Theme: My, you look good enough to eat. The last name of four celebrities are replaced with sound alike foods, and presented as the favorite food of the individual, leading to a punny, yummy puzzle. This is our second Gene Newman puzzle, though he has been published many times in the NY Times over the last three decades. I found many layers of wit and some new stuff, so let's go.
17A. Mike Hammer portrayer's favorite food : STACY QUICHE. STACY KEACH a quintessential tough guy playing Mickey Spillane's HERO. (7:12) here shown with Barbara Bain from Mission Impossible.
62A. Sportscaster's favorite food?: BRYANT GUMBO. BRYANT GUMBEL, one of two sports caster brothers, who now has his own show on HBO, REAL SPORTS.(1:39)
10D. Cabaret singer's favorite food?: EDITH PILAF. EDITH PIAF, the French singer who died too young but left a legacy of MUSIC.(2:05)
28D. Tennis great's favorite food?: IVAN LENTIL. IVAN LENDL, who like Petr Korda has daughters who are excellent golfers. Ivan does both, but was RELENTLESS (2:10) on the court.
In keeping with the food theme, I also saw these subtle clues,
26A. Estrange: ALIENATE. Who did the alien eat?
53A. Threat to Crusoe: CANNIBAL. Does that make him a cannibal, or it a reference to the foods eating the peoples names?
68. Ruhr city: ESSEN. Which in German means food, or eating. Tricky.
Across
1. __ Verde: Colorado national park: MESA. Looks worth a visit.
5. Gobs: SWABS. Synonyms for Sailors.
10. It might be slippery: ELM. A type of tree whose bark is used in natural medicines.
13. Inclined: ATILT. My "A" word.
15. Ruth's number: THREE. For a moment I was wondering why this biblical figure had a number, and then, I remembered this IMAGE, whose uniform number was #3.
16. __ gratia: DEI. By the grace of G-d, and a nice change from Agnus.
19. Place to retire?: INN. Just for the night.
20. Perón title: SENORA. Eva.
21. In close combat: TOE TO TOE. A nice visual clue, best shown as boxers.
23. Distillery equipment: VATS.
25. What a frosh studies to be?: SOPH. Nice logical misdirection.
26. Estrange: ALIENATE.
30. Gift for dad: TIE PIN. No thanks boys.
33. Book after Exod : LEV. Book of Leviticus, so named from the Levites, the tribe of priests, and third book of Moses.
34. Plumbing supplies: TRAPS.
36. Instant: TRICE. From the Dutch, meaning one quick pull.
37. It's always 13-Across: Abbr.: ITAL. Italics are always atilt.
39. Attained: MET. Your goal, your quota, etc.
40. Cry of dismay: ALAS. Woe is me.
41. Flub: BONER. and directly below we have 47A. Like some decorative furniture: INLAID.
43. Fire blight victims: PEARS. My learning moment. LINK.
46. Army member ANT.
49. They'll take you up SKI LIFTS.
51. Gaelic tongue: ERSE. Are we all up on the ERIN, EIRE, ERSE fill?
52. "The Blackboard Jungle" author Hunter: EVAN. A very prolific author who wrote, as Ed McBain, the wonderful 87th precinct novels.
53. Threat to Crusoe: CANNIBAL. Robinson Crusoe who pioneered the phrase, TGIF.
57. Make beloved: ENDEAR.
61. "Our remedies __ in ourselves do lie": "All's Well That Ends Well": OFT. Loves me some Shakespeare.
64. Diagnostic proc.: MRI.Magnetic resonance imaging.
65. Deceive: LIE TO.
66. Dive, in a way: SCUBA.
67. House dealer?: POL. House of Representatives. Are you all comfortable with this term being accepted without needing an indication of an abbreviation? I am and I like the misdirection.
68. Ruhr city: ESSEN. Nice letter combination make this fill very popular.
69. Old autocrat: TSAR. last week we had CZAR.
And now in the words of Petula Clark, time to go
DOWN town
1. Eucharist liturgy: MASS. The seminal ritual of Catholicism.
2. Suffix pertaining to size: ETTE. Cigarette, yes; suffragette, no, or were they all small?
3. Phillips who played Livia on "I, Claudius": SIAN. I have linked her wonderful performance as the mother of Tiberius before.
4. Niche: ALCOVE. Does not rhyme with QUICHE.
5. "The Simpsons" leisure suit wearer: STU. Sing along to this SONG.(2:24)
6. Small amount: WHIT. I don't give whit if you do not like the Simpsons.
7. Violinist's direction: ARCO. Literally, with a bow. Used chiefly as a direction to indicate the resumption of bowing after a pizzicato passage. I will leave pizzicato to JzB. Son 2 began his music playing the violin.
8. Urgent prompting: BEHEST. Nice King Arthur word.
9. Act with diligence: SEE TO IT. The main dialogue between Cardinal Cronin and Bishop Blackie in Father Greeley's wonderful books. Or do you like Captain Picard's "Make it so", better.
11. Frequent Carson stand-in: LENO. Still there.
12. Blasting site: MINE.
14. Coup target, perhaps: TYRANT. Khadaffi anyone?
18. One of the Gulf States: QATAR. They play golf there and the announcers cannot decide if it is pronounced KA-TAR, or CUTTER.
22. It may be comic: OPERA. Always my weak spot on jeopardy, and I did want to give a shout out to the great job JOON PAHK did on Jeopardy. He did all of us in the crossword puzzle universe proud, though you could see the pressure building day after day. Bravo. Meanwhile if you want more HISTORY.
24. Show petulance: STAMP. She stamped her foot impatiently.
26. "I had to visit my sick aunt," e.g.: ALIBI. I am sure my fan club will have a better clue in mind.
27. Blabbed: LET ON. An old fashioned way to say spilling the beans. A toughie.
29. Weapons seen on pistes: EPEES. A new clue for an old favorite, the PISTE is part of the setup to allow the accurate electronic scoring.
31. Quitter's word : I CAN'T. Yes you can!
32. Packs, as a set of mixing bowls: NESTS. Because they fit inside of each other.
35. Camping support: STAKE. For the tent.
38. Hear about : LEARN.
42. Disposed to laugh: RISIBLE. What a great word, from the french "rire" to laugh.
44. Hull fastener: RIVET. I wonder if any other generations recall this wonderful image:
45. Jargon : SLANGS.
48. Rubbish: DEBRIS. A great word next to risible.
50. Add to the service: INDUCT. Armed service.
53. Casino reward: COMP. COMPLIMENTARY, or free room.
54. Big do: AFRO.
55. They're pros: AYES. They are voting yes, unlike the ANTIS. Right CA?
56. Hurrying, maybe: LATE. for a very important date.
58. Flightless birds: EMUS. Very lean meat they say, Kazie?
59. "Waterloo" group: ABBA. and now for a musical INTERLUDE.(2:50)
60. Comedy club sound: ROAR. The roar of the grease paint, the smell of the crowd.
Wow, we are done already with another week, thank you Mr. Newman for a nice work out, and thank you all for tuning in. Until next time, will anyone watch the World Series in November with no star teams? Is the NBA history? Come back next week for the answers.
Lemonade
PS I keep forgetting to thank Argyle for inspiring the listing of the play times for the video links.
70 comments:
Good morning, C.C. and gang - how could I not check in when we have such an outstanding puzzle today, featuring that wonderful 10th-grade word 'boner' sitting on top of 'inlaid' and perping 'risible' (yes, I gave it a different meaning...)?
Seriously though, I found the theme quite clever and I'm sure it was a bear to make those theme answers fit. I got through the puzzle unaided, but had a mess in the center after putting 'stomp' for 'show petulance' and 'get' for 'attained'. Didn't help that I wasn't familiar with 'pistes' and had no clue who or what was affected by fire blight, or even what fire blight was, but it sounded like one hell of a combination to suffer from. Oh, and I also confidently put 'ars' in at 16A even though 'artis' was missing, just because I'm stubborn and stupid. All in all, though, a most enjoyable solving experience; have we seen Gene Newman before?
Nice to see all the newcomers -- you'll really enjoy this blog and the regulars here -- and I hope to count myself among them again down the road, but right now my life is completely upside down with stuff going on on all fronts.
Have a great day and do something FUN.
All is right with the world again. At least the Crossword Corner part of the world.
Hello, friend.
Morning, all!
[And welcome back, Dennis!]
Definitely a challenge today. The theme was great and figuring it out really saved my bacon. Well, almost. At the end, I just couldn't get the intersection of WHIT and SWAB because I was mentally stuck thinking "gobs" referred to a large amount and not a sailor.
The middle section also gave me fits, since I had GOT instead of MET for 39A, had no idea what "fire blight" referred to (I thought the victims might have been BEARS), didn't know what a "piste" was and couldn't figure out STAMP to save my life.
So, a fail for me. Still a nice puzzle, though. It is Friday, after all...
Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. This was a toughie for me. The first pass was quite empty, although I did find BRYANT GUMBO. That made the next pass much easier.
I learned that Eels are not as slippery as I thought, but ELSM are slipperier.
I learned that a Bed in not a place to retire, but an INN is.
Like Barry G, I also thought if I attained something, I GOT it, but I suppose something attained could be MET.
Fire Blight was also my learning moment, Lemonade.
QOD: Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine. ~ Fran Lebowitz
Good morning Lemonade, C.C. et al.
And a special hello to you, Dennis! I thought of you when I saw 41A and 47D, and wondered if you would pop in today!!
Thank you for a fun write-up, Lemonade! I stared at SWABS for the longest time, wondering how that could be the answer for “gobs”– V8 moment when I read your explanation, DUH!! And fire blight affecting PEARS was my learning moment today, too!!
This was a really fun theme, nicely executed. With STACY QUICHE filled in, it was pretty easy to get the others, even though I didn’t remember Edith Piaf.
I was thrown by 29D “Weapons seen on pistes”, because in Austria and Germany they call ski slopes “pistes”. And then there was the SKI LIFT at 49A, so I was sure we had a mini theme going there! I eventually got it sorted out, and was able to finish in a respectable Friday time.
Have a fun day everyone!
Hello.
Dennis. Nice seeing you again. Come back when you are able.
It was a good Friday puzzle. Difficult in places.
If it is really Fri, it means quals from Vegas. They are a day
early due to all of the off track activity tomorrow.
Hockey tonight. Hope that some will
be interested in going Dec 1st.
Back to bed. eddy
Dennis: It does feel good to see you first, and I hope our entire DF brigade are equally inspired to provide their view. Interesting parsing of risible, in context; hope all the upside down turns out great.
Lemon: Great write-up.
Thanks for the Learning Moments, re:PEARS, EPEES place, a few others.
And since the World Series will be over in October ... I will NOT be watching in November.
Hahtool, what a surprise your first was GUMBO.
I had bed too begore INN.
Elevator before SKI-LIFT.
Well, now I'm hungry.
Since I had a DNF ... I guess crow would be appropriate.
Cheers to all at Sunset.
Good Day Folks.
Dennis, great to hear from you.
Tough go today, mostly in the east central section. Stacy Quiche gave me the theme, but Edith was a complete unknown so Pilaf remained blank. Bryant Gumbo was slow arriving because I wanted Brian for the first name. Had tietac for tiepin and -ears for pears. Thanks for the explanation Lemonade.
Did get boner. My first thought was "Thank you Pfizer."
Got a chuckle out of House Dealer/Pol.
Even though today was a DNF, it was a fun Friday and I'll do better next Friday..
Enjoy the weekend.
I wonder if Petr Korda has a problem with Ivan Lendl doing both his daughters, since there is such an age difference and all...
I learned that this puzzle is much more difficult when you start the southeast with argots instead of slangs. That'll teach me to do crosswords in ink!
Wow. What Barry and Hahtool said. This one really got under my skin. Unlike many of the Solvers here, I'm no fan of the punny-themed clues.
And I thought Bryant Gumbel was more newsy; isn't it his brother Greg who is the sporty one? I know GG was the first African American sports announcer to call play by play in a Super Bowl or something like that.
Good morning, folks. What a puzzle! Tough. You are the man, Gene. Thank you Lemonade, for your thoughts.
Greetings, Dennis.
Wow. I got started really slowly. Had STACEY instead of STACY. That gave me YEMEN instead of QATAR.
Did not know EDITH PILAF (PIAF).
The SE corner came easily.
Basically I did not get it all done. This was one tough puzzle.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
Tough puzzle for me. DNF.
Liked the theme and the puns were very amusing, but it was just too difficult to complete. I actually had some grip of the pun scheme early on, but wanted Keach Lorraine, which did not help. Figured that out later, but still had got in lieu of met and had numerous blanks in the NW corner.
With luck, tomorrow will go easier on everyone.
Good morning everyone. Thanks for the commentary, Lemonade. Dennis, good to 'see' you. Best of luck.
My first fill was 44d, RIVET, then MESA/MASS. Worked it slowly from the center outwards; and finally nailed it with Ruth's THREE. I surprised myself by ultimately not needing any searches. WAGS included DEI and ARCO. Learned a new word, RISIBLE, but wondered if it came from the French 'rire'. Laughing Cow. The theme was not too hard, but a lot of fun. Liked the cluing for NON-com, OPERA, and ANT.
NEST - here are some destroyers nested next to a tender at Sasebo in 1952.
Kazie, interesting observation about German usage of country articles (yesterday)
Have a great day.
A challenging Friday-quality puzzle with a fun theme if you like SOPH-moric punny humor, which I do...especially making fun of other people's names. My favorite was BRYANT GUMBO, although I've always referred to him as "Giant Gumball". I have to admit that I've never heard of Edith Piaf which made the NE corner extra tough.
Good morning all, and I echo others in saying it was nice to see Dennis here in his accustomed spot today.
I did OK in the far east, but was so hung up everywhere else I went online to get red letter help for the rest. I did know fire blight was a plant problem but didn't know which plant.
I also knew piste was used in skiing but not in fencing. The word is French and really means a track or trail. i was trying to figure out what weapons would be lined up along the ski slope.
Edith Piaf lived a tragic life, blind for a time, brought up in a brothel for a while, her blindness cured at a convent, was discovered singing on the street, inadvertently got involved with an underworld killing before really making it in the music world. Her first husband, a boxer, died in a plane crash, she became dependent on painkillers which were implicated her death. Her funeral was a huge event in Paris. Her sad music was never well understood in the USA, and she only did one tour here. But she launched several other careers including Georges Moustaki, and was rumored to have helped some people escape the Nazis during WWII.
Lemonade,
Great blog! And I forgot to answer you question about emu meat, perhaps because I've never tried it. I always imagined it to be stringy and tough, but perhaps now they're raised on farms, it could be more tender, but wouldn't that also mean fatter?
Lemonade, thank you for all the interesting links. This was a great "punny" puzzle. It was fun, but a toughie. I Googled 2 and even then I had 2 letters wrong. I got the hard ones and missed a few of the easy ones. Coulda, woulda, shoulda type remorse.
That is unlike Edith Piaf's famous lyrics, "Non, je ne regrette rien." (No, I am sorry for nothing.)
Have you seen "La Vie en Rose" about Piaf's life?
I read "Blackboard Jungle" as a tween. My mother didn't know. It was quite raw and DF for those days and for my young age. But, I thought it had a message.
Isn't this adorable?
Link confused flower girl
Kaziie, I must have been writing when you posted the great bio.
Blackboard Jungle was first published in 1954. I would have been in high school.
Wonderful write-up, Lemonade! I would never have gotten the additional foodie allusions in alienate, cannibal, and essen!
I got Edith Pilaf right away (loved the movie 'La Vie en Rose') and so the east was no problem for me. Except for 'skilifts. Tried 'airlift', 'sealift,' even 'skylift,'and never did get it. Duh! But what a fun way to start a Friday!
Have a great weekend, everybody!
I'd never heard of the "gob" sailor meaning before, nor ARCO, so that left me flat-out guessing at the top to finish.
I was on the right track with the violin, I was wondering if "pizzicata" had an alternative word, or abbreviation, so I wasn't a million miles off.
I looked at BRYAN?GUMBO for a little while before I realized his name was Bryant. I probably see him at least once a day on ESPN, so much for me paying attention.
Very nice Friday, took me quite a while to drag it kicking and screaming into the light.
I found this a challenge for many of the reasons already listed. But I was so happy to find another blog to visit now that LAT crossword confidential has stopped. Thanks, it reduces the withdrawal considerably.
I forgot to add that I'm thankful to learn about fireblight and pears! Who knew!
Also, I didn't get 'rivet,' alas. That great poster of Rosie the Riveter sure would have helped!
Good morning all,
The best part today was the visit from Dennis and all the links.Fri.& Sat. are my "waterloo" days, so alas it was a DNF for me.I just laugh when I see clues like "weapons seen on pistes," and "fire blight". Not having pear or apple trees,I'd never heard of this disease...maybe Chickie knows.Trice? a new one too.
I'm not a punny girl, so even though I am an Edith Piaf fan, the pilaf never came.Still trying hard to get out of the box. Bummer...boner...whatever!
A+ Lemon..you always entertain, and teach.
Hello Puzzlers - A Technical DNF today, needed too many red letters to claim I did it all on my own.
Hand up for not knowing what fire blight was. Or Gobs. Or...
Ah well, Friday!
First-timer from LAC. This looks like a fun, informative blog. I hope you'll allow me to hang around.
I don't know who Dennis is, but I want to. Wow!
Barbara Ann,
Check out Dennis' bio by linking from his avatar. We have missed him for a while, since he has been caught up with his real life. He served for many moons as C.C.'s assistant blog cop and has offered much wisdom to the rest of us. Oh, and he's also a Mensa member and marine veteran.
Wow, I had to pop in when I heard (from JD) that Dennis made an appearance this morning!! What a nice surprise :)
I will try to do the puzzle...those of you who know me, will understand this is an heroic effort as I usually suck at Friday's puzzles but seeing all those nummy DF words makes me want to try.
I'll let you know how it goes.
A marionETTE takes its name after a little Mary (the Mother of God), one of the first such puppets. It does not refer to a John Wayne action figure.
Foreshadowing of RISIBLE: JzB just used this term in a sign-off yesterday. Punnily, in fact.
And, we had SLIPPERY HELM on Sunday.
I've always enjoyed Name Game type puzzles. They are often quite humorous... as this one is. I thought the best was BRYANT GUMBO.
Breakfast from Donald and Kevin? CRISP BACON
Mexican food from Orsen, Raymond, and Lance? BEAN BURRITO
Etc...
Got MESA right off and thought, hey, I might finish this. Nah! As per usual for me on Friday, I needed red letter help and a couple of solves to finish.
I was in the Navy (1970-74) but never heard sailors called Gobs.
Liked the theme and thanks Lemonade for the insight.
Greg
Hi gang -
Welcome home, Dennis.
Lots of deep thought, Councilor. Very well done, indeed!
Terrific puzzle today; love the tasty theme.
ALAS - it totally defeated me. I raise the white flag, throw in the towel, and yield.
I know nothing about string plying, either - so here is a learning moment for me. Pizzicato can be played either hand. Here is an example of playing arco (with the bow) and left hand pizzicato (finger-plucked) on alternating notes. Also, there is one right hand pluck just at the 1 minute mark of this 2 minute vid. Wow!
Concert tonight - Bolero, Capriccio Italien, Sigfried's Funeral March, Toccata by Frescobaldi, and the Karelia Overture by Sebelius. It's a wonderful program of attractive and accessible music, and great fun to play. The trombone part in Bolero is terrifying.
Hmmmmm . . . is E.D. a BONER BONER?
Cheers!
JzB known to use the word "RISIBLE"
Hello, Lemonade, C.C. and all cyber friends.
Yoohoo! Welcome, Dennis. It's just great to see you there today. I hope your life soon reverts to normal and you return to take your place among us.
Fun time today with this puzzle. Tough but doable, that is until the extreme SW, but that's later.
Loved the theme and now I'm hungry!
I filled PEARS, SWAB, and EPEES but until your blog, L, I had no idea why. They all simply emerged.
Otherwise my experience was very much like Hahtool's for MET/GET, BED/INN and ARS before DEI.
I had IVANENTRE at 28D and refused to change it so missed out on POL and COMP as well as MRI.
Thank you, Gene Newman, for the treat today.
Have a fabulous Friday, everyone!
Frank:
Recalling RISIBLE from yesterday made me smile.
I second the movie, La Vie En Rose about EDITH PILAF. Have tissues handy.
I have doing the puzzles all week but grandkids and subbing have eaten up my time as I wrote curriculum for the classes. This was a wonderful bon mot to finish a wonderful 5 puzzling days! Theme came easily and was helpful. Teacher aide saw my unfinished puzzle on the desk and put in 4 wrong answers!
Musings
-I love the cannibal joke with the punch line, “Does this taste funny to you?”
-STU not APU. Never watched!
-Ruth’s number HAD to be SIXTY! He hit that many dingers on hot dogs and beer not steroids, and the record stood for over 70 years Oops!
-EYETOEYE? Not so much.
-Do distilleries use our old friends - OASTS?
-Fire blight got me out of trying to grow pear and apple trees
-A lot of nonsense is quoted from Leviticus!
-POL is fine with me – as a word.
-Tyrants are falling everywhere. Kim…
-Ostrich is lean and tasty like bison (called buffalo). I’ll still take Nebraska beef!
-We saw a carrier come into San Diego harbor and there were gobs of gobs on it and gobs of working girls waiting on the street!
Lucina,
I think the movie about EDITH PILAF that you are referring to is called "La Vie en Rice."
TGIF, gang. I thought I was going good on this one when the top row fell in place easily. I just knew that gobs on a Friday wasn't going to be a quantity and confidently entered... SaltS. And Eels are the quintessential slippery thing so I ignored the 'may' part of the clue. It sort of went downhill from there until I spotted the theme with IVAN LENTIL and was able to work my way back through the mess I had made.
MET was my first choice as I thought of goals as something you attain and I've often used the phrase 'goals met'.
A few lucky wags helped me see some other fill and it finally all came together.
Great puzzle, definitely a Friday level. Thanks, Lemonade, for the write up.
I tried to post this a couple of hours ago, but Comcast decided to drop out. Fortunately, I had saved the post and just had to wait for Comcast to get their act together again.
Hello everybody. Wow, what a fabulous puzzle today! Great misdirection, clever cluing, and eye-boggling fill. Wonderful in every way. Friday-difficult, but by golly I somehow managed to solve the whole thing without having to look anything up.
Excellent writeup, Lemonade, thank you. Nice to see you, Dennis. And thank you all for your enlightening and interesting comments.
I feel like a mumby-gumby-dumbo about GUMBO. I researched gumbo recipes and every doggone single one of them do indeed start with "First you make a roux." I stand corrected and enlightened.
Amazing JazzB's use of RISIBLE yesterday. Did you peek? :) I hope your concert goes well. I wish I could be there to hear it (and you); I like all pieces in the program, too.
Yellowrocks, that flower girl was indeed adorable.
OK Frank, you got me. First a puzzlement and then a big groan. Good one.
Jazzb. @ 1:04, holy s**t, That girl can play !! Thanks for linking, and have fun at your concert tonight!
I was thinking of some Ahn Trio pieces when I filled in ARCO. They play mostly original contemporary pieces, in a jazzy, classical style – have you ever heard of them? (First piece 4:06, total performance 12:35) They are coming to CT December 4, but I will be out of the country, so will have to miss them this time.
Husker:
Roger Maris thought his 61 in '61 was only 34 years later ...
But there WAS that asterisk thingy.
Late to the party and wouldn`t you know! I missed Dennis. Glad he`s still in the land of the living.
Loved the puns! Mr. Newman, any relation to Randy?
Joke I got today: A firefighter looked out of the window and saw a little girl with a red wagon equipped with a ladder, garden hose and attached to a dog and a cat. When he got closer, he saw that the dog was hitched by his collar but the cat by his testicles. The fireman said, "Honey, you`d get there faster if you had both animals hitched by the collar." She thought a minute and said, "Yeah...but then I wouldn`t have a siren!"
Happy beautiful fall weekend to all!
Loved 17a clue. But last week you used czar, this week tsar. Make up ur mind. Go 49ers
Frank,. nice rice done in a trice.
Rose, very cute, but painful joke.
LOVED the little flower girl, her mommy taught her to be neat.
You all are especially fun today, thanks
Anon @3:43: Tsar, czar, even csar are all correct spellings.
Nice, tough puzzle today. I was completely thrown by the alternative meaning of gobs, so my wag resulted in a DNF. Rats. Everything else I was able to muscle into place.
I'm new here from LACConfidential, and am getting used to and enjoying your style (I don't think it's jabbering!) Thanks for making us feel welcome.
ALAS, Mr. Newman did not ENDEAR himself to me with this puzzle. I was a WHIT ALIENATEd to the point of a foot STAMP. Then Lemon came to my aid so I could do some fill-in. Then I thought it was very amusing.
ABBA restored my good spirits. Thanks.
Are we going to have another innuendo orgy with this?
- PK
Good Afternoon All, I'll keep it simple...what JD said at 11:34.
Marion Cotillard won a Best Actress Academy Award in 2007 for her Edith Piaf role in La Vie En Rose....great movie if you can handle subtitles. I don't mind at all, but GAH gets antsy.
Yup Lemonade, 55A, we AYES always try to think positively and say Yes to whatever we can. Wonder what is happening with brother Buck..eye? Terrific blogging and links today, BTW.
Hi Dennis, great to hear from you. It's always a pleasure. Nice to hear from Carol again. Windhover pops in once in a while to keep it interesting too. Welcome to all the new people, but it always makes me happy to hear from the "less heard from".
Hola Everyone, A really tough puzzle for me and a DNF. I won't list all the mistakes, but many were the same made by others, plus some of my own dumb entries.
I was delighted to see Dennis at the top of our comments today. Good to see you!
Thank you Lemonade for a great writeup.
I had some real learning moments today with Risible and Trice. Not my every day words for sure.
Pear was one of my first entries. Our pear tree had to be cut down due to Fire Blight. I'm told that the Australian shrub, Bottle Brush, is a Fire Blight host and we have two large Bottle Brush shrubs in our neighbor's yard. They are next to our fence near where we had our pear planted.
This info just goes to show you that we all have a varied and diverse background.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Frank:
Great entree! LOL
Tin, You're right, there was that asterisk thing but I just blew by the North Dakota kid and went to those steroid freaks of 1998 on! Thanks for the tug on my leash! I've been working three days in a row after all!
I got 41A all right;in fact one after another while solving this puzzle.
Tough but really a fun solve.
Welcome Barbara, Stay with us and enjoy the banter. We do have a lot of fun.
Jerome your "food"/name additions were great!
Husker Gary, That will teach you to leave your crossword lying around. Hopefully your TA didn't use a pen!
Jazz, Thanks for the music link. Pizzicato! Wow!
Hello denizens of LA Times Crossword Corner - another LACC orphan here. Thanks for taking us in! Very enjoyable write up Lemonade. Thank you.
Tough puzzle for me, although I was able to figure out the theme from EDITH PILAF ("La Vie en Rose" is a terrific movie). The other theme answers came pretty easily. I found them entertaining and appetizing. Liked the other theme tie-in answers that Lemonade pointed out. I did get stuck a couple of areas and was so glad I could come here on my iphone to cheat. So yes, a DNF for me. I solved the puzzle while waiting for an MRI - spooky. What a long, loud, test that was! RISIBLE - my WOTD.
Have a great weekend.
Before the day goes completely past, as I mentioned last week, I am beginning my annual plea to all lurkers, ex-regulars, and passers by, to post a comment on November 23, 2011, if only to tell us you are alive and well, and to thank C.C. for her efforts. I will start issuing my personal invitations in November. Also, LACC people, many of us read PG's blog also and while her approach was hers, the idea of presenting an entertaining enlightening and fun blog is the same. So give us a week or so and then decide.
Welcome Crazy Cat, another C.C. in our fold.
Chickie, I had just gotten a start and her entries were bizarre at best, e.g. They lift you up - AIRCRFT (sic), HOP instead of SEEtoit, HAD instead of MET, etc. At lunch she checked in with me and I showed her the puzzle and she said, "Boy I sure missed some, didn't I"" I thought she was pretty presumptuous.
I will not put the puzzle down again but she was a very nice lady who was very helpful and so, there ya go!
Thanks Chickie. I've made a couple of Name Game puzzles. In fact, my first published puzzle was this type. It had stuff like-
Seer's sphere, from Billy and Lucille? CRYSTAL BALL
To any budding constructors- I can only guess the reasons why, but there are a couple of major editors who won't accept this kind of puzzle. Always check an editor's style sheet at Cruciverb.
Hi all!
Good to see you, Dennis!
Cute theme answers, Gene and interesting write-up, Lemonade!
Had to resort to red letters rather early. Then things went rather easily. It's amazing that (after removing mistakes) red letters buoy me up and correct answers flow readily.
Went to three doctors this week and had x-rays. Being bedridden isn't conducive to perfect dental hygiene. Three cavities!
Anyone else watch Doc Martin on PBS? It's an interesting, well-made British show.
Have the best of weekends!
Yes, fermatprime, DW and I love Doc Martin, and have watched it whenever it's on. Great show. We like that irascible GP and all the characters on that show. Were it not for the steep hills, we sometimes fantasize that it might be nice to live there. Then again, we imagine the winters are pretty severe.
Here's wishing you all a good night and a fine weekend.
Lemonade: I doubt even a Yankee vs. Phillies matchup would compel anyone to watch a World Series game this November! I attended an opening day game on March 31st this year so that would't happen. We won though, on a walkoff grand slam versus the Brewers.
Crossword constructor's favotrite food(cookie)?: GENE NEWTON
Doc Martin review
Alt Theme: You are what you eat!
C'mon, that post was funny!
Not to me. You have no respect for the time and effort he spends on his write-up. You bring nothing but mean spirit to this blog. You contribute nothing meaningful to blog discussion.
Go away!
p.s.
This might not mean much, but in all honesty, I love this blog.
I am in awe of your accomplishments.
I have alot of respect for you, C.C..
And Argyle, Dennis, HeartRx, MelissaB, JzB, Splynter et al.
I just can't let this go. It is too close to my heart and soul.
You do not know how much people like him hurt/ruin people's lives. Even my kids and grandkids have been hurt.
I hope you understand.
If you respect me and this blog, you would not keep harassing one of my blogging crew and annoying me.
Move on already! Any future post on this topic will be removed.
I am truly sorry for the annoyance to you and Argyle. That is why I've changed the tone of the posts to be amusing for everyone else.
I hope someday you will understand.
I feel better having explained myself(again).
I am done until next Friday.
Have a nice weekend.
I got stuck on Stacy wanted to make it ketsup. you know the rest.
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