google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, October 28, 2011, John Lampkin

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Oct 28, 2011

Friday, October 28, 2011, John Lampkin

Theme: Duh, just add "D." Each of the four theme answers are common phrases, which when a "D" is added to the end of the last word, create an entirely new and witty phrase. This week have seen a "G" added to the beginning, and now a "D" to the end, Gol Darn what fun. My early Christmas present is getting to blog a JL which is loaded with George Bush's favorite- trickeration, which is a real treat. So let us leave the pumpkin patch and see what this twisted mind had in store for us.

17A. Comedian for hire?: RENTAL CARD. This pun almost Hertz, as we see a rental car transformed to a funny man; what a card JL is.

23A. What Shakespeare's parents had to do?: RAISE THE BARD. To raise the bar, to seek greater accomplishment, and Will was known as the bard of Avon, recalling our Brit lady from earlier.

47A. Green that's hard to swallow?: CHOKE COLLARD. Collards are in the cabbage family, and very popular in the South, though cooked properly you will not choke. I do not like seeing dogs on choke collars, they seem quite cruel.

57A. Memoir title for Sela?: ACTS OF WARD. From an act of war to the acting of Sela Ward, she now co-stars in CSI:NY, did you know you can watch complete episodes on your computer? Just go to this LINK.

and the middle of the grid unifier; 37A. Low grade, or an appropriate title for this puzzle: D PLUS. In case card and bard had not done it for you.

A really fun theme, which was delivered wrapped in:

Across:

1. Traveler's reference: ATLAS. I wonder if young people raised on GPS and MapQuest even know what an atlas is?

6. Baldwin of "30 Rock": ALEC. The oldest of the brothers and ex of Kim Basinger.

10. A month of Sundays: AGES. JL being a friend of the Corner, rewards us with a classic clecho; 21A. A month of Sundays: EON. A nice shout out to our creative marine.

14. Go after: CHASE. Like a dream.

15. "Later, dahling!": CIAO. Italian night with JL, as we also have, 46D. Italian sweetheart: CARO. And a fine Italian reference 34D. Teatro __ Scala: Milan opera house: ALLA. From our musical maestro, the correct name of La Scala.

16. Fictional sleuth who first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post: MOTO. This series was commissioned by the Post after the death of Earl Der Biggers, the creator of the Charlie Chan character. The writer was a Post staffer, named JP Marquand, who later won a Pulitzer Prize for the delightful, The Late George Appleby which is still an entertaining read.

19. Expresses delight: OOHS. And if your are really good he/she will also give you some aahs.

20. Finis, in Frankfurt: ENDE. German lesson, if you want to guess where we get our word...

22. Euripides tragedy: MEDEA. No doubt JL's subtle shout to your obedient Friday blogger, and the husband of this barbarian princess, who was cast aside for a king's daughter and got her revenge killing the king and the daughter, and her two children with Jason. Maybe, as the first reference to this heinous act appears to be in the Euripides play. My father used to tell me this was his father's (who was a tailor) favorite Greek playwright, telling his sons all of the time "Euripides pants, I'm gonna smack you." LINK.

27. Zoo re-creation: HABITAT. Did anyone watch Zookeeper? Or Rise of the Planet of the Apes?

30. Hippy dances?: HULAS. The question mark and the punny spelling of hippie, tell you the fun has begun. A literal and damned witty clue.

31. More than portly: OBESE. A literal and damning clue.

32. Frost, for one: POET. See, I knew there was a reason I mentioned this poet last week.


33. Opening: GAP. Like in Michael Strahan's teeth.

36. __ chic: GEEK. Really, has The Big Bang Theory taken over?



39. 18-Down's love: SOLO. Han from the Star wars movies, linked to the great misdirection, 18. Princess with great buns?: LEIA, referring not to her gorgeous glutes, but her hair.

40. Orch. section : STR. Strings, you knew our musically adept Mr. Lampkin would not leave music from his effort.

41. Quarry: PREY. Not rocks but dinner.

42. Post-tonsillectomy treat: JELLO. No ice cream? Do they take out tonsils anymore?

43. Gauchos' gear: BOLAS. The weapon of choice for our Spanish cowboys.

45. Tabloid fodder: SCANDAL. Dis you hear about, the latex, oh never mind.

50. Material for some balloons: LATEX. Also a favorite of many a DOMINATRIX. (0:53).

51. Couple's pronoun: OUR. Not Freddy this week.

52. Continental wine region: ASTI. More Italian, Spumante anyone?

56. Punta del _ : ESTE. Off the coast of Uruguay.



60. Massage therapy pioneer Ida: ROLF. Interesting LADY who created ROLFING, not to be confused with ralphing.

61. Way: PATH.

62. Support in a loft: EASEL. Really intricate misdirection, as the artist all rent lofts to paint and bring their easels.

63. South Dakota's Wounded __: KNEE. Site of one of our nation's most horrible actions.

64. Hudson River city: TROY. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County, hence the name of RPI, the alma mater to two of our bloggers. RPI was founded in 1824, the first US college dedicated to science, and its alumni started MIT.

65. "That's just crazy talk!": MY EYE. Anther nice shout out from JL for all my ocular challenges, NOT!

Wow, it was work, fun bit now we must move on to:

Down:

1. Part of a plot, often: ACRE. Of land silly, not a book.

2. "All righty __!": THEN. A cute phrase, best said by a pretty woman. You know who you are.

3. Developer's need: LAND. See 1D. These days they really need buyers more.

4. Star of "61*"? : ASTERISK. A wonderful visual! Not the movie, just the title.

5. Ross __: SEA. We are back in ANTARCTICA.

6. Buttonhole: ACCOST. Like all of the old politicians, nice old word buttonhole.

7. Retired NPR host Hansen: LIANE. SHE retired.

8. It may be lent or bent: EAR. "Friends, Romans, Countrymen..."

9. Grand Banks catch: COD. Fish story.

10. Slide specimen: AMOEBA.

11. Easy to babysit, say: GOOD AS GOLD. This ended in "D" and had ten letters, but not part of theme.

12. Number no longer used?: ETHER. Numb-er. NUMB like the dentist, silly.

13. "Such a shame": SO SAD. Used by the young to ridicule, the break up line being, "too bad, so sad."

22. Get weak in the knees MELT.

24. Had: ATE.

25. K or G: THOU, these are two common abbreviations for One thousand dollars, e.g. I need 2K, or front me 2 Gs. This took me the longest time to see, really felt stupid.

26. Shades: HUES. Not sunglasses worn by Dr. House.

27. Big bikes: HOGS. We have had this before.

28. Stand watch, say: ABET. The lookout.

29. Colt 45 holder: BEER BOTTLE. Well, I get my beer reference (nice misdirection with the mental picture of the gun in a holster) but this is a malt liquor, not a beer, so is the bottle a beer bottle? Did you know the product was not named for the gun, but for number 45 for the Baltimore Colts?

32. Layer: PLY. If you ply her with enough drinks you might.

35. Parlor game: POOL. More properly, pocket billiards.

37. Movie monster, casually: DRAC. Really, who is friendly enough with Dracula to use this?

38. Tip of the Yucatán peninsula?: PESO. My complete favorite, as I wasted three minutes trying to recall my geography lessons and picture the end of the Peninsula, only to have the light bulb come on and realize he means TIP, like to waiter. D'OH! You are a fiend.

39. Banish: SEND AWAY.

41. Movie house suffix: PLEX. Cineplex 24, why?

42. Vase, in a pinch: JAR. I use big cups, but never put Tinman's Pinch in jar.

44. Michael of "Caddyshack": O'KEEFE. The kid in this always watchable MOVIE.(2:21).

45. Like many ski slopes in April: SLUSHY.

47. Uriah Heep, by profession: CLERK. Maybe in David Copperfield, but not this SONG.(2:53)

48. Is sporting: HAS ON.

49. Numbers game: LOTTO. $203,000,000.00 in Powerball this Saturday; let's pool our money and buy $1000.00 in tickets.

53. Freelancer's enc.: SASE. Self Addressed Stamped Envelope.

54. "South Park" co-creator Parker: TREY. He and his partner also did The Book of Mormon on Broadway, which no doubt inspired this recent COMMENT.

55. Empty: IDLE. Not Eric.

57. On-target: APT.

58. Wheels: CAR.

59. Neither masc. nor neut.: FEM. Feminine.

Answer grid.

On that sexual note, I am out of here and must wait until November to return, but please do not forget to all return on November 23 to say hi and a Thanksgiving for having a place to come to talk puzzle, make friends, laugh, share and even put up with anons. I will start naming names soon, so please be ready to say at least hi and how you are. Jeannie, we miss you. Mrs. Calabash where are you?

Lemonade

59 comments:

thehondohurricane said...

Good day folks,

I'm not sure where to start, so I'll simply say this was an "almost finished", with an empty square or two, and a few erroneous fills.

Was missing the T and the K in ASTERISK. Had ACT I for 1D, so never saw RENTAL CARD. Had CROC for 37D. I never thought a CPLUS was a low grade. Thought it might be a screw up. But A DRAC ???? Come on John.

Happy to accomplish what I did and it was a fun challenge. An error or two, but what the heck, it's Friday. Happy to finish as much as I did.

Enjoy the weekend.

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. Wow! What a fun puzzle. Once I figured out the addition of the "D" at the end of the word, I was quickly able to fill in the theme answers. My favorite was RAISE THE BARD.

I had a spot of trouble in the NE corner because I got tripped up with the Number, which, although appears often as an anesthetic, I was headed in a different direction.

Happy Friday, everyone.

QOD: A sure way to lose happiness is to want it at the expense of everything else. ~ Bette Davis

desper-otto said...

Euripides pants! Really. I almost snorted coffee out my nose.

Lemonade, thanks for clearing up the nice buns and number no longer used. Got 'em, but didn't get 'em. Didn't care much for DRAC but the misdirection on PESO made up for it.

I enjoyed the theme. And it took almost 30 min to finish, so I'd rate it as a great Friday puzzle. I don't normally linger that long until Saturday. Thanks Mr. Lampkin.

Argyle said...

Say hey,

My fave was RAISE THE BARD, also.

Dracula's friends called him DRAC. Listen for it at the 1:50 mark.

Monster Mash(3:15).

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Tried to post earlier, but comments weren't enabled yet...

Wonderfully punny theme and plenty of great tricky clues today. I somehow managed to blow through this one in near record time for a Friday, though. I guess most of the tricky clues weren't quite tricky enough to slow me down, with the possible exception of the old "number" gag at 12D. Gets me every time.

Didn't know LIANE, ALLA or GEEK, but the perps took care of them.

Oh -- and I still object to seeing EON clued as anything other than an immense amount of time. Previously, it was clued as "a dog's age" and this time it's "a month of Sundays." I can accept "ages," but just barely.

fermatprime said...

Hi Everyone!

Kazie: Thanks for the kind words!

Great work, JL and Lemonade! I have not had any problems with this week's offerings. This one, however, was SLOW. Have been trotting to doctors and to have more tests. Swimming too. Read four NOOK books on my macbook pro. Not the easiest thing to get the darn books in the mac app!

I absorbed a hard copy of M. C. Beaton's latest Agatha Raisin in one night. Could not put it down!

Have been watching first 4 episodes of Homeland with faithful chaffeur, Harvey. Forgot to set the DVR and had to watch first three On Demand. Anybody think Lewis is playing a terrorist?

Cannot seem to fall asleep; it is late, late, late.

Comments on puzzle later, I hope. Lemonade was spot on though.

Tinbeni said...

Lemonade: Wonderful write-up & links.

Caught on to the D-PLUS theme early with that RENTAL-CARD.

The only actor names I remember from "Caddyshack" are Chase, Murray, Knight & Dangerfield.
Michael O'KEEFE is a bit obscure.

ALLA, LIANE, ROLF, TREY, IDLE all perps.
After this workout, my perps want a rest.

How does "Empty" = IDLE ???

If that's all you got, I'll sip PINCH out of a JAR.

Cheers !!!

SouthernBelle said...

Good Morning to all,

Felt really dense this morning!

I think NUMBER did me in!!! Just put my hackles up, I guess.

Reasonably easy for a Friday though (for me)....little over 30 minutes.

Grumpy 1 said...

Good morning, Lemonade, and TGIF!
JL on a Friday is definitely going to contain some pretty obscure stuff, some masterful misdirection and definitions that are way down at the bottom of the dictionary listings. In other words... D-lightfully Develish!

Caught onto the added D right away and that helped. I liked the 'Month of Sundays' clues. It's always used to describe a long but indeterminate time and both AGES and EON fit perfectly. That #$&^% 'number' got me, though. Probably because I had Milo for the detective and couldn't make sense out of that corner until I applied a few drops of Liquid Paper.

I'll certainly give JL a lot better tha D PLUS on this one. Great puzzle.

HeartRx said...

I tried posting earlier, too so I have forgotten most of what I wanted to say, except:
Great write-up for this fun puzzle, Lemon!! I busted a gut laughing when I read your comment about PLY.

Tin, I think "empty" = IDLE, as in "an idle threat" (one with no substance to it). I had to think about that one for a while when I saw it, too!

Mari said...

This must have been my easiest Friday puzzle ever. Loved 18-D: Princess with Great Buns ;)

Took me a minute to get the clue on 12-D: Number no longer used. The key here is NUMBer!

Have a great weekend and a spooktaular Halloween.

Hahtoolah said...

PREY made me think this Blondie song. I saw her recently in concert. She is still as good as when I first saw in concert in the early '80s.

Yellowrocks said...

Funny, witty write-up,Lemonade. Also, I enjoyed all of John Lampkin's misdirections.

My parents used say,"Euripides pants, you buy me another." In the same vein, they said, "Defeat of de cat went over defense before detail."

Looking up Malt liquor in Wiki, I see it is is a type of high alcohol content beer, so Colt 45 could be found in a beer bottle.

Lemonade,like you, I thought of today's youth not using ATLASs.

I got IDLE right away, because I related it to EMPTY threat like HeratRx did.

The last answer to fall was DRAC. Although I know BOLO is a man's string tie and BOLA is a throwing weapon, I wrote BOLO, which gave me CROC. C+ is not a terrible grade. Finally I changed to BOLA and DRAC.

I have no nit with EON or AGES. MONTH OF SUNDAYS is not literal, and EON is not literal, but an exaggeration used this way.

eddyB said...

Hello.

Have only seen Colt 45 in cans.

Had 12D when I had 42A done. Was
given ice cream in 1944.

First thing that I did this morning
was count my fingers. TG for home field advantage.

Game 7 or SJ at Detroit?

Off to NBC.com to watch last nights Prime Suspect.

take care. eddy

Husker Gary said...

It took a little effort what a treat, John! Once I raised the bar(d) for myself, I got the double treat of a fun and useful theme complimented by Lemon’s herculean effort (loved layer comment). Rock on!

Musings
-Laid out some this week as I taught 3 days. I worked all the puzzles but, “If you can’t say something new…”
-Selling encyclopedias or atlases today would be hard! When I ask someone where they live, I can mapquest the actual house!
-CIAO not TATA! BTW, can someone tell me why the peeps in my TCM movies all use such phony accents that generate words like “dahling”?
-Carrie Fisher’s stand up act that lean heavily on being Princess Leia and Debbie Reynolds’s daughter is hilarious and poignant! I remember one line where George Lucas told her, “Princess Leia would never wear a bra!”
-Poor Roger had to live with that *
- I made a THOU subbing this month.
-Michael O’Keefe played a bad guy in a Law and Order episode. I couldn’t take that seriously.

Tinbeni said...

HeartRx
re: IDLE being empty ...

Thank you.
That makes sense now.
Like I said, I got it via the perps.

Note to self:
When doing a JL, don't forget a word's
definition #5: Not put to use; idle: empty hours.

MPPuzzler said...

A nice puzzle, and a nice write-up. Thanks to both of you. Solved it fairly quickly, for a Friday.

I though NUMBer was especially clever, as well as the Princess Leia clue. I think I must be the only person who has not seen any of the Star Wars movies in their entirety

I'd always heard it as "Euripides pants, Eumenides pants"

Have a great weekend, all.

kazie said...

I had a very broken picket fence for a while. After giving up, I came here long enough to see what to do with all those -ARD endings, then went back to it and got the rest out without further assistance. But I'm no good with letter substitutions and additions. I never can catch on. Most of the names were unknowns too, except LEIA, SOLO, ASTI, ALEC. I actually thought since Leia is a first name (Princess is a title after all), Solo should have been HAN.

Knowing John's propensity for word play, most of the other tricks didn't get past me, except PESO. Not a bad experience all told, especially for a Friday.

Good blog, Lemonade. Thanks.

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, John Lampkin, for a swell puzzle this Friday. Thank you, as well, Lemonade714, for the great write-up and links.

Got started slowly. My first answer was ALEC for 6A. My next was JELLO for 42A. I bounced around like that for quite a while.

RENTAL CARD was my first theme answer. D PLUS came easily, and the rest followed.

Entered EON for 21A. Then I figured AEON had to be the answer for 10A. Well, that fell apart quickly. AGES appeared.

I, also, had to think about IDLE for Empty, but I used it.

I had GOOD AS TOLD for 11D (instead of GOOD AS GOLD). That gave me TAP (instead of GAP) for 33A, for Opening. AS you can see, they would have worked and been accurate, in my opinion. Any thoughts?

Fun puzzle. See you tomorrow.

Abejo

Anony-Mouse said...

I came, I saw, I was conquered. I looked at the constructors name, the day of the week, the first across clue - and I gave up. No problem, its just me. I do like puns, much like the next guy, but the CW solving is like sitting for a final exam, and I couldn't stand the tension. I came here to see one of the clues - looked at Lemonade's comments, and I was hooked. Thank you 714 for a charming and funny blog. Your 'numbers' and 'plyer' comment had me giggling. 'Euripides pants' was rip roaring - I didn't get the joke, until Desper-otto directed my attention. FUNNY !!!!

reminds me of a joke:

One guy, tells another, " My girlfriend and I, - we went to see a movie, last night, in Queens (NY)'.

Other guy, 'Jamaica ? '. ( a section of Queens, NYC )

First guy, ' No, we just enjoyed the movie'.

HeartRx said...

Abejo, I laughed at your "re-do" with GOOD AS TOLD (wish more kids acted that way, especially in the grocery lines), and TAP instead of GAP. Works for me!

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone. Thanks for the write-up, Lemonade.

Quite tough for me but finally managed to finish it without lookups. The SE and NE were finished last. Got the theme phrases ok but still didn't fully suss the theme before reading Lemon's account. Same with THOU. ETHER was clued devilishly well. Also liked clues for SEA, ACRE, and BEER BOTTLE. OOHS, not so much.

Have a great day.

Anony-Mouse said...

What is the difference between an anesthetist and a anesthesiologist ?

Under federal law, no difference... although the first term is often used for a nurse ( Nurse Anesthetist ) or a technician, qualified to administer anesthesia, that is wrong. In the USA, federal law dictates, that the two terms refer only to a medical doctor. ( I learned this early on, having three of them in my immediate family.)


Being blissfully (?) unaware of all the puns, double meanings and double entendres in English, can make it very difficult and downright confusing, for a foreigner to learn the english language. ( Our fearless leader ? ). Some examples in my next post.



Alt QOD: I told my dentist that my front teeth were starting to get yellow. He told me to wear a brown tie. ~ Rodney Dangerfield.

Anony-Mouse said...

1. The bandage was wound around the wound.

2. The dump was so full it has to refuse more refuse.

3. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend ?

4. The soldier decided to desert his desert in the desert.

5. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

6. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

7. A seamstress and a sewer fell into the sewer.

8. To help with the planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

9. After a number of Novocain injections, my jaw got number.

10. I spent last evening evening out a pile of dirt.

-Writing Center of Central Washington State University.

Anonymous said...

I got stuck for awhile in the south central because I was stuck on having the green be Chard--once I had Collard it was a quick finish.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, thank you, John Lampkin! I can't believe I got every square filled right on a FRIDAY! Oh, happy day! Bit of a struggle and erasing going on. Who cares if I didn't understand all the puns till Lemonade explained them. I even got the DPLUS connection right off with Act of Ward. I seldom get those long cute answers. I'm chortling all day!

-PK

kazie said...

Anonoy-Mouse,
4. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

--Even more confusion, to say nothing of all those -ough- words: cough, tough, though, through, plough (British spelling).

Then there are the differences between British and American spellings--the -ize or -ise dilemmas, and practice (noun) and practise (verb)in British but not American English.

ant said...

As much as I enjoyed this puzzle, I wish the COLLAR themed answer was a three-letter -AR word. It would have been much more elegant, and fit in with the other themed answers.

But now that I think more about it, there aren't too many -AR / -ARD words that work.

How 'bout: Hitting a posse member
or: Fellow gun club member
SHOOTING PARD

Clear Ayes said...

Good Morning All,I love puzzles where I catch on after the first theme answer. Of course in this case, all it got me was a pre-filled D in three other locations. Oh yes, plus D PLUS at 37A. But any help on a Friday is good help as far as I'm concerned.

Have I ever read MEDEA? I don't recall, but I knew the story, and got the fill. "Euripides pants"? I've led a sheltered life. Never heard the expression, but it sounds like an hysterical joke for eight year old boys.

60A/ROLF I had an aunt and uncle who underwent treatment and training in the early 60's. They gave us kids a demonstration....once was enough. I was a healthy teenager and it was really painful.

I kept GAH company for last night's WS game. No wonder I'm tired this morning. Even for a non-follower it was physically and emotionally exhausting!

Gotta get ready to vacate the premises. We have a house looker today....we'll see...

Anonymous said...

where are you, jeannie?

Clear Ayes said...

October by 32A)POET Robert Frost

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes' sake, if the were all,
Whose elaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost--
For the grapes' sake along the all.

Lemonade714 said...

Life is funny, with the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies and others not in the World Series, it seemed not many would care, but if you turn on the tv, you will get hooked by these teams duke it out in the middle of the ring. Awesome game last night. Did I mention LaRussa is a law school graduate? Wonder if it helps.

Yellowrocks said...

Yes,the English language is difficult because it has different spellings and meanings for words that sound alike, different sounds for the same spelling, etc.

Some other languages are also complicated. Take Japanese names:

If you see only the name written in kanji (a script of Chinese origin where each single character stands for a whole word or concept) you do not yet know how it is pronounced because each kanji character has several possible pronunciations.

The other way round is difficult as well: If you hear a name you cannot be sure how to write it in kanji. (Many names have several writings, with different meanings according to the actual kanji used.)

To resolve such ambiguities the Japanese use Hiragana where the characters stand for syllables. But the kanji is still needed to convey the exact meaning. Parents chose the kanji based on what they want the name to convey.

Anony-Mouse said...

Kazie - Thank you for your correction.

4. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

I thought I had typed it faithfully to the original citation, ( despite my slight misgivings - ), but now I see I did mis-type it.

The Encarta Dictionary says:

desert n. - something deserved,either punishment or reward. (usually plural) - 'He'll get his just deserts'.

Do you think a soldier could leave his reward in the desert, especially during Operation Desert Storm ? (lol).

Anonymous said...

Almost fell out of my chair laughing at Lemonade's hilarious example (complete with picture) of the answer to 33A, Opening.

It was right on.

Glenn

Misty said...

Many thanks, Lemonade and Mr. Lampkin! Great Friday puzzle and snorted lots of coffee reading the write-up!

I thought proudly that I'd gotten it all, but not so. Misconstrued "green" as a misdirection and so ended up with "choke dollard" which made no sense, of course, but I figured somebody would explain it to me. Guess I still have money on the brain after screwing up 'T bills' and 'T bonds' yesterday!

Ah, La Scala. Never got to see an opera there, but had a chance to tour the place during a quick afternoon in Milan a few years ago. Lovely!

Lucina said...

Greetings, all. Lemonade as always I love your APT and amusing blog. Hertz was rich!

JL on Friday, oh boy, that is fun!

What with ASTI, ESTE, CAR, CARD and the devilish misdirections such as PESO, tip, and LEIA, princess with great buns, etc. it was a real romp.

I agree and in fact began with HAN since LEIA is a first name but four letters sent me to SOLO.

EASEL is a repetitive reference in the book I'm currently reading, Provenance. It's a true account of a con man and an art forger and exceedingly well written by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo, husband and wife journalists.

CIAO, everyone, and have a winning Friday! Thanks, John and L714 for today's entertainment.

JD said...

Good morning Lemonade, C.C. Et al,

Way too many went over my head, even when filled by perps. Many thanks Lemon for the fun, and all- I mean all, the ah- ha's! I was amused by JL's misdirections and your explanations. This certainly was entertaining, but a DNF, about a D for me. Can't locate a plus sign on this iPad- grr.

CA, crossing my fingers that you get a buyer soon.

Ciao. ++++++ Eureka!
Ta ta

Steve said...

Great write up, good puzzle, loved the misdirections for LEIA and ETHER especially.

The COLT 45 clue took me back across the pond when I was growing up in the UK in the 70's - Colt 45 was one of the first "import" beers to be seen, and I remember sitting around in the bar with some friends trying to make any sense whatsoever of the slogan on the beer coaster:

"Colt 45 - It's as good as a homer in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded."

We had absolutely NO idea what that meant! No clue, nothing, zero. It was years before I found out!

Jerome said...

John's puzzle does more than just add a D to the ends of familiar phrases. All the theme entries end in ARD. This gives the puzzle a lot of consistancy and elegance. Nice job, Mr. Lampkin!

Not so nice-

GOOD AS GOLD is Hebrew for GOLDA'S GOOD. It's also Norwegian for AL'S GOOD DOG.

It seems befitting that ACTS OF WARD and FAT COWARDS go so well together. A DWARF SCOT taught me this.









It seems befitting

Jerome said...

I wrote "It seems befitting" twice because it's such a lively, fun phrase.

John Lampkin said...

Greetings all. Thanks Lemonade for all your time and effort. Job well done! And thank you all for your kind words.

I'm down in TX chasing butterflies and don't have access to my original clues, but will say that some of those clues came from Rich, though I can't tell which ones. Surely I can't be so witty all by myself.

I always heard it this way:
Ancient Greek ailor shop sign -- Euripedes, I mend -ese.

eddyB said...

Hello.

Thought of Dennis when I went out for the mail. There was a SL550 in the driveway. Told the guy to leave it and take the beat-up truck. He just laughed. Sweet!

Still waiting for my packages from the Ukraine.

Guys started to outline with the diamond saw where the trench will
be. Water will be shut off without notice. Was told to fill up the tub.

Hope the police understand that the only way out of our driveway
will to cross two lanes and make a Uie across double yellow lines.

See you tomorrow if I survive MLB
and NHL action tonight.

eddy

kazie said...

Anony-Mouse,
Actually, with the noun formed from the verb 'deserve' in that #4 sentence, your spelling would have been correct, wouldn't it?

I was thinking of what comes after the main course of a meal, a word derived from the French desservir meaning to clear the table. I guess they thought the dessert would be so good everyone would eat their plates clean and leave nothing to be cleared?

Lemonade714 said...

A very nice treat to see two of our favorite constructors in one day, JG and JL. Yes, Jerome, you are correct about the ARD, but I could not think of a way to make that a them, it was too 'ard.

We look forward to more nature pics, John, though I assumed all the butterflies in Texas had left the state to be in the stomachs of the Rangers' players and fans for tonight's game.

Anonymous said...

What is perps?

Jayce said...

Another fine Rolls Royce puzzle today. Enjoyed it a lot. Enjoyed your writeup a lot, too, Lemonade.

Thank you all.

Ol' Man Keith said...

All done! The hardest of all was that CHOKE COLLARD bit. I couldn't get away from a HARD ending for the longest time. I finally worked it to DOLLARD and that made no pun-worthy sense. Only at the very end (where else?) did the COLLARD part come through.

PS. We use a choke collar on our larger dogs, not the small guys. It isn't cruel at all with the big ones that have layers of skin, fat, and fur protecting and dulling sensation to the throat.

Lemonade714 said...

Perps = perpendiculars

1 down is a perp to 1 across. If you fill in 1 down, 2 down, 3 down and 4 down; generally you will have filled 1 across with the perps.

John makes solving and blogging such fun, I really enjoy the experience and am happy I amused many of you. It is awesome do get a CC and hard G last week and JL now.

Barbara Ann said...

Where's Dennissssss??

Jamal said...

Dennis, I mean Barbara Ann, you are sooo funnnny!!!!

Barbara Ann said...

I wasn't trying to be funny. is there a joke I'm missing?

Chickie said...

A DNF for me today, but only about 5 answers left out. I spent way too much time getting this far, but had a great time doing it.

My very favorites were Tip of the Yucatan Peninsula?, and Hippy Dances. Such misleading clues--both needing a V-8 can to bang my head.

We haven't seen a John Lampkin for a while, and I enjoyed the challenge. Great writeup, Lemonade.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone. I will be in costume at our local History Museum's children's Trick or Treat Party. I'm going to be passing out Halloween treats at the One Room Schoolhouse. Always so much fun.

Anonymous said...

Keith: when I had big dogs, a choke collar was a must for training. Otherwise, they thought they were the alpha presence. However, even a regular collar can be a death instrument in a freak accident if the dog is jumping with excitement and gets the collar caught on something taller than it is. Sadly, we learned this the hard way with a much beloved pet we found too late.

-PK

Clear Ayes said...

GAH and I got back from a very nice early dinner at our local "Diner, Drive-In & Dive". We only have one, so it is nice that they make a terrific tri-tip sandwich (GAH) and a chicken taco salad (me). It looks like the realtor was here...she left her card. Now we have to wait until we find out if her clients liked the house.

We have used choke chain collars on all our dogs, big and little, for years. We've never used any buckled collars. The choke chains are used during training time and walks only. They've never worn them when we aren't around. Even elder statesman Charley wants to range ahead on his morning walk once in a while. A little tug on his leash/collar reminds him who is boss.

Barbara Ann, Dennis has written that he is busy with personal stuff and is taking a blog vacation.

Thanks Lemonade...a fun write-up to a delicious John Lampkin puzzle.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

Quite an adventure today. John never lets us down. Excellent write up Counselor. I did most of the puzzle on the way to T-town this a.m., with blanks in the SW corner. It seemed totally intractable. Picked it up again when we got home, and filled the blank in a matter of seconds. How does that work?

Finished, but fell into the C PLUS - CROC trap, alas.

Also had WHITE COLLARD for quite a while. A couple of the perps are right. Never mind that it makes no sense . . .

I thought Princess LEIA took quite a chance showing off those AMPLE (of MY EYE) buns; but it was her ASTERISK.

Cheers!
JzB occasional POET

LaLaLinda said...

Hi Everyone ~~

A really fun puzzle and a great write-up, Lemonade. Enjoyed the humor in both! The 'Number' -- ETHER thing gets me every time but it's always laughable. I'm always happy to finish a Friday puzzle with no look-ups necessary!

It looks like the "leaf-peeping" drive we had planned for tomorrow will have to wait ... we're expecting 4-8 inches of snow! Our trees are still green! What happened to autumn? Oh well ~~ I'll take this over the miserable heat we had in July!

Barbara Ann said...

Clear Ayes, thank you very much. I didn't know.

Bill G. said...

I came across Alfred Hitchcock's "Marnie" on cable and I'm watching it again; why, I don't know. The special effects and sets are cheesy, the music is hokey and Tippy Hedren has got to be the worst and least attractive starring actress I can imagine. But I'll probably struggle and see it through.

Barbara had a quilting class so I was on my own for lunch. I went to the local Cuban restaurant. It's close, reasonable and no trouble parking. I had a my usual salad, roast pork with grilled onions, rice, black beans and fried plantains. Good food. The bill was $14 including tax.

Good ball game. I like the St. Louis fans. They arrive on time, stay till the end, cheer like crazy and sing along with "God Bless America."