google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, September 14, 2012, Marti Duguay-Carpenter

Advertisements

Sep 14, 2012

Friday, September 14, 2012, Marti Duguay-Carpenter

Theme: RHOTACISM: (Now a word from our education sponsors: LINK)

This is Marti’s homage puzzle to 63 Across: ELMER FUDD. Each of the four theme answers (the 1st and 4th being grid spanners!) take common two-word phrases and morph them into a new and legitimate phrase, clued with a question mark to warn you the game is afoot. Each first word changes not only the R sound to W but changes the rest of the word as well. I WOVE (love) this puzzle! This is also why I will never finish constructing one, as I am intimidated by the ability to create two 15 letter answers which work in this very limiting theme. As an alternative theme because so many of you watch Big Bang Theory, please watch the following SNIPPET (1:13).

17A. About 98 degrees Fahrenheit? : WOMB (ROOM) TEMPERATURE. (15) For all the nit pickers, I do not know or care if the actual reading of body temp is the same in the womb as the rest of the body, this is just plain funny.

25A. Gardener’s agenda? : WEEDING (READING) LIST. (11) Keeping Bugs from the carrots?

43A. Bikers? : WHEEL (REAL) PEOPLE. (11) I am not sure if she was thinking of the old TV SERIES, (1:39) or just the general expression.

55A. Jack Daniel’s field? : WHISKEY (RISKY) BUSINESS. (15) I am back with more TOM CRUISE (1:54) as well as some Tennessee sipping whiskey (not BOURBON!). Did you recognize Balki and Booger?

and the hint:
63A. Toon who inspired this puzzle's four long puns : ELMER.(7:21) Early Elmer.

Well that was such fun let’s see what she did to top herself.

Across:

1. Dessert with a hyphen : JELL-O. I have the jingle in my ear. They did some pretty absurd TV ADS.(0:31). I also mourn Soupy Sales.

6. "Good for me!" : TADA. The crossword puzzler's best friend.

10. Goes for : OPTS. marti opted to be funny once again!

14. Foreign : ALIEN.

15. Answer to a nagging roommate : I'M UP. Said more than once, with feeling!

16. Textbook pioneer Webster : NOAH. Dictionary anyone?

20. Nurse : SIP. Like drinking slowly, though the word also can relate to a similar sounding three letter word....

21. Name on an airport shuttle : AVIS. Do they still try harder?

22. Pleased as punch : ELATED. I was elated to see miss m and I were doing another of our Friday fun frolics.

23. Pakistan neighbor : IRAN. This word comes from the Sanskrit meaning ARYAN. the same word used by the Nazis.

24. After-dinner drink letters : VSOP. Very Superior Old Pale, cognac designation.

29. Rested : SAT.

32. Probability number : RATIO. The ratio of fun Fridays goes way up with our crew creating..

33. Cask wood : OAK. Where they age the whiskey.

34. Part of a plot : ACRE. Not a story plot, a plot of ground!

35. Online qualifier : IMHO. In My Humble Opinion. Again!!!!!!

36. Absolut rival, briefly : STOLI. Hmm, our fifth liquor reference, marti?

38. Hideaway : LAIR.

39. Bundled off : SENT. In England, the rich kids were bundled off to public school.

40. "___ for Cookie": "Sesame Street" song : C IS. C'mon, SING (1:21) along!

41. Kind of renewable energy : SOLAR. Is this related to Solar Plexus?

42. General on a a menu : TSO. Back on the menu, like the old Buddy Hackett joke about Chinese Jews.

46. Time : HOUR. I hope it does not take you that long for this puzzle.

47. DoD fliers : USAF. Department of Defense. United States Air Force.

48. Topnotch : SUPERB. an excellent word to describe this creation.

51. Proficiency measure : EXAM. I found this to be a testy clue.

52. "Wanna ___?" : BET. Yes I do!

58. 2000s GM compacts : IONS. These were built by Saturn and I owned one for a week. Fun car.

59. Bust a gut : ROAR.

60. High capital : LHASA. I bet you knew this was in Ti-bet.

61. Butter used to deep-fry samosas : GHEE. Gee, we have not had this clarified butter since a John Lampkin Sunday puzzle in 2010.

62. Drama award : TONY. These were not named after Tony Orlando.

We press on...

Down:

1. Chews the fat : JAWS. I presume from the way we flap them while we speak.

2. Childlike sci-fi people : ELOI. Yvette honey, where are you?

3. Like a wet noodle : LIMP. Now Dennis, here is a perfect opening for you and the rest of the old timers to return some DF to the puzzle, to keep our Morel strong!

4. Isr. neighbor : LEBanon. The most beautiful woman I know is Lebanese. I had a great Uncle from Lebanon who my father used to introduce as his wife's "Lesbian" Uncle.

5. Hudson Bay province : ONTARIO. Home of Ottawa, the capital of Canada, which is where the 57D. Senators' org. : NHL play. Lots of hockey clues. Do any of you watch Matt LeBlanc in Pucks?

6. Comedian's art : TIMING. Also an important belt.

7. Rock boosters : AMPS. Amplifiers.

8. Unsettled : DUE. Pay up, please.

9. Time for a hot toddy, perhaps : APRES SKI. You knew miss m would get some skiing in, now that there is snow. Of course what you do after skiing is to drink alcohol, hmmmm.

10. Ready to be drawn : ON TAP. Okay, our mandatory beer reference. My nephew is now working for Victory Brewing.

11. Diva's fit : POUT. Can you tell?

12. Weight allowance : TARE.

13. Shake off : SHED. Like the Octomom has been doing with her clothes to get money.

18. Writer Hunter : EVAN. Wrote many books as Ed McBain, prolific writer who began writing serious novels like Blackboard Jungle, and then went to crime novels. He took his first nom de plume from the College where he went in NY.

19. Oodles : A LOT. Not to be confused with AGOB.

23. Target of a series of guide : IDIOT. Not to be confused with the KAMA SUTRA.

24. Medicine holder : VIAL. I had so many vile thoughts about this clue.

25. Something to keep a watch on : WRIST. Oh you tricky one, where else would you keep your wrist watch?

26. Name in chair design : EAMES. I learned from CW puzzles of this COUPLE. They ended up doing much more than chairs.

27. Cultural prefix : ETHNO.

28. Rough, as a translation : LOOSE. Many rough women I knew were also quite good at translating.

29. Re-sell to desperate fans , maybe : SCALP. Is this derived from the totally un-pc native American reference?

30. Standard Windows typeface : ARIAL. What type are you? We use Georgia here.

31. Land at Charles de Gaulle airport? : TERRE. En Francais on dit Terre. More translation sensation.

34. Disinterested : ALOOF. Of course many of you who read and never post are not shy, just....

36. "Trout Quintet" composer : SCHUBERT. I love this VIDEO,(7:04) not only the music, but look at their faces.

37. Piece of cake : TIER. Easy this was not, though certainly not the icing on the cake either. A nicely layered clue.

41. Nautical distance : SEA MILE.Which are really different from land ones.

43. Get the job done : WORK. Well this is still fun, but it does take a bit of time.

44. More than just creature comforts : LUXURY. Yes, the American Dream.

45. Educ. radio spots : PSAS. Public Service Announcements.

46. "Siddhartha" author : HESSE. A German born author outspoken against Hitler. LINK.

48. Snort : SWIG. Okay, we are back to getting soused again!

49. "That doesn't sound good" : UH OH. When you have that hangover...

50. Needle dropper : PINE. I went all around the medical tree and had trouble parsing this simple one.

51. "Voice of Israel" author : EBAN. I had the pleasure of meeting this gentle man when I was working with a local television show Shalom.

52. Send, "Star Trek" style : BEAM. me up Scotty.

53. ___ quam videri: North Carolina motto : ESSE. "To be rather than to seem to be." There is a wonderful author, ROBERT HARRIS who has written about Cicero, the creator of this phrase, enlightening reading.

54. Abdicator of 1917 : TSAR. Nicholas II.

56. "___-hoo!" : YOO. It is Lemonade, here saying goodnight; marti entertains but wears me out with so many provocative clues. It is way past my bedtime, so don't call too early, but have a great time. L'shana tova to those who are about to begin a New Year. Congrats marti on your Sunday and Friday coup!

Peace out.

Answer Grid.

81 comments:

Dennis said...

Good morning, Lemonade, C.C. and gang - this was truly a fun foray today, although I was slow to get the theme. For some reason, I thought the second theme answer was a play on 'Wedding list' as opposed to 'Reading list', so there was that. I'm blaming it on staying up well into the wee hours looking at some of the '09 blogs; damn, we had a lot of laughs back then. (Reading last night's late posts, it sounds like Lucina had a very late night too...)

Anyway, I had a pretty smooth run with this one, except that I'm probably the only person on the planet that didn't realize 'Jell-o' was hyphenated. I didn't understand 15A unless it's a coed roommate. Loved 9D, 'Apres-ski', or as we called it, 'a target-rich environment'. I needed perps for 'Schubert' and 'Esse' -- I'll never remember all the different state mottos. And Lemonade, if you say we saw 'ghee' butter before, I'll take your word for it, but I only had it because the perps made it so.

Nicely done, Marti and Lemonade -- good way to start a Friday.

Have a great weekend - do something fun!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

I hope I don't embarrass Marti by gushing, but this was as near to a perfect Friday puzzle as I have ever seen. The theme was enjoyable and the fill was challenging without a single wrong note in the bunch. Plenty of "AHA!" moments without any WTFs, in other words.

Oh -- and I knew that JELL-O was hyphenated, but I was trying to think of an arid wasteland instead of an after dinner treat. DESERT/DESSERT is gonna mess me up forever, I guess, since it just never seems to stick in my brain. Kind of like OLIO/OLEO...

James said...

Ah, another hockey clue. As baseball winds down, possibly see more NHL, NBA, and NFL clues? Maybe?

Oddly, where I am at the is no Generals Tao's chicken. Many Taiwanese who have been to, or are from the States know what it is and actually like it. I asked a fellow expat what is the first thing he does when he goes back to visit. He said "go to a Chinese restaurant. I miss Generals chicken!"

I am happy to say that this was the first Friday puzzle I completed without assistance! Yeah!

Well, dinner time for me. I think we will have zhu lou fan. A kind of stewed pork and rice. Really good! I think I transliterated that correctly.

Have a great day everyone!

Anonymous said...

Nicely done Marti! It was indeed a good way to start the day. Good theme and fill.

thehondohurricane said...

Howdy folks,

Marti, wheelie a fun puzzle. And a tribute to Tinbeni also. 10D, 20A, 24A, 36A, & 55A. Wow, what an honorarium.

Lots of stuff to give me a giggle or two. 25D, SOMETHING TO KEEP A WATCH ON/WRIST my favorite. Of course the imbibing clues were in my wheelhouse too.

Dennis, 15a, I'M UP is referring to the rise and shine so not to be late, But your thought could be appropriate too and obviously more fun.

Everyone have an enjoyable weekend.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

WBS!

Not a groaner in the lot! Plus I enjoyed a fast solve for a Friday. Good going, Marti!

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Wonderful puzzle, Marti! How do you do it? Fine write-up, Lemonade!

Marti's puzzles seem to be on my wavelength. Instead of tensing up, I look for fun answers. Loved the theme! Very close to Sunday's I seem to recall. Got it from WOMB TEMPERATURE, which filled itself in rather quickly. With a few letters, guessed at SEA MILE. New for me. Appreciated reference to the Trout Quintet! A marked improvement from yesterday's disaster.

My workmen have proved to be idiots, by and large. I wanted my jacuzzi room turned into an ordinary room. Wanted to sell the tub. They couldn't figure out how to get it out w/o killing it. Then they annihilated my lovely wrap around moon-sky mural! I have been so unbelievably stressed out lately!

Trying to remove a trojan horse from Harvey's MacBook Pro for three days has added to the strain. The free products do not work! Finally have ordered VirusBarrier. Couldn't get the serial number because his email stopped working here!!! (As you see it is rather late for beddy bye--4:10 AM.)

Cheers!

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. I was SOOO on Marti's wavelenght today. What a fun puzzle. I caught on to the theme with WOMB TEMPERATURE, that a Womb without a View!

Some great clues. My favorites were Something to Keep a Watch On = WRIST and
Needle Dropper = PINE

Abdicating did TSAR Nicholas and his family little good.

Happy Friday, all.

QOD: You will always find those who think they know better what is your duty better then you know it. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Steve said...

@Barry....to remember the differences between desert and dessert, just think that dessert has an extra S.... for the sugar!

PK said...

Yay! I did a Marti Friday! Great fun! Thought at first it wasn't going to happen. Took WORK! Thanks, Lemon for more fun.

Subtheme to this: "All liquored up".

I remembered Marti saying the Daffy puzzle was similar to one she had going, so when I got WOMB TEMP, I thought, "AHA!" The one lisp clue I was expecting didn't pan out: I wanted some reference to the English prince who wouldn't be King as the abdicator. I forgot the TSAR abdicated before being murdered. Then I remembered George was the lisper, not Edward.

LIMP reminded me of a gentleman friend of a few years ago. He was on a walker because he needed knee replacement on his right knee and had broken his left leg in three places--twice, no less. He had this cute saying about lower extremities, "I limp with my right leg, then I limp with my left leg, and...(deleted) is just limp." Since he was usually pretty ELATED with Scotch he remained in good spirits about his infirmities.

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Marti, for an excellent puzzle. Two in one week. Wow! Thank you, lemonade, for an excellent review.

When I saw your name as the constructor, Marti, I thought wow is she busy! Great job.

Got started slowly in the north. Got enough to figure out TEMPERATURE. Took a while to get the WOMB part. But, it arrived. Then I kind of had the theme.

With a few gimmies in the south I was able to get BUSINESS. Then WHISKEY shortly later.

Then I spotted ELMER.

TERRE was easy for 31D. All I needed was five across words. Piece of cake.

I tried to spell ARIEL for 30D, but ARIAL became obvious.

Had no idea what APRESSKI, or APRES SKI, was. Still don't. Got it with perps.

Remembered EAMES from other puzzles.

Correct on IRAN deriving from ARYAN. Hitler's idea of ARYAN was different from the real world, I believe.

From yesterday, I should have said EAU CLAIRE was a couple, or few, hundred miles Northwest of me. I am near Chicago.

I'll be in Buffalo for the Grand Commandery of New York, then back to Erie to walk in "Light The Night" for a cancer fundraiser. Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Back to Illinois on Wednesday.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

Anony-Mouse said...

Thank you Marti, for a very clever and witty puzzle ..... and thanks Lemonade for making me understand what it was all about. I felt like I was reading one of Einstein's theories ... you don't understand all of it, but enough to know that it is profound.

You two fit like a hand in glove, peas in a pod, ... Abbot and Costello ? Anyway, you are both totally 'in sync'.... which is wonderful, and it shows.

Have a good weekend you all.

PK said...

Oh, oops! All my brains went into the solve. George didn't lisp, he stuttered. Well, they are both speech impediments.

Anyway, loved the puzzle.

Argyle said...

Abejo, après ski is to skiing what the nineteenth hole is to golf.

Steve@7:57, how did you stay a blogger since November 2010 with only 2 profile views - 4 now. I doubled it.

Anonymous said...

""Good for me!" : TADA"

Weak.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone. Lemon, always a pleasure to read your comments.

I'd like to 'wave' about this puzzle which seemed like the easiest solve of the week. By the time I got to the ELMER clue, I was expecting it. Only slight bump was misspelling ARIeL but SOLAR straightened that out. Mostly, I seemed to be on Marti's wavelength. Many bright clues. Favorite fill was WHISKEY BUSINESS.

Have a great day.

Mari said...

Nice puzzle today! Tough but I was able to complete it in my alloted puzzle time.

I liked 37D Piece of Cake: TIER. I never saw that one coming. I'm thinking EASY or SLAB. TIER worked very well.

25D: Something to keep a watch on: WRIST. I had that one wrong as I went with WAIST. Maybe I'm the only one that needs to keep an eye on their WAIST. Must be all the cake and JELL-O. And STOLI and GHEE (whatever that is).

DH and I usually have Chinese food 2x a week, but we've never had General TSO's Chicken.

I didn't know APRES SKI.

Have a great weekend. Some of us have to enjoy the nice weather while we still have it.

Anonymous said...

LM714; Surely your comment for 32a left out the word "up."...(which would mean what I think you meant.

Anonymous said...

Just remember, you always want seconds for desserts - 2 esses in dessert.

desper-otto said...

Good morning, y'all.

I saw Marti's name on the puzzle, and knew this was going to be fun. Quick, too. Knowing how Marti's mind works allowed me to immediately pen in WRIST and PINE. I even got the theme early with WOMB TEMPERATURE. That TADA, I'M UP combo sounds like a Cialis after-effect. Nice one, Marti.

Hahtoolah, you're looking absolutely fierce lately. Any reason for that?

Avg Joe said...

Enjoyed this puzzle a lot. I was entirely on your wave length, Marti. My only writeover was correcting A tOn to A Lot. My only nit was that it was easier than typical for a Friday. But enough to like that the ease is a very minor nit.

HeartRx said...

Good morning Lemonade, C.C. et al.


OK, so is today Friday? Has to be, with such a whacky write-up, Lemony! I cracked up at your LIMP comment: Morels, indeed...

Wow, you make me blush Barry G.!! "Something to keep a watch on" for WRIST was the clue I had submitted to Rich, but for PINE, I had clued it as "Needle holder", hoping that it would misdirect some into entering the dreaded crosswordese "etui"...

I had one other theme entry that didn't make the cut: WOK STAR ("Host of Yan Can Cook?"). Unfortunately, the fill was really suffering with that central entry, so I opted to discard it and just go with four themers. I think it was a good choice, though.

Have a great day, everyone - TGIF!!

Anonymous said...

Big Bang snippet ~ hawarious!

TTP said...

Marti, (35A a), this (51A a) was no (37D c). I'll give your your (8D a) and won't (11D a), but I (50D a) for a Monday after this. You can (52A a) that I had to (43D a) to (43D c) and finally got the (6A a)! (15A a) for a challenge and was (22A a) when finished, but it took over an (46A a). Tonight I'll have more than a (20A a) on what ever's (10D a). Perhaps (19D a) of (36A a) or a (48D a) or two or three of Jim (52D a)!

This was a (48A a) test, even though I felt like an (23D a) at times. I'm anxious to read Lemon's write up and the blog comments !

Tinbeni said...

Marti: Thank you for a FUN Friday offering.

I guess you could say: "I drank it up!"
Faves (of course); SIP, VSOP, STOLI, WHISKEY BUSINESS, APRES-SKI, ON-TAP and SWIG!
(Yeah, I think ALL puzzles should have 7 drinking references!)

Also really liked 50-D, Needle dropper, PINE.

Learning moment: GHEE, but like Dennis said, the perps were solid.

A 'toast' to all at Sunset.
Cheers !!!

desper-otto said...

TTP, I'll bet it took longer to write your comments than it did for you to solve the puzzle. Maybe I'm dense (DW says there's no doubt about that), but what do the little a's and c's mean before the closing parentheses?

Lemonade714 said...

Anon, 8:44, you are correct, someone stole my "UP" from the sentence.

Speaking of "UP" Dennis, you showed why you are so vital to the essence of the Corner with your thought provoking, image inducing comment, where my mind went no frther than recalling being irritated with a roommate who took classes seriously who kept trying to get me to get going for an 8:00 O'clock class, and yelling, "Ok, enough already. I'M up!"

Also, if you want the last reference to GHEE it is there, 46 across.

marti, the needle clue either way was the hardest for me to get.

Argyle said...
"Abejo, après ski is to skiing what the nineteenth hole is to golf." What a perfect way to phrase it, sounds like a future clue!

Lemonade714 said...

BTW where are all our Big Bangers?

TTP said...

Great write up Lemonade ! Took the requisite time to watch the videos and explore the links.

Some fav clues: Part of a plot = ACRE Divas Fit = POUT Target of a series of guides = IDIOT Needle Dropper = PINE. TERRE was perped, and need a lot of perp help with Schubert.

D-O, a for answer and c for clue.

Taking some self directed comp time this morning, but work beckons. See ya'll later.

Irish Miss said...

Good morning:

I, like Lemonade, "wuve" this puzzle. Kudos to Marti for a clever theme, great cluing, and pleasing fill. Super write- up, Lemon and thanks for TBBT clip. Speaking of which, the season premiere is Sept. 27 th; can't wait. It will be interesting to see where the story arc will go now that Howard and Bernadette are married.

Another beautiful, late summer day to enjoy.

Happy Friday to all.

Tinbeni said...

Lemon: Finally got the chance to 'view' all your links.

WOW, what FUN.

I'll BET the write-up took you 'quite-a-while' to prepare.
But I think you enjoyed doing it.

Great job today. Thank you!

Cheers!

sjok said...

Another case of non-funny puns. A pun is said to be the lowest form of humor. Crossword puzzle puns are the lowest form of puns because they rarely have anything close to humor.

Anonymous said...

Another anon: To sjok: Theres a simple solution, here. Don`t do the "puny" ones...then you won`t have to honor us with your learned opinions.

Lemonade714 said...

Tinman, You could not be more correct; when I am blogging a marti puzzle, I end up spending twice as much time trying to find just the right links to show off what her mind had wrought. I spent 10 minutes looking for the perfect après-ski link to capture my mental picture of marti downing some adult beverages, and still found nothing. Also forgot how to do the accent agrave.

BBT announced Stuart from the comic book shop is now a regular cast member. I guess we sit back and enjoy and wait for the shark.

Anonymous said...

Oh, wow! I'm with Barry, I always manage to get the two mixed up. What a great memory aid! Now instead of trying to remember which is which, all I gotta do is remember this excellent memory hint. " Just remember, you don't wanna stay two seconds in the desert." No, wait, ...., um....

Lucina said...

Hello, my friends. Marti, this was SUPERB!

And Lemonade, what can I say, your usual wit and wisdom entertains as you explain. I especially love that you use "different from" correctly!

And Dennis, why whatever do you mean, sir? I always awaken with a smile.

WOMB TEMPERATURE and WEEDING LIST showed me the them and I was sashaying all the way to the end. I couldn't help but notice the many liquor references! All in good spirits, I'm sure.

Abejo, apres in French means "after" so after skiing.

GHEE is firmly in my crossword notebook so I know we have seen it before this.

Everyone, I wish you a fun Friday!

Lucina said...

theme not them.

CrossEyedDave said...

C is for cookie, that's good enough for me, C IS FOR COOKIE, THAT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME...

I'll be back when i can get that earworm out of my head!

Congrat's Marti, wonderful puzzle. Before i had any theme answers, i had 43A Bikers, ----lpeople (pedal people?) & 59A BustaGut ( i really wanted "diet")

C is for cookie... la da di da di da...

Dennis said...

Lucina, maybe that's why you "always awaken with a smile"?

Misty said...

I saw those two grid spanners and blanched--then I saw that it was a Marti puzzle and smiled! Tough going at first until I hit the south. There WHISKEY BUSINESS fell into place, followed by ELMER. After that it was smooth and breezy sailing through the rest of the puzzle. A wonderful way to start a Friday morning! Thanks, Marti and Lemonade--you've made my day already, and it's not yet 10:30 am!

Have a good one, everybody!

One armed Dave said...

I finally finished a friday puzzle!
TADA

Husker Gary said...

All right I’m subbing and only have an ink pen to do the puzzle and put in GABS, ELOI, ALIEN and BODY TEMPERATURE with dispatch. Oops, LEB, and LIMP need a home. OMG, WOMB!! Fun puzzle and theme at a Friday level! SUPERB works for me. What a gal!

Musings
-My wife is a twin and therefore had a womb mate
-Jack was conducting his WHISKEY BUSINESS in a dry county when I visited in ‘93
-I’M UP didn’t cut it for my travelers in Florida. The kid had to have his feet on the floor!
-GHEE new to me and pulled EAMES out of my, uh, backside. Loved cluing for WRIST,
-“What’s the secret to good comedy?” “I don’t know what is…” “TIMING!”
-Marti, you linguistic devil, APRES with no hint of French? Yeah, I got it but still…
-SCALPing is legal now at Stub Hub. At least you can get a ticket.
-“That doesn’t sound good” is a skill you develop even in the milieu of middle school kids.
-I said “Beam me up Scotty” to a gal at the Y as she scanned my card for entry and she looked at me like I was an ELOI.
-An 80 year old acquaintance used the analogy of trying to push a rope down the sidewalk when undesired LIMPness occurs.
-Lunch is over, got to get back to school. BTW, they are great kids! Read y’all later.

Lemonade714 said...

HG:

The rope down the sidewalk imagery makes it all sound even more awful. Ewwww.

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. Wowie zowie I WUVVED this puzzle! I put it up there in the top ten! Gave me A LOT of laughs. Much admiration for the cleverness of it all.

More later.

windhover said...

Just take your Vitamin C or V and you'll have that recent bane of xwords - "no problem". :-)

CrossEyedDave said...

The original voice of Elmer Fudd, Arthur Q. Bryan.

Elmer Fudd sings Bruce Springsteen.

Banned Elmer Fudd cartoon,
I dunno, i saw it as a kid...

Anonymous said...

Re:DESSERT and DESERT. Remember a pot luck at church notice...Bring your favorite DESERT. "Try the Gobi, it's fantastic!" Kind of like Lemonade's confusion with THERE (36D),THEIR and THEY'RE?? :)

Jayce said...

Lemonade, thank you for your enlightening and entertaining writeup today. You are right about that "Trout" clip: it is great to see their faces. That's one of the pleasures of seeing a performance live (or videoed.)

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

I'll read comments after my impending nap.

I had GAB for "chews the fat," which gave me GELLO, and I didn't catch the wrongitude for a long time. Imagine my confusion when BOMB TEMPERATURE was eventually revealed.

You almost got me Marti. We really should meet for drinks some time. This was not in my REEL HOUSE, but I sussed it out in the end, with a lot of perp help and guessing.

The I'M UP - DUE cross was the last cell to fill. Had to go through the entire alphabet TWICE!

APRES SKI was slow to develop, but an AHA! moment. Couldn't think of SCHUBERT for the longest time.

It's LUXURY on a Friday to work a SUPERB puzzle like this.

Now, I OPTS for some down time.

Cool regards!
JzB

frustrated constructor said...

@marti: what's your acceptance rate?

Anonymous said...

And did everyone read the article about Tim Croce?

http://www.thetranscript.com/entertainment/ci_21525927/from-solving-puzzles-creating-them

Lemonade714 said...

To each and every anon (or named individual) thank you for pointing to my typos, I try to correct them, but my vision really is poor so I miss some. I have gone back and made the adjustments and more that I saw in review today.

Larry, I did not say I was in the market for any V, just the description sounded even worse that the potential embarrassment.

Am I the only one who was surprised there was a word to describe the speech pattern of Elmer, Barbara Walters, Lynn Swann and so many more?

SJOK, are you feeding off our frioend SJSJ?

Anyone heard from Al?

MR ED said...

hi everybody,
lots of proper nouns today, didn't know any of them. like Dennis I never heard of 'ghee' before. and if your room temperature is 98deg., you live in a hot house .

Lemonade714 said...

For those who need isntant gratification TIM CROCE .

I spent many happy hours in Pittsfield and a few nast ones.

Bill G. said...

What a fun puzzle! Some parts were hard but I managed to solve it all. Clever theme that helped me with the solving. WHISKEY BUSINESS was my favorite.

Steve, I learned only fairly recently that when someone gets his 'just deserts,' it's spelled with one S.

Here's a little math/geometry puzzler for those so inclined.

A consecutive triangle:
Find a triangle whose three sides and altitude are four consecutive integers.

Anonymous said...

I had NO idea there was a word for the inability to pronounce the letter "R", but I do now! I'm getting smarter with every crossword. LOL Even though some crossword constructors are cruel, most are fun, like today's puzzle constructor, Marti. And, now that Lemonade brought up "am I the only one?", am I the only one who pronounces the "h" in wheel and whiskey? That was my only bone of contention in this puzzle.

windhover said...

L714:
That wasn't directed at you, just general good advice.
I didn't believe the slogan "better living through chemistry" back in the day, but it seems true in some cases.
Not a mathematician, but took (and used) trig, so I'd have to guess a 3,4,5 right triangle. WTH is the "altitude" of a triangle, if it is not one of the sides?

Anonymous said...

Would that suggest that it's not a right triangle and that it's the 'altitude' (not the right word) of the triangle?

Jean said...

Hi all: I am a very timid first time blogger who has followed your wonderful blog for at least a year! today for the first time, thanks to marvelous Marti, I finished a Friday and am absolutely ecstatic! bless you all, but especially Marti and Lemon! Jean

Lemonade714 said...

Jean and one-armed dave:

Welcome, we do not bite (well most of us) and we enjoy input from all places. Mr. Ed, it has been a while good to see you. Eddy B., how be thee?

Hahtoolah said...

Welcome, Jean. I hope you join us often. For the most part, we are a friendly group.

Bill G. said...

Windhover, good question. I didn't make that clear. 3,4,5 would work since one of the sides is also an altitude but I was thinking about a bigger triangle, not a right triangle. The altitude is the perpendicular drawn from a vertex to the opposite side. In a 3, 4, 5, triangle, the 3 and 4 sides form a right angle so one of the could represent the altitude. I'm looking for something like a triangle with sides of 5, 6 and 8 with an altitude of 7, so four consecutive integers.

windhover said...

Anon and Bill G.,
Thanks, it makes sense now.
Jean:
I think what Lemonade meant to say is that we won't bite unless you ask us to. And some of us, I'm afraid, occasionally end a sentence with a preposition.
Good to see you. eddyB.
For a moment there I thought our old Jean(nie) had returned. Hope she's at least lurking. (And if you are, I didn't mean to say you're old.)
Back to work, and leave the geometry to the pros. I do remember something from way back about "the angle of the dangle", but that probably requires even more expertise (and vitamins) to calculate. Oh, well.

CrossEyedDave said...

Apres ski, who knew it could be fun to learn French?

Found under "apres Ski"
#1
#2
#3
#4

While researching, i thought the girls might like this pic i found under apres ski. But the original was full of malware, & i had to shut down & reboot just to escape.

HeartRx said...

Frustrated constructor @ 3:00, I do track my acceptance rate, and it took ten puzzles before I had my first one accepted. (Right now, it is considerably higher...) So, don't give up. Send me an email and maybe we can get you up, too!

windhover said...

And they're off....... and running. It's your fault, Jason.

Dennis said...

Marti, you are multi-talented, indeed.

Lucina said...

Yes, Lemonade, about that term and I meant to ask you how in the world you found it?

TTP said...

Lemon, I was not aware of the word rhotacism either.

Marti, CC, please do not use it in a puzzle. Or velar approximant, or uvular trill. Thanks in advance.

Time to toast.

See you all tomorrow !

Manac said...

WOW! Another Friday offering from Marti. I got Apres Ski quick enough (done my share of that) but got bogged down elsewhere. Fittingly enough IDIOT was the last to fall cause that's what I felt like trying to make the clue/answer connection until... DOH! Great Job Marti, I really enjoyed it.

HeartRx said...

Our guest this week is one of the top chefs from New Orleans, so we have been dining IN STYLE! Tonight, for an appetizer, he made endive leaves filled with lump crabmeat (that he brought from NOLA), caviar, and a splash of rice wine vinegar and oil...TO DIE FOR!! Then, we had his request for dinner: steamed "lobstah" (lots of Maldon sea salt, sprigs of thyme, chunks of lemon and onion, peppercorns...) and fresh steamed corn on the cob. Of course, we had to have champagne to accompany it all (in keeping with my mini-drinking theme today)!!

BTW, "Apres ski" is another of those French terms that has been borrowed in English, so I didn't even think to clue it as a "foreign" phrase! Sorry to all those who had problems with it. But remember: T-BAR, APRES SKI, SCHUSS, ALTA and MOGULS will show up frequently in many of my puzzles, so commit them to memory! (LOL)

Seldom Seen said...

Marti: I wonder if your friend knows Anne Kearney? She's a good friend of a good friend, She prepared a birthday dinner for him in his own kitchen. Food was fabulous.

Lemonade714 said...

Thank you Larry and CED. Now the age old question, can they keep it up?

windhover said...

Well Dennis,
We tried, but as Bill & Monica might (should?) have said, No Cigar.
First time in a while I've maxed out. Three day trip for Irish and me tomorrow, Chuck Berry themed: No Particular Place To Go. Might head to the Promised Land.

HeartRx said...

Seen @ 7:20, yes, he absolutely knows her, but she moved back to Ohio a while ago, so he hasn't kept in touch. I understand that she is quite successful with Rue Domaine. He said Peristyles (sp?) was miles above anything else in NOLA!!

Dennis said...

You head to the promised land and you might not be rested for tomorrow's trip.

Seldom Seen said...

Marti: What a small world! She is getting ready to launch a new, more casual restaurant called Alligatot Annie's. I have the inside track for a subcontractor gig there. I've told her we can work out a trade for part of the contract. ;)

Manac said...

Bill, I too first thought of 3,4,5 only cause I use it all the time to make sure anything I build is square.
I guess it's late enough to post this for the DF people tonight. Just go forward to about 2:17 in the video. It probable started the new round of uprisings. Tickled my funnybone. Just for laughs

Manac said...

just for laughs Funny it worked in preview.

Bill G. said...

Hint: In case anybody still cares, the altitude of the triangle is 12.

Manac said...

Got caught up in watching The Replacements, TV did no justice to this scene Cheerleaders