Theme: ARREST (48D. Run in, and a hint to the ends of the answers to starred clues) - To "run someone in" is to bring them to the police station. The last word of each of the theme entries means to nab an alleged lawbreaker. Nab is related to kidnap. Arrest is from Latin: ad+re+stare (to-back-stand). Stare comes from the base *sta- "to stand", and also gives us the lovely crosswordese word "STET", an editor's directive to let the text stand (without correction).
18A. *If absolutely necessary: IN A PINCH. If you pinch (steal) something, you get pinched (grabbed as though with pincers).
20A. *Ranger, for one: FORD PICKUP. The first pair of theme answers overlap each other. So do the last pair.
37A. *"Am I missing something here?": WHAT'S THE CATCH.
55A. *Like manual laborers: BLUE COLLAR. Arrest sense is to grab someone by the collar.
59A. *Boisterous frat party: BEER BUST. I wanted BASH here instead of BUST before I figured out the theme. Both mean to smash, like on a drunken spree, which has the "wild party" meaning. Prohibitionists used to bust in to speakeasys and arrest everyone they could catch.
Somewhat related: 3D. Capture: CORRAL. and 7D. Capture: TRAP.
Al here, with a Dan Nador puzzle no less.
Maybe it's just me being on Dan's wavelength most of the time, but I kind of blew through this one. Very doable puzzle, perhaps not as punny or fun as Dan's past puzzles have been though, nearly half the words were three or four letters, though also 24 non-theme entries of six or more letters, half of which are placed in each Down corner, paralleling one another. No J, Q, X, Z, so not very scrabbly.
Across:
1. Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida __": LOCA. The crazy life.
5. Start of many addresses: HTTP. Internet Addresses, otherwise known as URLs: Universal Resource Locators. Hyper Text Transfer Protocol makes it possible for browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer to traverse the World Wide Web. URLs can start with HTTP:// but that is only one example. Many other types of internet transfer protocols are too numerous to list here, but some examples are FTP (file transfer), NNTP (network news), and SMTP (simple mail)
9. Lawyers' org.: ABA. American Bar Association.
12. Schools for Jules: ECOLES. French. And 39D. Lycée attendee: ELEVE. French for student. Lycée is the last three years of education before University.
15. Prefix with sol: AERO. Aerosol
16. Heater: GAT. Slang for a gun, taken from Gatling
17. On the line: AT RISK. Could easily tip one way or another.
22. "It's the real thing" soft drink: COKE. Coca Cola marketing campaign. Good Grief!
23. Govt. watchdog: EPA. Environmental Protection Agency.
24. Not just my: OUR. Plural possessive.
25. Current pioneer: TESLA. Nicola. Has the unit of magnetic force named after him.
26. Quandary: DILEMMA. Latin: DI (two) lemma (premise).
30. One who raised Cain: EVE. Cain and Abel were Adam and Eve's sons.
32. Sea salt?: TAR. A sailor. Could be from the job of applying tar to the bottoms of ships, or from the tarpaulin that they sometimes used in clothing. Also Gob.
33. Spare tire site?: WAIST. Not so easy to deflate.
35. Refuse to budge: INSIST. Latin: In (upon) sistere (take a stand). Related: assist (stand by), and once again STET (let stand).
40. Blacks out: FAINTS.
41. Coeur d'__: ALENE. City in Idaho.
42. Many a CBer's workplace: RIG. Citizen's Band radios. Do they still use those? Seems kind of dated. Big rig = Semi-trailer.
43. Brit. recording giant: EMI. Electric & Musical Industries Ltd.
45. "CHiPs" star: ESTRADA. Erik. California Highway Patrol motorcycle cop. His character name was Ponch. (Poncherello)
49. Kind of alcohol: ETHYL. Ethanol, the kind we drink.
51. Little john?: LAV. Abbreviation (little) for lavatory. A British crossword style of clue.
53. Lady's man: SIR. English Lords are addressed as: Sir.
54. Language that gave us "plaid": ERSE. Scottish Gaelic. The word means: Irish.
61. Lisa's "Friends" role: PHOEBE. Lisa Kudrow/Phoebe Buffay.
62. "Happiness __ Warm Puppy": "Peanuts" book: IS A.
63. Manipulative type: USER.
64. Drives: IMPELS.
65. Relative of -trix: ESS. Feminine suffixes: dominatrix, baroness
66. Place with a pool, informally: THE Y. YMCA. A bit tough to parse, doesn't it?
67. Apt name for a Dalmatian: SPOT.
Down:
1. Flipped (through): LEAFED. Book pages
2. Eight-footers?: OCTOPI. Tentacles count as feet? Or are octopi 8 feet long?
4. "Put __ on it!": A LID.
5. Three-line verse: HAIKU. 5-7-5 syllable meter. Does not need to rhyme: Yesterday it worked. /Today it is not working./ Windows is like that.
6. Professor's goal: TENURE. A guarantee they get to keep the position, usually requires research and publishing credentials, which means that rather than spending their time on students, they might be concentrating their time elsewhere. I had at least one prof like that. Schools need a different reward system IMHO.
8. Appear unexpectedly, with "up": POP. Maybe that's why dads are called pops? No, darn it, from an old French word similar to pappa.
9. Religious doubter: AGNOSTIC. Someone that asserts that it cannot be known whether God exists, compare Atheist, who asserts that there is no God, and Gnostic, who asserts that it is knowable.
10. Political repercussions: BACKLASH. Machinery too. I can see how they're related...
11. Deep down: AT HEART.
13. Sixth sense, for short: ESP. Extra (beyond) Sensory Perception.
14. Schuss, e.g.: SKI. From old Norse: skið "stick of wood".
19. Diamonds, to hoods: ICE.
21. Oregon highlight: COAST. Michigan's freshwater shoreline, at 3,288 miles is the longest in the world. Alaska has the most total coastline of the 50 states though, at 6,640 miles. Oregon only has 296, just sayin'.
25. Letter?: TENANT. One who lets (rents or leases) a room, apartment, or house.
27. McGregor of "The Men Who Stare at Goats": EWAN. Also the young version of Obi Wan Kenobe in Star Wars.
28. Hot Wheels maker: MATTEL. Mattel toys have not been made in the USA since 2002.
29. Midler's "Divine" nickname: MISS M.
31. Bad habits: VICES. If you have any, you should try to clamp down on them...
34. "J to __ L-O!": Lopez remix album: THA. Words fail me.
36. Trick ending?: STER. Suffix: trickster
37. Many a server, in the old days: WAITRESS. Not sure why it was necessary to specify "the old days", but then again, I don't go to restaurants very often. Did I miss something?
38. Boat rocker, to say the least: HIGH SEAS. Nicely done.
40. It's thrown in: FREEBIE. Also a Frisbee.
44. "Gotta think about it": I'LL SEE.
46. Napping: ASLEEP.
47. Don Quixote's devil: DIABLO. Spanish.
50. "__ out!": ump's call: YER. Baseball terseness.
52. "Back in the Saddle Again" autobiographer: AUTRY. Gene. Birth name: Orvon Eugene Autry.
55. Outback: BUSH. See Kazie's pic.
56. Cost-of-living stat: CPI. Consumer Price Index.
57. Electrical unit: OHM. Resistance measurement. Color code mnemonic for reading the values: Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly = Black Brown Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Violet Gray White
58. Cuts off: LOPS.
60. On the other hand: BUT.
Answer Grid.
Al
18A. *If absolutely necessary: IN A PINCH. If you pinch (steal) something, you get pinched (grabbed as though with pincers).
20A. *Ranger, for one: FORD PICKUP. The first pair of theme answers overlap each other. So do the last pair.
37A. *"Am I missing something here?": WHAT'S THE CATCH.
55A. *Like manual laborers: BLUE COLLAR. Arrest sense is to grab someone by the collar.
59A. *Boisterous frat party: BEER BUST. I wanted BASH here instead of BUST before I figured out the theme. Both mean to smash, like on a drunken spree, which has the "wild party" meaning. Prohibitionists used to bust in to speakeasys and arrest everyone they could catch.
Somewhat related: 3D. Capture: CORRAL. and 7D. Capture: TRAP.
Al here, with a Dan Nador puzzle no less.
Maybe it's just me being on Dan's wavelength most of the time, but I kind of blew through this one. Very doable puzzle, perhaps not as punny or fun as Dan's past puzzles have been though, nearly half the words were three or four letters, though also 24 non-theme entries of six or more letters, half of which are placed in each Down corner, paralleling one another. No J, Q, X, Z, so not very scrabbly.
Across:
1. Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida __": LOCA. The crazy life.
5. Start of many addresses: HTTP. Internet Addresses, otherwise known as URLs: Universal Resource Locators. Hyper Text Transfer Protocol makes it possible for browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer to traverse the World Wide Web. URLs can start with HTTP:// but that is only one example. Many other types of internet transfer protocols are too numerous to list here, but some examples are FTP (file transfer), NNTP (network news), and SMTP (simple mail)
9. Lawyers' org.: ABA. American Bar Association.
12. Schools for Jules: ECOLES. French. And 39D. Lycée attendee: ELEVE. French for student. Lycée is the last three years of education before University.
15. Prefix with sol: AERO. Aerosol
16. Heater: GAT. Slang for a gun, taken from Gatling
17. On the line: AT RISK. Could easily tip one way or another.
22. "It's the real thing" soft drink: COKE. Coca Cola marketing campaign. Good Grief!
23. Govt. watchdog: EPA. Environmental Protection Agency.
24. Not just my: OUR. Plural possessive.
25. Current pioneer: TESLA. Nicola. Has the unit of magnetic force named after him.
26. Quandary: DILEMMA. Latin: DI (two) lemma (premise).
30. One who raised Cain: EVE. Cain and Abel were Adam and Eve's sons.
32. Sea salt?: TAR. A sailor. Could be from the job of applying tar to the bottoms of ships, or from the tarpaulin that they sometimes used in clothing. Also Gob.
33. Spare tire site?: WAIST. Not so easy to deflate.
35. Refuse to budge: INSIST. Latin: In (upon) sistere (take a stand). Related: assist (stand by), and once again STET (let stand).
40. Blacks out: FAINTS.
41. Coeur d'__: ALENE. City in Idaho.
42. Many a CBer's workplace: RIG. Citizen's Band radios. Do they still use those? Seems kind of dated. Big rig = Semi-trailer.
43. Brit. recording giant: EMI. Electric & Musical Industries Ltd.
45. "CHiPs" star: ESTRADA. Erik. California Highway Patrol motorcycle cop. His character name was Ponch. (Poncherello)
49. Kind of alcohol: ETHYL. Ethanol, the kind we drink.
51. Little john?: LAV. Abbreviation (little) for lavatory. A British crossword style of clue.
53. Lady's man: SIR. English Lords are addressed as: Sir.
54. Language that gave us "plaid": ERSE. Scottish Gaelic. The word means: Irish.
61. Lisa's "Friends" role: PHOEBE. Lisa Kudrow/Phoebe Buffay.
62. "Happiness __ Warm Puppy": "Peanuts" book: IS A.
63. Manipulative type: USER.
64. Drives: IMPELS.
65. Relative of -trix: ESS. Feminine suffixes: dominatrix, baroness
66. Place with a pool, informally: THE Y. YMCA. A bit tough to parse, doesn't it?
67. Apt name for a Dalmatian: SPOT.
Down:
1. Flipped (through): LEAFED. Book pages
2. Eight-footers?: OCTOPI. Tentacles count as feet? Or are octopi 8 feet long?
4. "Put __ on it!": A LID.
5. Three-line verse: HAIKU. 5-7-5 syllable meter. Does not need to rhyme: Yesterday it worked. /Today it is not working./ Windows is like that.
6. Professor's goal: TENURE. A guarantee they get to keep the position, usually requires research and publishing credentials, which means that rather than spending their time on students, they might be concentrating their time elsewhere. I had at least one prof like that. Schools need a different reward system IMHO.
8. Appear unexpectedly, with "up": POP. Maybe that's why dads are called pops? No, darn it, from an old French word similar to pappa.
9. Religious doubter: AGNOSTIC. Someone that asserts that it cannot be known whether God exists, compare Atheist, who asserts that there is no God, and Gnostic, who asserts that it is knowable.
10. Political repercussions: BACKLASH. Machinery too. I can see how they're related...
11. Deep down: AT HEART.
13. Sixth sense, for short: ESP. Extra (beyond) Sensory Perception.
14. Schuss, e.g.: SKI. From old Norse: skið "stick of wood".
19. Diamonds, to hoods: ICE.
21. Oregon highlight: COAST. Michigan's freshwater shoreline, at 3,288 miles is the longest in the world. Alaska has the most total coastline of the 50 states though, at 6,640 miles. Oregon only has 296, just sayin'.
25. Letter?: TENANT. One who lets (rents or leases) a room, apartment, or house.
27. McGregor of "The Men Who Stare at Goats": EWAN. Also the young version of Obi Wan Kenobe in Star Wars.
28. Hot Wheels maker: MATTEL. Mattel toys have not been made in the USA since 2002.
29. Midler's "Divine" nickname: MISS M.
31. Bad habits: VICES. If you have any, you should try to clamp down on them...
34. "J to __ L-O!": Lopez remix album: THA. Words fail me.
36. Trick ending?: STER. Suffix: trickster
37. Many a server, in the old days: WAITRESS. Not sure why it was necessary to specify "the old days", but then again, I don't go to restaurants very often. Did I miss something?
38. Boat rocker, to say the least: HIGH SEAS. Nicely done.
40. It's thrown in: FREEBIE. Also a Frisbee.
44. "Gotta think about it": I'LL SEE.
46. Napping: ASLEEP.
47. Don Quixote's devil: DIABLO. Spanish.
50. "__ out!": ump's call: YER. Baseball terseness.
52. "Back in the Saddle Again" autobiographer: AUTRY. Gene. Birth name: Orvon Eugene Autry.
55. Outback: BUSH. See Kazie's pic.
56. Cost-of-living stat: CPI. Consumer Price Index.
57. Electrical unit: OHM. Resistance measurement. Color code mnemonic for reading the values: Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly = Black Brown Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Violet Gray White
58. Cuts off: LOPS.
60. On the other hand: BUT.
Answer Grid.
Al
63 comments:
Good morning, Al, C.C. and gang - a nice Thursday treat, getting yet another of Dan's offerings. This one wasn't quite as Naddoresque as some of the others we've seen, but nonetheless a fun, clever puzzle.
'Pinch' and 'pickup' gave me a general idea of the theme, which made the remaining three easier, although like Al, I wanted 'beer bash' for 59A. I liked seeing both 'ecole' and 'eleve' in the same puzzle; took me back to French 101. Thought 'lav' was clever for 'little john', as was 'tenant' for 'letter'. My one screw-up was putting 'resist' for 'Refuse to budge', but 'vices' took care of that. And I needed a perpassist to get 34D, 'J to tha L-O'. Timely nod to Tesla, too, given our recent discussion.
Al, yeah, CBs are kinda passe now, but truckers still use them. I always throw a portable one in the car on long trips, in case of traffic problems; the truckers always have a workaround. Great job on the blog, as always - great reading.
Today is Work Like a Dog Day.
Did You Know:
- The only purple animal is the South African Blesbok.
- A Boeing 747's wingspan is longer than the distance of the Wright Brothers' first flight.
- A bolt of lightning can strike the earth with a force as great as one hundred million volts and generates temperatures five times hotter than those found on the sun's surface.
Forgot to mention - it took me a good ten minutes, staring at 'they' for 'Place with a pool, informally', before the light came on. Actually thought there was an error. Very clever, unlike myself.
Good morning Al (et al.)
Everything Dennis said.
Also, I loved the HAIKU, Al !!
Since we had a long discussion on Monday about electricity, the "Current Pioneer" TESLA came easily. Ah, I love this site. On Monday my eyes were glazing over at times as I read the blog, but now I know why it is so important to do so. Ya larn somethin' ev'ry day ;-D
Now it's off to work (like a dog).
Good morning AL and all:
Very complete write up with some true Naddor deception; like Dennis, THEY did not become THE Y easily and LETTER: TENANT filled but only by perps. Dan was amazing for how many letters in a puzzle came from theme words.
For those who heard about the hack on ELISSA's contacts, I received a Facebook about getting a free IPAD, supposedly from a friend. Since he was born in Germany, and uses his words differently I knew it was not from him, so be careful out there
Good Morning, All. What a great way to start a Thursday - with a Dan Naddor puzzle. There were some great puns again hidden in the puzzle. Loved the theme.
It is somewhat appropriate that the puzzle paired Ricky Martin with the Divine Miss M.
Some of my favorite clues today included: Little John = LAV
Current Pioneer = TESLA (especially since our recent discussion).
Letter? = TENANT
Spare Tire Site = WAIST
One Who Raised Cain = EVE (She didn't do a good job, since Cain Slew Abel.)
Many schools in my area begin tomorrow. I can never understand way the school year begins on a Friday!
Another day in the triple digits, which leads me to today's QOD:
Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. ~ Mark Twain
Al - Thanks for spelling out THE Y to me. I enjoyed your blog.
Good morning all. Nice write-up, Al
Generally agree with Dennis' comments. Usually have found myself on Dan's wavelength, but there were a few head scratchers. Needed red letter help with EMI; was not sure of the Midler cross. Otherwise the solve was lots of fun. EPA was a WAG. Clever clues were those for TAR, OCTOPI, TENANT, and HTTP. (For 'apt name for a Dalmation', thought, at first, of 'Croat', but, of course, the letter count wasn't right :-))
Dan had the ability to construct challenging puzzles with mostly ordinary words.
Enjoy the day.
Morning Al, CC and All,
So much for a stellar week of crosswording. Should have kept my mouth shut yesterday. Grain (must be ready for a drink?) for Ethyl, Ambe (ambesol, wife has a tooth ache) for Aero and I confidently wrote Belly for 33A because that's where I store my spare. Gat was knew to me. Thanks Al. Oregon does have a rugged coast but I that didn't even come to mind. Maine has 3500 miles of coastline. I've never heard of the Lopez remix.
The Y was a big head slap. I'm sure my wife would oblige, she works there!
Have a great Thursday!
G'morning Al & all,
Wow! A Dan Naddor that I didn't have any problems with! And I enjoyed the blog almost as much as the CW. Thanks Al.
My only pause was for BASH to become BUST. THE Y didn't trick me because I had the Y for AUTRY, BUT and I'LL SEE before I tried to do anything with the pool clue. BUSH was then an easy completion--thanks for the photo too, I did rather like that one. If we hadn't spoken of TESLA already this week, that would have stopped me, but today it was easy.
So no lookups in a very clever, fun puzzle--makes me feel cleverer too!
Hahtool,
Maybe the Friday start is to give everyone a chance to recover over the weekend from that first day. Teachers are probably in inservice the other days of that week too.
On email problems, I was getting one for a while from the 'hotmail team' telling me my account would be terminated if I didn't re-affirm my usage of it by submitting answers to 'a few simple questions' like full name, birthdate, place of birth, etc. You know all that good stuff you don't want to put all in the same place anywhere online. After the second time I just blocked the sender. Hotmail was putting it in my junk mail anyway, so that was a dead giveaway. Then I got a different one saying I'd inherited over a million dollars somewhere--I didn't even read to the end of that one before blocking and trashing it. There are trolls everywhere!
Hello Puzzlers - Hand up for BASH. That incorrect fill stagnated its neighborhood for a bit. Same for RESIST/INSIST. Eventually the light came on and Mr. Happy Pencil popped up.
Speaking of lights coming on, and of Nikola Tesla, I'd like to recommend the book "Empires of Light" by Jill Jonnes. It's about the big players in development of U.S. commercial electric power - Tesla, Westinghouse, Edison, Steinmetz, among others - and all the dirty deals and daring projects along the way. The reader doesn't have to know AC from DC to enjoy this book.
Tesla should have won a medal for sheer brilliance! Instead he was ignored.
This will be brief: work is waiting for me, but I am glad that at least one other person had to ponder for a moment or two at "THE Y" in reference to "place with a pool." Letter for TENANT slowed me down as well.
Mr Naddor's sly humor shines through.
Enjoyable, well-crafted puzzle: just right for a Thursday ! The theme was of great help in my finishing the grid.
Very informative blog, Al.. Will click through to the links later today !
@ Kazie: If you won't mind my asking: About what age or grade does a student go from being an "élève" to being an "étudiant" ? I'm not sure I got those accent marks right -- I haven't studied French in 30+ years ---accent being on the +plus+ there! I was thinking highschoolers would already fall into the latter category.
Time to get hopping along with my day !
Good morning all ye puzzling people. Officially, I'll have to take a DNF on this one. I didn't know ELEVE and I had LAD for Little John?. MISSY just looked so good in that I didn't bother to check other letters instead of Y. EYI didn't look right, but I'm no expert on British recording companies. I didn't straighten those out until I came here. I guess I'm just a little lazy today. Everything else dropped into place.
I liked the clever clues like letter? and current pioneer. The theme was pretty easy. Like others, I wanted BASH for BUST and stared at THEY for the longest time before I finally reaalized it had to be parsed into THE Y to make sense.
My hat's off to Dan for a fun Thursday puzzle.
Al: As one who eats out way too much, "Server" has replaced "waiter" and "waitress" in this PC,"afraid we might offend anyone" day and age.
"The y" held me up forever as did "letter." Very clever, Mr. Nador.
Speaking of lightning, we had four trees within 15 feet of the house struck last week. Fried my modem. Messed up my computer, too! ;)
Wonder if the South African Blesbok might have taken that silver stuff mentioned yesterday? (You knew someone would bite didn`t you, Dennis!)
CA: I miss you and your poetry...
This is Elissa. When my contacts were hacked, I also lost control of my e-mail account and in trying to fix things, ended up deleting a lot of my saved passwords (including the one for my google account - hence the anon post). If you were communicating with me through my hotmail account I'm not getting those messages, even though you won't get a bounce notice.
Ain't electronic life great!
ARRGGHHH
8/05/10, 41A: Used to be well-known;= BING CROSBY'S HOME TOWN.
NO -- not COSBY!!
(I hear you:"Who is Bing Crosby?"!)
Hey Elissa - that sucks. Have you fixed the problem? Also, the email gave your phone number, which was your legitimate number; is that compromised as well?
Good morning everyone. It's catch up time for me.
Belated happy birthday Melissa Bee.
Belated happy birthday to Jazz's wife Gloria. Hope those celebrations were memorable.
And nice pix of the 5 grandchildren.
And congratulations on a very nice write up yesterday Lemonade.
For today, I didn't like letter or they. Didn't understand until I came here. I did like very much the theme answers.
And Al, I must disagree about tenure. Late husband was a prof. at 5 universities ranging from Maine, NY, NJ, and NM. In all the college politics would have made the opinions of the faculty mute or led to firing. And those diverse opinions were essential to the success of those schools. Further, tenure for public school teachers is also necessary for political reasons. Teachers must be able to express opinions without the risk of firing. And tenured teachers can be fired if the administration spends time in the classroom to make the case for dismissal.
End of rant.
Cheers
Hi, C.C. and everyone.
My college French is more intact than I knew - ECOLEs and ELEVE popped right out of my memory banks. No idea why, but I misread 14D: as "shush" so I had "shh," messing up that corner for a long time. I also had "resist" instead of INSIST. By the time I got to 59A, I knew it was BUST because I had several other theme entries. THEY and THA meant nothing to me until I came here. "Who is TESLA?" has been the answer on "Jeopary?" several times lately so that was easy.
My hubby had a relatively short fling with CB radios. I tried to get into them, but I'm not a very talkative person, so the thrill escaped me.
In my day, school didn't start until the first week of September or the day after Labor Day, whichever was earlier. I wonder if starting the year in early August accomplishes anything. The schools here don't start until the 23rd.
I think the WAITRESS clue means that servers used to be mostly women except in very upscale restaurants. I was a waitress for a few summers during college.
I must run - things to do and places to go.
Have a good 'un!
Good morning Al, CC, et al., Excellent puzzle and write up. Al, thanks for explanations and links. Really enjoyed it all and appreciate your efforts and that it was a Naddor puzzle - a treat, as Dennis said.
Had to laugh at 25D 'letter' with a ? present thus expecting a pun. My first thought was "letter? I don't even know 'er! Letter do what?" That, 'The Y', and little john were my favs. Very Naddor!
This puzzle was 'spot'lighting my life in so many ways.'Mattel' brought back fun memories of buying Hot Wheels & matchbox cars for our baby boy who followed 3 sisters. Should've owned stock in the company. Loved seeing Corral...as in OK Corral...and had a horse aptly named 'Diablo'sa. Then it runs the gamut from coast to high seas, from the 'vices' of beer bust'n & 'bush'whackin' in the back of a 'Ford pickup' to becoming 'tenure'd at 'ecoles' and working with some 'at risk' kids who are 'coke' 'user's, are good 'at heart' 'but' are
'trap'ped in their 'vices' and are going to stay on 'ski'd row, be
'arrest'ed, or dead unless they redirect what 'impels' them. 'I'll see' if I can help them do the 'rig'ht thing. It 'is a' challenge. I'd feel better if I carried a 'gat' on my 'waist' though. I'll just make friends w/the worst gang'ster' there and I'll be fine. Gives a whole new dimension to 'livin la vida
'Loca', doesn't it.
Enjoy your day. I sure will. I just got a walking cast today. I'm free..free at last! Yippeee!
Dan had the ability to construct challenging puzzles with mostly ordinary words.
Spitzboov, that says it perfectly.
Lois, great news about the walking cast; it's gotta be all that good living that lets you heal so fast. Must take a lot of protein supplements.
daffy dill, I thought it was because 'waitress' was no longer PC; everyone's a 'waitperson' or 'server' now, evidently.
Well, I thought this was easier than a couple of the earlier puzzles this week. Maybe it’s because I caught onto the theme fairly early on and the theme answers were easy to get. Or, maybe it’s because it is a Dan Nador puzzle and I looked for the clues to be clever and/or tricky. I wouldn’t have gotten Tesla had we not had the electricity lesson recently. I even got one of the two French words right. I remembered “ecoles” for schools but didn’t remember “eleve” for student. Sorry Lemonade….My favorite clue of the day was “little john”-lav. I remember driving through Couer d’Alene when I took a roadtrip out to Seattle about 20yrs ago. I thought it was breath taking.
Lois, good to hear you are “on your two feet” again. That’s gotta feel liberating.
Elissa, that really sucks that someone “hacked into” you. Like Kazie, I have millions of dollars just sitting overseas waiting for me to claim. I can also get a great deal on Viagra if anyone is interested.
Al, thanks for a most informative write up. I always learn something from you when you blog.
Everyone enjoy your day. The humidity finally broke today and it’s gorgeous outside.
Way back on May 26th Dan had DEWARS in the LAT puzzle (finally breaking the Scotch drought).
Yup, my fave theme today was "in a PINCH, my everyday Sunset Toasting brand.
Nothing left to say BUT, Cheers!!!
Karin P.,
You don't get the title of étudiant until university. Everyone else is élève. I used to tell my 'students' here they had to work to earn that title otherwise they were just seat fillers.
Al explained that lycée begins at grade 10, but it's not called that. Up through elementary school (école primaire) the numbers run from 1-5, but then, on entering the collège, they go backwards right up through première and then Terminale I and II for university entrance exams. At least that's how it went in the École Normale where I worked (70-71).
You can get the full description of the system here
The link doesn't seem to be working right, but just google "french school system" and you should find something.
Hi gang -
Fun and clever puzzle from Dan today. THE Y had me totally baffled.
Excellent, as always, AL.
Looking forward to Tinbeni's take on PINCH.
Wanted BEER BASH.
It's all about the ETHYL alcohol.
I read somewhere long ago that sailors would put tar on their faces due to cracking from sun, wind and salt. In those days Curel and Chapstick had not yet been invented.
Haiku are sublime.
I can do one in no time.
It might even rhyme.
Gloria is a policman's daughter. She ARRESTed my HEART.
Thanks for the HB's and nice comments on the kiddos.
Much to do today.
IMBO. Cheers!
JzB
The next time I looked at a different site, and it contradicts what I just said about the grade numbering at the elementary level, so it might have been changed since I was working there. horribly confusing the other way so I can see why.
Just to let everybody in on the joke - Pinch.
@Kazie:
Thank you so much for the clear explanation. My SIL laughs at me because I pronounce French with a distinct Swedish accent. That accent has mostly evaporated in English unless I'm quite tired, but that French 'R' is almost impossible for me. The nasal vowels also pose a problem..... Such a beautiful language!
@ Spitzboov: Your comment about Mr Naddor's use of 'ordinary' words was spot on. What a gift he had,
@ C.C. Your blog and fellow bloggers never fail to brighten my day ! Thank you !
Time to run. Will be back tomorrow or Saturday.
Karin P,
"Book 'em Danno!"
Hello, Al and puzzle people.
This was a great walk in the park with only a few stumbles. I'm really glad you explained them, Al.
I still don't get J to THA L-O! And since I couldn't recall the spelling of Coeur d'Alene, I had ILENE.
I have to confess I've seen letter? as a clue for tenant before but still find it clever.
And it took a few seconds to zone in on The Y as AUTRY was easy. Back in the Saddle again was, I believe, his theme song.
Favs besides letter?
Current pioneer: TESLA
Sea salt: TAR
Little john: Lav, although I had LOO at first.
Wonderful information, Al, thank you.
Have a lovely Thursday, all!
Lucina- "J to THA L-O!" is a remix album by Jennifer Lopez. The title suggests some kind of Hip-Hop lingo. A remix album is a rerecording of a singer's earlier work. This one is one of the biggest selling remix albums ever.
I'm guessing Dan wasn't real happy with THA at first. What do you do with it? THA doesn't mean anything.
Aha, he then discovers it's part of an album title. Solves that problem.
Al- Your vice pun was... well, I won't say it. Wonderful review though.
Dennis: LMAO! You're right! The diagnosis came in Tues of 'achalasia' - mysterious and rare (so me!) so, yeah, I'm sure it's the high protein smoothies that I've been concentrating on since being restricted to a liquid diet. It's easy! Just a little shaking up, or pulsing, and bam! ummmm ummmm good! Delish and nutrish! All kinds of nuts and flavorings can be used. I'm a fan for life! Funny guy!
Jeannie: You bet! Liberating all over!
Elissa: I am so upset for you. Keep us posted as to what's going on w/this.
Tinbeni: Cheers! Liquid all the way, babe!
Jazz: I meant to tell you how beautiful your girls are and forgot. They are all adorable. You are such a lucky guy to be surrounded by such pretty gals. And belated Happy Birthday to your #1 gal, Gloria. Cute comment about her being a policeman's daughter.
Argyle: thanks for the explanation of 'Pinch'. I've never heard of it. Dewars, yeah, but not Pinch.
Dodo: from yesterday: Dennis humorously coined the word 'blitch' some time ago for the blog glitches that were going on at that time. I was just chiming in on that one.
Along the same vein as daffydill: Gotta go: I have people to do and places to see.
Hi all
I really liked this puzzle. I miss Dan Naddor. Coeur d' alelne was a gimme as I know people there. 66A made no sense to me til I came here. What does a pool have to do with they? Doh!
Didn't understand 65A until Al's write up. Great job Al!
I have had teenaged grandchildren here this week and my computer has been confiscated. I don't have any blocks on it, but will when they come back again! Busted a 14 year old boy and he was shocked I could find out what he was searching for.
Ah, well, youth.
Of course we never tried anything when we were that age.
Have a great rest of your day.
Elissa,
sorry to hear about your troubles. I recieve those emails all the time, but just delete them. Luckily I have never been hacked.
Lois, I had to look up 'achalasia', and it says it's a "swallowing disorder". Are you able to eat at all? What's the cure?
good afternoon c.c., al, and all,
always so nice to see dan naddor's name, it's going to be sad when that stops happening.
stellar job al; fun, and full of lots of information.
i worked at the downtown tulsa ymca in high school, but never did parse THE Y. very sneaky, dan.
took three theme answers before i figured out the theme, which was fun. last letter i filled in was the N crossing in TENANT and ALENE.
blesbok, never heard it called THAT before.
Lol, was wondering who was gonna pick up on that. Shoulda known...
Good Day, C.C., Al, et al,
This was a very enjoyable puzzle for me. As is so often the case, I can almost echo Hahtool's remarks! We seem to be in sync a lot of the time.
I liked 'letter' but does it seem to anyone else that 'lettee' would be the tenant? Just wondering.
Hand up here for not understanding the J Lo thing. Can somebody explain?
It's been another fairly easy week. I wonder if we're in for a slog tomorrow.
Enjoy, dd
Melissabee, evidently you've never been to South Africa.
Lois, you can't swallow? What's the world coming to??
This is Elissa. My phone number was there because it is part of my automatic message signature. It probably meant that less people responded to the e-mail. Within minutes my phone was ringing off the hook with folks checking on me.
I didn't sleep much last night - kept thinking of sites/people who regularly send me stuff I want to that e-mail address. I'm working with Microsoft (you can stop laughing) who aren't very helpful and have started reconstructing my e-mail life. In the next couple of days I will decide about opening a new email address to use for non-business stuff.
Jeannie:
Can't is better than won't.
Elissa:
"working with Microsoft"? That's a bit like "so Satan and I were talking the other day and...". Gary Trudeau did a funny three panel cartoon along those lines a few years ago.
Anyway, just kidding, and I hope all your troubles are resolved soon. The email said you'd been mugged, guess you were, sort of, only electronically.
Good Luck, and if you ever really are in that situation, call us.
Jeannie: LMAO! What's the world coming to? So funny! No worries. My world is still coming to me.
Swallowing is really not the problem.
Dennis: it's more of a peristalsis pblm than actual swallowing, that's why the liquid diet. Thick protein rich smoothies just shoot, slide or slosh right on down by gravity more than muscle mvmt. It's more of a stricture pblm, which can be resolved by either stretching or surgically enlarging the opening. I'm going to try the stretching part. I think Windhover has volunteered to help out w/that procedure, but it may take several volunteers and many repeated applications to resolve the problem completely. I'll entertain all suggestions and consider all applications. I'll go back to Johns Hopkins if surgery is required. Those doctors are so good lookin'.
warmin' up the car.
Dennis:
Wanna meet me at they?
Lois: if the insurance won't pay, I'll
gladly work pro bono. It's a Kentucky tradition.
Sallie: I concur with your statement regarding tenure. Well put.
We had a wicked hard rainstorm earlier today, but it made a significant impact on the extreme heat we had been suffering through. Now it is a "cool" 80F.
Take care, Lois. I hope you are doing better soon.
Hello All--Another great Naddor puzzle. I was on his wavelength today and finished without too many glitches. I did put in Elane for Alene so The made more sense than Tha. Ess was also an unknown. Thanks, Al for the explanation.
There were so many out of the box answers today, that I had a hard time choosing just one or two. I think Eight-footers? and Little John have to be my choices.
I was one of those who called Elissa yesterday. I had read just two days ago about this very scam and knew that this wasn't Elissa writing from London in tears, asking for money to get home.
Elissa, good luck at getting this hacking mess cleared up.
Lois, Hooray for Walking casts!
JD, Carol, and Dick are all on the Oregon Coast for a few days, enjoying the gorgeous scenery, and each other's company. I'm sure we'll have pictures when they get back.
Just one last installation before our solar panel is hooked up to the grid. For a few minutes today during a final walk through with the installers our meter was actually running backward!!!
Thanks, Jerome. Would that be like "to the max"?
Jazzbumpa:
I, too, forgot to mention your lovely and lively looking granddaughters. You are a fortunate man.
Lois:
I do hope you are going to be whole and healthy for when school starts; it's so demanding even when one is not ailing.
You guys, Dennis and Windhover, are such clowns!
Elyssa:
I hope the scam did not hurt your pocketbook. Good luck rearranging your electronic life.
If the truth was known, after the first two themes all I could see was:
"PICKUP ... PINCH"
So I went to the liquor store ...
You guys, Dennis and Windhover, are such clowns!
WH,if it's all the same, I'd like to be Clarabelle - he got to honk his horn all the time.
I got my picture back, so you can see I'm making some progress on cleaning things up. Thanks for your support.
Tinbeni, We have several bottles of Pinch in our cabinet. An elderly friend owned a club and when she passed away we found a cabinet (4 shelves full) of all kinds of liquor, not just Scotch. We've pretty much used or given away most of it. I did save the Vodka to make Jeannie's pie crusts! LOL.
KQ, from yesterday, such great pictures of your boys with Snoopy. We were in Minneapolis for a Tradeshow when those were on display and a cousin drove us into St. Paul to view all the wonderful Snoopy art work. It must be fun to come across one now and again that someone has bought and is now putting on display.
Dennis:
Honk, blow, it's all good.
The list of marketing campaigns for Coke reminded me of one of my favorite TV shows, "Mad Men."
I too would like an explanation for J to tha L-O. Somebody, please help.
Doreen
daffy dill, I thought it was because 'waitress' was no longer PC; everyone's a 'waitperson' or 'server' now, evidently.
Gee, Dennis, you are no doubt right! Guess I didn't think of that because I am so tired of all the P.C. "stuff."
Maybe the "J to tha L-O" is a take off on the saying "...to the max" like saying "J to the Low." I dunno! Stumps me.
Gee, Dennis, you are no doubt right! Guess I didn't think of that because I am so tired of all the P.C. "stuff."
Amen. Amen. AMEN.
J to tha L-O is a remix (re-engineered) album of songs previously released by Jennifer Lopez (as Jerome said earlier). J for Jennifer, L_O for Lopez, "tha" is just a "too cool for school" way to spell "the". Not really my taste in music, but it is popular with the hip-hop crowd and it sells well for some reason. Now aren't you sorry you asked?
But, Dennis, isn't Clarabelle a woman? That suggests many contradictions too weird to contemplate here!
Al, I want to thank you in particular for the HTTP explanation and other relevant information. I guess I have always thought those were some arbitrary letters that just magically made everything appear on the internet.
Lucina, no, fortunately Clarabelle was male; in fact he was Bob Keeshan, who went on to play Captain Kangaroo.
I just saw two women on TV and they couldn't have been more different. First there was Michaele Salahi, the one who, with her husband, crashed the first Obama state dinner. She is a talentless wannabe who is hoping a reality show will catapult her to her 15 minutes of fame. Aargh!
Then, on the Joy Behar show, was Meredith Viera. She is one of the most attractive, intelligent, personable, kind, funny women I've ever seen.
Al- You've the patience of Job and the tact of a consummate politician.
Dennis- I'm a believer in being PC. There's nothing wrong with eliminating a lot of disparaging and hurtful words from our every day speech. Serious. That said, J-LO is one fine, fine babe.
32 Across Tar comes from old seafarer practice of Sailors wore long pony tails, to keep them neat or out of their faces they used Tar. Hence the style Sailor collar to keep the tar off the shirt backs.
32 across Tar comes from the old sailors when the wore their hair in pigtails and ponytails at sea. To keep them up they would use tar as gel. Hence the sailor collar to keep the tar off their shirts.
Bill G. Hear! Hear! I LOVE Meredith!
Well, my goodness, I do learn so many facts on this blog. I had no idea, Dennis, that 1) Clarabelle was male, and 2) the he was portrayed by Bob Keeshan. Thank you.
Peter, interesting origin of TAR for sailors.
And, yeah, yeah, I'll echo Dodo on Meredith!
Good night everyone.
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