Theme: He took a hundred pounds of clay, and he created...A Crossword Puzzle!!
18A. *Publicist, often : SPIN DOCTOR. Not a DJ?
23A. *Have nowhere to go but up : HIT BOTTOM. I could go DF, but it's too early...
34A. *1952 Cooper classic : HIGH NOON. Actor Gary Cooper in one of his most intense roles.
40A. *Shared : IN COMMON. We have a lot in common on this corner. Crossword puzzles, music, books, food...
55A. *Place for a row of potted plants : WINDOW BOX. HaHa, I was thinking this was a misdirection for "marijuana".
And the unifier:
61. It suggests the vowel pattern in the five starred answers : ONE HUNDRED. Ironic, because Rich would never accept a grid entry which represents 100 as "IOO". So this theme is quite unusual in that regard.
We also have a bonus entry with
2D. "101 Dalmations" mother : PERDITA. Notice it was put into the commonly abbr. clue for the film, instead of using the full name "One Hundred and One Dalmations", which would repeat words from the unifier answer. Maybe this clue should have been "IOI Dalmations" mother??
Marti here, to expound on this fun diversion. There was nothing that really made me stumble here, so it was an unusually fast Thursday time for me.
Across:
1. Certain blocker's target : SPAM. I use Postini to filter e-mail before it even hits my computer.
5. Chaste : VESTAL. In ancient Rome, the vestal virgins served a term of thirty years: IO as a student, IO in service, and IO as a teacher.
11. Spotted, to Tweety : TAW. "I tawt I taw a puddy tat!"
14. Fix : MEND
15. "Finished!" : I'M DONE. (Why no, I'm just getting warmed up!)
16. Lacto-___ vegetarian : OVO. They consume no flesh of animals, but do consume milk and eggs. A vegan, on the other hand, consumes no animal products at all.
17. Spring blossom : IRIS. A pretty sight to us New Englanders.
20. QB's scores : TDs. Touchdowns. Like those scored by quarterback Tom Brady of the New England Patriots against the Broncos this coming Saturday...
21. Actress Zadora : PIA. Her film career never took off. (Well, what can you expect, if your debut film was "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians"?) But, her fame lives on in crossword puzzles!
22. At the pawn shop : IN HOCK
27. Miniscule bits : IOTAS
28. Represented, with "for" : STOOD
29. Jewish wedding favorite : HORA. I thought it was the liverwurst?
31. "Star Trek: DSN" character : ODO. (DSN = Deep Space Nine). Odo was the Chief of Security on the ship, and was a changeling who could morph into any shape. I want to be a changeling, so I can morph into a size 2.
32. Oakley with a gun : ANNIE
37. Shore scavenger : GULL
39. "Git!" : SHOO. I have been saying that to the cats all night - they are very interested to know what I am typing.
44. One of a Dumas trio : ATHOS. Remember our lesson from last Thursday? Athos, Porthos and Aramis were the Three Musketeers. D'Artagnan traveled to Paris to join them. Would you believe, I'm listening to the 1948 version on TCM right now, with Lana Turner and Gene Kelly!!!
47. Sun, in Sonora : SOL.
48. One of two elimination games : SEMI. -final. Timely, while we are waiting to see who goes to the Super Bowl!
50. Carried : BORNE.
52. Foreshadowers : OMENS. Do you believe in omens?
57. Everything, so they say : TIMING. I'd tell you a bad joke to illustrate, but I can't type that fast...
59. Small songbird : TIT. Have atit, guys...(Grumpy 1, that means everyone)
60. Place for drips, briefly : ICU. Anyone think "bar"?
64. Mil. plane requiring minimal runway space : STOL. "Short Take-Off and Landing", like this. (0:30) I bet my buddy Dudley could do that!
65. Cooler : PEN. Hoosegow, klink, stir, crowbar hotel, the joint, up the river...
66. What Bonnie and Clyde came to : BAD END. They never made it to the PEN, but were killed in an ambush by law enforcement officers in Louisiana.
67. Maidstone's county : KENT. Geography lesson.
68. Some MIT grads : EEs. Electrical Engineers.
69. Beau : STEADY.
70. Mid-month time : IDES
(Entr'Acte...) (4:16)
Down:
1. Metalworkers : SMITHS
3. "Bruce Almighty" actress : ANISTON. Jennifer Aniston, Jim Carey and Morgan Freeman team up in this funny movie. (0:29)
4. Docs : MDs
5. Call on : VISIT
6. Sci-fi psychic : EMPATH. Like Star-Trek's famous Deanna Troi of crosswords.
7. Star Wars abbr. : SDI. Duh, I was still on the sci-fi train above, and forgot that this refers to "Strategic Defense Initiative", proposed by Ronald Reagan in 1983. Perps nudged me back to the correct answer.
8. Mounds of pounds : TON. Cute clue. But, I would rather have pounds of Mounds!
9. "...___quote:" : AND I. Phew! I really had to pay attention to all the punctuation in this one, in order to suss the answer. Ellipses, blank, colon, and quotes!
10. Actress Téa : LEONI. Pretty. I remember her from "Fun With Dick and Jane".
11. Glinda's reassurance to Dorothy : TOTO TOO. Hard to parse. From the final scene in Oz:
Glinda: ...Now those magic slippers will take you home in two seconds!
Dorothy: Oh! Toto too?
Glinda: Toto too.
Dorothy: Oh! Toto too?
Glinda: Toto too.
12. Guacamole fruit : AVOCADO.
13. Attempts to sway : WORKS ON. When you were a kid, did you work on your father or your mother first?
19. Comic Margaret : CHO.
21. Conductor's place : PODIUM.
24. Drum heard around a fire : BONGO. Like these. (0:53)
25. "I'm impressed!" : OOH. "I'm really impressed!":ooooooooooooh.
26. Some hosp. pics : MRIs.. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (s?)
30. Muslim official : AGHA.
33. Bark beetle victims : ELMS.
35. Search engine launched by Wired magazine in 1996 : HOTBOT
36. "Ain't gonna happen" : NO HOW. Not to be confused with know-how.
38. MGM co-founder : LOEW. I always want to write Leow, for some reason.
40. Tritium, to hydrogen : ISOTOPE. Hydrogen is the only molecule that has different names for its isotopes. 2H is known as "Deuterium" and 3H is known as "Tritium" etc., up to 7H. Memorize these names. (They may come back to haunt you in one of my puzzles...)
41. Oscar night hopeful : NOMINEE. George Clooney is the predicted winner for best actor in "The Descendents" this year. Have you seen it yet?
42. Twain, at birth : CLEMENS. Samuel Langhorne...
43. Abbr. between a first and last name, maybe : NMI. No Middle Initial.
45. Revolved around : ORBITED.
46. Gelid treat : SNO-CONE. "Gelid" looks like a funny word to me.
49. Mean : INTEND.
51. Revels : EXULTS. Did everyone exult on New Year's Eve?
53. Biomedical research org. : NIH. National Institutes of Health. I spent a lot of time talking to the researchers there, deciding what new products our biotech company should develop.
54. Leaves off the guest list : SNUBS.
56. Rapper who said, "the 'P.' was getting between me and my fans" : DIDDY. AKA Sean John Combs.
58. Annoying insect : GNAT
62. Two-time ETO commander : DDE. (European Theater of Operations) Dwight David Eisenhower. Did not remember that he was a two-time commander. But "ETO" had to be DDE...
63. Blues-rocker Chris : REA. One of his early "On the Beach" recordings.
64. Word with run or jump : SKI. Yay, one for me!! I will be running and jumping this weekend in Stowe, VT. I'll try to get online to say "hi", though.
64. Word with run or jump : SKI. Yay, one for me!! I will be running and jumping this weekend in Stowe, VT. I'll try to get online to say "hi", though.
Answer grid.
Hugs,
Marti
Marti
109 comments:
Good morning, Marti, C.C. and gang - have to agree, this did seem a bit easier than most Thursdays, but very much a fun puzzle.
I had few problems at the start, but for the life of me, couldn't parse tototoo at 11D even though I knew the dog's name. Other stumbles came at 51D, which I kept reading as 'reveals', 65A, 'cooler' where I put in 'can' and 54D, 'Leaves off the guest list', where I had 'shuns'. Lots of fresh clues in the puzzle as we've come to expect from Garth. Very enjoyable solve.
Marti, great links, great write-up as always. What are your favorite runs at Stowe? Used to go there a lot back in the '80s; stayed at a B&B called "Mother's" something. Stowe was renowned back then for drawing snow bunnies.
Hope it's a great day for everyone; rainy but pushing 60 today here.
Morning, all!
Short on time this morning. Pretty easy for me as well. Had BETA instead of SPAM at 1A and thought I was so clever until nothing else worked in that corner. Didn't remember PERDITA, but it rang a bell once all the letters were filled in via the perps.
Question about 64A: If "minimal" means "least possible," shouldn't the answer be VTOL (for Vertical Take Off and Landing) instead of STOL?
Gotta run!
Marti,
I was surprised by the IOO as 100 in LA Times also, though I do like today's theme & tie-in. Love your "IOI Dalmations" clue & VESTAL numbers. As for omens, I don't like seeing crows or hearing them cawing.
Seen & LaLaLinda & Tawnya,
We had "Number of Cardinals' World Series wins" for TEN yesterday (Puzzle was submitted before their last win).
Good Morning, Marti and friends. Thank goodness you could explain this theme because it never revealed itself to me. I started at the starred answers, but never saw 100.
Pia Zadora an actress?? If she were a few years younger, she could hang around with Paris Hilton.
I loved seeing BAD END for Bonnie and Clyde.
My favorite clue was Place for Drips = ICU.
I learned that a Beau is not a Suitor, but a STEADY.
QOD: True generosity toward the future consists in giving everything to the present. ~ Albert Camus
Hello Puzzlers -
Easy by Thursday standards, I'd say. No unknowns exactly, but I did forget the musketeer's name despite last week's detailed coverage thereof. I didn't catch the theme, but now I wish I had. It has a fresh cleverness to it.
Morning Marti! Yes, I have done short landings like that, only not with a Twin Otter. When the wind is just right, a pilot can have lots of entertainment getting the ground roll down to practically nothing. My shortest landing ever was at Hanscom, the former Air Force Base at Bedford, MA. With my little Cessna 150 I just touched down and stopped, such was the wind.
Oh, BTW, I also loves me some Mounds bars!
Some times you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't.
:-)
Bonjour all,
Fantastic-as-always write-up, Marti, fantastic puzzle, Mr. Bain. And, Steve, belated congrats for yesterday's effort. Since your avatar was not up there, I had no idea it was you until Les Blogeurs spilled the beans.
I really had fun doing this one, even tho it took 23 mins. (I don't know how Dennis knocks these things off in 8 mins. He must be the world's fastest keyboarder or have magic fingers, but, considering his new vocation, I'm not going to go there.) Helped that I ended up knowing all the words except PERDITA.
The slow part was putting in all the wrong answers: VTOL for STOL, WAGON for HIGH NOON but no room for TRAIN. Apparently, despite his straight-shootin' image, GC was quite a pistol in the Mae West sense. (Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?) Wanted DRDRE for DIDDY, CARB blocker, etc. It all came together when I spotted our old friend ATHOS. Made a bunch of deletions (sure glad I don't do these things w. a pen and paper) and the rest was smooth sailing. (Pia, Tea, Yoko, Oona and Arte ought to sue for royalties!)
Icing on the cake- the proverbial Gestalt switch went off and the "100's" lit up like neon, giving me the theme. Already looking like a great Dragon year!
Cheers!
len, my times are really nothing - there's people who routinely solve these in three minutes or less.
Dennis, back when I was young and foolish, I used to like Upper Goat and Nosedive trails. I don’t remember the B&B you mentioned, but there are so many that have gone out of business lately.
Barry G., VTOL would be a craft that requires NO runway at all, since they do not taxi. STOLs use the "least" of those that do use runways. So I'm OK with the clue.
(right, Dudley?)
C.C., I know it’s silly, but I always think that when a cat washes above its ears, it will rain within 24 hours.
Len, although I also check my time each day when I finish, I never publish them. It’s more like a relative number, so I know what level of difficulty the puzzle was for me. It doesn’t matter even if you take 30 minutes or more to solve on a Monday (unless you’re planning to compete in the ACPT) – as long as Friday's time is much longer.
I forgot to mention, That Gareth also has a puzzle in the NYT today - a double header for him! Way to go, Gareth.
Good morning, all!
Fun puzzle, Gareth; swell write-up, Marti!
Favorite answer: ICU. What a hoot!
Googled once for NW corner. PERDITA not listed in imdb for 1996 movie, but for 1961. Well beyond my ken. Has this name appeared before in LAT cwds?
Almost had to skip dinner again as my truck conked out on Harvey. It is languishing at the local Chevy dealer. Never did this to me! (Harvey's Jeep confined to his driveway whilst H figures out where the leak is.) Girlfriend Chris came over with scrambled eggs and asparagus. Yum!
Have a good one!
I agree with marti this was atypically easy for a monday puzzle. Saw the theme and had a head slapping moment at the clue which revealed it.
Len any thing less than 25 minutes on a thursday is a speed run for me.
Good day folks,
Well I guess I'm the dope of the day because this was a DNF for Hondo. My troubles were all in the North, the South was easily completed.
5A was a main stumbling block where I had VIRGIN and refused to back off of it. 6D, 7D, & 10D were all unknowns. I has SAW for 11D which had me wondering what SOTOTOO had to do with Dorothy. Had completely forgotten about TAW.
VSTOL is the correct term for 64A. If I remember correctly, it was a fighter aircraft designed foe the Marines. It had helicopter characteristics for lift off and once airborne, it became a airplane.
Marti, thanks for the fun write up.
Easy for a Thursday, yes. But no speed run for me. Fun puzzle Gareth and fun links Marti. The Otter landing was incredible!
I've never done a stationary landing like Dudley, but my favorite memory of flying lessons was flying backwards in a 150 by doing slow flight at c.50 knots into a 55 knot headwind. It's an eerie feeling watching the ground beneath you pass to the front rather than the rear, and the stall horn only serves to make it more surreal.
Oh, those VESTAL Virgins! Their vows wouldn't last long around Dennis...
A Whiter Shade of Pale (7:02) - Procol Harum
Here's some "light opera" featuring a not-so-small songbird: TIT Willow (1:57)
Why is it that every time I have to re-enter my password
in order to post my comments appear twice?
Good morning, all.
Marti, what makes you think I'd have any DF thoughts to share? Gotta say, though, there are ample vizualations besides that little bird...
I started out with beta and virgin and for some strange reason nothing else was working. Took them both out and let the downs lead the way. Easy solve after that.
I thought about Rich's rule of not allowing a capital I or O to be substituted for a one or zero except in a Roman numeral. Since the clue said "suggests" I was OK with it.
Anyone else think of Buckeye when Pia Zadora showed up?
Not a speed run for me either. The answers were either very easy or very tough. I got hung up in the SE, but finally worked it out.
My favorites were ICU and TOTO TOO. And TAW. "
I tink I tee lots of putty tats in my house!"
Enjoyed the puzzle and your write-up, Marti. I even got the theme for a change.
Was doing just fine until I got to the SW corner. My DRDRE and ROTATED slowed me down for a couple, but it finally all came together.
Not sure about omens, but two weeks ago I spotted two dozen buzzards (you might call 'em turkey vultures) perched in a Loblolly pine in our town. What should you call a group of buzzards? A carcass?
It’s 11°F out and so Gareth, Marti and Folgers really brightened up my morning. I misread the “ as a * on 15 A and so I had a vowel pattern of IOE which slowed me down but due diligence revealed the fun theme!
Musings
-I had a BETA blocker
-In HIGH NOON Cooper defended an undeserving populace
-I love TV journalists who jerk SPIN DOCTORS back to the question when they digress into talking points
-No idea but found in Perpville – PERDITA, STOL, LACTO-OVO, ODO, REA
-PAWN stars is an wonderful show
-Marti, do the cats obey the SHOO command? Also, great ISOTOPE info!
-Dumas’s trio were hidden in a puzzle last week
-Bonnie and Clyde didn’t get Mirandized
-One SMITHy was under a spreading chestnut tree
-Glinda’s sister said, “…and your little dog too!”
-America changed after Sputnik ORBITED
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Gareth, for a swell Thursday puzzle. Thank you, as well, Marti, for the clever write-up.
Got started in the NW, OK. Did not know PERDITA at first, but it appeared eventually once I had all the crosswords.
The theme appeared after a while and helped with the last couple starred entries. Initially I had CLEMENS spelled with an "O." Fixed that.
My tough corner was the SE. Got ATHOS easily, but ORBITED and WINDOW BOX came slowly. I could not remember what Gelid meant, but SNOCONES finally surfaced, then I remembered.
Finally got KENT county, or maybe it's County Kent. Had no idea it was in England.
Fun puzzle.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
MINIMAL has 2 definitions. It can mean least, but it also can mean merely very small.
I use minmal that way all the time. The storm caused minimal damage on my block (Not the very least of anywhere, but very small.)
STOL is OK by the first defintion here:
min·i·mal [ mínnəm'l ] 1.very small: very small in amount or extent
2.smallest possible: smallest possible in amount or least possible in extent
More in a few hours.
Ant, when VESTAL appeared in the gird, the first thing I thought of was that version of “A Whiter Shade of Pale”. Thanks for linking it. And the “Tit Willow” song is absolutely hilarious!!
Grumpy, I used the word “guys”, and I wanted to be sure you knew I wasn’t being sexist!
Husker, they don’t obey anything except their own urges…
Marti, what I find fascinating is how people on the blog interact with the CW in so many different ways.
I keep what might be called posterior time. If I hit the 15 min. mark on a Monday puzzle, my posterior starts letting me know! It's also a good indication of how sharp I am mentally. At 15 mins. it's probably time to put the CW aside and come back to it later.
Gone are the days when I would spend literally hours w. the dictionary, atlas and almanac trying to get those last two words in the weekend NY Times puzzle. Of course in those pre-internet days, the local paper that carried it didn't publish the answers until the following week.
Now I don't look anything up before I solve/don't solve the puzzle. It seems pointless doing the detective work now that we have Google and the solve buttons are a click away. And that's why I have the time limits.
But for some people, that's exactly the part they like best. I just find I don't have the patience anymore. It's kind of like getting half way thru a Dan Brown novel and saying, how about if I just skip to the last chapter and see what happened. The Gordian Knot solution!
The best part of the new technology is that doing a CW is no longer a solitary experience. This blog has enriched the experience of doing a CW so much that reading it and having the ability to share one's love of words with others is actually more fun than doing the puzzle! So I'm grateful for the effort you and the other "guys" put in to make it possible. (I hope this makes at least a little bit of sense!)
Like many I could not get the theme. Dudley FYI Hanscom AFB is still an AF Base. I was there a couple of months ago to get new ids but the wait was 2 hours.
Here in Chicago were in for our first significant snow of the year. Chicagoans are great drivers during the 2nd snowfall of the year. Unfortunately, we all forget how to drive in snow before the first storm. Maybe we'll be borrowing some of your skis!
Marti and GB,
Another nice combination, for puzzle and write up. I am impressed how many of us must have hypertension to know BETA BLOCKER so well, and PIA ZADORA married a man with tons of money (not Mounds, though she had her own) so her failure was a success. Also, I appreciated the IO years for the Romans but you know they were X years. I enjoyed all of the "O" in the puzzle, in addition to the theme.
Hondo,
I'm with you--DNF. All the names were either complete unknowns (CHO, REA, EMPATH, PERDITA, NIH, HOTBOT,) or WAGS based on a few perps (DIDDY, CLEMENS, KENT). I also started with BETA, have never been able to remember names, quotes (TAW, TOTO TOO) or most abbreviations (SDI, NIH). I never did get the unifier, since ON--UND-ED wasn't helping because I was looking for another I--O--O sequence. So definitely not an easy Thursday IMO.
I'm headed for another unproductive day nursing my cold. I seem to have lost my teacher's immunity after almost six years of retirement. I can't remember ever being laid so low, since it's been so long since having a really bad cold.
We finally did get measurable snow though, so at least it looks pretty out, and Andrea will be able to go snowshoeing.
Good morning everyone. Thanks for the commentary, Marti, and the theme explanation.
A mostly smooth run. ISOTOPE helped anchor the SW. Ran aground, though, at the center bottom and invoked red letter help with REA and DIDDY. Not a strong area for me. I wanted V/STOL, too, but with only for letters, I settled for STOL. I guess a true V/STOL would need only a pad; not a runway. A STOL aircraft would need a short horizontal distance for takeoff, by definition. Since I am not an airedale, I leave the deeper, nuanced discussions to others. Good job, Gareth.
Have a great day.
This felt like a really fresh puzzle to me, and a great write-up, Marti.
The theme unifier really helped me complete the theme answers, this certainly wasn't a top-down fill-in-the-blanks puzzle, quite a few unknowns where I had to wait for the crosses.
"O"'s all over this puzzle, I really liked TOTO TOO for no good reason.
Marti: I saw The Descendants, but was not impressed. I thought the acting was stilted. Tailor, Tinker, Soldier, Spy, on the other hand, is fabulous. Gary Oldman is excellent The movie slowly peels away the layers of the story. I guessed who the mole was early on, but only because of the choice of the actor playing that part.
Ant-
You mentioned Dennis and TIT in the same post, and yet, the references had nothing to do with each other. Very unlike this blog!
Disappointing...
STOL a commonly used term. Here is a video of the STOL championships in
valdez AK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0G0HdF3w1Y
Kerry
That was very cool Kerry. Gotta wonder how many props get broken at that rodeo.
Hahtool, thanks for the heads up on “The Descendants”.
Kerry S @ 10:14, you can embed urls into your post. Go to the home page of this blog. In the right-hand menu bar there is a section called “Olio”. Click on “Create comment links” to see how to embed the link into your post.
Here is the link in the preferred format.(5:14)
BTW, very interesting competition !!
Woody Allen yesterday and Butterfly(Pia Zadora) today.
Kerry,
Impressive video. I loved Valdez scenery more than anywhere else in AK when I was there in '08. I had forgotten to mention that STOL was another unknown expression for me today. Snow's still coming steadily so no point in shoveling yet.
Hondo,
You can use your trash can to get rid of one of those extra posts.
Kerrys - Great clip. Thanks for posting.
Didn't get the theme til near the end. I might have gone faster, had I.
Wanted the Cooper Bristol, a car, insteed of Gary Cooper HIGHNOON, a movie.
Also, blocked out ATHOS strangely thinking the trio was Alex Dumas, fils, pere and Gen.
Very nice puzzle with some rarely seen words: EMPATH, PERDITA, CLEMENS.
Anyone remember the 1960 rock 'n roll tune Good TIMIN' by falsetto Jimmy Jones? His other big hit was Handy Man.
Also love Peter Paul.
Hello, Marti, C.C. and gang. Great write up, Marti.
Thank you, Gareth, for a fun time today.
ICU, place for drips, brilliant!
Hand up for LEOW which messed with that area until the light went on and LOEW corrected ti.
Also, CLEMONS before CLEMENS which again slowed the ONEHUNDRED.
Unknowns were EMPATH, HOTBOT, REA and recalled PERDITA only after it emerged via perps.
Recalled ATHOS and LEONI from recent discussions.
Ant, thanks for a Whiter Shade of Pale, love it!
I hope you have a wonderful Thursday, everyone!
Lucina,
LOEW is based on its German root "Löwe" meaning "lion". Whenever an umlauted vowel is anglicized, an "e" follows that vowel and replaces the Umlaut. You will also see name spellings like Mueller and Kraemer for the same reason.
The Marine version of the VTOl
is the V22 Osprey. Can carry 22
combat infantry. Engines rotate
90 deg up so it takes off like a helicopter.
The S/VTOL example is the British Harrier Jump Jet. Jet exhaust is
directed down ward.
Hondo: I'm your classmate today.
What a slog ... but I got'er done.
PERDITA, all perps. Geez, it's been about 50 years since I "TAW" 101 Dalmations.
TOTO-TOO, all perps. What a great clue/answer.
HOTBOT, all perps. Never heard of the Wired mag's Search Engine.
DIDDY, all perps. Not up on Rapper quotes.
Gareth: Nice FUN "Double-header" today.
The ONE-HUNDRED reveal was shrewd.
Kerry: Thanks for the cool STOL link.
A "toast" to one-and-all at Sunset.
PS Hondo, if your comment is posted twice, you can click on the trash-can and eliminate one.
The duplicate will stay.
Fun Blog, Marti. Interesting puzzle. I caught onto 100 right away, but wondered why I's and O's were allowed to stand for numerals.
I love irises. Thanks for the lovely picture, Marti. I have returned to my butterfly avatar. If not a butterfly, it would be irises. I love Grumpy's adorable litlle boy avatar. I tried to be young too, but went back to my butterfly.
Link Butterfly on iris
Annie Oakley was from Greenville, Oh, which is just up the road from me.
Greenville H.S. was in the news this week when a bomb threat was delivered to the school. The administration's handling of the situation was micro-analyzed on social media and made for an interesting read. It was fun to see all the "experts" opinions on how it "should" have been handled.
Btw, it is exams week.
A icy/snowy mix is expected later today. I imagine the test schedule is a mess.
Back in my day we would have just...
Fun puzzle,Gareth, and delightful write-up, Marti. Loved the Iris photo. Braced myself for a lot of snickers at that little songbird, but instead found a mature crowd in the Corner today!
Interesting issue about timing oneself. Am I right in thinking there are two philosophies about this: one where the pleasure comes from finishing as quickly as possible, and another, where the pleasure comes from savoring the clues, the misleads, the memories stirred up, etc.? I favor the latter, but I suppose one can do both.
Happy Thursday, everybody.
morning all -
a funny experience this morning with the puzzle. i asked my navy-brat husband for help on 64A (mil. plane...) and he said HARRIER which of course didn't fit but made for a fun video search.
@ant - loved the tit willow link. glad the muppets are making a comeback, i love them!
i had no idea what a GELID TREAT was until perps gave me SNOCONE. when i googled "gelid snocone" to figure out what a gelid is - the first result was this blog :)
favorite answer was TOTOTOO - best movie ever imho.
got it mostly done with minimal red-letter help. i do watch the clock but it's really an attempt to improve myself, not compare to others. similarly, i google or wikipedia search answers and come to this blog so i can understand the clues/answers a little better for the next time they pop up. (hopefully won't forget the three musketeers again!)
good day to all of you :)
t.
Tawnya:
I think 95% of us found this site via google either when we could not answer a clue, or did not understand the answer we had filled. It is the cornerstone of the corner.
The fun part came from our fearless leader and her take on life and words, later joined by so many.
Kazie:
Thank you! That helps and I believe I'll remember it now. That also explains their mascot, roaring lion, at MGM.
Cute tit willow, ant.
yellowrocks:
Beautiful photo of IRIS and butterfly! I love both.
misty, personally, I get the greatest pleasure from exactly what you mentioned: savoring the clues, the misleads, memories evoked, and learning new stuff. However, when it's readily apparent that the puzzle's a 'quickie', I find myself seeing if I can beat my previous best, which is a shade under four minutes. It stems from being overly competitive, and unfortunately it's just the way I'm wired.
eddyB, that's on the money about the Marines' V-22 Osprey; sure wish we'd had them in my day, instead of the H-34s, then Hueys. Damn near went deaf on those things.
Sfingi, thanks for the memories re Jimmy Jones. Falsetto was sure big back in those days.
Marti, I'm sure I still have various pieces of equipment scattered around Nosedive trail. Fun times, huh?
Miss DeVestalized, yes, we're definitely losing our DF edge. Damn shame.
Hi gang -
Always enjoy Gareth's puzzles. I usually dote on the theme, but this time forgot to even look for it.
Got a big kick from TOTO TOO. Just read Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." Very different from the movie. Saw WICKED a couple of weeks ago. Great show, and quite a different take on the story. Does not jibe with Baum at all, though.
My M-I-L fell last week, spent some time in the hospital, but not the ICU, HIT BOTTOM on Saturday, had an MRI - pretty much all for nought. Now down to IOO lbs (literally,) and in an extended care facility for two weeks. Very pricy, since she also fell through a crack in Medicare. This has been a rough few days.
My fav Gene McDaniels song features a blatty trombone
A googling adventure revealed this and this. I don't think that's a GULL.
OK -- I'M DONE.
Cheers!
JzB
Oh dear, JazzB--so sorry to hear this sad family news. Will send hopeful vibes.
Dennis: four minutes or less? Wow!
Misty, I notice the time only for comparison to my own solving experience. If it takes me longer to do a Monday puzzle than my normal Wednesday time, it makes me want to go back to see where I had problems, and compare to what others have to say on the blog. I do enjoy the clever clues, learning experiences, etc. as I am solving. That's probably why my times are usually 3 times longer than they should be!
JazzB, thank you soooo much for bringing the blog back to it's highest standards of DF-ism. I was starting to get a little worried....
Very clever, Mr. Bain. However the NYT puzzle forced me to pull a few hairs out. Oh well, they're all gray anyway.
EMPATH- Walkway for Dorothy's aunt
TDS- Tiresome
ATHOS- Jerks, to Sylvester
ORBITED- Hung out with Roy's circle of friends
INCOMMON- Tut trailer
Misty:
I solve the same way I enjoy Avatar.
A sip here. A sip there. No hurry. No rush.
The idea of anything ... ANYTHING ... in my life, being a "quickie" just does not compute.
I seldom go for speed runs even when possible. On the easier puzzles when I get a good toehold, I try to work the puzzle down to a line with the goal of leaving no blanks above. That usually works out to working in thirds top to bottom and makes me really take a shot at all the clues. On the toughies I just bloom where I get planted and work out from there.
Coming here and getting all the links and other information is a great part of my day. Ain’t it amazin’ how the same idea can be addressed from so many perspectives?
Gene McDaniels grew up in Omaha and studied at the UNO Conservatory of Music.
Unlike theater wishes Marti, DON’T break a leg on the slopes!
Best wishes to you Jazz. My wife kept asking this question this month, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” There is no answer!
Hello people. Thanks Marti. I loved the IRISes. My daffodils started blooming this week. I think they're confused by the weather.
I thought Gareth's puzzle was very clever, although it took me longer than usual. Had to stare at the unifier for a couple of minutes before the light bulb went on. Count me in for BETA at 1A. Remembered PONGO the dad dog, but not PERDITO. Didn't know ODO, REA or STOL. Also fell into the Star Wars trap.
Marti - I liked the "Descendants" I thought the kids were quite good, especially the older daughter. As for George Clooney, I can find no fault. The subject matter is difficult though.
Hahtool -I asked you along time ago about "Tree of Life." I finally watched it last night and I agree with your review. I turned it off.
Why isn't this blog listed in Rex Parker's Daily Crossword Blogs?
Good puzzle and write up! Thanks Marti!
I figured out IOO after the second easy long clue, which helped on the others. Unfortunately, my brain went to sleep and wouldn't spit out ONE HUNDRED. Had ATHOS and WINDOWBOX, but couldn't get ORBIT. DUH!
We attended an airshow in 1993 which had a Harrier demonstration. My son was scouting colleges and ROTC and wanted to fly Harriers. Had a marine recruiter in our livingroom FIVE times. Son
opted for air force to our relief.
Later when he was flying other planes, we heard that an unacceptable number of Harriers were crashing and killing student pilots. A friend of mine who had been a navy test pilot knew the head of the Harrier program for the navy who was fired. My friend thought they would scrap the program altogether. Guess they didn't.
- PK -
Can someone explain how to use OpenID? I have an account, but every time I try to use it I get "OpenID error". I'm tired of having to post anonomously.
A few rough spots in NW and SE corners with BETA instead of SPAM, and VTOL instead of STOL, but this one really did seem to go fast. Loved "TOTOTOO"--great looking answer. Many more multiple O words today: STOOD, ODO, SHOO, OOH, ISOTOPE, WORKSON, SNOCONEK, BONGO, HOTBOT, NOHOW, AVOCADO. Must be some kind of record.
Did ANYONE know Maidstone is in Kent?
(Freond)
Jerome:
EMPATH, classic tying in the clues and answers into a nice neat silliness. Great to see you in form.
Anon 1:29Pm, your question should be directed at Rex, not us. He has been an infrequent visitor to our shores, mostly when he was part of the other LAT blog.
JzB., those links are proof of the professionalism ingrained in our blogging staff. Very educational.
Too easy for Thursday? I started with BETA instead of SPAM, so that held me up a bit. I used CAN for Cooler too, but quickly caught on. I don't think I ever came across NMI before (I tried NEE first), so that was a learning moment.
Don't know the answer. Just askin' here. Was that a Harrier that "The Arnold" flew in True Lies?
Oh and Jazzbumpa - I finally saw "Wicked" last month when I was in NYC. Loved it.
Jerome - ATHO was what my lisping nephew called the baby sitter when he was five. She quit and he got in trouble.
Jerome, great as always.
PK, yeah, the Harrier was a very, very unforgiving aircraft, and early Marine training was proven somewhat inefficient. Later modelsimproved training overcame most of the early difficulties. The new VTOL F-35 is actually supposed to be very easy to fly, including transition to hover.
Tinbeni, lol, my compliments on your manliness.
desper-otto, yes.
Otto, yes it was.
I never realized why they chose that name for the plane until I moved to the middle of nowhere where we have a lot of Northern Harriers in the area. They hunt by sound and have a habit of flying into the wind where it sometimes seems they're nearly hovering. Neat bird to watch.
Hi Dennis.
Do you know what SPIN DOCTORs, ISOTOPE and KENT have IN COMMON?
Jimmy Olsen
MR ED, how've you been? Haven't seen you in quite a while.
I'm fine. Just a change in patterns.
Minor little peeves:
The Lakers basketball color announcer, Stu Lanz, is very good but has gotten into a habit of starting every other sentence with 'Again.' Eric Karros, Dodgers color announcer does it too. Maybe it's something in the local water.
I love AAA car insurance but not their recent advertisements. One lady is gushing about her surprise at their low prices. She says, "I literally fell off my chair." Then she goes on to extoll, "They don't set the bar, they ARE the bar." I know what she means but does that really make any sense?
a rare Mr. Ed sughting; hmm the year is already interesting
Jerome, I feel your pain with the NYT today...arrrgh! Thanks for spreading some balm with your funny post.
PK, although i have a certain fondness for marines, it sounds like your son made a wise decision on the route he chose!
Mr Ed, great to see you - we've missed you!
Seen, love the connections you make, LOL!
What about IsOtOpe?
Checking back in: it looks like the STOL matter is pretty well settled now. I didn't see a problem with the clue/fill match, for the reason Yellowrocks supplied.
Speaking of whom, Yellowrocks, your butterfly is nice and all that but I really had gotten attached to your picture! Judging by that image alone, I'd have guessed the subject had just a little bit of sass...am I right?
Kerry, fun video! I have been to a few such contests but never as a participant. I would need a lot of practice to even try against those serious bush pilots, and that style of flying is scarce at this end of the country.
Seen, IsOtOpe doesn't fit the pattern because it is one word ( all of the others were two) and there's an extra vowel. The theme entries have only the I,O and O.
Thanks Grumpy1.
HeartRx: Thank you for noticing. ;)
Getting a bit more mileage out of TIT: pilots of turbine powered aircraft need to be quite aware of the temperatures at various stations along their engines' gas paths, because excess heat is generally destructive. One such measurement is Turbine Inlet Temperature. In the cockpit the corresponding gauges are clearly labelled TIT.
Now, it's a lot to ask of a pilot to be mature about things, but for some reason you just don't hear a lot of jokes about TIT.
Of course a majority of modern jet engines instead measure their Inter Turbine Temps, or ITT. That just takes the fun out of it.
Loved today's CW. Favorite TOTOTOO. Had toted instead of borne which really goofed me up. I also read reveals instead of revels.
Len--another Dan Brown mention. Wish he'd hurry and publish another book. Also thanks for the link the other day--very interesting.
Abejo--thanks for the info about the Freemasons.
Jazz, heatfelt wishes for your MIL, you and your wife. I have been threading through the labyrinth of Medicare and Medicaid almost my entire adult life with the care of my multiply disabled son. I feel for you. The pitfalls are many and the course complicated.
HG, I am delighted that your daughter's issues had such a wonderful outcome. How stressful a time that must have been.
Dudley, yes I suppose many considered me sassy at age 15, although I was an innocent(?) tease. I was a PK who was shielded from all DF content and jokes which were told by hand over mouth. My BFF always clued me in later. Teachers were shocked, shocked by any hint of my naughtiness and peccadillos and wondered what my parents would say. We lived in a VERY small town, where everyone knew everything about you. PK brings this all back with every post.
Which one?
len @5:53 Which one? Huh? What do you mean?
I wish all of us would indicate the writer and the time of the post to which we are responding. I am often lost and spend too much time going back over all the posts to get a hint, often fruitlessly, so I give up and your point is lost on me.
Well, my streak has ended, but what a delightful puzzle. I loved the unifier; it was so clever. Everybody keeps saying how easy this puzzle was. I thought it was a bear! Lots of clues I did not know such as Perdita, Hotbot, etc. My own stupid fault for missing another perfect score. Since I did not know Kent or Stol in the SE corner, I foolishly put exude instead of exult (was thinking exude enthusiasm) - and I had skindoctor instead of spindoctor. Oh well, I had fun, and that's what it's all about! Better luck next week.
Tawnya, thanks for the Harrier takeoff link. That was fantastic. What an age we live in!
Have a great evening all!
My son's decision not to go marines was because he'd have to drive two hours to and from reserve meetings which lasted all weekend once a month. On campus AFROTC seemed to fit in with college schedules and study time better.
- PK -
(not a preacher's kid)
TO: YELLOWROCKS @ 5:49 PM
Sorry. The question was for Susan @5:10 PM. (The post immediately before yours at 5:15 PM) :)
Marti, just so you know: I had a craving for a Mounds bar all day! Didn't make a special trip to the store to buy one, but I was almost tempted.
Jazz:
I'm so sorry about your MIL and I'm sending prayers her way. Please keep us posted on her progress.
To: Yellowrocks at January 12, 2012 5:49 PM
Just read MY posts. They're the only ones that truly matter.
TO: SUSAN @ 5:10
Which one? I'm just asking because, after I sent you the link to the Intention Experiment, I started thinking about Dan Brown. It was quite awhile ago that I read The Da Vinci Code and I haven't read any of his stuff recently. But remembering what the book was about reminded me of someone else I haven't looked at for awhile. And it occurred to me that she could be the subject of one of his books, or at least the heroine. She's just like the symbologist in the book, except that she's not a fictional character! When I first stumbled across her, I remember being absolutely fascinated. (It probably didn't hurt that she's also gorgeous!) So I thought you might be more interested in her than either the freemasons or the first link I sent you. Anyway, she writes under the name Acharya S, real name D.M. Murdock.
Aren't you the one whose husband had a heart attack and then you fell down a flight of stairs? If you are, I hope your recovery, and his, is going okay. I've gone down a flight of stairs about three times and was lucky enough to just walk away. We should all be so lucky!
All the Best!
ANON @ 6:38 I read and enjoy everyone's posts. My problem is that I need to understand what you are referring to in order to optimally appreciate your efforts.
I just wasted my last post of the day on you.
Best 3 musketeers movie is r. lesters in 1973 and the 4 musketeers in 74. ALL others stupid if u ask me. Dont forget candy bar, my fave. Another inconsistant week, this was the easiest of all week! Bring on friday!!!!
Yellowrocks, an observation from a multi-year observer: Lighten up a little! Your posts always seem so rigid.
Thanks for the blog, Marti!
A fun romp for a blah day in my corner of the world.
It' great to be back !
As usual, I am a goof because I never get the theme.
Thanks all for putting-up with me!
Anonymous@6:38 and Anonymous at 7:38:
Please lay off Yellowrocks. We don't like the mean spirit of your responses.
Yes, Len, that was the link I meant--the Intention one.
I'm also the one who fell down the stairs. My husband and I are both fine now. The hard part is trying to keep him of over working such as shoveling snow.
Dudley, Turbine Inlet Temperature...really???
Mom Speaks Out, don’t feel bad if you don’t get the theme. The regular posters that do the daily write-up are paid mega bucks for their psychic abilities to parse the themes every day. Some of them are even said to possess supernatural powers (Think "The Dark Knight" here). Don’t let C.C. fool you. She has an international conglomerate of experts working for her, and they are all experts in codes, ciphers, disguises and weaponry (some are thought to work for NCIS), but most importantly: explaining the ins and outs of daily crosswords to human solvers!!!
As a TYRO here, I have to gently agree with Yellowrocks. After reading the last 40 or so comments, I have very little idea what anyone is talking about. It's probably just me. Mew....
I thought we were discussing a CW puzzle?
Maybe it's because I live on the left coast...
Argyle - the last I heard JNH was alive and well. He just got pissed at the blog host at LACC.
crazy cat...is it really that difficult to follow along?
HeartRx @9:21
And don't forget, do I even dare to mention his name, Fu Manchu!!!
CrazyCat, it's not unusual at all for someone to come in in the middle of a conversation and be confused as to what's going on. If you start at the beginning, you'll pick up the different threads.
Also, one of the things that makes this blog unique from the other crossword blogs is that we don't limit the talk to only the crossword; we have free-ranging discussions as well. Feel free to join in -- it's a fun place to hang out.
Marti - yes really! TIT and/or ITT have to be kept below a critical maximum. They are similar, but not identical, parameters. The latter is more common nowadays.
Yellowrocks - thanks for the input. I dunno if you saw my comment last week to the effect that your photo resembled someone dear from my past; that's when I thought I detected a certain spiritedness therein. :-)
G'night all!
Thanks Dennis
I guess I got used to getting flogged for going off agenda on the"other blog."
I like that people can talk to each other about what's going on in their lives.
I suppose I just need to spend more time getting to know all the commenters. It does get somewhat confusing if I don't read each and every post carefully. By the time I do the puzzle out here in CA and log in, there are usually already 50 to 60 comments.
Thanks to all for this kind,learned and entertaining community.
Kris Cat
Dudley-
Bite your tongue! TIT levels should never be kept below a maximum!
In fact, it's critical that they shouldn't be kept to themselves at all. Let 'em out!
I'm sorry for all my deleted comments. I'm trying (in more ways than one) to get the hang of posting a link. I better print out the directions and REALLY read them!
Again, I apologize!
Garlic Gal:
What a nice photo! Was there a special occasion for the roses?
Some other day maybe the aeronautically inclined will discuss pitot tubes. That term always tickled me and got a ribald repartee going with my pilot husband.
- PK -
Garlic Gal, if you need help including a link, ask me or email me. I learned how to do it a while back and I'm sure I can explain it to you.
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