google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday. September 28, 2012, Marti Duguay-Carpenter

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Sep 28, 2012

Friday. September 28, 2012, Marti Duguay-Carpenter

Theme: TU-day is the Day. TRIBUTE (4:45) to marti.

Welcome to another addition of the Friday funnies, with much joy to come. In today's effort, our own Divine Miss M has managed to find 4 words or phrases which when the letters TU are added to the beginning create a witty new phrase. The first one is TU added to a word, rather than a phrase, but if it is okay with Rich it is okay with me. All highlighted by a perfect hint, with a twist. I hope to have you DANCING  (3:11) by the time this one is done. let us get right to the theme answers.

17A. Quarry for Henry VIII's cat? : TUDOR MOUSE.(10) A Dormouse is a particular type of rodent, which derived its name from the French DORMIR, to sleep, as this tiny group often hibernate for 6 months at a time. Cute? Henry VIII (1:46) was one of six monarchs in this short lived dynsaty that died with Elizabeth I.

26A. Dutch exporter's forte? : TULIP SERVICE.(12) I read the clue as Dutch explorer, so this took a bit. Not to give lip service to one of our resident creative people, but I cannot imagine thinking up this clue. Some how a bulb must have gone in her head.

44A. New Orleans campus sign during spring break? : TULANE CLOSED. My favorite, a shout out to Hahtoolah and a fine southern university, the GREEN WAVE, which was part of how I became part of the Corner.

60A. Garb for a private pupil? : TUTEE SHIRT. I LOVE this one, as it uses one of those stupid law type word combinations, which many hate TUTOR/TUTEE, all from a simple t-shirt.

And the absolutely classic hint:

52D. Words of reproach, and a hint to how the four longest puzzle answers are formed : ET TU Brute? ET is the Latin for "and", and we are adding the TU so it is the word/phrase AND "TU". 

Wow, and there are more clues to come....

Across:

1. It can keep a watch on you : STRAP. I think I have seen this before, but a nice way to start the day.

6. Phi follower? : BETA, you BETA know KAPPA comes next. My oldest has his key.

10. Took the bus : RODE. I am glad it was riding, because they would make you give it back if you took it. Or if you like you have 15A. Transportation option : RAIL.

14. French fry? : SAUTÉ. What a simple but brilliant clue.

16. Carafe kin : EWER. Can you pitcher that?
19. Word in a boast : VENI. This of course ties into the Roman hint from Julius Caesar.VIDI VICI to you .

20. King of fiction : STEPHEN. I wonder if our own Mainiac has run into this man?

21. Martin Luther, to Pope Leo X : HERETIC. No religion, no politics.

23. European wine region : ASTI. Spumante is Italian for sparkling.

25. Bouquet : AROMA. Most sparkling wines do not have a "nose."

32. The Olympic Australis and others : OPALS. The world's LARGEST and a shout out to our Kazie.

33. Slippery : EELY. Is this really a word?

34. Pop-ups, often : ADS. Mine are often TARTS. (0:26).

37. Hollywood VIP : IDOL. They too are often TARTS.(3:18)

38. "The Prince of Tides" co-star : NOLTE.  LINK. (2:58).

40. Bend at a barre : PLIE. Pronounced Plee ay in the Ba'al ay world.

41. LAPD section? : LOS Angeles Police Department.

42. Pay stub abbr. : FICAFederal Insurance Contributions Act. Your funding of SSA and medicare, no religion, no politics.

43. Origami staple : CRANE. LINK. Do you know the meaning?

47. Way up : STAIR. But it is rude (boorish) to stare when she goes up the stair, no matter how.....

50. Desperate : DIRE. your personal situation. It never is a reason for you to...

51. Horns in : MEDDLES.

54. Puts in a lower position : DEMOTES. The opposite of PROMOTE, but no one is ever just moted.

59. Melville's "grand, ungodly, god-like man" : AHAB. A whale of a tale.

62. Two after do : RE MI. A bonus clue, DO(ugh) not D(ew).

63. Go like mad : TEAR. I did not tear through this one, but savored it.

64. Pitched perfectly : ON KEY. paired with the mini clecho: 
65. It's pitched : TENT.

66. Strong arms : UZIS. The Israeli made machine guns which do make a lot of

67. Racket : NOISE.

Down:

1. Former fleet : SSTS. Super Sonic Transports. Did you know the Soviet's had the first one? LINK. My brothers both flew on the Concorde and said it was amazing but cramped.

2. Tense : TAUT. I was taught this word young.

3. Boorish : RUDE.

4. Sitting on : ATOP. marti used an A word, marti used an A word.

5. Noncommittal response : PERHAPS. I should not nit pick, the nitpicker.

6. "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" author Anne : BRONTE. The youngest of the three sisters, she died young and I was not familiar with this BOOK, only Agnes Gray, and of course Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.

7. Seine flower : EAU. Water in French, and the old, flower/flow-er trick.

8. Addams family nickname : TISH. MORTICIA was well LOVED.(3:31).

9. Toward shelter : ALEE. marti used an A word, marti used an A word.

10. Put on a pedestal : REVERE. Like Paul.

11. Have an outstanding loan from : OWE TO.

12. Durable fabric : DENIM. Just like Bret Favre.

13. Evergreen shrub : ERICA. This PLANT is known as HEATH,. from which the name HEATHCLIFF is derived, if you ever read Emily Bronte.

18. Muddle : MESS. I was in a the SE until TUTEE popped in my head.

22. Risqué : RACY. Like this TEASE? (3:38)

24. Swift's birthplace : IRELAND. Jonathan who wrote Gulliver's Travels and other political satire. oops, no religion, no politics. Anyway, it was great to see this answer instead of EIRE or ERIN.

26. Drudgery : TOIL. Blogging is work but not toil.

27. Prom night style : UPDO. Trying to look older so it is okay to have sex in the car.

28. Myanmar neighbor : LAOS. MAP.

29. Bugged? : ILL.He came down with the flu bug.

30. Spot checker? : VET. Really cute but are there any dogs except the one we see run named Spot anymore?

31. ___-de-France : ILE. Did we have this wealthy part of France recently, or am I having a senior  Déjà vu  moment?

34. Melodramatic moan : ALAS. Alas, a lass fell on her ass, it wan't rounded and pink as you probably think, but had long ears and ate grass..

35. Wine partner : DINE. Perhaps because she had just been wined and dined?

36. Word with poppy or top : SEED.

38. Zilch : NIL. Last week it was bupkis.

39. Andean tuber : OCA. I Yam quite familiar with these VEGGIES.

40. Arnie or Tiger, e.g. : PRO. Simple, but PGA popped into my head.

42. Roll up : FURL. Funny little word, comes from the same stem as FIRM.

43. South Carolina university : CLEMSON. The Tigers, Arnie went to Furman, also in SC. Jonathan Byrd, Lucas Glover, Kyle Stanley and Tommy Biershenk all went to Clemson.

44. Gossip morsel : TIDBIT. You like that bit.

45. Down sources : EIDERS. I would mak a bad pun, but you might throw something and I would have to duck.

46. First Nations tribe : CREE.  For all of our TEACHERS.

47. Sting : SMART. OO, that clue ..

48. Chuckle relative : TEHEE. I always say teehee.

49. Not worth ___ : A DAMN. Not to be confused with a Tinker's Dam.

53. "The Highway to India" canal : SUEZ. No idea but how many four letter canals are there?

55. "That's terrible!" : OH NO. Oh yes.

56. ___ torch : TIKI.

57. Cockney toast starter : 'ERES to you 'Enry 'Iggins.

58. Ocular nuisance : STYE.which rhymes with....

61. Clavell's "___ Pan" : TAI. Which sounds like THAI which land is next to Laos, so we have come full circle, so it must be time for me to go and find someone to squeeze some Lemons and see where that gets me. Always a pleasure to to write up a DuGuay-Carpenter (see Splynter there is another one here) creation. I hope you all have a wonderful time. 


Lemonade

74 comments:

  1. Morning, all!

    I made very slow progress on this on, doing multiple passes through the accrosses and downs and picking up only a letter or two each time though. And then I finally got the theme reveal and figured out the theme, which let me quickly go and stick TU at the beginning of all the theme answers. After that, I finished very quickly.

    Lots of really fun (and tricky) clues today. Favorites included "French fry" for SAUTE and "It can keep a watch on you" for STRAP. The fact that both of those were in the NW helps explain why that section was the last to fall for me.

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  2. Good Morning, Lemonade and friends.

    Marti, you have outdone yourself! WOW! What a puzzle.TUDOR MOUSE was my first theme clue, but TULANE CLOSED was my favorite.

    I knew I was in for a fun RIDE with the first clue. I knew we were considering the timepiece and not Big Brother.

    Nice to see the substance in the flower and not the name of a river.

    An update on Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.

    I misread 44-D as Gospel morsel instead of Gossip Morsel.

    I crossed the SUEZ a few years ago. I wouldn't got there today. Lemonade, the ERIE canal is also four letters.

    FURL is, indeed, a funny word. I don't think I have ever seen it with out UN- in front of it.

    STEPHEN King, Mainaic and I are all graduates of the same university, albeit in different graduating classes.

    Herman Melville, the creator of AHAB and Moby Dick died on this date in 1891.

    QOD: The digital camera is a great invention because it allows us to reminisce. Instantly. ~ Demetri Martin


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  3. Howdy folks,

    What an enjoyable and difficult solve today. Marti, you outdid yourself with so many deceptive clues and a "different" theme.

    I solved this by heavily relying on the perps or down clues. It was a slow go, but I made steady progress.

    Lots of fun clues; 1A, STRAP, 47a STAIR, 62A REMI, 66a UZIS & 29D ILL. They all required some thought and resulted in a chuckle.

    Thanks Marti. always look forward to your challenges.

    Hope todays success is a sign that business in Albany will be booming this weekend. Its my favorite stop these days.... so many really nice people up there.



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  4. Good morning, folks. Thank you, Marti, for an excellent Friday puzzle. Thank you, as well, Lemonade, for an equally excellent write-up.

    This puzzle was great. A little daunting at first. I had to go to the SE to get started. Got that corner easily and then spread from there.

    My first theme answer was TUTEESHIRT. ET TU, which was close, appeared easily. That helped with the other long answers, by plugging in the TU.

    Thought EAU for 7D was very clever. Had me stumped for a while. That and ALEE gave me MOUSE which lead to TUDORMOUSE. The puzzle was coming together.

    Had A DIME for 49D. After TENT appeared fixed that to A DAMN.

    Hahtoolah beat me to ERIE. Good job.

    Liked the Latin today.

    Great weather here. Lots to do today.

    See you tomorrow. Heading to Princeton, IL, early. Hope the Cruciverb works. It did not today.

    Abejo

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  5. Touché, Marti, Touché. And good morning, all.

    Lemon, you were a "Lincoln Fool" this morning. But, ALAS, my high-speed internet is only creeping this morning, and I didn't have the patience to wait for those links to finally appear. Maybe later.

    I did think it was cute the way the Cockney toast starter crossed the Cockney jackass.

    I had fun with this puzzle, and managed to complete it with zero over-writes. Thanks, Marti. Good job, Lemon.

    Time for that 3-mile march...

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  6. Lemonade, I always look forward to your witty Fridays, but you outdid yourself today. This is one of your best. I read it over again just to savor it. 46A Your link for Cree is teachers, which leads to an invitation for me to write a blog. Huh?

    Marti, this is another high quality, witty puzzle as I have come to expect from you.

    I caught on to adding TU with the first theme. I solved each cluster quickly and solidly without having to double back. I love an easy puzzle when it is interesting like this.

    I read an historical novel about the Dutch TULIP wars. It was all the vogue for the rich to own exotic tulip bulbs introduced from Turkey. i could be wrong, but I believe that they displayed the actual bulbs themselves, thinking them too valuable to plant. This promoted great economic speculation. Wiki: "At the peak of tulip mania, in February 1637, some single tulip bulbs sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. It is generally considered the first recorded speculative bubble (or economic bubble." It soon burst.

    Flags and sails are frequently spoken of as furled.

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  7. Wow - this is a Friday puzzle? I finished this in record time. Either this one was super easy or I'm getting smarter watching The Big Bang Theory.

    Some nice clues:
    - 66A Strong Arms: UZIs
    - 7D Seine Flower: EAU
    - 30D Spot Checker? VET (very clever!)
    - 62A: Two After Do? RE Mi

    That's all for now - I'll check in later. Have a great morning!

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  8. Double Feature Friday !!! A Terrific Tag Team Main Event ! You two remind me of those old Doublemint commercials. Double your pleasure, double your fun ! Really enjoyed the puzzle and the write up.

    Oh yea, 53 min and 43 sec., and might have pulled a few brain muscles on the way to this solve. Last fill was the crossing T at TAI and TUTEESHIRT. Walking the alphabet until I got to T. Kept mentally repeating tutee until tutor visited.

    Liked 14A SAUTE. I was thinking frites, but no worky, before I realized I was making this way too hard. 16A EWER clue "carafe kin" is fresh. 43A Origami staple... Wanted paper, and had _RANE before I realized you wanted specificity. Liked 51A MEDDLES. 18D clue muddle helped with MEDDLES. 64A Pitched perfectly - not NOHIT, but ONKEY. Wonderful. 66A Strong Arms = UZIS. Good thing I had ETTU and SUEZ going down. 7D EAU. Oh ! 29D clue for ILL was fresh.

    5D PERHAPS - I like the word. Perhaps is kind of right down the middle, and one can live with that. Noncommittal. Some uncertainty and (perhaps) some doubt. I had a friend who would say, "Probably, but I doubt it" when he wasn't sure. WHAT ? What the heck does that mean ?

    I'll be back later today. I'm also going to reread Lemonade's write up. It was so much fun the first time through, and I want to make sure I didn't miss anything. Off to work for now. See you all later.

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  9. I GOT IT ! I Got it ! i got it ! - A Friday, and with my fave constructor ( with a Boa - ). Now, I'm ready to die and go to heaven (?). Lemonade, what wit, you coulda' gone to Broadway and written 'My Fair Lady'.

    It was a miracle of how the words just arranged themselves. I thought of Hahtoolah at 'Tulane' - one of my daughter's girlfriends went there - why? - she was following her boyfriend ....I worried about 'Tutee' and 'Ettu', but thanks to Lemonade, I got the reasoning. Too many cute clues to mention, I had 'Iceland' before 'Ireland'. Somehow I think Rich Norris must have asleep at the wheel to allow such easy clues. Finally, after finishing the puzzle, I went to Google to check on Olympic Australis, and the first reference was to our own 'Kazie' !!!

    Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, Marti.


    ALT QOD:- I've got a sure-fire concept for a hit TV show. It would be called, "A Live Celebrity Gets Eaten by a Shark". ~ Dave Barry.

    Have a good weekend, you all.

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  10. Worst part of this fabulous puzzle? Realizing I was done. What a perfect start for my Friday sans golf but, ALAS, going to garage sales. Life’s a series of compromises, isn’t it?

    Musings
    -With TUDOR MOUSE, I mistook the theme for changing an H to an M. Actual theme was more fun (my kids all said “funner”) and elegant – including the reveal.
    -It had to be TULIP or EDAM for that Dutch exporter pre-theme
    -Yeah, I wanted CHI to follow Phi. Memorizing that alphabet was helpful in math and science and one of those ΦΒΚ keys does not occupy space here.
    -In Speed, of course, the bus was actually taken.
    -Those spin doctors are sure EELY
    -When it comes to Crazy, I’ll take Patsy over Britney
    -You have to be my age to remember Friday at the LAPD
    -My sister asked me what this FICA stuff was after she got her first paycheck
    -Things ain’t as TAUT around here as they used to was
    -DENIM jeans seem to have no maximum size these days
    -Victoria only seems to keep about 6 sq. in. secret
    -My favorite wine partner is cheese as in, “Do you want some cheese with that WHINE?”
    -If you FURL the flag correctly, will you be gruntled?
    -I thought demure Marti was cluing Not give a DARN at first
    -Lemon, a fine write-up as always but I got a lot of “This video is currently unavailable” messages at YouTube. Is it just me (I)? Also, those A words were Atypical for Marti ;-)

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  11. Lemon: Again, I can see you really enjoyed doing the Blog today.

    Marti: For whatever reason, I was on your wavelength. (Be afraid ... Be very afraid!!!)

    Since I usually scan all the clues before filling in ... in Black Ink, I was just wondering, should I go out and get a RED Ink pen? So I can say I had "Red-Letter" help?
    As such, my first entry was 49-D, Not worth A DAMN.
    (A wonderful start IMHO).

    So 'ERES to you at my Sunset toast.
    Cheers!!!

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  12. Something unusual happened on Wednesday night. Many of our Jewish neighbors' driveways were full of cars, on Wed. night, because of 'Yom Kippur' ... probably relaxing, after breaking the fast, (feasting - ? ), praying, mingling, whatever. Coincidentally, on our part, we had agreed to host a friend's son's pre-wedding ceremony for an Indian couple, called 'mehendi' - the 'putting' of the henna, for the bride and the female guests... and both men and women were invited, and to the dinner that followed. In the middle of the flow of food and liquor, the doorbell rang.... which was surprising, since the door was unlocked and open.

    It was a middle-aged Jewish couple, dressed to the nines, who were unsure of the address, and deluded by the crowd of cars on our driveway, just assumed that we were celebrating Yom Kippur. I think they were far more surprised than we were, and despite out earnest and insistent requests, ... they felt so embarrassed - they refused any refreshments, and made a hurried getaway...

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  13. Beta does NOT follow phi: it follows alpha.

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  14. Hello Puzzlers -

    Not only did I storm through this puzzle in 12 minutes at 5 AM, I even got Marti to make me a cup of coffee today! Thanks for both the puzzle and the caffeine, neighbor!

    I must have been in the right zone today - the only stumble was failing to recognize ill for bugged. Sure loved this clean, groaner-free grid.

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  15. Hi

    Sorry about linking problems but they all appear functional now.

    YR, thank you.

    Anony-mouse, they must have been too old to fast, because I would have come in and grazed before looking for another house. I was hungry!

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  16. Cranes symbolize longevcity and good fortune in Japan. When we visited a middle school on our fellowship in Japan we were given necklaces strung with tiny origami cranes.
    Link Lovely origami

    There is a true story of a Japanese atomic bomb victim, Sadako, dying of leukemia. She tried to fold 1000 cranes to have her wish to live granted. After her death many people helped her complete her 1000. My class read an English translation of this great story about kind heartedness.
    Link Sadako

    There is a statue of Sadako at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. People offer gifts of 1000 origami cranes with the wish for a world without nuclear war. During the long dull winter of indoor recess several classes volunteered to fold 1000 origami cranes which we shipped to Hiroshima.
    Link Hiroshima Peace Memorial

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  17. @Unknown:

    Think "Phi Beta Kappa" (the name of a famous academic honor society).

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  18. Good morning everyone. Fine write-up, Lemonade. Thanks.

    A Marti treat this morning. Initial solve was in NE corner. Then SE. It was actually fun solving each subset in its own cluster; ie, SE, then W Central then SW, etc. After sussing TULIP SERVICE, the theme became clear and the rest came easily enough. SUEZ was obvious by its Brit connection to India. Re: 4 ltr canals? - there's also the Kiel canal. Several real clever clues - for BETA, STRAP, VENI, TENT.. VET, a little too cute. Guessed at BRONTË and OPALS. No lookups needed. Fun workout, Marti. Bravo Zulu.

    I think FURL is used almost as frequently as UNFURL.

    Unknown @ 0901. Misdirection. Phi Beta Kappa was intended by the clue. It's an academic honor society. Lemon alluded to it.

    Have a great day.

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  19. Abejo: I, too, had A DIME instead of A DAMN, and, unfortunately, the A D_M_ were all placed in the right boxes.

    Anony-mouse, that couple was probably really lost and was supposed to be a my house. I always host an open house Break Fast at the end of Yom Kippur.

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  20. Barry G.
    Think of admitting to a DNF when you say you needed red letter help.
    Think of your narcissism when you say any clue is dross.

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  21. @Unknown - Or, just Phi Bet' as in, "He's a Phi Bet, you know." Some schools don't have it, but rather, have their own.

    Only 4 Googles on a Friday, all proper nouns.
    Liked it.

    That DORMOUSE is a cutie!

    Just bought a Kindle touch. Took this old broad 5 days to get a book on it, what with 3 passwords. I think it'll be worth it.

    Surprised to see the Tenant of Wildfell Hall wan't free on Kindle, esp, since the paperback is 1¢

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  22. To Another Unknown-
    Our motto here is PLAY NICELY.

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  23. RE:- The miscued couple at my party.

    I think they did not partake of our vittles, because they might have been naturally concerned that it was not kosher. The vast majority of our Hors d'oeuvre's were vegetarian, but obviously not prepared under Jewish supervision.

    Also we had no Manischewitz ... or Chateau Lafite Rothschild.(lol)

    Have you heard about the gentile, who drank up the Matzo balls soup, and murmured, .... ' This is delicious .... now what dishes do the other parts of the Matzo go in ?'


    Thank you, Yellowrocks, for the Origami link up, and the Sadako story.(which I had heard before...). I used to make, and have, a veritable Noah's Ark of animals, of Origami made with crisp One Dollar Bills ... and when I displayed them, and handed them around, to our guests, (for closer inspection - ), I noticed, they were slowly disappearing....(lol).

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  24. Like Unknown, I thought of the Greek alphabet before i realized BETA couldn't be avoided. Other than that, the north and central section went fairly smoothly, but I was a definite DNF in the south, not knowing TAI, CLEMSON, having DIME for DAMN, trying TSKS for ET TU, and FOLD for FURL. i had TORA for TIKI--an unfamiliar concept to me, despite its past appearances here. So I was looking for something to go before SHORT instead of SHIRT, and the rest of that corner was such a complete loss I gave up.

    For some reason I thought origami things were SWANS not CRANE too, so SES- did not yield CLOSED, as well as the mess made by not having CREE and trying to fit OTOE there.

    Could I have made a bigger mess of it? Sorry Hearti.

    Thanks for the opals, Lemony!

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  25. Okay, I acknowledge there are multitudinous 4 letter canals; my comment was a reflection on how I solved the clue, as SUEZ was the only one that came to mind in that part of the world and I already had the TU in place. The made UZIS, so I was happy.

    Yes, the DORMOUSE is one of the cuter rodents out there, though I do not believe they are in the US, though they flourish in Jolly Old England.
    Meanwhile, go USA in the RYDER CUP, I imagine marti is glued to the TV watching them as I type.

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  26. Sfingi@10:02 -- If you join Amazon Prime (a smart idea if you do any Amazon shopping -- Free 2-day shipping on most orders), you can also borrow one book per month from the Amazon Library -- there's no due-date, you just can't borrow another until you return the current one. You'll need a WiFi connection to borrow. The transaction must be initiated from your Kindle.

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  27. Morning all!

    Thank you for a wonderful and clever write-up, Lemony! Like YR, I read it twice, to be sure I didn't miss anything... And thanks to everyone for your kind comments.

    I really was surprised when Rich scheduled this one for a Friday. The theme was pretty straight-forward, and when you figure it out, you can just go and enter TU at the beginning of the others, just as Barry G. pointed out.

    But devious clueing trumps simple themes every time! I have to confess, that the clues for STRAP, SAUTE, ILL, VET and RE MI were among the ones I submitted to Rich, and I was happy to see that he did use them. (Although, one of the others for ILL was my favorite, but didn't make the cut:
    "___ have what she's having"

    Have a lovely day everyone - TGIF!

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  28. Good morning:

    Before I downloaded the puzzle, I thought we're about due for a CC or Marti treat and, lo and behold, there was Marti. And what a Marti treat this was! Fresh theme, clever cluing, and great fill. Liked the clues for Eau and vet; my only write over was si do instead of re mi for the clue Two after do. Thanks, Marti, for a delightful start to a rainy Friday and thanks, Lemony, for your sparkling review.

    I was a little disappointed in the premiere of TBBT. I didn't think the story line was that strong nor that funny. Maybe I'm being overly critical. I did enjoy the premiere of Person of Interest and was surprised that I liked the new Sherlock Holmes series, Elementary. Looking forward to the new Blue Bloods tonight.

    Happy Friday to all.

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  29. Yellowrocks: Was the historical novel you read called Tulip Fever, by Deborah Moggach?

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  30. With only 4 long entries, the fill is blah blah blah.

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  31. Lemony, I just went back to your link at 43A, and tried to do the origami by following his instructions. Somehow, mine didn't look much like a CRANE at the end, but ended up as this, instead...

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  32. Another great puzzle. Not at all easy but doable. Have to admit I am not accustomed to seeing furl either. I guess that if you are neither being promoted nor demoted, you are in a state of being moted. If the object of a tutor is the tutee, does a proctor at a test keep an eye on his testees?

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  33. This puzzle was delightfully packed with Marti's wily (dare I say EELY?) clues, and Lemonade's write-up and links were awesome. You two make a wonderful crossword team.

    As much fun as it was, I could not get past the middle left section. I had filled in "games" instead of OPALS and that finished me off. (DAMN, I always feel stupid when I have a DNF and so many of you breeze right through it).

    I will cop out and blame the wonderful pain killer I am taking for my knee. My orthopedic doc now says it is not broken, merely bruised with a big hematoma. Only a week and a half off from work, instead of four to six.

    That doormouse image was darling. The OPALS were breathtaking. D-O, your cockney jackass comment was hilarious! ERICA puzzled me. It had to be correct, but didn't make sense until Lemony explained it.

    Enjoy your Kindle, sfingi. It's a great way to read.

    Matzo balls indeed, Anony-Mouse. 'ERE'S to you for giving me a good belly laugh!

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  34. marti that is the most beautiful origami Biceratops I have ever seen. Someone actually gave me a do it yourself guide to origami one holiday season a few years back, but it sits in the shelves unopened awaiting the right ambitious guest.

    Anon, 10:29, are you sure you do not mean yadda yadda yadda? perhaps a laxative will help.

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  35. Irish Miss @ 10:25 AM: I agree! I thought TBBT was lacking something last night.

    DH and I have Person of Interest in the DVR. I'll be watching it while eating my egg foo young tonight!

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  36. Good afternoon and happy Friday to all. Thanks Marti for a good brain exercise, and Lemon for your musings. No smudges or write overs today for me.
    I must have slept better knowing the real refs were back on the job. Now that our local cable has the NFL network I can watch the Thursday games. DW is thrilled.
    Irish Miss thanks for the heads up on Blue Bloods love that show.
    Have a great weekend to all. RJW .

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  37. Fun puzzle Marti. I wonder if TuPac Man Game was on the cutting room floor?

    I think I saw Fonzie putting on his water skis during TBBT. I definitely saw his ski jump on two and a half men. TBS had reruns of TBBT last night that showcased the good ol' days.

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  38. Hello, my friends. Great job, Marti, on the puzzle. And Lemonade, what can I say, your witty review does merit a second reading. Both of you deserve kudos for creativity.

    I RODE this like the wind and loved every second. What clever clues and fill as Mari mentioned in her comments. WEES on all the rest.

    Funny to see ON KEY sitting ATOP NOISE. My vote for the very best clue is strong arms, UZIS.

    Now I have a question for you Minnesotans, Kazie, C.C. and others. I have been monitoring the weather for next week and yesterday morning snow was forecast then by night time, it had changed. So how does it look to you? Snow or just chilly. I am packing and it's a dilemma. Your comments, please.

    I hope your Friday is fantastic, everyone!

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  39. ERICA - THE LYRICS

    Auf der Heide blüht ein kleines Blümelein und das heißt Erika.
    Heiß von hunderttausend kleinen Bienelein wird umschwärmt Erika
    denn ihr Herz ist voller Süßigkeit,
    zarter Duft entströmt dem Blütenkleid.
    Auf der Heide blüht ein kleines Blümelein und das heißt: Erika.

    TRANSLATION:

    On the heath a little flower blooms and it's called: Erika.
    Hot from a hundred thousand little bees that swarm over Erika
    because her heart is full of sweetness,
    her flowery dress gives off a delicate scent.
    On the heath a little flower blooms and it's called: Erika.

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  40. Marti, this may go down as one of my favorite puzzles of all time. The clues were wonderful--gettable but clever, clever, clever. I noticed the opening TUs for the theme answers but couldn't imagine what they were about until the reveal. A total pleasure from beginning to end and a wonderful start to what promises to be a good Friday. And Lemonade, your write-up was fun, as always.

    Have a good one, everybody!

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  41. Spitzboov, lovely poem in German and English.

    Mari and Irish Miss, I tried TBBT for the first time last night after so many recommendations on this blog. Unfortunately it put me to sleep. I was glad to hear that you thought it was not up to par.

    Hahtoolah, The book I read was Golden Tulip by Rosalind Laker. Excellent. I will have to read Tulip Fever.
    Here is a book saying the period is overhyped, sort of like the tales of George Washington's youth.
    Google Tulip Mania by Anne Godgar.

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  42. YR @ 12:37 - Don't give up on TBBT. Last night was not one of the best episodes but some other past shows have been so-so, as well. However, their outstanding shows far out-weigh any mediocre ones. Hope next week's is better.

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  43. Lemony @ 11:27, "Biceratops?" I kinda thought it looked like one of my cat's hairballs...

    Seen @ 11:49, TuPac did not even make the list (sorry rap fans!). Ones that did hit the cutting room floor were:
    TUBING CHERRY ("Floating down an pristine river?")
    TUBE SERIOUS ("Die-hard couch potato?")
    and
    TUBAS RELIEF ("Trombones sitting in for Oom-pah-pahs?")

    Spitz @ 12:02, lovely poem, and who says the Germans are cold-hearted? (I know much better, they indeed are not!)

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  44. Once I got the TUDOR MOUSE, I did the rest of the puzzle pretty quickly and finished a Friday one which is unusual for me.

    I was able to ride the Concorde five times and never paid the premium over 1st Class. One day, when I arrived at JFK, BA said they fully booked on the 747 & would I be OK to go on Concorde. After that every time after that when I got to JFK, I asked if they were fully booked in 1st Class & it worked twice more.

    We then studied the Concorde schedules and found that if we booked Air France, Manchester, UK on a Sunday that they would fly me to Paris on Saturday & put in a hotel and pay for the meals. At that time the presmuim for the Concorde wasn't much so I did that twice.

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  45. Hello everybody. Fabulous puzzle and writeup today. I heartily agree with all you who complimented Marti and Lemonade. I was surprised at how quickly and easily I solved it, but I also savored it.

    We didn't watch TBBT last night, opting to try out Last Resort instead. It was a mess of a story, aimless and all over the map, tossing in a little bit of everything but the kitchen sink. Went to sleep during Person of Interest, but stayed awake and actually enjoyed Elementary; we'll see how it shapes up.

    Best wishes to you all.

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  46. Hoorah! I did a Friday Marti! Woohoo! I got STRAP at once and was ONKEY with the theme from TUDOR.

    Lemony, you went beyond "TEHEE" today. Your blog was positively giddy!

    Nick NOLTE was memorable in "Prince of Tides". A female friend and I went to the movie in another town. We were standing in the lobby afterward and someone from our town came out and expressed shock that two such strait-laced women as we would go to such a show. We just looked at each other and laughed. First time we'd been accused of being "strait laced".

    I have been ILL this week. I know this because I have to force myself to eat so the Mucinex and Claritin D won't hurt my stomach so bad. I rarely have to force food on myself. I've also finished emptying three Kleenex boxes and three Halls cough drop sacks. (If those products pay me for the plugs here, do I have to pay FICA?)

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  47. Biceratops; I stand by my observation your creation was a two-horned creature from the distant past.
    On the BBT front, if all they are going to do is have Howard whining with his mother and wife and Raj whining, I too will move on. There was familiarity but no wit. I have Elementary on DVR and look forward to sampling the episode.

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  48. Lucina,
    No snow in sight. The 7-day forecast looks great at the moment, high in 70s, low in 50s, but I see a drop next Thursday when the high is 59. The fall colors are peaking.

    Do you still see ads at the bottom of the Comments page? There shouldn't be any.

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  49. Does anyone else see ads at the bottom of the Comments page?

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  50. Lemonade, I too, agree ... although I don't watch much TV, I value the opinions of fellow bloggers, here, so much, that I made a serious effort to watch the TBBT, first and second seasons, with a series of DVDs from a friend - and I made a heroic effort, at great personal sacrifice, to watch it yesterday, live. Like you, I was deeply disappointed - no fun, no humor, contrived jokes and hopeless situations... everyone and his mother, a stereotype. Maybe, they're not paying their writers enough - they should be paying the writers 10 times as much as the actors ! True humor, like 'All in the family', never goes out of style. Bringing Raj in was a big mis-steak ... Indians are never funny, I don't even know any funny Indian jokes - I always believed that that's why God gave us other (more interesting - )ethnic groups. (ha,ha).

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  51. I saw an ad yesterday, for online tutoring for ESL, English as a Second Language. But I thought they were directed at the snarky Anons. Who could probably use them.

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  52. No ads, but on IE I will get a word in the comments highlighted in blue and if I click an ad will appear. We have had some roboposters.

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  53. My last post -

    A puzzle ala Bill. G.

    This absent minded ethnic bank teller switched the dollars and cents when he cashed my check, giving me dollars instead of cents and cents instead of dollars. After spending five cents, I discovered that I am left with exactly twice as much as my original check ! What was the amount of the check ?

    For whatever my 5 cents is worth, since I got more money than I should have, I had enough cents to keep my big, fat mouth shut.

    Answers on Monday ... I have enough common cents to not even try to attempt the weekend puzzles.

    Have a safe and pleasant weekend.

    On the RoboAds, I saw a 'risque' picture of a matador's private parts, when Marti was blog-mistress, and a posing, nude tur-ducken, last week, when Argyle was blog-meister.... but I thought that was just Argyle being witty.... or maybe in cahoots with Perdue. Just so that they don't hack the blog...

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  54. Caramba, toreador carajo?

    I do wish I could speak more languages, especially Spanish, but I do try.

    Okay off to be treated to an early dinner, see you all later.

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  55. C.C., no ads using my iMac with either Safari or Firefox. On Parallels desktop running IE with Windows, didn't see any ads. I looked for blue words that Lemon mentioned, but the only ones I saw were links that people had inserted into their comments.

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  56. Thanks, C.C. and yes, ads still appear at the bottom of the comments section.

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  57. I do not see any ads with Firefox or with IE8. No ads on my iPhone either (Safari browser.)

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  58. I'm using Firefox, but I don't think I've ever seen ads at the bottom of the page.

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  59. Clever puzzle, Marti, equally clever blog, LM714.

    Totally nosy question: What do papers pay constructors for a printed puzzle? Do they do the "with-holds?"
    And...no...I`m not IRS...just nosy. I know they take a big chunk of time!

    I use Safari as my browser the most and no ads on the blog.

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  60. No ads using Chrome on my PC, and no ads using Chrome on my Android tablet, either.

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  61. @Desperotto = Thanx. I found out I am Wifi. That was one of the passwords I needed and didn't know I had. Yeesh. Got one free book from Amazon and borrowed a book from the public library. The worst thing was going to Barnes and Noble and asking them if they knew how to register my Kindle. They yelled at me because they sell Nook, and told me to move along as they had a customer. Sometimes I'm a customer.

    @Kazie - I used to have Firefox when my son was near enough to install everything, and it totally repressed ads. With chrome, I get ads, but not too many. No ads at the bottom of this page.

    @Spitzboov - listened to Erika, since I've never heard it, though I was taught my German through songs and poems. It's a march!
    I love the Big Bang Theory. We watch it over and over. What does that say...?

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  62. No ads using chrome.

    Unlike everyone else, i must complain bitterly. Friday is my busiest day of the week, & i did not get to do the puzzle in ink to get the most enjoyment out of a Marti puzzle! I did try it online in master mode, & was surprised how far i got, (taking breaks to do actual work) before i had to go red letter.
    Here it is 6:15 EST, & i missed all the fun! WEES, + i have to reread Lemonades writeup! ( i don't have time for this!)

    Learned a lot though, i always thought it was a "door"mouse. & 62A answer "remi" really got a "so thats what she meant" out loud as i read the Blog! Another LOL was Marti's Origami attempt in the comments. My mum taught me how to make cranes. One day when i was really bored she showed me how to make an origami waterbomb, & said, "i know i am going to regret this someday." Unfortunatley she did not live to see it. I was 12 when i threw one out the 14th floor window, & it hit an open window ledge, spraying an old lady's TV, which then exploded! ( she sued us, my 1st an only experience with that side of the legal system!)

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  63. Sfingi @ 5:12pm - Yes it is. My Mom said it was my favorite music when I was 3 yrs old. It is only in recent years that I learned it was popular in the German Army and Navy as a marching song. I guess that's why it still is one of my favorite names for a girl.

    C.C. - No ads here. I use Safari for a browser.

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  64. Greetings!

    Absolutely super puzzle, Marti. Am really on to your wavelength. Great write-up, Lemon. (You forgot the LOS, though.) 16 minutes.

    Att mail screwed up again! Can't believe it! Waiting for call back from Apple.

    My Phi Beta Kappa key was stolen, along with other gold jewelry. Haven't felt the urge to buy a new one. ($$$)

    Must leave now to go outside.

    Cheers!

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  65. No ads today on my Mac using Firefox.

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  66. Seen:
    Congrats to your Cincy pitcher, Homer Bailey, tossing the No-Hitter.
    (A pitcher named "Homer" throws a No-Hitter. Ya-gotta-love-it!)

    C.C. No ADS on my google chrome.

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  67. JD,
    How nice to see you.

    Fermat not sure what LOS Imissed,but glad to hear you are up and about.

    GO USA

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  68. Thanks Tinbeni. Its been a fun season! Looking forward to the postseason.

    What did Homer say to the Pirates?

    N'oh hits for you! (apologies to The Simpsons and Seinfeld)

    Here are some interesting stats:

    The Reds are 0-8 in our most recent postseason games, yet 9-0 in our most recent World Series games.

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  69. I guess I'm the only one with ads but they are there and change periodically. Firefox is installed as well as chrome.

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For custom-made birthday, anniversary or special occasion puzzles from C.C., please email crosswordc@gmail.com

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