google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, August 12, 2011, Robert H. Wolfe

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Aug 12, 2011

Friday, August 12, 2011, Robert H. Wolfe

Theme: Letters- Grow up! Each single letter hyphenated word has the letter replaced by a sound alike word creating a punny and thought provoking image. A very nicely themed balanced puzzle by one of the grand masters of construction. Mr. Wolfe has over 50 published NY Times as well as more than 30 LA Times and countless other publications. He has been INTERVIEWED by C.C. and has spanned more than 4 decades. While we continue to introduce new people, it is nice to see the continuity and continuing creativity of our veterans.

Lemonade, here driving the bus for this straightforward fun theme.

17A. Urban area set aside for pekoe purveyors?: TEA SQUARE. A T-Square is a technical drawing instrument used by draftsmen, which looks just like its name. Pekoe a type of tea.

25A. New Zealand lamb-exporting method?: EWE BOAT. U-Boat is a common crossword answer and the German Submarine used in the World Wars, from the German UNTERSEEBOOT, which just what is sounds like.

28A. End of the line?: QUEUE TIP. Q-tip is a brand name for a cotton swab; this is my favorite visual change. QUEUE being the British line.

47A. "The Look of Love" and "Suddenly I See," e.g.?: EYE TUNES. I-Tunes are the music downloadable from Apple. Okay, this is my favorite, 2 songs about eyes, and a really fun pun.

49A. Pitch notation for Debussy's "La Mer"?: SEA CLEF. C-Clef is the movable clef, and again I will defer to our musicians (where is John L.?) Mer is SEA in French.

58A. Island allotment?: CAY RATION. K-Ration is the the prepackaged food ration designed initially for paratroopers in WW II. The K has no meaning. CAY is like a Key and means an island.

The puzzle had no really long words, which surprised me as I recall Mr. Wolfe likes 15 letter fill, but here we go, and only minimal French. (Note from C.C.: The short theme entries EWE BOAT & SEA CLEF dictate that all of the non-theme Across answers should be shorter than 7 letters. If all theme entries are placed Across, it's OK to have Down fill longer than the shortest theme entry. Hence a couple of 8's today.)

Across:

1. Brother of Ham: SHEM. Two of the three SONS OF NOAH.

5. Finishes (up) the gravy: SOPS. Please use bread and not your fingers.

9. Performance lead-in: INTRO. Often a musical piece.

14. Mystique: AURA. Like this IMAGE.

15. Aussie water hazard: CROC. No wonder there are so many tough Australian golfers; anyone for Adam Scott?

16. Aired, as "Hogan's Heroes," say: RERAN.

19. Symphony section: REEDS. I defer to JzB for questions, but I believe there are four sections to an orchestra, woodwinds(reeds), brass, strings and percussion. Mr. Wolfe also is a musician, like others of our favorite puzzle makers.

20. Cross: SULLEN. So many different meanings for CROSS, this was not one that came easily.

21. Half of MXIV: DVII. Oh boy ancient Roman math problem; my son is in town back from Rome, yay.

22. "Julie & Julia" co-star: STREEP. All of us from New England grew up watching Ms. CHILD. Mr Wolfe is from Massachusetts, I believe.

31. Swimmer who channeled her energy?: EDERLE. Gertrude was the first woman to swim the English Channel.

32. Store, as ashes: INURN. For all the NITs out there- it is a real word.

33. Contests ending in draws?: DUELS. Wonderful clue, especially after soccer season.

35. Drifts off: NAPS. Wake up all!!!

36. Pinkish yellow: CORAL. I always thought of it as pinkish orange, but what do I know.

37. Hoax: FLAM. I bet he misses his pal FLIM. Recognize the bridge WH?

41. Low land: DALES. Hills and dales, not to be confused with Chip and Dale.

42. Wine made from the Garganega grape: SOAVE. We have had much education on WINE and brandy regions on Fridays.

43. Have a one-track mind: OBSESS.

51. Revered Mother: TERESA. This saintly woman shares her birthday with Vidwan and I.

52. Keen: WAIL. Okay Mr. Wolfe you have me, the perps say I am right, but I do not get KEEN = WAIL. (Note from C.C. "Keen" can mean "lament for the dead", verb and noun.)

53. Team playing in The Big A: ANGELS. Anaheim.

56. Icelandic literary treasures: EDDAS. A second appearance this week.

62. Rubbed-out spirits: GENII. I thought of Buffie killing some demons, not of bottled magic. Though it did remind eventually of this debate, which ONE do you vote for?

63. Needing darning TORN. I got some socks...

64. Polis starter: ACRO. ACROPOLIS.

65. What wavy lines may represent: ODORS. Followed by 66A. It's about a foot: SHOE. Great pun, about a foot, surrounding it; anyway, together they give us this LINK.

67. Regretted: RUED. Not trying to be rude, but we are done across, so we must go

Down:

1. Wasn't used: SAT. On the bench, like me in basketball.

2. Shade: HUE. Not outdoor shade, color shade.

3. Stat for CC Sabathia: ERA. A shout out for our own fearless leader? Or an evil empire jibe?

4. People who knead people: MASSEURS. Another golden oldie pun which merits this LINK.

5. Work with clay, say: SCULPT. That's what Aiken's trainer said he was doing.

6. Lacking a paper trail: ORAL. Fershure, we do not need a paper trail, no recordings or movies either.

7. Skin feature: PORE.

8. Dramatic division: SCENE. My father always told me children should heard not Obscene.

9. Bargain basement abbr.: IRR. Ironically, we are seeing this fill regularly.

10. As required, after "if": NEED BE. I do like weird letter combinations like this, what words end DBE?

11. "Felicia's Journey" writer William: TREVOR. Curious, go to this LINK. I did not know him.

12. Like some saws and tires: RADIAL. The tires were invented by Michelin in 1946.

13. Not remote: ON SITE.

18. Versatile game piece: QUEEN. She goes where she wants in chess, a game I never took to.

22. Magazine ad meas.: SQ IN. Square Inch.

23. __ melt: TUNA. My lunch about once per week, usually on a pita.

24. Do another stint: RE-UP. For all our military friends, it just means re-enlist.

26. "Let me think ...": WELL. A nice visual, "well dad, it was like this."

27. Mad VIPs: EDS. The editors of Mad magazine.

29. Hot star: IDOL. Do you all know who won last year? Do you like J-Lo coming back?

30. Turn to mush : PUREE. A shout out to all of our toothless members.

34. "Calm down!": EASY. Whoa now, easy boy; relax.

36. Winery buy: CASE. No brewery this week, we moving on up.

37. Like expensive restaurants, hopefully : FOUR STAR. What is your favorite restaurant? I like the Palm.


38. Meet assignment: LANE. Track meet, not joining Lois in the field.

39. Madison et al.: Abbr.: AVES. Not the President, the NYC avenues like Park and Lexington.

40. Cubs' spring training city: MESA. Any Cub fans out there? Don't hurt yourself, it is only a game.

41. PC dial-up upgrade: DSL. Dedicated Service Line.

42. Commemorative pillar: STELA. This is the LATIN spelling of what we call STELE.

43. Lake Ontario port: OSWEGO. First you have to know the Lake in New York STATE, near Syracuse, not Canada, after that the answer is easy. Luckily I have traveled upstate New York, pretty area.

44. Like some women's evening bags: BEADED. Man these must be way out of style, they are so CHEAP.

45. Refused: SAID NO. Just say no Lois.

46. Filled pastry: ECLAIR.

48. Unlimited, in verse: ETERNE. You have one from Spenser, or Chaucer CA?

50. Almanac offerings: FACTS. With computers, I am sure these will go the way of the newspaper.

54. Sodium hydroxide, in lab shorthand: NA O H. Don't you love how he worked the anagram of NOAH into the puzzle, for you Jerome.

55. Sandwich with tzatziki sauce: GYRO. Pronounced HERO.

57. Family girl: SIS. Never had one.

59. Post-op stop: ICU. Intensive Care Unit.

60. Unrefined metal: ORE.

61. Quiet bid: NOD. At a real auction, not the online kind.

Answer grid.

Over and out for another Friday, thanks for inviting me into your homes, see you next time.

Lemonade

82 comments:

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

I blew through most of this puzzle having a jolly old time and then ended up crashing and burning in the NE corner where I just couldn't get 'er done.

I could not remember EDDERLE, did not know TREVOR and -- worst of all -- was absolutely sure that NEEDED was correct at 10D. Even though I had figured out the theme, I couldn't think of any word that started with U that could fit with EWEE_AT.

The rest of the puzzle, as I said, was a delight. Can't win them all, I guess...

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. This was a fun end-of-the-week puzzle. The theme dawned on me when I got to SEA CLEF. That helped with the other theme clues that I had passed over on the first go-round.

My favorite clues were Rubbed-Out Spirits = GENII and It's About a Foot = SHOE.

Like Barry, I really wanted (If) NEEDED instead of the correct (If) NEED BE.

INURN looks odd, but it is a valid word.

Good luck with your eye issues, Abejo.

Good to see you again, Jeannie. I hope you don't get too swamped under.

Chickie: Have a great day tomorrow.

QOD: Thoughts, like fleas, jump from man to man, but they don't bite everybody. ~ Stanislaw J. Lec

Hungry Mother said...

Nice to see Ederle in the mix today. I'm a support kayaker for the swim in NY harbor on 10/1.

Lemonade714 said...

Actually HM, we had Gertrude earlier this year, in a Dan NADDOR which I was fortunate enough to write up, as well. It is to be remembered when she swam the channel, she did it two hours faster than any man had, at the time.

Yellowrocks said...

HeartRx, My Snake in the Grass link is in the last comment for Mike Peluso's puzzle on Tues.,Aug.9

I loved every one of Mr. Wolfe's theme puns and his clever clues, also enjoyed Lemonade's write up.

"Julie&Julia" was a great movie. I'm a fan of both Julia Child and Meryl Streep.

Always wondered about the plural, Eddas. Looked it up today. There are 2 of them, one in prose and one in poetry.

Got queuetip early on and guessed the theme. Eweboat lead me to needb, so need be quickly followed.

I like soave.

Eddy said...

Some of the clues/answers were quite ironic, given the day of the week, I thought.

Argyle said...

Small correction: Lake Ontario is a border lake between NY and Canada. Map.

HeartRx said...

Good Morning Lemonade, C.C. et al.



Thanks for the witty and informative write-up, Lemon! My favorite was also the EYE TUNES pun. 



I had a hard time fill in in EDERLE, because of the question mark. Did anyone else think that this was going to be one of the theme entries? 



I also had NEEDed for a while, but when I couldn't get the perps, I deleted the "ed" and came at it from a different direction, which really helped finish the puzzle. 

Thanks for giving us a great Friday puzzle, Mike!


Yelllowrocks, thanks for that pic of the rattler on Tues– he sure does look menacing!!

TEA GEE EYE ....

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

Just a quick hit before I do yard work. I've railed about C Clefs before. Alto and Tenor are most common, though there are others. They were designed for vocal music, I think, to center the clef in the singers range. There is really no good excuse for them.

They are used in European symphonic music and I hate, hate, hate them.

Good puzzle. Contra the above, I love the SEA CLEF.

Cheers!
JzB the bass clef preferring trombonist

Grumpy 1 said...

Good morning all. Thanks, Lemonade, for an excellent blog of a really fun puzzle. WELL... this was fun! I got the theme early with TEA SQUARE, but got hung up for a while on NEEDed, like so many others did.

The SW was slow to fall. I had 'esses' for those wavy lines and Guccis for those purses. I finally erased it all and saw the light when OBSESS looked workable with SEACLEF already in place. WAIL was all perps as I would never have equated it with 'keen'.

'About a foot' didn't fool me but I did try sock before shoe. Worn before TORN, as I was thinking about a hole in a sock needing to be darned because it was worn through, not TORN.

Key, CAY, quay. I've gotten some very snotty 'corrections' when I've spoken CAY as KAY. KEY seems to be the preferred pronunciation, but my dictionary says that either will do, and I like to tweak noses occasionally. (like the time I put it's instad of its in a post immediately after one of our dear posters had written about how much that error bugged her.)

Have a great weekend everyone.

Tinbeni said...

ED ERLE had a sex-change?

Denny said...

Guessed ROSE for "Winery buy" and SAGAS for "Icelandic literary treasures" and never for a moment doubted them and that meant DNF on SW and center. Just as well -- never would have in a million years accepted WAIL for "Keen," so I think even if I'd finished, I would've felt like I had something wrong.

Tough one today.

Husker Gary said...

Hi All from the cool, wet, windy environs of the Great Plains. A nice inch and a half of rain last night that will be nicely assimilated here but could be used more south of Huskerville.

Musings
-Great job, Lemon! I hope you don’t get ripped for wrong pronoun on 51A.
-TEASQUARE gave theme early on. These are hard to find in my SIL’s architecture firm as his computer can so many incredible things now!
-QUEUETIP is the best play to be at Disney World
-CROCs as footwear have come and gone
-I thought Contests ending in draws might involve drinking
-I was down in the Dells before Dales
-Barbara Eden gets my vote.
-Do we all RUE the fact we didn’t buy gold 5 years ago?
-My radials get over 50,000 miles while my old bias ply were lucky to get to 20,000
-I wanted a CASK of vino first
-I like the Idol auditions better!
-My wife has purchased 10 bags (none beaded) in the time I have stuck with my 15 year old billfold!

Lemonade714 said...

C.C., thank you for the information on KEEN = WAIL, I have never heard that meaning before, so it is my learning moment.

HG thanks for the grammar catch, I am always happy to inspire the OBSESSED.

Santa, of course you are correct, I was foolishly only thinking about when I saw the Lake.

Speaking of foolish, anybody watch RORY versus the ROOT yesterday?

Mikey said...

Too bad the "first letters" didn't spell something, but otherwise a fun puzzle for a Friday.

Husker Gary said...

Great line Lemon! I just tried to fire a preemptive strike. My obsessions do not usually involve grammar but I used to eat breakfast with a friend who when the server asked if we wanted any more coffee, would invariably say, "None for I". That always clanged off my ear and so I am tuned into the me/I usage. My errors are much bigger and more obvious!

LaLaLinda said...

Hi Everyone ~~

I got through this one quickly considering it's Friday. My one hangup was the same as Barry G.'s ... NEEDED instead of NEEDBE. I finally had to look up TREVOR and that straightened out that corner. I really liked the puzzle ... lots of fun misdirection. For some reason I knew WAIL for 'Keen' right away ... must be from something I read.

Thanks for the very informative write-up, Lemonade. I really enjoyed all the links. Scotty McCreery won this year's "IDOL." He's an amazing 17 year-old country music singer.

It's a beautiful sunny, low-humidity, breezy day here in CT ... at last!

Enjoy the day ~~~

Argyle said...

I believe I first learned of keen and keening in the 1959 Disney film, Darby O'Gill and the Little People. The banshee was described as keening. Sean Connery appeared in the movie.

Nice Cuppa said...

Brilliant Lemonade

I also noticed your grammatical slip at 51A, but I thought we had a (Ladies' and Gentlemen's) agreement not to mention these (HG!).

INURN? Worthless word but inspired a clerihew:

INTERN,
INTER,
INURN,
IN TURN

"Lock up; kill and bury; dig up, burn and secure evidence (in sequence):"

KEEN = WAIL has a completely different etymology - from an Irish word - it's a wake thing, I guess. I hadn't heard of it either.

I looked up how on earth genii became the plural of genie. Turns out that the Arabian legends of the spirit in the bottle - Jinn or Jinni - were translated into French, and Génie (=genius in English) was a decent homophone, albeit totally unrelated in meaning. Then when translated into the English, the plural of genius follows the Latin rules. Thus, we are stuck, somewhat embarrassedly, with genii as the plural of genie as well as genius.

And don't even start me on octopi.

NC

Anonymous said...

Having read many books about the middle east...wail/keen was easy. "Keening" is usually associated with mourning although some of the native (battle/triumph) cries are also like keening. Native Americans also "keened." Makes one wonder (again) at the connection between the middle east and native Americans.

Abejo said...

Good Morning, folks. Thank you Bob Wolfe for a great Friday puzzle. The difficulty index was about right, in my opinion.

Thank you Lemonade for the swell write-up. Always enjoy your commentary.

This puzzle started slowly, but picked up speed as I was able to get the theme answers. My first was TEASQUARE, then QUEUETIP. My last was EYETUNES.

Enjoyed SHOE for 66A.

I also had NEEDED for a while then fixed that to NEEDBE. HAD WORN, then changed to TORN.

As others I was not sure of WAIL, but the perps made it obvious.

I guess GENII must be the plural of GENIE. The perps helped.

Well, I got into my eyedrops routine today. It is easier than I thought it would be. Still scares me a bit. The word glaucoma has a negative impression on me.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

Anonymous said...

...in "purple prose," Ive also heard about the "keening wind."

Anonymous said...

keen/howl/wail could all be interchangeable in a clue or answer. depending upon the day of the week.

Jalmar said...

A write up full of errors. Many all ready addressed.

DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line.

Gyro should be pronounced yeer-oh.

Anonymous said...

Barbra eden was a sexier dancer, but Elizabeth Montgomery showed more leg. Hard to choose! Wail, Need be, and obsess hung me up! (I had insist for obsess, doh').

Anonymous said...

I think GENII is how Forrest Gump pronounced genie.

Or it could be another Roman generational reference. Like Gen X, Gen Y and Gen II.

Anonymous said...

37 A I tried scam.
53 A I thought Big A was a reference to New York New York the town so nice they named it twice.

I was thinking Knicks.

Fun Facts by Dave Letterman

If your name is Scott it
may as well be Todd, if your name is Todd it may as well Scott.

For a short amount of time, the rock band The Who broke up, and formed two new bands called The When and The
What.

Anonymous said...

Good afternoon everyone.

Fun puzzle, but DNF as I am not as good as many here. Got 13 right though!

Grumpy: thanks for the CAY KEY comment. It bothers me when people say kay, especially since we have some Cay communities here in Naples.

Husker: of course your BH needed 10 bags – women keep so much more in them (some belonging to DHs) than money and credit cards.

Good luck Abejo, and great write up Lemonade.

Cheers

Yellowrocks said...

Haven't been to Greece for authentic gyros with tzatziki sauce. Have had Israeli gyros, called shawarma, in Jerusalem, most often chicken or turkey and served in a pita with tahini sauce made from sesame seed paste. In Israel you get no tzatziki sauce made from yogurt (not Kosher served with meat.)
Shawarma is a fast food picked up at stands on the street. Another fast food from street stands in Israel is filalfel,a pita sandwich filled with fried chickpeas and fava beans and tahini sauce. So tasty! I'm getting hungry.

eddyB said...

Hello.

The tea square is hanging on the garage wall and acting like a plum line in case the next big one comes.

See we have an Eddy in black. Will stay blue.

Race this week-end is in Loudon, NH. Pippa Mann has a ride! If Danica goes to NASCAR full time,
maybe Pippa will get a full time ride.

Abejo. Look into getting an eye cup. Sure helped me get in the drops.

take care

Anonymous said...

Flim Flam...priceless.

Lucina said...

Hello Weekend Warriors! Thank you, Lemonade, for your always thorough and informative writing, even if with a slight grammatical error. LOL (just teasing)

BTW, Jalmar, since you are citing errors, ALREADY should by your correct choice.

I loved this puzzle with its witty puns. TEASQUARE (I thought of Splynter) was the first and then EYE TUNES. EWEBOAT gave me the most trouble because I also wanted NEEDED but then NEEDBE became apparent after I Ggled EDERLE.

KEEN as wailing is often mentioned in books. INURN? if you say so and welcome back STELA, we haven't seen you in a while.

A shoutout to MESA, AZ and my last name but ironically that center area was a problem so I stopped for a while then returned to it.

Thank you, Robert Wolfe, for an entertaining puzzle.
Everyone, have a fabulous Friday!

Avg Joe said...

There are few things on this earth as tasty as a properly made gyro! (Anon is right, it's pronounced yeer-oh.) But do be aware that there a plenty of poseurs out there that have no lamb, or at least very little. Tis a monstrous crime when they do that.

Bill G. said...

I thought you might enjoy this slide show from MSNBC about where kids from all over the world sleep. I found it very informative and emotional.

Warren said...

Hi gang, I went online and finished in red today. BTW, Here's a link to Acropolis of Athens. The one on the blog didn't open for me?

My wife and I got 'Tea Square' before she left for work so I knew that was the theme and it helped a bit...

;-)

Argyle said...

KEY, a low island, may be pronounced kay because it is a variant spelling of CAY. The origin of CAY is 1690–1700; < Spanish cayo, probably < Arawak . To complicate matters, CAYO sounds like cah-jo. Someone who speaks Spanish can confirm or deny. Arawakan language is from the Caribbean and Central America to most every country in South America. I have no idea how the Arawak pronounced it.

Spitzboov said...

Good afternoon all. Nice commentary, Lemonade.

My first pass this am came up pretty much bupkis. But realizing that Mr. Wolfe is an experienced puzzler who provides interesting and clever clueing; I returned a couple times to it and, voilà, my head cleared and was able to finish without lookups. NE was last to fall. Had NEEDed but EDERLE seemed right, so NEED BE made sense, too. Many clever, fun clues; especially liked those for EDERLE, CAY RATION, EWE BOAT, and AVES. Also QUEUE TIP. A fine Friday FOUR STAR feat.

Have a great day.

Warren said...

RE: Favorite restaurant? In the San Jose CA area our favorite Italian restaurant is A Bellagio, my wife loves the fresh Antipasto Italiano. We've been there twice so far, once for our anniversary and once for Ruth's birthday and it was excellent both times-- but FYI, a little pricy.

;-)

Lucina said...

Jazz:
As a Spanish speaker I would pronounce Cayo just as it appears, CAH-YO, however, that may have changed since the 17th century and especially since it is from Arawak.

OTOH, there are Spanish speakers who pronounce the Y almost like J depending on their place of origin.

Anonymous said...

Warren, great links, thanks.

Lemonade714 said...

Thanks Warren, I fixed that link.

Eddy said...

anon@12:10, exactly, plus there's more than just that one.

Priceless, and apropos.

WM said...

Thank you Lemonade for a great write up...mostly what Barry G said, exactly...lol, but took a WAG and put in the OR for TREVOR and finally came up with BOAT. Always have trouble with EN-URN or IN-URN and could not figure out what a SQIN was...Doh! So thank you.

And thank you to Mr. Wolfe for a very entertaining and doable puzzle where perps made everything possible...my idea of a well designed puzzle. Favorite clue was actually Aussie water hazard...no foolin' :o)

Bill G. said...

Warren, that looks like a very enjoyable restaurant. Compared to what I'm used to around here, it doesn't seem that pricey.

Warren said...

Hi Bill G. It's a little more pricy than Giorgio's. That's still one of our favorite pizza places but their menu hasn't changed even after they closed (I think it was last year) for a 50 year remodel for 2 months.

We save A Bellagio for special events and BTW, I found that one using 'yelp'.

;-)

Yellowrocks said...

Ave. Joe,
Although you may find poseurs, there are also many ethnic and cultural variations in gyros and gyros types. BTW The Greeks borrowed the gyro idea from Turkey. Each culture borrows and adapts. This is what makes the world so culturally rich and varied.

Grumpy 1 said...

Lucina, I think Puerto Rico is one of the places where it's common to pronounce the 'y' with a 'j' sound. I remember the Burger King fish sandwich was on the menu board as a 'Yumbo' and in the states it was 'Jumbo'.

Husker Gary said...

Sallie, you are so right! My lovely bride carries everything in that purse but hubcaps for a '52 Studebaker and it's usually something I want. Her standard line is, "Just a minute, I know it's in here, I just have to find it!"

Warren, that menu looks great and the prices are somewhat reasonable. I'm going to go and look up where Campbell, CA is.

Off to the Y!

eddyB said...

Hi.

Around here, Vallejo, the J has a H sound. Newbies try to pronounce
Valley Joe.

Just curious. Who Is Eddy?

Anonymous said...

I felt this was easy for a friday since it is that day of the week i expected and was ready for those lousy stump the chump entries that that the the author gets a kick out of humiliating us...like 37a thought of sham at first...team playing in big A...4 d masseuse is femine version is what i thought at first ...43d was either oshawa or oswego real stump the chump. Favorite was hogans heros and 42a i love that wine. Have a good weekend be safe and GO 49ers!

Husker Gary said...

Political considerations aside - as per the policy of this blog - I ran across the word KEENING in Maureen Dowd's column today:

Faced with a country keening for reassurance and reinvention, Obama seems at a loss. Regarding his political skills, he turns out to be the odd case of a pragmatist who can’t learn from his mistakes and adapt.

Avg Joe said...

I don't know 'bout ya'll but all this talk of Greek food makes me want to hear some Bouzouki music.

Abejo said...

EddyB:

Thanks for the tip on the eye cup. I will check it out. However, I have been getting better with the drops since I started yesterday. I just hold it straight above my eye, and bombs away. I just have to try not to blink.

Sallie:

Thanks for your good wishes.

Abejo

WikWak said...

@Argyle (1:13): I believe the Arawak pronounced it "Mesopotamia." ;-) Keen, huh?

Lucina said...

Abejo:
I wish you luck with your eyes and here's another tip: I hold my eyes open with two fingers and the dropper as closely as possible. That prevents blinking at the critical time.

dodo said...

Hi, all,

Is it really Friday? Well, I'm here anyway. Just can't stay away, especially when the puzzle is a terrific one like this one of Bob's. Thanks, Bob and nice writeup, LLemonade.

My biggest messup was 21A. Arithmetic in numbers is bad enough; Roman numerals much worse. I took the answer to be 552 so wrote in DLII. Trevor became Trelor and Iaccepted that. It gave me 'needed',wrong of course, but I knew Ederle didn't have two d's, so I changed it to 'needie'Which worked with Ederle, but blew 'ewe-oat'. Finally "aha" 'need be' dropped the V8 can rght on the old noggin! Never changed the 'l' to 'v' until I got here. Otherwise, it went together easily and I really enjoyed everything about it.

dodo said...

Bill G., I loved the heartrending slide show! Makes one want to adopt some of those poor children. There are just soooo many needie people in the world! Chosing only one would be impossible!

I'll bet the Tahoe visitors are having a wonderful time. I miss them all and will be glad to have them back next week.

NC, I think you're right about there being a tacit agreement about not nitpicking over grammar. That's why C.C. has the 'preview' option.

Guess I'm off for today. Maybe I'll even try tomorrow's and Sunday's. Who knows?

Oh, Barbara Eden. Elizabeth seemed to do more 'steps' but Barbara was a lot smoother.

Hasta la vista, kiddoes!

Warren said...

For Dodo, re: Roman Numbers?

C.C. posted a link a long time ago on the blog page and I remember the fast saying: Lucky Cows Drink Milk.

for LCDM
L=50,C=100,D=500,M=1000

The rest is easy!

;-)

fermatprime said...

Hi all!

Fun puzzle, robert; interesting write-up, Lemon!

My comments are the same as those of La La Linda.

Do we want to spread incorrect "I, me" thing to new bloggers, NC?

Thanks for good wishes, Jeannie, et al!

Have a happy weekend, all!

Lemonade714 said...

Abejo

The easiest way to get drops in is to tilt your head back, look back as far as you can, pull the bottom lid down and let the drop fall into the pouch between the lid and the eye. When you blink, it gets over the whole eye

Jalmar said...

Lucina, I'm glad you got the nose tweak. Right Grumpy1?

Jalmar said...

Abejo

I'm not sure how your drops are delivered. If they are akin to visine squeeze bottles then: gently put the tip of the applicator in the inside corner of the eye(nearer the nose bridge) and then squeeze and slowly raise the bottle. After you feel the solution on your eye, turn your head appropriately to cover the eye. This works! The inside corner becomes less sensitive as time passes and it is effective.

Grumpy 1 said...

Jalmar, I have no idea what you're trying to read into my posts or Lucina's posts, but there was no nose tweaking going on.

Jalmar said...

Btw Adejo, Keep the tip clean. Never touch and sterilize if necessary.

Jalmar said...

Grumpy1. No big deal. I was just commenting that I made a mistake on purpose to be funny.

You had commented earlier about doing the same. You called it a nose-tweaking.

I was just trying to be funny. I'll stop. Only 5 posts allowed.

Anonymous said...

More like 9.

Jayce said...

Good wishes to you all.

Anonymous said...

abejo: Had an eye doctor`s nurse tell me one time (I have tried all the ways mentioned) to close my eye, tilt my head back and drop one or two drops in the inside corner of the eye and then blink my eye lid...solution always goes in with no waste.

Lemonade714 said...

Well another Friday in the record books, fun puzzle, good crowd. Thanks for stopping and for the kind words. bet ready for a smooth as Silkie and enjoy. In absentia Lolita

Anonymous said...

Is it over?

Avg Joe said...

Yes.

The End

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi again -

Had most of the same difficulties already mentioned by many. Really enjoyed this puzzle, though.

Lemonade, you are right about the orchestra sections.

Here in the Detroit area, it's hard to get more than about a mile from what we call Coney Island restaurants. There are three within easy reach of my house. They serve hot dogs and chili, sure, but they also have the Greek style chicken-lemon rice soup, gyros, and Spinach pie. The Senate is the best.

I had a gyro for lunch on Tuesday. The meat is actually a dense lamb meatloaf. I'm not much of a lamb fan, otherwise, but do enjoy the occasional gyro.

Cheers!
JzB

Anonymous said...

It is not over, it just feels that way.

dodo said...

Thanks Warren. It's not that the numerals confuse me, it's doing the math! I guess this time I read them wrong, though.

Abejo, I missed about your eye problem. I have used eye drops off and on for years. The most recent are for 'allergic conjunctivitis'. i open my eyes as wide as possible, aim the dropper right at my eye and squeeze. So far so good. The little bottle they come in is very hard so sometimes I have to use both hands to keep it steady. OTH, some 'liquid tears' run out all over your face before you're ready. And they're expensive for the amount in a bottle! Is it for glaucoma? Hope it gets you well!

Anonymous said...

Glaucoma? I have the treatment for that. Just sayin'.

Bill G. said...

JzB, the Senate looks like a restaurant I would enjoy.

I picked up seven-year-old grandson Jordan to visit with us while his mom is out for the evening. We played Uno and then went to the comic book store to get some Looney Tunes reading material. On the way home, we went by some back roads with no traffic. He sat on my lap and steered a car for the first time. Needless to say, he was very pleased with himself. I told him that this was just between him and me. Grandpa stuff.

JD said...

Good evening all,

Had to jump in to say I loved the xwd- so many fun and clever clues and answers.Hard not to smile filling in queue tip and eye tunes, and, of course, shoe.

Lots of misdirections for me like done for lane, vales for dales, and it took a few changes to spell masseuse and genii.

Whenever I hear about the English Channel, I ALWAYS think of Florence Chadwick. For some reason, at age 9 that must have been a monumental table discussion.

Lemonade, your humor is always such a bonus, and keeps me coming back.

Warren, thanks for the heads up on A Bellagio; we've never been. Our favorite is Roy's...there are many, but no one creates a better fish dinner. I get Butterfish and Ahi combination because I never can decide which I like best.

I miss our friends already. We had such a great time. Irene taught Truman the ways of an ipad- he's hooked!

Anonymous said...

I have heard DSL described as Digital Subscriber Line.

JD said...

Bill, you must have a Roy's close to you. There's even one in Tokyo.

Hungry Mother, I LOVE your avatar!

Nice Cuppa, guess you are not in favor of cacti either...know it's right, it just sounds wrong, but then cactuses sounds "worser."

Lucina said...

JD:
Welcome back! Your grandsons look so adorable around that table.

Bill G. said...

JD, I love fish too. I Googled Roy's and there are some in the general area but not close by. Maybe 45 minutes to an hour away. That would be OK but there are so many good/excellent restaurants less than 10 minutes away. We're spoiled.

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, REallly late to the party today. I worked at our Thrift Shop today and am so tired that my evening was spent trying to do the puzzle, but just couldn't think.

Lemonade, your writeup was fun, and that helped complete what I wasn't able to fill in.

Hatool, Thanks, I will have a great day. My sister is visiting from the mountains so we'll have a great gab fest.

JD, glad to see you home safe and sound.

Abejo, hopefully the drops will help with the glaucoma. The eye drops discussion brought to mind the episode of "Friends" where Jennifer Anniston's character had an eye infection and she avoided the eye drops every time she could. It took all four friends to pin her down to get the medication into her eye. It isn't an easy process no matter how you do it!
Good night everyone.