Google Earth, e.g. : MAPPER. Er word...

56. Apt to change : LABILE. Another new word.

58. Ojibwa speakers : CHIPPEWA. They are a big tribe here in MN.

60. Torino's home : ITALIA

61. Cramped : HAMPERED

62. Past : BEYOND

63. Waits for, at an intersection : YIELDS TO

Down:

1. Ulan __ : BATOR. Mongolia capital.

2. Tickle : AMUSE

3. Place for a low bridge : CANAL. Did not come to me readily.

4. Former capital on the Vistula River : KRAKOW. No idea. Capital of Poland (1038-1596).

5. 1964 British Open winner : LEMA. The Champagne Tony. It sure would not be British Open without wind, would it? Rory, Go!

6. Rate __: be perfect : A TEN

7. N.L. Central team : STL. St. Louis Cardinals.

8. Brisk seller : HOT ITEM

9. Gets serious : SOBERS

10. A third of nueve : TRES. Spanish for "three". Nueve is "nine".

11. Pawtucket hrs. : EST

12. Thieves' tools : PICKLOCKS

13. Like a dinosaur embryo : UNHATCHED. I don't get this clue. Know nothing about dinosaur.

14. They activate hammers : PIANO KEYS. Ear hammers? I was stumped.

21. Huge amount of power : TERAWATT. Equals to one trillion watts. Tera is a prefix for "one trillion". (Sorry for the "suffix" error earlier.)

24. 1963 Chevrolet debut : STINGRAY. Don't know the history.

25. They're often drawn : ALES

27. Speakeasy owners' concerns : RAIDS

28. Rescuer of Odysseus : INO. Pronounced like "I know", right? Sea goddess who rescued Odysseus from drowning by giving him a magic veil.

29. Rappers' accessories, in slang : BLING

30. Betty Friedan cause : WOMEN'S LIB. Have dimly heard of the name Betty Friedan.

31. Close : PROXIMATE. Awesome entry.

32. 1898 battle site : MANILA BAY. Spanish-American War battle site.

36. Where Gainsboroughs hang : TATE. Tate Galleries.

38. Step on it : HIE. Was thinking the clue is asking for the "it", you know, like PEDAL.

41. Like dirty jokes : RAUNCHY

44. Nut feature : THREAD. Again, I was picturing edible nuts. Not nuts/bolts/screws.

45. Went on and on : YAPPED. Man, John Daly just can't stop talking to the reporters.

49. Some parodists : APERS

50. Keep from drying out : REWET. I rewater, so I suppose it's OK to REWET.

51. Madrid must-see : PRADO

53. Russian pancake : BLIN

54. Some street art : MIME. Needed crossing help.

55. Kitchen item: Abbr. : APPL. OK, appliance.

57. 1969 Peace Prize-winning agcy. : ILO (International Labor Organization)

59. River through Beijing : HAI. Hai River. Hai is literally "sea" in Chinese. Love the new clue.

Answer grid.


Here is Part VII of Kazie's Oz series. The last ones of the Northern Territory, still in Kakadu.

C.C.

50 comments:

Lemonade714 said...

Barry Silk, what a wonderful way to end the week. So many inventive and fresh clues and fill and some very hard ones like LABILE and MILO, but it all filled and I was happy. Off to Orlando to watch Devin and his band play, enjoy all.

Dennis said...

Good morning, C.C. and gang - it's always a pleasure to have a Silky Saturday, and this puzzle didn't disappoint. It was by no means easy, which made it a lot of fun.

Fortunately, 1D was pretty apparent, which helped me fill in the rest of the NW. Got stuck in the NE, though, and slid all the way to the SE before I got anything filled in again. Didn't know 'Orsini', never heard of 'picklocks', only 'lock picks', wrote in 'petrified' for 13D, etc. etc. I have no idea how I knew 'Ojibwa' was Cherokee, but it popped right out which helped that whole section. Then in the SW, I got 30D and 31D, but as with Lemonade, never heard of 'labile', and would've expected 52A, 'wee', to have (Scottish) as part of the clue.

All in all, a nice way to start the weekend; maybe Barry will check in with the seed entry for this one.

C.C., the simple answer regarding piano keys: when you hit a piano key, it activates a felt-covered 'hammer' that hits its respective string and gives the sound.



Today is Peach Ice Cream Day. I, however, am gonna pretend it's Go Shopping Day.

Did you know:

- Beethoven's Fifth was the first symphony to include trombones.

- Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy. His sister is named Dumbella.

- Debra Winger was the voice of E.T.

Have a great weekend; do something fun.

Argyle said...

Good Morning to you. and you, and especially, you.

Summer hours, I believe, in Pawtucket(11D) are Eastern Daylight Times. I could have guessed 16A was Orsini except for that.

I had nothing for the cross of 28D and 33A though.

Argyle said...

Here is a little jazz number showing the hammers at work...or should that be "play"?

Martin said...

Hi. I didn't do the puzzle today: I stayed home all day and didn't go out to get the paper. I did do the puzzle from last Sunday and last Wednesday though and I found last Wednesday's puzzle to be much harder than last Sunday's! Is this normal now or was that a particularly easy Sunday puzzle and/or a particularly difficult Wednesday puzzle? I usually didn't do the Sunday puzzles because I thought they were too difficult for me so I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to almost finish last Sunday's puzzle all by myself (no googling and no red letter help).

Martin

Barry G. said...

*Ugh*

Too much stuff I didn't know, too many obscure clues. I managed to slog through most of the puzzle, but was eventually defeated in the SE corner where I didn't know HAI or CHIPPEWA, wanted YAKKED for YAPPED, and couldn't see MIME or APPL to save my life.

It's supposed to hit 95 again today. Maybe I won't mow the lawn after all...

HeartRx said...

Good Morning, all!
Loved the reference to Tony Lima, with the BO on this weekend. Too hot to mow the lawn - I'll watch golf, instead.
Easy puzzle for me today - filled in most of the otherwise obscure clues like amaretto (love my tiramisu), orsini (catholic school memory), osakan (my best friend was there in the navy)...which gave me a boost to flow through NW and NE corners. Hit a block on whiskey as a jello shot ingredient - I am more familiar with tequila. Otherwise, and easy Sat xword

kazie said...

Martin,
Good to see you back with us!

I really had to slog today, but with lots of WAGS and perp help got all but MANILA BAY which I googled, and tunaMeLt. I had tuna nest, since I had no idea bout those two downs.

I have a beef with abbreviated SMA for wee, or is wee an abbreviation of weeny? And I didn't know café was the Spanish spelling for coffee until I just went and checked.

I enjoyed some of the wacky unknowns and sidewinders though. What is a jello shot? Writer's block had me looking for a criminal plot problem, or a graphing or house-planning type of plot. I had ORATORY for a while too, but wanted RAID for 27D, so eventually changed it. I started with GREEK for GRAIN and SUPPLE for LABILE. But I did get CHIPPEWA early, since we have Chippewa Falls here in WI. I had ORSINO too before I had enough of 14D to realize I needed pIano to go with KEYS.

Well it took over an hour, but it's satisfying to know I finished almost unassisted on a Saturday.

Mainiac said...

Good Morning All,

I hadn't planned on doing the puzzle today but when I saw it was a Barry Silk I had to try. First run through was futile. Pecked and poked getting some traction in the NE working to the SE where I needed help with the same ones as BarryG. Pretty fun just the same!

Yesterday was quite a day. I did get my bike ride in starting before day break. Good thing because once I got to work the trouble shooting started. The most notable was the tents the Secret Service was using to scan private vehicles that didn't utilize the detour (trucks are being re-routed) were to short. Adding to the fun, I had my left knee drained and my orthopedic decided to use new "juice" in both, which hurt like hell for a few hours. So I rated yesterday as a BC (beyond category) climb when cocktail time finally arrived late last night!!

I did manage to stay up and watch the tour thanks to having to pick up my oldest at work. I was really surprised Contador took off at the end of the stage yesterday, taking away his team mate's, Vinokourov, chance to win the stage. He only gained 10 seconds on the leader Andy Schleck. I wonder how much help he'll get in the Pyrenees, or
maybe he doesn't need it. Any other fans out there?

My knees feel better today and I suspect the PD will be busier then the DPW with the First Family's visit. Leaves me weeding the garden, I hope.

Have a great weekend and Stay Cool!

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

A super Saturday Silky. Wow! What a way to end the week. A whole lot of fresh fill, but not too arcane, Started off real sparse, but then PAWED at the perps back and forth to gradually tease in the solve. The NE was last to fall.

Two museum clues were for the TATE and PRADO.. Liked KRAKOW. Other clever clues included those for CANAL,THREAD, LÈCHE, ALES, and PIANO KEYS. MANILA BAY was a gimme. ILO was a WAG. Did not know LABILE, LEMA or MONAD, but the perps were ample.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Anonymous said...

the puzzel was hard enough but to make it worse our sun sentinel of broward county florida paper was missing the entire right hand column.

Boots said...

The FT. Lauderdale Sunsentinel cut off one row of the puzzle. Therefore, there was no 14 or 51 down and I didn't realize that until I finally gave up and came here. A Barry Silk puzzle is always a challenge and I was pretty frustrated with him as I thought he had really come up with some obsure words that even Google couldn't find. Sorry Barry, still love ya!
Kazie, loved your pictures.

kazie said...

Boots,
Thanks, I love your avatar picture too. Great spider shot!

Anonymous said...

Dinosaurs are extinct, and none have been alive for a long time. Therefore, any remaining dinosaur embryos are dead and fossilized, and they will remain UNHATCHED forever.

I loved the PIANO KEYS clue: I got it right away! I struggled with the rest, though...

Al said...

@Kazie, sma and wee are both Scottish words as in Robert Burns' poetry, so that cluing was tricky, but legit.

A jello shot is just jello, but in the cold water addition step some of the water has been replaced with alcohol. Usually individual containers are used, sort of like cupcakes, but you could do it in a rectangular cake pan and cut it into squares, too. Err, so I've heard...

John Lampkin said...

Good morning C.C. and solvers around the world.
Congrats to Barry, for yet another winner in a VERY long string of winners. Wow!

WRITERS BLOCK is of course where Shakespeare lived.
EXIT STRATEGY was the original name for Sartre's masterpiece. Halfway through he realized that all was hopeless and had to change the title. [If you don't get that one, tell me, and I'll explain.]

The spider in Boots' avatar is an Argiope. If you weren't aware of that already, use that word from now on to impress your friends. ARGIOPE has never been used in a puzzle, btw, and probably never will be because it's obscure, even though we all have argiopes in our gardens.

Signed, Mr. Know-it-all

Anonymous said...

Good morning all,

Well, for a Saturday puzzle with me not doing very well this week, I did pretty well. I did have to ask Mr. G for some help, and finally went to the on-line version and got some red letter help as well. The SW corner gave me fits! New to me were labile and sma and monad. I googled Ms. Friedan and wanted the answer to be feminism, but could not make it fit.

In the SE corner, I wanted hampered to be hemmed in, but knew that 50D must be rewet. Mapper? Really?

Loved the clue for writers block, and the reference to my all-time favorite movie, Wizard of Oz.

Kazie-Thank you so much for sharing your pictures. They are wonderful.

Argyle-Thanks for the Jazz piano link. My almost-3-year-old loves Jazz music.

All-Have a great weekend!

Tinbeni said...

The NW fell easily.
I liked the shout-out to Tony LIMA as I was watching the Open while solving.

Most Jello-shots in Florida use Rum as the alcohol. Took me a while to get WHISKEY. (BETCHA I can't remember the last time I said that!)

Had a '63 STING RAY in 1972. Got 5 mpg but gas was cheap. Sold it after about 6 months and got a Porsche 914/6 (had to special order/import from Germany). Should have put the 'vette in storage.
It would fetch a SMAll fortune today.

First thought for Gainsboroughs was MOMA, until I remember seeing it at the TATE in London.
PRADO I learned from crosswords.
Got it off the 'P' in AARP.
Can't believe I've been a member for almost 8 years.

RAUNCHY, what a great word for dirty jokes. Has a lyrical panache.

gGerry said...

Good Morning All,
False started with 'Cherokee' which soon enough yielded to the 'Chippewa' thanks to 'map???', 'rewet' & 'mime' (& my OH roots- OH also has a Chippewa Falls, like WI). Also helped along by mistaken 'behind' which gave 'womenslib' which helped tons. Liked 'terawatt' & 'pianokeys', but didn't care for the alcohol theme. Enjoyed 'monad' (its also a mathematical object).

The spelling of 'Krakow' could have been aided by accordingly spelling 'Vistula' authentically as 'Wisla'.

Have a good day all. Taking the kids to a duct tape art/sculpture contest and autographs by PBS' "Red Green" today!

Bob said...

No problem with today's puzzle (31 minutes), although solving it took some patience. Didn't know 29D (BLING) but could figure it out. Hadn't thought about Tony Lema and his tragic death in a long time.

Anonymous said...

I am enjoying the 'trip" with you, Ms. Kazie. Thanks for sharing.

Lucina said...

Good day, Puzzlers everywhere.

I love Barry Silk puzzles!

This was great fun; AMARETTO was the first fill then Ulan BATOR which I misspelled as BATAR and couldn't understand why it wouldn't work.

But SOBERS gave me STEPUP and ORSINI jumped out of those gray cells; Church history, you know.

We have seen Jung cluing enough that ANIMA came easily and TRES with LECHE, although my first fill was MOCHA; that error became apparent when the NE fell in.

Anyway if you have never eaten "tres leches" cake you have missed a treat. It is made with three milks, literally, evaporated, regular and ultra sweet as Eagle brand. Mama mia, que rico!

But, I digress. I really wanted FEMINISM too for Betty Freudian but it destroyed the SW for me.

Anyone living here in the 70s would instantly know of Ms. Freudian as well as Bella Azbug and all those far sighted feminists. Some did go a bit too far in their fanaticism. In particular wanting to change English usage to their way of thinking. I cringe at using "their" with singular subjects, for example. As in "each person saw their shadow." (ugh!)

Hands up for CHEROKEE before CHIPPEWA and Milo OSHEA until I recalled those trips to the midwest when MILO was indentified as a staple crop that is grown there.

I really could YAP on and on because I loved this so much.

Good trivia, John Lampkin; I did not know that EXITSTRATEGY was the original title of Sartre's play, No Exit, which was required reading in college Lit.

I'd better stop now; I'll just agree with all you who mentioned those "fresh and inventive" clues.

Off to a 70th birthday party!
You have a stupendous Saturday!

john28man said...

Tony Lema was a frequent winner in the esrly 60s winnign the British Open referenced in today's puzzle. He was killed in a plane crash, ironicly crashing on golf course in suburban Chicago when the small plane he was on ran out of fuel.

Tinbeni said...

Lucina

I remember when WOMENS LIB and Betty and Bella were all over the media.
My Mom really didn't support it. Or as she said:
"I'm not coming down to YOUR level for nothin'!
You will still get my door, pull out my chair and treat me, and all other women, like a Lady!"
Hell, she was liberated long before "The Feminine Mystique" was written.

kazie said...

Maybe some thought Betty Friedan to be Freudian, but her name is more like Frieden, which means peace in German, though it looks more like it should mean freedom in her case. (from bras?)

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. Whooo-weee, this was a hard one, you betcha! Worth working all through, though. It's a good thing there are some unambiguous entries scattered throughout or there would be no way to get started, as everything would then be hardly more than guesses.

For example, as Dennis said, Ulan BATOR was pretty apparant, basically a gimme, which, along with AMARETTO (which at first I misspelled as ameretto *blush*) helped with the NW corner. Another example was ORSINI, an unambiguous fact, which gave me something in the NE corner to grab onto. Other fills that came to me easily, because they are simply matters of fact, were NILE, BRYN, TRES, and BLIN.

The long fills were awesome! As I said yesterday I like long fills far more than 3-letter and 4-letter ones. I just had a hard time solving most of them :)

*E*AWATT was easy, but I didn't know whether it would turn out to be MEGA or TERA until I solved ITES.

As for Café drinker's request, at first I pencilled in CREME, thinking that the French café was intended, not the Spanish one. The perps eventually disabused me of that.

My favorites include too many to list here.

My least favorites are SMA, MONAD, RELO, MAPPER, APERS, and ALTO. If a man were to sing alto it sure would be a high voice, you betcha, but I personally have never heard of the alto range being applied to a man; even the highest range singers are called tenors. At least in my experience. (As soon as I'm done here I'm going to look it up :)

I liked the Sartre Exit Strategy joke! MONAD and LABILE are new words to me also.

For 'Place for low bridge' I kept thinking of teeth, dentures and the like, figuring wrongly that a bridge over water would be too obvious.

Gonna go out and pull some weeds now before it gets too hot.

Best wishes to you all, and especially to Clear Ayes today.

Jayce said...

Man, I gotta be less long winded (shorter winded?). Apparently this blog hiccups over long posts, popping up a message about "are you sure you want to navigate away from this page?" and then posting the entry multiple times.

Sorry.

Bill G. said...

Boy, a lot of folks are understandably complaining about the oppressively hot weather. I should invite everybody over here for a tall gin and tonic. It's 73 here right now. It has gotten into the 80s a few times which is a bit too hot for me. I grew up with the heat and humidity in Virginia in the summer and thought that's just the way things were. I got my first job out of college at Hughes Aircraft Company and moved to nearby Manhattan Beach. When I went back to visit my parents, I realized there weren't any days here that were like August in Virginia.

Yesterday late after many had gone to bed I'm guessing, I posted the following. Any thoughts?

I enjoyed the recent photographs of Kazie's trip and the motorcycle trip. I noticed that they were good photographs of scenery and objects mostly with no people in the pictures. I like to take pictures of scenery too. Interesting, when I see Japanese visitors in scenic places and they want to take a photo of the Manhattan Beach pier or some other scenic shot, they always have a person or two in the foreground. Is that a cultural thing do you suppose?

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers - Came through today's Silky as if it were a briar patch, but emerge I did. Traction was so spotty that I G'd ORSINI to get the NE going. LABILE and MONAD are complete unknowns. LATTE fit so well for LECHE that progress was slow in that neighborhood.

I out-clevered myself with KERNEL for nut feature, and I really wanted EARDRUMS to activate the hammers. They didn't.

Hand up for ORATORY and tequila. I never tried a Jello shot with whiskey, hmmmm...

I'm with Jayce in thinking that a man singing ALTO is called a counter-tenor. I was just out of college when I first saw one perform: a tall, handsome, bearded Minnesotan man whose high falsetto simply did not square with his size. The voice was nonetheless splendid.

Wicked hot in Mass. today!

kazie said...

Bill G,
I think it's a stereotype that Japanese tourists all pose in their pictures. Yet many of them do. I do take some of mine with people in them, but out of courtesy to those people, I wouldn't display them for all the world to see. In Gunghy's case, he was traveling alone, so had no companions to photograph.

It also depends on the situation. The Japanese are workaholics from what I understand, so maybe the one time they do vacation, they want to be able to prove they were there. I think of my pix as an art form, so wouldn't sully beautiful scenery with people, especially me, unless someone offers, and then it's an opportunity to be in the pix instead of behind the camera for once.

Boots said...

I had to respond to Bill's post on pictures with people. We traveled a lot here and abroad and had hundreds of slides. My husband always made comments about people who took shots with people in front of beautiful scenery. Last summer we spent weeks sorting through the slides and putting them on CD's. Guess which ones we saved? The ones with people! The scenery meant nothing to us now. It was the people we wanted to remember. My only regret is that I didn't stick my kids in front of more landmarks.

Frenchie said...

Hi C.C., Argyle and folk,

The puzzle today is wonderful!
@Spitzboov, you nailed it! Fresh, interesting...it a pat on the back for what I knew and a learning experience for what I didn't.

@kazie, I had a soy protein with abbreviated SMA for wee, but I relented when somebody pointed out it's Scottish use.

Lucina, when I was in college, in the south, I cringed when I heard "his self' used!

Jello is apparently not vegetarian, though I partook. I was floating down the Great Salt River last summer when some fellow tubers offered me a (some) jello shot (s.) Let's just say one led to two and climbing up the bank at the stopping point was no easy feat. Summing the experience up, the jello shot is nothing like the jello molds my mother used to make!

@kazie, I just posed my desire to my husband, that, "I would love a trip to Australia...he seems to be digesting it, though he maintains his desire to make Germany the next international trip. That means it's my choice next year! Thanks for the inspiration!

I'm out.

Frenchie said...

Bill G., when exactly would you be accepting guests? It's 110 degrees today and it will remain there through the week...unless it rises above.
As far as people in the photos, it has it's place. My husband, being in architecture, says he wants me in the photo to act as a 'scalie." LOL

kazie said...

Frenchie,
Not sure if you'll see this now you're 'out', but if you do go to Oz, be sure to allow enough time. There's as much of it as there is of the lower 48 here. My pix have been from just the NT so far. So do your research ahead of time and be selective as to what is most interesting to you. You won't be able to "do" it all in a couple of weeks. But I'm delighted to have turned you on to going there!

Anonymous said...

To: Frenchie


You are right ...
Regular Jello is not vegetarian... the collagen and gelatin is made from (chemically altered )ground-up bone material ... mostly cow or horse bones. Much like old glue was made from horse hoofs.

However, if being a vegetarian is important to you, vegetarian jello ( if I may call it that ... ) is available ... one source is from the collagion like substance from seaweed ... called Agar-Agar ... also used as a culture medium by biochemists and others to grow bacteria cultures ... as in a petri dish. Alexander Fleming ( penicillin discoverer ... ) probably had Agar-Agar in his petri dish on the window sill when a penicillin culture floated onto it.

Try a Chinese/Philapeno/Indonesian grocery store. Agar-Agar is a little more difficult to dissolve in water ( Milk , or diluted milk is somewhat more preferable ... ) ... and it is difficult to estimate the amount required ... you have to almost put too much and throw the balance that does no dissolve ( or enter ) the colloid ... however that 'jello' has an advantage in the sense it is more likely to remain firm at room temperature.

Bon Appetit.

crazyhorse said...

Hi all

This was a tough puzzle today as are most Barry Silk's for me. Knew LABILE, PRADO,HIE, but WPM just wouldn't get through my little gray cells.

As for Betty Friedan, the first thing that comes off when I get home are my shoes, the second thing is the one we burned!

Have a great day everyone. Hotter than you know what here, We are having record breaking heat for about two weeks. Last year we never hit 90. Not so this year.

CA, you will be in my thoughts. Hope all goes well, come back soon. Love your poetry.

Anonymous said...

To: Kazie

Your pictures of your trip 'down under' are really beautiful. It must be really a beautiful country, what with the heat and the desert.

Long ago, I read a book by Nevil Shute titled 'A town like Alice' ... it was set up on the town of Alice Springs. probably in the dead center of Australia. From what I can remember ( 60 yrs ago ... ) it was a very good novel. He also wrote No highway and a bunch of other books.

Enjoy the rest of your trip.

Australians are said to be the most-american-like people and they are the biggest supporters of the American dream and way of life, anywhere.

Lucina said...

Clear Ayes:
I hope you are checking in to see all the well wishers including me. I am sending warm, positive thoughts your way and hope that all shall be resolved with good results. I miss you.

Kazie:
Your beautiful photos reminded me to finish reading The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes which I started long ago. I'll pick it up after my current read.

Its beastly hot today.

Anonymous said...

Good afternoon C.C. and everyone.
It's always great to get a Barry Silk puzzle.A challenging solve with fresh clues and obscure ones but perseverance made me get through.I thought 40A as a cat so I put TABBY. I had LOCKPICKS for a
a while and that didn't help that corner.I had CALCIFIED for 13D so that corner was a mess.
In the end, it was still a satisfying solve. BTW, Doug Peterson is on Newsday's Saturday Stumper.

What do you call a a singing bird having an EXIT STRATEGY?
That would be a GREAT SEXY TIT.

Have a good night everyone.

August

Anonymous said...

Re: Terawatt

Tera is a prefix, not suffix. Sorry, I'm an incurable former English teacher.

Spitzboov said...

Anon @ 6pm. If you're a former English teacher, then you should know that sometimes people misspeak, and that everyone reading this blog is bright enough to know what was meant. Small typo's or obvious untended mistakes are not normally corrected here. Let's not be pedantic.

Mainiac said...

We do Jello-Shots with Vodka, during hunting season so I consider it a meat dish!!

Love the photos Kazie!!

dodo1029 said...

Greetings, good friends, very interesting puzzle today. Thanks, Barry. I got as far as 'writer's block' just fine, then 'solver's block' set in! Never heard of 'Jello shots'. Why would anyone spoil perfectly good booze by putting it in JELLO? Had 'mobile' until I found 'l-a' worked better than 'm-o'. I don't think I've seen that word before, nor 'milo', except as a name. 'Mapper'...is that a mapmaker or a map reader? I had 'rapper'; figured 'rime' must be sprayed-on poetry. Tried 'sma' but the clue didn't say anything about Scotland,, so I erased it at first. I don't think of 'wee' as necessarily Scottish. Maybe I'm wrong. It took 'haut' to convince me that the 'nut' was not for eating. Etc. Etc. But I did like the puzzle for its unusual words and clever(read 'hard') clues!

CA, things just ain't the same without you! Come back soon!

Phantastic photography again, Kazie! thanks for sharing.

Anon@4:15pm: 'A Town Like Alice' was made into a wonderful series on Public T. V. some years ago. It was terrific! You can probably get it from Netflix or Blockbuster (if they're still in business). It's worth viewing!

ARgyle, loved the jazz number and watching the hammers!

Re: people in pix. had friends who were world travelers and he always had his wife in every picture, of which there were many. But he had written for the radio and movies in an earlier life and I guess never got over Hollywood. At least that was all the rationale I could muster up. She was attractive, but no starlet!

kazie said...

And thanks to all who are enjoying the photos for your kind remarks.

kazie said...

For some reason, only half my last comment posted. I wanted also to tell Anon@4:15 that there is a movie of Nevil Shute's "A Town Like Alice" starring Bryan Brown and Helen Morse. It really brings home the brutality of that part of WWII.

Anonymous said...

Is there no longer a 5-post limit?

Bill G. said...

Right anon. You have posted at least eight times so far. Try to keep it down.

Anonymous said...

Billy-boy, stick with trying to get someone to talk to you.

MJ said...

Bill G. @1:46pm, about tourists wanting to be photographed with locals:
When I worked for the L.A. Times in the early 70's, (Yes, it is true, something I don't think I have shared before on the blog), I walked over to the LA Civic Center (City Hall, as I recall) to eat my home-packed lunch and read a book. A couple of young Asian women approached me, and through gestures and smiles indicated that they would like me to be in their photos. i assented, and they took turns sitting by me, and I smiled for their cameras. They acted very grateful and thankful for my cooperation. I've never forgotten that experience.

I have also taken photos of locals in counties I have visited. Gives a "flavor" to the pix, though I would not do so without their permission.

Nite, all!

Marianna said...

I felt so dumb here at Starbucks trying to fill this one out! Looks like I'm going to have to grow up a little and not settle for the easy crosswords I usually grab at the bookstore. But I always love sifting through the LA Times and landing on the crossword after determining what my horoscope suggests I should do with my love life and career. Crossword first, then my new boyfriend (whoever he may be).