Theme: None
Total words: 70
Total blocks: 29
This puzzle is anchored by two grid-spanners:
19A. Was left out, facetiously : DIDN'T GET THE MEMO. Orderly A, E, I, O, U, Y in the word "facetiously". Very unusual.
50A. Man, to Aristotle : POLITICAL ANIMAL. He said "man is by nature a political animal".
The two 15s are then crossed by two 9s each. All great entries. I especially liked GOOD CATCH (35D. Matrimonial prize).
Tough cluing overall, typified by:
45A. Case, for instance: Abbr. : SYN (Synonym). Case is a synonym of "instance": in this case/in this instance.
Across:
1. "American Pie" actress : TARA REID. Always nice to see a full name.
9. Leading, usually : ON BASE. Leading off base.
15. Refinement : ELEGANCE
16. Goes without saying? : MOUTHS. Great clue.
17. Subtle differences : NICETIES
18. "Where ignorant __ clash by night": Matthew Arnold : ARMIES. I just freeze when seeing a quote clue.
21. Round-topped topper : TAM. Scottish topper.
22. Ticked : IRATE
23. Duchamp contemporary : ARP (Jean)
26. Nursery employee : NANNY. Not plant nursery.
28. Milky way? : UDDER. Fun clue.
32. Rye server : DELI
34. Trifle : TOY. Verb.
35. It's good to be in one : GROOVE
36. Something taken by a shooter : DEAD AIM. Take dead aim.
38. Some incentives : BONUSES
39. Non-acidic vitamin brand : ESTER-C. So other brands might be acidic?
40. Labor gp. that initially supported FDR : CIO. Who knows?
41. Jack's wife in Season 1 of "24" : TERI. No idea.
42. Therapy goal : REHAB
43. Bridge units : HANDS. Game, Dummy! Not river bridge.
46. Last straw : LIMIT
48. Video end? : CAM. Oh, Video camera.
57. Throws : AMAZES. This throws me.
58. "Sure, why not?" : LET'S DO IT. Clue & answer sound very Dennis.
59. Meet people? : RACERS. "Meet" is a noun then.
60. Pedigree : ANCESTRY
61. Black-tie : DRESSY
62. Diamond gem : NO-HITTER. Baseball diamond. Two no-hitters this season. One by Twins' Liriano.
Down:
1. Keep an eye on : TEND
2. Et __ : ALII
3. Like most mailed pkgs. : REC'D
4. Deal maker : AGENT
5. Palm prevalent in Indonesia : RATTAN
6. Hard to figure out : ENIGMATIC. Like Mona Lisa's smile.
7. Frozen pop brand : ICEE
8. Fortune : DESTINY
9. It's across the Missouri from Council Bluffs, Iowa : OMAHA. Happy fill for Husker Gary.
10. Point from which one must proceed? : NO RETURN. Another tricky clue.
11. Disappointed, slangily : BUMMED OUT
12. End in __ : A TIE
13. Noah's eldest : SHEM. One of his brothers was called Ham.
14. Sinclair Oil rival : ESSO
20. Subject to strain : TRY
23. Puff __ : ADDER
24. Eponymous candy company founder : REESE
25. "Lady Lazarus" poet : PLATH (Sylvia). What a tragic life she had.
27. Henri, e.g. : NOM. Just a name.
29. Doctor's orders : DOSES
30. All possible : EVERY
31. Mastic, for one : RESIN. Did not know Mastic is plant resin.
33. Puts on a pedestal : IDEALIZES
37. Judges : ARBITERS. The constructor is a judge.
38. Storage unit : BIN
40. Pablo Casals, e.g. : CATALAN. Dali also.
43. Sound heard after a lot of shots? : HIC. Bar "shots".
44. Third-generation Japanese-American : SANSEI. San = Three/Third. Same as Chinese. Sei means "birth".
47. Rapper Elliott : MISSY
49. Core : MIDST
50. Frontier friend : PARD
51. Shortstop Vizquel : OMAR. He was with the Indians for a long time.
52. Oxford fastener : LACE
53. Star seen around midnight : LENO (Jay)
54. Suffragist Lucretia : MOTT. I forgot. I think we had her before.
55. Leeds's river : AIRE. Another stumper.
56. Astron. distance : LT-YR (Light year)
C.C.
Good Morning, folks. I have not done the puzzle yet, but just printed it. I checked last night's blog and wanted to thank our birthday girl, Jeanne, for the recipe for Vidalia Onions. Thank you, Jeanne! Now I have to figure out what a Bagette is?
ReplyDeleteAbejo
Morning, all!
ReplyDeleteThis one slapped me around pretty badly. The second worst spot was in the NW, where it took forever to pull TARA REID out of the ether. I've never even seen the movie, so I honestly don't know how I got that. Once I did, though, it let me finish that section in short order after having just a bunch of blank spaces.
The worst spot was a bit lower on the west side where ESTERC, ARP and PLATH all conspired against me. I have at least heard of PLATH and ARP, but just couldn't think of them. And ESTERC is a complete and utter unknown. I finally had to hit the G spot to get PLATH, so that counts as a DNF for me.
SANSEI at 44D was another unknown for me. I knew issei and nissei, but that was as far I could get. Finally got it via the perps, though. The crossing of SANSEI/CAM was pretty brutal until I finally got GOOD CATCH at 35D.
Oh -- and the one answer I did confidently put in my first pass through the puzzle ended up being wrong. Pablo Casals is a famous CELLIST as well as being CATALAN...
Morning CC and All,
ReplyDeleteRed letters were the only way I could finish this one. Lots of unknowns and blank spots all over. Typical Saturday for me.
Great blog yesterday Marti. I look forward to more.
And a belated Happy Birthday to Jeannie.
Works been crazy lately so my posting is sporadic.
Have a good day!
Is there a condition called post-traumatic-did-not-solve-puzzle-syndrome? Is it abbreviated DNF?
ReplyDeletelol
Good morning C.C. ET ALIA
ReplyDeleteThank you for your enlightening blog today, C.C. I did not know the movie “American Grafitti” or the actress TARA REID, so the NW was a real slog for me. Especially since Victor used ET ALII at 2D, which had me totally frustrated, as I use what I think of as the “neutral” abbr. every day in my post and was stuck on “et alia”. (Kazie, I know you can appreciate my frustration with that one!) How chauvinistic, to put the masculine form in this puzzle! But I forgive you, Victor, because you gave me these:
10D NO RETUN
11D BUMMED OUT
19A DIDN’T GET THE MEMO
29A “Milky way?” for UDDER
58A LETS DO IT!
62A NO HITTER for the tricky “Diamond gem”
35D GOOD CATCH
43D HIC, for a “Sound heard after a lot of shots”….hic
And a huge V8 moment for SYN – I had it via perps, and sat staring at the clue for the looooooooongest time before it whacked me upside the head!
And my “bête noirs”:
ReplyDelete40D “Pablo Casals, e.g.”. Well, I absolutely knew he was a famous cellist, and refused to take that out…even though none of the perps made sense with it there. CATALAN? Awww, geez…Barry, I feel your pain!
Then there was 61A “Black Tie” I really, really, really wanted “formal”, instead of DRESSY. I wonder, are other solvers as stubborn as I am??
I finally had to look up “Shortstop Vizquel” to finish the SW. (Forgive me, C.C. )
A fun romp, and a big “Heart-y“ thank you to Victor Fleming for this one!
One clue and its answer have me utterly confused:
ReplyDelete"16. Goes without saying? : MOUTHS."
I just don't get this one. And the "Great clue" write-up leads me to believe I lack the talent to figure it out without someone's help.
Help?
Hello Puzzlers - Oh, so many wrong ways, went I. CELLIST was only one.
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen American Pie (I hear it's crap), so I Googled, and HANNIGAN seemed to fit. Completely bollixed the NW. Revisited Goog much later and noticed TARA REID.
Piles of unknowns - ESTERC, OMAR, TERI, PLATH, and more. So much red letter help and Googlage was needed that a strict ARBITER might just rule it a Technical DNF. One tough Saturday, for me.
Abejo - a baguette is a skinny loaf of French bread.
ReplyDeleteAnon - I took it to mean mouthing the words, as in trying to convey a spoken message without actually speaking.
C.C. Excellent, informative write-up.
ReplyDeleteHummm, I'm BUMMED-OUT by DNF.
Never got in the GROOVE.
It is an UDDER-disappointment.
At least I got the baseball stuff.
First entry was OMAR.
Liked that NO-HITTER crossed GOOD-CATCH.
The pitcher who throws one will probably need at least one or more of these.
Happy Saturday, C.C. and all.
ReplyDeleteYup, what Barry and others said...
I wasn't getting anywhere in the top, dropped down to the bottom and found a few that I knew. I well remember the few good years of the Cleveland Indians with Omar, Carlos Baerga, Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez, so that was a gimme. That steered me toward baseball diamond and NO HITTER. I've been doing a lot of ANCESTRY research lately so that was easy. OF COURSE! was my first choice, but LET'S DO IT came through and gave me the rest of that corner.
From there I teased out everything except the NW and the Middle West. I finally gave up and Googled the American Pie cast, found TARA REID and got the NW. ARP, PLATH and ESTER C eluded me although I've heard of all three. One more trip to Google gave me PLATH and the rest fell into place.
Abejo, Bagette is a small bag... something to carry Jeannie's delicious dip around in, I guess. :)
Thanks Dudley, but I'm still dissatisfied with the clue.
ReplyDeleteThe clue "Goes without saying?" implies that a person leaves someplace and does not inform anyone of their departure before leaving. (I've spent an inordinate amount of time trying to imagine every other defensible interpretation, and have come up with squat.)
The answer to the clue indicates that the clue is flawed. Why? Because for the clue to be valid, the answer "mouths" would necessitate that the person who "goes without saying" actually communicates something before or as they go, and THE CLUE DOES NOT IMPLY THAT SAID PERSON IS SAYING OR COMMUNICATING ANYTHING WHATSOEVER.
Now, if the clue were "Communicates without words," then "mouths" would work as an answer. Or "Says without saying" might work too.
Get me?
I know I may be making too much of this, but Saturday puzzles are difficult enough without having to wrestle with flawed clues.
Baguette is a thin French loaf. The 'u' is needed to keep the 'g' from sounding like a 'j'.
ReplyDeleteHeartRx,
I do understand your frustration, but you obviously did much better than I did.
All I got were: ALII, ENIGMATIC, NANNY, BONUSES, SANSEI, LACE and LTYR. I had BRACH for REESE, HEART for MIDST, and blanks everywhere else. I also wanted FORMAL for DRESSY, but left it blank because of LACE.
It's bad day when there are fewer right ones to comment on than blanks.
Hope it's better for the rest of you.
C.C.,
You never cease to amaze me!
Re "MOUTHS", I feel anon has completely missed the boat. The expression "Goes without saying" means that an idea needn't be expressed because it is so obvious already. As in: "It goes without saying, that I had no idea how to finish this puzzle." So "mouths" implies that one is mouthing rather than saying openly what is to be assumed.
ReplyDeleteGood morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteDNF this one either. Cellist got me, and all the others I had no idea about.
I agree that "goes without saying" is a flawed clue. That phrase usually precedes something obvious, such as," It goes without saying that I am grateful for the Mother's Day roses." Mouths has nothing to do with the way the phrase is used. End of grump.
Also wanted tuxedo or formal for "black tie". But I did have lace, so neither would fit. And I'll never know how ARMIES got lodged in the recesses of my brain, but that was one I knew. Truly wanted Hershey for the eponymous candy co. founder.
It's a gorgeous day, and my house is being cleaned, so all is well.
And thanks for the tip to look for Jeannie's recipe, Abejo. Enjoyed
Grumpy1's definition of bagette.
Cheers
C.C., et al, a few lookups to confirm answers and find PLATH to eliminate PLATO (Hey, any port in a storm!) e.g. Coupled with C.C.’s write-up made for a nice Saturday solve! We’re off to 9 Down at 1 pm with grandkids today!
ReplyDeleteMusings
-No chance on American Pie (much prefer American Grafitti), 24, Missy, Mott or Casals (had cellist too) clue but got with perps or learned
-Hey if they were easy, anyone could do ‘em! I give myself a 93%!
-Loved UDDER, LENO, MOUTHS
-My labor group (NEA) still usually supports democrats
-Thought Meet peeps might be TIMERS which I have done many times
-ESSO is an old oil company name like Sinclair
-Puff Daddy? Not so much!
-NEISEI/SANSEI? Oh! Black tie is not FORMAL
-Pitching dominance clearly show the steroid age in baseball is over! But chicks still dig the long ball!
-Goes without saying was fine with me
Wonderful puzzle, Victor; and wonderfuller write-up, CC, but ...
ReplyDeleteIf I knew how to code Chinese/Japanese ideograms into this blog I could better demonstrate that, in current Japanese, the "-SEI" of "SANSEI" (and issei, nisei, and yonsei) is more often written with one of the several characters meaning 'generation' rather than the one typically used (again, in current Japanese---I know very little Chinese, current or classic) for birth-related words.
It's also used for the "-sei" of the numbers attached to the names of monarchs, etc., as in the "-hassei" of "henri-hassei" (= Henry VIII) & "se-" of 'sekai' (= world).
An alternate pronunciation of this same character is the "yo-" of 'yo-no-naka' & 'uki-yo-e' (poetically, "this world", & "pictures of the floating world").
Not a big thing in any case, but I thought some posters might be happy to know that there's at least as much to quibble about re Asian languages as ther is re the more usual classical and modern European languages!
Hi There ~!
ReplyDeletePHEW ~!
I got it, but it took every corner of my brain, and I still had to "cheat" at the crossing of ARP and PLATH - the P was a C, and then a B.
I had IDOL-izes, and knew it didn't have two "L"s, and Puff DADDY to start - right "ADD", wrong place.
I liked "Diamond gem" NO HITTER, lots of baseball, glad C.C. got the call on this one.
Milky Way was UDDER-ly cute, yes.
Well done, Victor ~!
Thanks, C.C.
Splynter
Good Day C.C. and all,
ReplyDeleteC.C. , thank you for your concise write-up. After a puzzle like this, I need clean and concise answers. Your picture links are my favorites.
My look-ups were: MISSY,OMAR, AIRE and PLATH. I could see cellist was out, but it was forever before I googled for the LAN in CATALAN. Maybe I’ll remember it the next time .Perps made a lot of corrections for me, but they couldn’t correct my insistence on using good match instead of GOODCATCH., which messed up 48A. I guessed ‘mam’ was as good as anything. UGH!
A real scorcher, Victor; Thanks for filling in my morning.
Jeannie, thanks for your Vidalia recipe. It sounds yummy.
Have a nice day everyone.
Good afternoon C.C. et al.
ReplyDeleteUDDER disaster. (What happened to the cow who tried to leap a barbed-wire fence.) This should help to soothe it.
I never could get on Victor's wavelength. Had much the experience of the previous posters. Needed red letter help in the north. CATALAN broke the dam in the south. Liked the clueing for LENO, NO-HITTER, and RACERS. MOTT was a WAG. Did not know PLATH and ESTER-C. Clues for AMAZES and TOY seemed like an overreach. I think SHEM is the origin of our word 'Semite' or 'semitic'.
Hola Everyone,
ReplyDeleteBy the time I got to the blog on Thursday, there wasn't any, so I didn't comment, but did finish the puzzle. Friday was a different story. It was too hard for me and like others, this was a DNF.
I just wanted to wish Jeannie a Belated Happy Birthday, and Marti congratualtions on her inagural writeup of the blog. Even though both are a day late, the thought is very sincere.
I'm glad things are all back in working order and I wish everyone a wonderful weekend.
And then there was that other cow that carelessly backed into that other barbed-wire fence.
ReplyDelete"What happened?"
"Disaster".
Spitz:
ReplyDeleteThere has been at least one tin of Bag Balm on my pantry shelf since 1977. Great stuff for man or beast.
Hello.
ReplyDeleteRacing events such as hill climbs
(Pikes Peak) and rallies (Monti Carlo) are often called meets.
Trying to rain.
Have a nice day.
Uh, Windhover - just curious...what do you use it on?
ReplyDelete...and when the cow jumped over the barbed wire fence, it was udder destruction!
ReplyDelete...sorry for the "udder destruction" double play...
ReplyDeleteAll right, since we're doing word quips, it must be time to trot out my favorite Dorothy Parker:
ReplyDeleteMary Brown took her skates, upon the the ice to frisk.
She was such a foolish girl her little *.
Hi, I took "Goes without saying" as "Talks without saying". Like when someone yaks and yaks and (eyeballs roll) "There she Goes again" Come on Mr. Judge, sir, arbitrate. Pleeeeease! Thanks for the puzzle and blog post.
ReplyDeleteHello everybody. Well this has been quite a week of hard puzzles and scintillating blogging by you all. I DNF Wednesday's and Thursday's, and barely eked out yesterday's and today's. And frankly didn't find any of them particularly gratifying. At least today there were some clever, albeit difficult, clues. It was a freaking hard puzzle today.
ReplyDeleteMore later.
59 across: You said "meet" was a noun; in this case, it's actually an ajective, describing the kind of "people."
ReplyDeleteGood afternoon everyone.
ReplyDeleteGreat write up for a sorry puzzle, C.C.
HeartRX: When I was in the hospital with my first son and breast feeding him, my roommate's husband brought in bagbalm to ease her discomfort. She thought it was great.
Cheers
Barry G, I also confidently pencilled in CELLIST for Pablo Casals, which really messed me up for a long time. So much for thinking any of the answers I thought just had to be right were in fact right. I even began to have doubts about SANSEI, which I knew was right. When it turned out to be in fact right, all I culd do was shrug and say "sheesh." By then the fun had gone out of it.
ReplyDeleteDudley, nice quote! I guess her * and she can do it however she likes!
ReplyDeleteDudley, I love that Dorothy Parker quote. Very clever! Thanks for posting it.
ReplyDeleteThe TOFU entry the other day reminds me of how much I love to "eat tofu."
Happy Saturday!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the puzzle more than I usually do on a Saturday. I thought DIDN'T GET THE MEMO and NO HITTER for diamond gem were clever and fun. However, I don't think IRATE matches 'ticked' very well. Irate seems a lot madder than ticked.
It's so sad what's going to happen to 25,000 folks in LA. I wish I could do something to help. I'm also sad about Harmon Killebrew. Best wishes to him and his family.
'Goes without saying?': Mouths
ReplyDeleteThis clue wasn't meant to be an exact, scientific, dictionary pure definition. It also comes with a question mark, letting you know that the answer is going to be less than straight-up. It's a nice example of wordplay and a bit of zaniness. It's meant to tweak our nose a tad and make us smile. Lighten up... Vic was having a bit of devilish fun.
Dudley, I enjoyed your little poem with the *. My brain is slow and I didn't get it at first. So I Googled it and finally found it with some extra effort. It apparently isn't by Dorothy Parker though, or if it is, Google doesn't seem to know about it.
ReplyDeleteSome others by Dorothy Parker (What a witty woman!):
"If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to."
"I don't know much about being a millionaire, but I'll bet I'd be darling at it."
"I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three I'm under the table,
after four I'm under my host."
"Brevity is the soul of lingerie."
"I'd like to have money. And I'd like to be a good writer. These two can come together, and I hope they will, but if that's too adorable, I'd rather have money."
Sallie, now I am really confused about bag balm...why was your roommate so uncomfortable watching you breast-feed your son, and how did the bag balm fix it? Did she smear it on her eyes? ;-D
ReplyDeleteHi CC and all
ReplyDeleteWell Friday and todays puzzles were just a mess. I couldn't even get a foot hold with Mr. G today. It took a lot of looking up to finish. So I don't think I truly finished.
Having been both a pediatric and neonatal intensive care nurse, we used bag balm on little butts all the time. Great stuff!
Well, Hearti ((combining your names),
ReplyDeleteI always respond to direct questions, and sometimes honestly. ;-}
In an earlier stage of development, I was a dairy farmer for 16 years, and learned a bit about the care and handling of mammaries when they come in sets of four, as bovines' do. (The ovines and caprines I have now have them in pairs, which makes a lot of sense when you consider that a man has two hands.) The vernacular word among dairy farmers for 'udder' is 'bag', thus the name Bag Balm. The main ingredients in the product are petroleum jelly and lanolin, with a sulfur compound to promote healing. The original use was for chapped teats (properly pronounced 'teets'), along with scrapes, abrasions, and minor cuts. Since people who work outside often have the same problems, mostly on their hands and other extremities, most farmers keep a tin in the house as well as in the barn.
Continued
Maybe when Larry Ludd drives his tractor around the farm, he leaves his machine made Levi's hanging on a chair in his cold dark bedroom.
ReplyDeleteConsequently, on long hot days there arises a chafing conundrum.
Hence the need for some good sack salve.
As Sallie and Crazy Horse both said, it's useful anywhere there's tender skin that's a little raw. If you ever get chapped lips while schussing down those alpine slopes, Bag Balm is the thing. I have to tell you, though, that I refuse to kiss the Irish while she has the damned stuff on her lips. It has a very strong Vicks-type smell.
ReplyDeleteI presume, though, that you may have been thinking, from the name, that I might be using on an exclusively male part of the anatomy. NOT!!
But along that line of thought, you owe it to yourself to find a YouTube vid of the band 'Asylum Street Spankers' and their tune 'The Scrotum Song". Put down your drink and swallow your food before hitting the 'Play' button.
Hope I answered your question. Any others?
Anon:
ReplyDeleteJust go to hell.
Besides, we do all our farming in the buff, year 'round.
I'll save you a little sack sweat though, since you seem to have your head in my s--- every time I post.
;}
I refuse to kiss the Irish while she has the damned stuff on her lips.
ReplyDeleteWH, I'm assuming that that's dependent on how the Irish got it there in the first place?
On the subject of today's puzzle, I loved it - loved the difficulty, loved the cluing, especially "Goes without saying" -- I thought that was brilliant.
C.C., as to your comment about me in today's blog, you know me too well.
Hi Everyone ~~
ReplyDeleteThis was a challenge and it took me quite a while to finish. I had a few look-ups - ARP, MISSY, and ESTER C. Those opened up enough areas so that I could finish with perps and guesses. I really liked the multi-word long answers, esp. DIDN'TGETTHEMEMO. Fun! My erasable ink eraser got quite a work-out but I found this puzzle to be very enjoyable!
I'm in the CATALAN not CELLIST club and I also had SENSEI before SANSEI and FORMAL before DRESSY. C.C. mentioned one of the two NOHITTERs in baseball so far this year (Liriano). The other was by Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers (my husband's team). Red Sox-Yankees go at it again tonight.
Enjoy the weekend! ~~
c'mon windhover, relax. it was just a harmless little joke. i just wanted to type "sack salve"!
ReplyDeleteWH, I like the portmanteau!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, that's exactly what I was wondering.
And now I understand what Sallie's roommate was doing with it. I think coconut oil would be more tasty for the little tyke, though, from your description of it.
After listening to your musical recommendation, now I have a ton of other visuals searing my eyeballs. Please, make them go away !!
#4, already.
ReplyDeleteOK, anon, you're forgiven. I hate to give this away, cause all the other Anons will beat me with it, but I'm really sensitive to that Luddite reference. Of course, I am one, iPhone and all, but.......
Dennis: no problem at all with (that) substance, and I don't really care how it got there. I just can't stand the smell and the greasiness of the damned Bag Balm.
Marti:
Sorry. But you started it. ;-}
Re "goes without saying", think about the way the younger generation uses the word goes: He goes "nice day isn't it?" She goes "Yes, but it will rain later." The substitution of Goes for said is very common, although I hate it. Goes without saying would be the same as said without saying, in which case MOUTHED is a perfectly good answer, IMHO.
ReplyDeleteYou have to go back to the last post yesterday to understand the 'Bagette' banter. Our 'toasted' birthday girl was in rare form! Wallah!
ReplyDeleteWH: Of course, the salve teat dilators are in should work pretty well, too.
ReplyDeleteHello gang,
ReplyDeleteWell, as Carol goes, "I got 'er done!" but boy, it was by hook and by crook! Lotsa lookups, learned a lot. There should be a word for 'finished with lots of help'. I see value in finishing, even if with lots of help; after all, it's the learning experience. And it's actually research, which is not a bad thing. But if you can finish with no help at all that's a much bigger deal especially if it's a really hard one, like today's. And then DNF would be for unfilled squares, definitely a towel throw.
I'm now going back to yesterday's entries, which were gone when I logged off. I want Jeannie's recipes.
Hi all,
ReplyDeleteThis one not as bad as yesterday's, me thinks!
Cute puzzle, Victor. Great write-up, C. C.!
Favs: DIDN'TGETTHEMEMO and NORETURN. Did not have trouble with CATALAN as I had the first two letters.
The acupuncture yesterday really helped. After a false start, had a good sleep. Unfortunately, my housekeeper/helper cannot read. I wrote (in simple español) for her to wake me up (late) so that I could remind her not to use Downey, as I have been scratching all over the place. Nuts! Perhaps I need BAG BALM?
Cheers!
PS. I think that many of you would enjoy the daily newsletter from Wordsmith. Here is a sample from today's weekley recap:
ReplyDelete"Subject: Anomia
Def: The inability to recall names of people or objects.
This reminded me of a joke: Two elderly gentlemen are sitting on the porch. One says to the other: "My wife and I went out recently to a lovely restaurant. It has great atmosphere, fantastic food, and it's not too expensive."
The other gentleman asks: "What's it called?"
The first chap says (clearly suffering from anomia): "I can't recall ... What do you call that pretty flower that has thorns?"
The other gentleman says: "A rose."
"Great!", says the first one. "Rose! What was the name of that restaurant we went to the other day?""
Thank you for the great blog, C.C. I really needed it today!
ReplyDeleteMarti, since a couple of my comments didn't get printed yesterday, my compliments on you blogging yesterday! It was truly terrific! You can do everything ! When do you have time for your job?
Grumpy1....wallah! Moving slow today. I had fun though. I can only wonder what my 50th will bring as it lands on a Saturday. As MFCounselor would say, Mon Dieu!!
ReplyDeleteAs a couple of dudes I danced with last night would say, "Are you sure you're 49"? No takers though.
Jeannie...are you sure you weren't the non-taker? I am pretty sure you could damn near get any guy you want. Especially if they knew you could cook. Then again I am just a horny Jeannie lover.
ReplyDeleteGood evening, C.C. and all! Thanks for the blogging, C.C. it cleared up a couple of things for me.
ReplyDeleteLate to class today with a very good excuse, I'm spring cleaning and I did the puzzle while taking breaks, one quadrant at a slow, slow time. It was tough!
I'm in the CELLIST group for Pablo Casals, however, that soon changed with LETSDOIT and ANCESTRY.
I managed to WAG through most of it and found DIDN'TGETTHEMEMO very clever and cute. PLATH escaped me and didn't realize I left a blank cell on T so no ESTER-C either. Misspelled SANSEI as SENSEI, too, and no CAM for video end.
In the end, it worked without looking for anything, wouldn't have had time, anyway as I have been cleaning up a storm, so to speak, the Southwest is a dusty place.
Have to agree with Jerome on MOUTHS, a question mark means tricky cluing.
I hope your Saturday has been superb!
My mother used to love using bag balm for dry skin and slathered it on every night. Having been raised on a ranch and being an experienced milker she knew about soft skin.
ReplyDeleteWe had livestock, and that meant we always had a tin of Bag Balm around. It always seemed about the same as camphor stick to me, only softer.
ReplyDeleteI must have MISSED THE MEMO - where did "wallah" come from? Is that a corruption of the French "voila" ?
Jeannie: 2012 is a leap year. Your birthday will fall on a Sunday
ReplyDeleteFP, I enjoyed the joke.
ReplyDeleteDudley, yes I'm guessing it's voila. A lot of people pronounce it like wallah. I never took French though.
I had a gift certificate from a tutoring student's family for California Pizza Kitchen. Do you have them in your area? A very nice upscale chain I think. We split their fabulous chicken Waldorf salad and a Greek pizza. Then their Key Lime pie for dessert. Yummy!
Ease up guys...Wallah may not be in the dictionary, but you got my drift.
ReplyDeleteCalendar Fiend...thanks for the "heads up". I guess I am taking Monday, May 14th off!!
Good Evening, folks! I knew I would be late today. Outside at an intersection selling Vidalia's. Thank you Victor for a difficult, but rewarding, puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for the excellent write-up and posting.
ReplyDeleteWell, I started about 6:30 AM, and finished about 8:30 PM. I worked, on and off, all day long on this thing. The puzzle was tough. I was able to get POLITICAL ANIMAL quite easily. However, I had DIDNT SEE THE MEMO for quite a while, then plugged in GET once I had ENIGMATIC.
Had GOOD AIM for a while, then DEAD AIM surfaced.
The only way I got ESTER C was by asking my wife who was sitting in the room. I am not much of a medical person.
Had GOOD MATCH instead of CATCH for a while.
Thought 35A/GROOVE was a great clue/answer. As others did, thought 28A/UDDER was clever.
Jeanne: Thanks again for the recipe. And thanks to all the others for defining BAGETTE/BAGUETTE.
Grumpy 1: Ha ha, small bag. I actually believed you for a short while.
See you all tomorrow. I will probably be late again, with onions.
Abejo
Just commenting, not criticizing. I always enjoy your drift, and recipes.
ReplyDeleteHere's a fun little puzzle. Every answer is a two-word rhyming phrase with both words having three syllables. For example, given the clue “unexplained circumstance of the past,” the answer would be “history mystery.” Ready?
Clues: Monthly pay for working at an art store; better-looking guy paying for a kidnapee; an average amount of boringness; chance drawing for some clayware; not as neat a Xerox machine; a more sadistic worker with gems; faithfulness to the crown; whoever is the current leader living in the White House; a group of friends at an international service club.
gallery salary
ReplyDeletehandsomer ransomer
sloppier copier
Spitzboov, perfect so far.
ReplyDeleteResident President, royalty loyalty, pottery lottery, still working on the last two. Rotary coterie came to mind.
ReplyDeleteJeanne - No criticism here either, I was trying to sort out whether it was voila or something like Wallah Wallah WA.
I left out crueler jeweler. I have doubts about Rotary, but I'm sticking with it.
ReplyDeleteThat leaves the boringness one. Tricky, that. Have to ponder.