Theme: UNCLE! Four theme ending words that can describe what this winter did to us, us Northerners at least.
17A. Tool that can extract nails : CLAW HAMMER
27A. It's poured into an iron at breakfast : WAFFLE BATTER
47A. United Kingdom currency : BRITISH POUND
64A. Fur bartered by Native Americans : BEAVER PELT
Argyle here and I'm sure of who I am. This puzzle isn't. There are clues and/or answers that could be for any day of the week. Not too many Naticks though. [A word used in crosswordese, coined by blogger Rex Parker, meaning two crossing words/clues that very very few people would know. As an example, one clue would be "A town in the eighth mile of the Bostom marathon" Answer-Natick]
Across:
1. Muddy stuff : MUCK
5. Fallback option : PLAN B
10. Pinochle calls : BIDS
14. Bounce, as off a canyon wall : ECHO
15. Margaret Mead's island : SAMOA. She was a cultural anthropologist and authored Coming of Age in Samoa.
16. Tom Joad, for one : OKIE. Tom Joad is a fictional character from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. OKIE was someone driven out of Oklahoma by poverty.
19. Princess played by Lucy Lawless : XENA. TV fantasy adventure. Lawless married the show's producer, Robert Tapert.
20. Spanish song : CANTO
21. Surprise "from the blue" : BOLT. "Like a bolt out of the blue, Fate steps in to see you through!"
22. "Get Smart" evil agency : KAOS. TV and movie.
23. Silky sweater : ANGORA. It may be 'silky' but it still is wool.
25. Bard of boxing : ALI. Muhammad Ali composed poems about himself, mostly.
34. They may be outsourced : JOBS
37. King with jokes : ALAN This comedian passed away in 2004.
38. Keebler cracker : ZESTA. Saltine.
39. Oral health org. : ADA. American Dental Association.
40. Aerialist's apparatus : TRAPEZE. Neat way to get a Z into the mix.
42. Pictures on the wall : ART. What about on the refrigerator.
43. Back biter? : MOLAR. Your back teeth.
45. "Without a doubt!" : "SURE!"
46. Mars' Greek counterpart : ARES. The Gods of war.
50. Heavy drinker : SOT
51. Tranquilize : SEDATE
55. Plastic user's concern : DEBT. Often, they aren't concerned until it is too late.
58. Words of woe : "AH, ME". What the above user says when it all comes due.
62. Autobahn autos : AUDIs
63. Length times width : AREA
66. Highlands dagger : DIRK. Image.
67. "Bye for now" : "LATER"
68. "I did it!" : "TA-DA!"
69. High school skin problem : ACNE
70. Idyllic spots : EDENS
71. Sources of iron : ORES
Down:
1. Tourist magnet : MECCA
2. Golden St. collegian : UCLAN. My thought would be pronounce this as individual letters.
3. P.F. __'s: Chinese restaurant chain : CHANG. The chain was founded in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1993 by Paul Fleming and Philip Chiang.
4. Shows servility : KOWTOWS. Chinese kòutóu: [literally, knock (one's) head] To touch the forehead to the ground while kneeling.
5. Free TV spot : PSA. Public Service Announcement.
6. Moussaka meat : LAMB. Although "moussaka" is an Arabic word and a popular dish in many Middle Eastern countries, the immortal eggplant and lamb casserole is generally credited to the Greeks, who claim it as a national treasure. Image.
7. Bullets and such : AMMO
8. Seasonal song : NOEL
9. Pub bill : BAR TAB
10. Tailless flying toy : BOX KITE
11. Swedish furniture giant : IKEA
12. Flintstone pet : DINO
13. Aral and Arabian : SEAs
18. Traditional round dance : HORA
24. Miles away : AFAR
26. Act like a couch potato : LAZE
28. Lightning burst : FLASH
29. Drink à la Lassie : LAP UP. Lassie was an L.A. pup?
30. Juan's January : ENERO. Spanish.
31. Russian ruler of yore : TSAR
32. To be, in Burgundy : ÊTRE. French.
33. Charlie Brown's "Darn it!" : "RATS!"
34. Doorway feature : JAMB
35. Sign of spoilage : ODOR
36. Java neighbor : BALI. They are between Asia and Australia.
40. Small jazz group : TRIO
41. Olympian ruler : ZEUS
44. In jeopardy : AT STAKE
46. Total numerically : ADD UP TO
48. Pony's place : STABLE
49. In the vicinity : NEAR
52. "Please be __ and ...": polite request words : A DEAR
53. Spanish squiggle : TILDE. As in Spanish señor.
54. These, in Madrid : ESTAS. Also Spanish.
55. Baby's pop : DA-DA
56. "Tears in Heaven" singer Clapton : ERIC
57. Swiss capital : BERN. Or Berne, as we learned the other day.
59. Lettuce purchase : HEAD. Is it just head lettuce going up in price or is it all kinds?
60. Brisbane buddy : MATE
61. Fifty-fifty : EVEN
65. Medical drama settings, for short : ERs. Emergency Room.
Argyle
Note from C.C.: I wrongly published the answer grid in this blog rather than my Ginger Roots last night. Sorry for the confusion.
Note from C.C.: I wrongly published the answer grid in this blog rather than my Ginger Roots last night. Sorry for the confusion.
Sorry to be jumping in so soon, even before Argyle's had a chance to work his magic, but the next chance I have is likely to be this time tomorrow, so here goes...
ReplyDeleteI zipped through this one quicker than most Mondays; the only thing that was a speed bump for me was being so sure that I wasn't going to be outsmarted on "Swiss capital". Let's see; franc--no, euro--no, dollar--whoops! NO. Hmmm... Can she really mean the CAPITAL? As in city? [whack of can on forehead] Sometimes I'm just too devious, I guess.
Really liked DEBT for "Plastic user's concern" and really hated "UCLAN" for the Golden St. collegian.
I do like Argyle's blogs, so I'll try to get back some time before the next puzzle goes up to read this one. 'Bye, all.
Hello all,
ReplyDeleteStrange to get on w/o write-up. What gives, C.C.?
Is CLAW part of the theme, too?
(Pretty violent theme!)
Fun, quick puzzle.
Echo C this afternoon. But I was a fixin' to read yesterday's blog!
Night all!
Hello Puzzlers - Standard Monday level of difficulty, I'd say. Hand up for finding UCLAN kinda itchy, but then I'll bet the constructor had to give in to it.
ReplyDeleteHere's to a good week, all-
Good Morning C.C.
ReplyDeleteI hope everything is OK with Argyle?
I agree with the others about UCLAN. Maybe a better clue would have been "Question at a redneck family reunion?"
Other than that the fill was solid, but I'm not sure I liked the theme of "taking a beating". I may change my mind after I read the write-up. See you all later!
Morning, all!
ReplyDeleteA mostly inoffensive little Monday effort today. As with others, I had bit of a WTF moment with UCLAN. Maybe it's a common abbreviation in Californian, though. And Gail really does have a thing for Spanish words, doesn't she? Or was that all just a coincidence? Fortunately, I happen to know Spanish, so it didn't slow me down.
Other than UCLAN, the only other "icky" bit for me was the clue for CHANG. It's bad enough having a fill in the blank, but when you actually have to clue something as part of a word? As I said, ick!
Speaking of the theme (and Argyles interpretation of it), I still refuse to put the shovels away for the season...
Good Morning, Argyle and friends. Glad to see you back in the blogging/commentary spot, Argyle.
ReplyDeleteThis was a pretty easy Monday puzzle, although it took me a few minutes to come up with MUCK. Everything else fell in quickly and I immediately caught on to the theme.
I was amused by seeing Miles Away and In the Vicinity AFAR and NEAR in the same puzzle.
My favorite clue was Back Biter? = MOLAR
Eric Clapton, written after the death of his young son.
32rd anniversary of Three Mile Island.
QOD: Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving. ~ Albert Einstein
Good day folks,
ReplyDeleteI managed to make this puzzle a lot more difficult than it should have been thanks to my lack of attention and general screw ups. I had debn for debt, stoble for stable, & English for British. A slap in the head got things back on track. Wasn't sure of Zesta until I read Argyle's write up.
Otherwise, I found the offering to be standard Monday fare and my only complaint (minor) is what seemed to be an excess of foreign words/clues. I don't recall Zesta crackers, but I'm a Ritz guy. I didn't have a problem with UClan. I think it's basic lingo in LA for UCLA students.
Tada
Good morning all. Nice write-up, Argyle.
ReplyDeleteThe paper came early so I did the solve in ballpoint. One strikethrough - 'English' for BRITISH POUND. Liked 'back biter' clue for MOLAR. BH helped me with ESTAS. No other issues. A good start to the week.
Enjoy the day.
Morning Argyle, CC and All,
ReplyDeleteMy brain wanted UCLAR which gave me ARGORA. I also had BEAVER SKIN for awhile. Only ones I had to erase today.
Have a good one.
Hi Argyle! OK, now I read your write-up, and "get it". Yes, this winter has been a bad one, and it HAMMERed, BATTERed, POUNDed and PELTed us with every type of precip there was. Like Barry, I still am not ready to put up the shovels for the year.
ReplyDeleteI laughed out loud at your "LA PUP" comment. I never watched XENA, but vaguely remembered it from crosswords. That, plus the crossing of BOX KITE saved my bacon in that corner.
Have a great day, everyone!
Argyle and Monday solvers, the puzzle went so fast I did not look for a theme. I finished very quickly but most enjoyed Argyle’s narrative.
ReplyDeleteMusings
-Nebraska’s own Henry Fonda was great as Tom Joad and delivered one of filmdom’s most eloquent soliloquies
-When You Wish Upon A Star (…bolt out of the blue) evokes many childhood memories for me
-Girls in our high school wrapped the boyfriend’s rings in ANGORA wool so they would fit on their fingers
-Gotta love “Back Biter”
-We sleep better for being debt free!
-ALAS/AHME, SNEE/DIRK, SILT/MUCK
-What happens when CA smog clears? U C L A!
-Ain’t much Lamb eaten in the Beef State
-My daughters must have declined to pay extra for comfort in their IKEA furniture
-We are all Kazie’s mates!
Good morning Argyle and Monday solvers. Easy peasy puzzle today. The first three theme entries dropped in with no perp help, so I went for the fourth one. Bad idea! 'Bison skins' (or pelts) looked like good possibilities but sure screwed up that corner until I took it out and let the perps show me the way.
ReplyDeleteEnglish vs British? No problem. On the currency exchanges it is GBP and the clue was United Kingdom which certainly includes more than England. I still have some Scottish Pounds and English Pounds from our last trip abroad, but they are interchangeable versions of the GBP, just as the Euro has images associated with the country of issue, but all Euros are interchangeable. There are a few places that have a currency that they call the pound that is not tied to the GBP. World travelers have to watch out that they don't get stuck with a currency that isn't accepted in the next country. From my experiences, the US Dollar is still the most widely accepted currency around the world.
ps My new avatar is of my lovely bride and my three grandkids (ages 14, 8 and 6) at a Lincoln Pet Store. Petco or Pet Smart are a staple of EVERY outing with them and they would take all the animals home if they could. However, they are all mainly cat peeps!
ReplyDeletepps How I got such a lovely Greek woman (who does not like FETA or LAMB) to marry me remains a mystery for the ages!
ppps The two deletions above are mine as I am typing too casually this morning. I hope C.C. can delete them!
Argyle, HeartRx and Mainiac ...
ReplyDeleteHow if you lived in Florida THIS winter would not have HAMMERed, BATTERed, POUNDed or PELTed.
OK, it did allow me to get my (un-necessary) tan.
Of course my faves were BAR-TAB and SOT.
(Hey, it takes one to know one).
eddyB: How about that perfect weather for the St.Pete Grand-Prix. It's gently raining now.
I love it when a PLAN-B comes together.
Cheers to all at Sunset.
A nice easy Monday from Gail and Bruce. Some clues more interesting than usual too.
ReplyDeleteMy greatest hitch was having CHANS for CHANG--I told you we only recently got our first good Chinese restaurant here, and it's not a chain. That left me with A-SORA, which was going nowhere, so I left it to do the sudoku, and when I came back, it leapt out and I changed the S to G and TADA! I was done.
One other minor pause was misspelling TRAPESE until I needed Z for ZEUS.
A note on Moussaka follows.
Hi There ~!
ReplyDeleteYeah, my shovels are still in the foyer, too....
I used them just last Thursday.
Not a bad little puzzle, worked the DOWNS first, and still ran into some stumpers, and UCLAn, well, meh...
LAZE or LULL, TSAR or CZAR - WAGed them right today ~!
Yeah, I didn't think Lassie was a PUP from L.A., but you learn something everyday ~! (LOL)
Nice to see the X-K link in BOX KITE.
Splynter
Moussaka is one of my favorite things to make when company come. It's similar to lasagna, except with eggplant slices instead of noodles, ground lamb (usually) for the hamburger, and a cream sauce flavored with cinnamon and nutmeg instead of all the cheese. Yummy! This online recipe most closely resembles what I do, though it uses hamburger for the lamb. With lamb, you'll need to drain the fat before combining with other ingredients. Let the eggplant slices sit sprinkled with salt before baking. It releases some of the liquid so they aren't sloppy or too bitter.
ReplyDeleteGrumpy 1
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with your explanation of the British (not English) pound, but I have a good excuse for my screw up. When I got to the clue, I had just polished off an ENGLISH muffin!
Good Morning, folks. Thank you Gail and Bruce for a swell puzzle. Quite easy and that is good for Monday. Nice to read your comments, Argyle. You are excellent.
ReplyDeleteI zipped through this puzzle quite easily. My only write-over was I had BOWDOWN instead of KOWTOWS. Perps helped me with a few: UCLAN, ETRE, ESTAS, TILDE, ENERO. If you notice, most are foreign words. I wonder if foreign crossword puzzles use English words? I wonder if other countries even do crosswords?
Great start to the week. Thanks all.
Abejo
Thank you Gail and Bruce for a wonderful and enjoyable puzzle - it was Monday, and I did it all. Thank you Argyle for a wonderful blog, as always. I trust you are keeping well.
ReplyDeleteThank you Clear Ayes for that link ( yesterday ) to the ACPT link through 'Crossword Confidential' 3.24 archive, - I've forgotten PuzzleGirl's real name, since her last puzzle - but she is certainly a chatty writer. I was engrossed. I have definitely no intentions of going to the ACPT, but it is always fascinating to hear about the people who DO go there ... like our (private, little ) red carpet celebrity list ... Though I have to mention, (forgive me ), what appears so obvious, that all the attendees appear to be of only one racial persuasion. C'est la vie.
Argyle mentioned about 'kowtow' ... touching one's forehead to the floor. When muslims , seemingly 'kowtow' to the Creator, in the direction of Mecca, is there another word to describe it ?
Good Morning C.C.,Argyle and all,
ReplyDeleteIt meant a lot to me to see your
name this AM, Argyle. Super write-up with delightful title. Gave me a laugh. Uncle- Indeed.
This puzzle had a little more than a Monday about it. The fill was impressive: MUCK, KAOS,TILDE,ESTAS,BALI, KOWTOWS ; even for a Tuesday, IMHO. Of course, everyone knows a bobkite means a kite with its tail cut off; and apparently, I’m unable to remember XENA. Yes, I missed the ‘x’ box.
Thanks, Gail and Bruce, for your joint effort.
CA and EddyB, thank you so much for the links to the fun write-up on the ACPT.
Have a nice day everyone.
Living here in Vacaville, I must admit I kicked my paper before picking it up this morning. (Yesterday, a man's Sunday paper had a bomb in it. Story made CNN)
ReplyDeleteA fun Monday morning puzzle. Got UCLAN easily, as I previously lived in LA.
Do you have to leave Oklahoma to be an Okie?
SUN today! I am so excited. Yard work, here I come.
Abejo, in answer to your question - (a) Do other countries have crosswords, and (b) do other countries use English words in their crosswords ?
ReplyDeleteTo (a) I can confidently say, in India, which has 16 Official "scheduled" languages, each with its own grammar, vocabulary and script - I have seen crosswords in at least 6 languages - but never solved them - since I don't know even one language good enough to do that. All Indian languages use compound letters, where the vowel is ( generally ) a part of the preceding or succeeding consonant. This can make the puzzle easier or more difficult, depending on your point of view. But these are daily crosswords in the morning or afternoon papers.
Since I have never done (a), I regret I can't answer the (b) part of the question.
Indian English dailies, like 'The Times of India', 'Indian Express' and 'The Hindu', do carry english crosswords - but they tend to be more cryptic, and are quite difficult - you may go onto their website, should you be interested.
Alternate QOD: Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful. - Ann Landers.
ReplyDeletewhat appears so obvious, that all the attendees appear to be of only one racial persuasion.
ReplyDeleteAnd Vidwan827, whose fault would that be?
Abejo,
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to a German Kreuzworträtsel. you'll notice the clues appear within the grid, with an arrow indicating the direction to place the answer. I've never been able to complete one unaided, but they do contain occasional foreign words.
Argyle is a rock star blogger.
ReplyDeleteNice one for a Monday!
ReplyDeleteP.F. Chang's is one of our favorite places to go, although we usually avoid chain restaurants.
Thanks for the blog today and everyday. I appreciate it!
Tinbeni, I was watching the golf tournament yesterday, and thought of you when they kept talking about the "hot weather" drying out the greens...as I sat in front of the fire looking out at a 27 degree wind chill. When I did the puzzle this morning, I was just waiting for you to pipe in about todays theme, LOL!
ReplyDeleteKazie, thanks for that link to Moussaka. I don't like eggplant, but that really looks yummy. I printed it out and will probably try it this weekend.
Creature, “bobkite” – very funny!
Vidwan, I don't know anything about Islam, but I just went online and got more information than I ever wanted. The practice of bowing during prayers is called "sujud", while a single bow itself is called "sajda". Wiki spells the single bow as "Sajdah", but the Islamic sites spell it as "sajda". Here is a lovely photo of men performing sujud.
Hi gang -
ReplyDeletePretty easy puzzle, despite the brutal theme.
It's a Q and Y away from a pangram. Y seems like an odd letter to miss.
Fav clue is "back biter."
Too bad KOWTOW and HEAD didn't cross. (Well, they couldn't, but that's a detail.)
I think UCLAN shows up in sports
HEADlines. Or, it could be this.
Cheers!
JzB
Hi.
ReplyDeleteNice Monday exercise of filling in the answeres.
Don't know if the few drops that fell last count as Day 13. I did have to turn on the windshield wipers when I went out for printer ink.
Tin. Nice that the rain held off until today. The yellow cells over
Tampa do not look gental on the National Doppler Radar Map. I was waiting for the multiple car mash-up into turn 1.
creature. You are welcome. Didn't see CA's link. It was probably better than mine.
Take care.
Good day, Monday puzzlers! Thanks, Argyle, for a wonderfully chatty blog.
ReplyDeleteAha! Spanish influence today and the one French word I am copletely sure of, ETRE.
P. F. Chang's is my family's favorite place for Chinese food as well as their sister eatery, Pei Wei's.
As with Florida no snow HAMMERed, BATTERed or PELTed us here, just mild weather all winter. The real BATTERing starts when the sun hits 100 degrees.
Loved back biter, MOLAR
It's so good to be back in my own bed. Hoe sweet home though I do love my granddaughter.
Have a lovely lunes, everyone!
Oops. Home sweet home.
ReplyDeleteHello everybody. A nice Monday puzzle, I thought, though I stumbled in a few places. I couldn't figure out what a "U clan" is until I came here. Man oh man, that's worse than Utahan.
ReplyDeleteGot smiles from "Back biter" and "Baby's pop." Liked BOXKITE because of the X and K together.
From yesterday: Spitzboov, I knew you had served in the Navy, not the Air Force. When you mentioned dress blues, my brain shut off and I asked you that silly question.
Also from last night: Dodo, you're funny :)
EddyB, Actually, I couldn't get CA's link to open, so I followed your advice and went to the blog page and followed to LACC. It always means so much to me for a fellow poster to take the time to teach me, as well as using up a posting slot to do it. Again, thanks to both of you.
ReplyDeleteVidwan mentioned enjoying the link, as well. Actually, I think it was PG or one of the other writers who commented on the racial predominance.Mentioning providing c'wrds to his child's classroom to get them interested in cwrds at an early age. Oh well, read it.
Well, hello all. I am back from my travels. I include as a new avatar, the sunset at Bird Key in Sarasota as a thought for future travel for you snow bunnies. Fun Monday, did not see a theme until done; then it was straight forward. Liked JAMB and LAMB in the puzzle and it was not even by JL. I also liked the "TST" in the middle of “AT STAKE.” I too wondered if you had the X and Z why not a Y and Q.
ReplyDeleteI saw it with HG's post, now my Quotation Marks also appear as â€, ?????????
ReplyDeleteAll right, I'll bite. What racial preference and what is the clues to that? I went there today just out of curiosity and wonder what their deal is. I see their number of posters in MUCH less but do like that some of their pix are included in the write-up and do not require linking.
ReplyDeleteThis is the A1/Primo site (thanks to C.C.), but some days I've got time on my hands and ain't afraid of reading anything. BTW, I copied and pasted my first posting of the day here to that site just to see what happens.
Answer me offline if you would prefer and I'll keep your confidence.
Fun puzzle and enjoyable writeup. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteJoke: A teacher asked a young boy what his father did. He replied, "He's a magician. He saws people in two." Then the teacher asked if he had any siblings. "Yes" he answered, "A half-brother and a half-sister."
While listening to a Prairie Home Companion show from last November, I came across a great musical group I'd never heard of before. This is the kind of country music I like. Old fashioned with great songs, harmony and accompaniment. Here is the Quebe Sisters' Band. What do you think?
To those who are interested in the racial topic, email one another.
ReplyDeleteGood Morning All, Thanks for the "Natick" definition Argyle. I didn't see anything like that today, but I sure it will come in handy as the week goes on.
ReplyDeleteUCLAN sounds like a good solution. UCLAite, UCLAian or UCLAer are difficult to pronounce and don't sound very good.
A trip down memory lane with 23A ANGORA. It was every 1950's teenage girl's dream to have an ANGORA sweater. Here's a photo of me....oh wait, I guess I was confused with Cheryl Ladd. I would have killed for that....angora sweater.
I had to laugh at WAFFLE BATTER. It's what I made for our company breakfast yesterday morning.
Thanks Gail G. and Bruce V. for the fun.
Good afternoon everyone.
ReplyDeleteThe different ways to spell tsar, czar, csar had me befuddled. I therefore couldn't get BATTER for the waffles. (I was using czar.)
I also agree about UCLAN as awkward, not having been to LA, except the airport.
Husker, you have a most good-looking family. You and BH don't look old enough to have grandchildren that age.
We had terrible rain (wet paper) this AM, but we are in need of rain so it was good. Drying out the paper was not good.
Cheers
Hola Everyone, I zipped through the puzzle today about as fast as I could write. Any unknowns, such as, Zesta and Kaos were easily filled in with the perps.
ReplyDeleteThe theme jumped out quickly and I actually thought about the weather we've had lately. No, no snow, but plenty of rain. Though our mountain areas have some 50+ feet of snow in places.
A favorite today was Back biter?/molar.
Sun is predicted for the rest of this week, so we are in the queue again to have our fences replaced. The holes became bigger with these last storms.
Have a great day everyone.
This a a rather delicate subject, but I didn't feel comfortable in ignoring it.
ReplyDeleteVidwan@10:39, I can only hope that your comment wasn't an assumption of racial exclusivity on the part of the ACPT. There were hundreds of people who participated. Puzzle Girl took photos of her own acquaintances, including this and this not larger groups in general. If it is necessary, here's some from the ACPT site 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on. My opinion is that it is a matter of exposure and not of racial insensitivity.
If other ethnic and racial groups are not yet widely acquainted with the enjoyment of crossword puzzle solving, then let us hope they soon will be.
Dennis, Just my opinion again. I don't think fault enters into it. Perhaps "choice" or "lack of familiarity" would be better.
For the curious - a few examples of cryptic crosswords -
ReplyDeleteNOTE:(x,y) = 2 words, x number of letters, in first word, y number in second word.
GEG (9,3) = SCRAMBLED EGG ... (GEG = egg )
Presbyterians singer(7,6) = BRITNEY SPEARS ... from the 'Presbyterians' anagram.
HIJKLMNO (5) = WATER ...( H to O ) (H2O)
Pretty Girl in Crimson rose (8)* = REBELLED ... ( 'Belle' inside Crimson= 'Red'), rebel is to 'rise', 'rose' is past tense of 'rise'.... (*) = an actual book written by Sandy Balfour, cryptic compiler / constructor.
The real reason for meeting between Volkswagen and Daimler (6,6) = HIDDEN AGENDA ... Volksw-agenda-imler has 'agenda' hidden in the middle.
We've eaten at P.F. Chang's and found it merely okay. Understanding that their food is not "Chinese" but is rather a "fusion" based on Chinese cuisine, we still never found it particularly impressive.
ReplyDeleteInteresting question. Since these English-language crossword puzzles so often contain French, Spanish, Italian, German, even Arabic, etc. words in them, it almost seems the assumption is that such words are common in our vocabularies. So, would a crossword puzzle in Spanish, say, routinely also contain English and other non-Spanish words in it?
kazie, that moussaka recipe looks good. We're going to try it, for sure.
cherylptts, that was pretty astounding about that bomb in the newspaper, wasn't it? Yikes!
What a wonderful compilation of cryptics; thank you A., though the run on answer is also a stand alone (i.e. AGENDA) in the clue. It is one of the trickier onesto pick up.
ReplyDeleteHi.
ReplyDeleteOf note to ferm and others. The movie tonight on SHO is Agora -
life and times of Hypatia. Rachel Weisz stars.
eddy
Re-injured my right leg. No wt on it is allowed.
One for JzB:
ReplyDeleteWhat's is another term for "trombone"?
A wind driven, manually operated, pitch approximator.
Greetings, all
ReplyDeleteNew avatar taken before we got 12 feet of new snow in a week. Skiing was wonderful, since I own a pair of K2 Pontoons (Really wide powder skis.) Only set off one avalanche, too.
It took me 40 minutes to cover the 40 yds. from cabin to road on Friday.
Being from Cal, we always called our southern cousins Baby Bears or UClies (rhymes with uglies.) U.C.L.A.n doesn't make it for me.
Don't forget, Lassie was filmed using male dogs and was often filmed in the Santa Monica Mountains and other locales near L.A.
Could someone please remove the anon @2:50?
Good to "see" you all again.
Jayce -Your query on whether other languages have borrowed foreign words and phrases, as much as English has, is a good question.
ReplyDeleteIt is a well known fact that the inherent 'strength' of English as a 'common' language around the world, is not only due because of the extensive British colonial empire, but is due to its ability to borrow words from other languages and 'coin up' new words, very easily, rapidly and seamlessly, as the need arises.
Based on my reading of an authoratative volume, on the subject, I am given to uderstand, that the French (language ) does NOT accept new words ( no, no 'le hamburger' ) unless formally approved by the French Academy - a process that can take upto 4 years (!) and ( according to this book - ) this relative inflexibilty, has caused the catastrophic decline of the French as a major lingua franca.
Continued - for line limits.
Jayce - Continued - As an Aside, the major language in India - Hindi or Hindustani, has gone one better.
ReplyDeleteI can barely read Hindi, ( only haltingly ), and I was trying to read a Hindi popular magazine, at a local library here, when to my complete surprise, I found out that the articles in the magazine, were nonchalantly using totally English ( and American ) words, like ' deficit reduction', and ' stay at home mom', and 'job sourcing' and 'sports utility vehicle' IN THEIR ENTIRETY .... merely transcribing them into the vernacular script.
Why reinvent the wheel, indeed !
To add to the borrowed language discussion, I agree with Vidwan's assertions on French. they try to maintain the purity of their language by having to approve any new words.
ReplyDeleteOTOH, German seems to embrace any anglicisms with enthusiasm, especially in advertizing, where you sometimes wonder why they don't use the perfectly good German equivalents that usually exist. e.g. Manager, Service, "Neu im Shop", "Tops und Flops", "der Bestseller"--all taken from the first few pages of a magazine on the history of automobiles. Many borrowings ending in "-ation" are, like our own words, originally French.
eddyB:
ReplyDeletere: "the leg" ... OUCH !!!
Yeah, it seems like every year they try to "Win" the race on that first ... the very FIRST ... turn.
But this rain (today) is what I expected ... It has been "San Diago" weather around here for 2 months.
HeartRx (and all the 'others' in the "Snow States" ...
OK, the only four seasons I ever lived through (not counting my time in Zagreb) are:
Hockey Season
Basketball Season
Football Season
(and my personal favorite, N.Y.Yankee's are at Home -v- the Tiger's at 1:00 pm Thursday, 3/31/11 on ESPN ...)
BASEBALL SEASON !!!
Cheers on a very rainy (3+ inches ... so far) Sunset !!!
Hmmm, if it is "Raining Cats & Dogs" can you call it a Sunset?
C.C.
ReplyDeleteoops ... my bad.
By addressing eddyB and HeartRx wiuth a colon (:) I exceeded the 20 line 'Max' ...
When I previewed it was the "20 line limit."
Sorry, My Bad.
Hi gang, a quickie Monday puzzle with not much to comment on.
ReplyDeleteFor Jayce: Re: Chinese food?
I agree with you about P.F. Chang's -- it's also way too noisy similar to the Outback noise level that we don't like.
Our favorite local San Jose Chinese is Chef Li's
Hi Everyone ~~
ReplyDeleteIt seems that I'm in the minority in thinking this was a bit tougher than a usual Monday puzzle. Maybe it was only the NW corner that slowed me down and that's where I usually start. I didn't get MUCK, MECCA or CHANG my first time through but they did fill in with perps. I had to look the whole thing over when I finished because I hadn't seen a theme up to that point. You gave it a great title, Argyle ... those end words are very descriptive of our winter! I really liked 'back biter'/MOLAR and 'plastic user's concern'/DEBT. All in all, an enjoyable puzzle.
I'm still watching basketball ... Both the UCONN men's and women's teams continue to advance ... for now anyway!
Hi all,
ReplyDeleteLoved today's xwd, even though I had to look up kaos..never, never on a Monday-sigh
Not so quick with that muck corner either; had beach for tourist magnet. UCLAn..ugh
Misspelled Xena (Zena), so no box for my kite. Liked Creature's bob kite.Know nothing about pinochle, so no B(id); could have guessed-did guess canto.
Refused to put in the Z for Zesta, although I figured it was the answer, but didn't like laze. Never have seen that red box of Zesta.
Husker, love your avatar!
Yikes..please don't anyone complain if our wonderful bloggers don't have everything on line BY 4 AM!!!
ETE as a French word for 'summer' is a very friendly word for an american constructor. Two vowels and a usually easy to deal with T.
ReplyDeleteIf I'm a French constructor replacing ETE with SUMMER wouldn't work, would it.
To: Bill G. Enjoyed the Quebe sisters. Great entertainment. I almost expected Bob Wills to start chiming in. It was his kind of tune.
ReplyDeleteTo: Vidwan827. Thank you for the info on Indian Crosswords. Appreciate that.
To: Kazie. Thank you for the German Crossword link. Looks difficult.
So, I guess you folks answered my question. Others do have crossword puzzles.
Thank You.
Abejo
Abejo, I'm glad you enjoyed the Quebe sisters. They do play Bob Wills tunes. Hank Williams too. I much prefer the old, classic country music rather than the new stuff they play on the radio these days. Musical fogy, that's me. I sound like my father these days.
ReplyDeleteA bit late for this input, but Spanish language crossword puzzles exist, called crucigramas,though I have done only one in my life. There is no good source that I know of but I'm sure they must be available on the internet now.
ReplyDelete