google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday September 2, 2012 MaryEllen Uthlaut

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Sep 2, 2012

Sunday September 2, 2012 MaryEllen Uthlaut

Theme: "Caution: People Overworking" - Each angry phrase is reinterpreted literally and humorously considering the profession of the people in the corresponding clue.

23A. The border guard __ : WENT OVER THE EDGE. This reminds me of Laura Ling's travails. Lots of North Koreans cross border into North China.

27A. The actor __ : MADE A SCENE

49A. The mechanic __ : BLEW A GASKET

64A. The tailor __ : CAME APART AT THE SEAMS

82A. The chef __ : CAUSED A STIR. My name is Gordon Ramsay, don't you know how to stir?


100A. The elevator operator __ : HIT THE ROOF

108A. The baggage handler __ : COULDN'T GET A GRIP

The answers are all past tense. Very consistent.

When I downloaded the puzzle and spotted the constructor's name, I murmured: "The grammar lady", maybe because I once blogged a grammar-themed puzzle Ms. Uthlaut made.

Across:

1. Gyro bread : PITA

5. Not just nerves : FEAR. I'm often nervous about "Not" in the clue as I always have trouble figuring out the part of the speech.

9. Pullers of plows : TEAMS

14. Summer staffing solutions : TEMPS

19. Net trading : E-COMMERCE. Solid e-word.

21. __ ease: uncomfortable : ILL AT

22. Glorify : EXALT

25. Pass on : RELAY

26. Move away : RECEDE. Like tide.

29. Sweet serving, often : DESSERT. I miss fried persimmon cake in Xi'An.

33. Stage of existence : AGE. Wow, am I dumb!

35. Avant's opposite : APRES. "After", as in ___-ski for our adventurous Marti.

36. They're often marked in red letters : EXITS

37. Consonant such as "f" or "v" : SPIRANT. I only know "aspirant".

41. Votes against : NOs & 56. "By all means!" : YES.

42. Hardwood tree : ASH

45. Keep on teasing : RIDE

46. Like major appliance repairs : ON-SITE

47. Neighbor of Russia : ESTONIA

53. "A great __ indicates a great man": Cyrano de Bergerac : NOSE. He meant "A big nose...".

55. Back muscles, briefly : LATs

57. Shabby : RATTY

58. They're heard in a herd : BAAs. Lovely.

59. Bring to the mix : ADD IN

60. Thus : ERGO

61. Very tired : SPENT

63. Capital of Belgium's East Flanders province : GHENT. Gimme, Spitzboov?

70. Spelunkers' haunts : CAVES. We used to have a "Spelunker" poster (Richshiff) on the blog.

71. Bargain and steal : DEALS

72. 40-day period : LENT

73. Dizzying genre : OP ART


74. Like many doilies : LACY

75. Melted together : FUSED

77. Cutter : SAW

80. Sacha Baron Cohen persona : ALI-G. I like Sacha Baron Cohen a lot. But his characters are all ridiculous.

81. "Brave New World" feel-good drug : SOMA

85. Keyboard instrument with bell-like tones : CELESTA

87. Earthshaking events : SEISMS. It'll be an earthshaking event when Windhover goes to a nail salon. I'm thinking CrossEyedDave might go there simply because of his curiosity.

89. Orpheus' strings : LYRE

90. Abbr. after Brooklyn : HTS

91. Many, many years : EON

92. Ragged clothes : TATTERS

94. Lounging footwear : MULES

95. "The Crucible" setting : SALEM

97. Cereal grain : RYE

98. Autocratic, Russian-style : CZARIST

104. Raised : REARED

107. "Farewell, mon ami" : ADIEU

114. Arabian Peninsula country : YEMEN

115. Where many knots are tied : ALTAR

116. Vanilla-flavored drink : CREAM SODA

117. Silver fish : SMELT

118. Like Rod Stewart's voice : RASPY. This song is quite good.

119. Author __ Christian Andersen : HANS

120. Shortly : ANON

Down:

1. Bench in the nave : PEW

2. Cover at the bakery : ICE

3. Great deal : TON

4. Tsp. or tbsp. : AMT

5. Unhealthy temperature : FEVER

6. Sets upright : ERECTS

7. Property unit : ACRE

8. Like Gen. Powell : RET'D. His wife loves crosswords.

9. Link : TIE

10. Natural environment : ELEMENT

11. "The Aviator" (2004) actor : ALDA. I watched the movie, don't remember whom he played.

12. Oldest Gabor sister : MAGDA

13. Precipice quality : STEEPNESS

14. Most succinct : TERSEST. My emails are often short, unless I'm tired or sad, then I ramble a bit.

15. Board chairs, e.g. : EXECS

16. Gobbler, for one : MALE

17. Certain drawing : PLAN. For Splynter & Jerome. I wonder if Jerome loves hockey also.

18. Lid irritation : STYE

20. Customs : MORES

24. Processional leader : HEARSE

28. Lost one's lap : AROSE. Ah, that "lap", OK!

29. Louisville race : DERBY. 58. Action at a 29-Down : BETS.

30. Banish : EXILE

31. Aligns oneself (with) : SIDES

32. Dish with many recipes : STEW. I'll let my abundant Thai peppers dry like this.


34. Way to go : GAIT

38. Put up : POST

39. Black as night : INKY

40. Renter : TENANT

42. Ancient garland for the head : ANADEM. No idea. But this is lovely


43. Peaceful occupations : SIT-INS

44. Lacks : HASN'T

48. No longer in style : OLD HAT

50. A cop might put someone under it : ARREST. Nice clue.

51. Nuts (over) : GAGA

52. Perched on : ATOP

54. Promise : OATH. 112. Brief 54-Down : I DO.

59. Things to address : AGENDA

60. Come out : EMERGE

61. Time at a hotel : STAY. Dennis' new house has avocado & lemon trees. I don't think he likes avocados.

62. Bud : PAL

64. It's not so hard to swallow : CAPLET

65. Is of use : AVAILS

66. Genesis father of three : ADAM

67. Gave to another actor : RE-CAST

68. In addition : ELSE

69. Descendants : SEED

70. Mentor : COACH

74. Body shop convenience : LOANER CAR. Made me think of D-Otto's headache.

75. Get really upset : FUME. Another angry word.

76. Red power, initially : USSR. "Initially" always suggests "initials" in Xwords.

77. Phonograph needles : STYLI

78. Buenos __ : AIRES

79. Get by force : WREST

81. Priest's vestment : STOLE

82. Mayor's responsibility : CITY

83. Back at sea : ASTERN

84. Hardly a compliment : SLUR

86. Old TV series with underwater scenes : SEA HUNT. Never heard of it.

88. Cap attachment : EAR FLAP

93. Show at a theater : SCREEN

94. Address from Jeeves : MADAM. Stumper. Never watched "Jeeves and Wooster".

95. Iron alloy : STEEL

96. Cash, in slang : MOOLA

99. Letters from Greece : ZETAS

100. "Airplane!" actor Robert : HAYS

101. The same as before, in footnotes : IDEM

102. "The devourer of all things": Ovid : TIME. I like this kind of quote clue for common words.

103. Often unproductive at bats : OUTS. All too familiar.

105. Engrave : ETCH

106. Taj Mahal home : AGRA

109. Like toast without butter : DRY. You can put fig jam on.

110. Federal agency support org. : GSA (General Services Administration)

111. Director Howard : RON

113. Go for the gold? : PAN. Great clue too.

Answer grid.

C.C.

47 comments:

  1. This was a great puzzle, MaryEllen! Swell write-up, CC! (Would have been nice if the website gave me the entire title of the puzzle!)

    MADE A SCENE got me going on the theme, which I really liked. Had trouble getting SPIRANT (new to me), but it perped out. HEARSE was pretty clever! Noticed that we had CZARIST spelled differently for a change. (This apparent because sigmas did not fit.) Had forgotten about CELESTAS!

    Tough days here lately. Water/power man came yesterday to tell me my water bill was $6,000! Plumber came and could not find leak. Harvey found it (going deep under house) and turned off outside water. Meter was whizzing around. Next plumber coming tomorrow. Well, today, really. Evidently can get bill reduced somewhat with proof of repairs.

    Reverse-mortgage money came in. The plunked a huge amount in my checking account which I cannot return to them for 60 days. Must be something I can do for that short period! Any ideas?

    Happy holiday!

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  2. Celesta(7:35) explained by Click and Clack,(JK). You may not have heard the word but you will have heard the sound!

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  3. Morning, all!

    Fun puzzle with a fun theme that was mostly easy except for the parts that weren't...

    SPIRANT gave me fits and that whole section (AGE, GAIT, ONSITE, POST, HEARSE) was shaky.

    I resisted putting in BAAS at 58A since I kept thinking, "Sheep travel in flocks and cows say 'MOO.'"

    Had TSARIST instead of CZARIST, which messed me up for a bit.

    Couldn't make sense of the clue (or the answer) for 103A. I mean, I can see that getting a lot of OUTS would make one "Often unproductive at bats," but... Oh, wait. "At bats" means "turns at batting" and not "at the game of baseball," doesn't it? Never mind...

    What totally killed me in the end, though, was CAPLET/ALIG/HTS. I knew BRUNO and BORAT, but not ALIG. And for some reason, my brain thought that CAPSEL was a perfectly cromulent spelling of CAPSULE this morning. That gave me ASIG (why not?) and HLS (which I thought stood for Hills). When I didn't get the *tada* I figured something was amiss in that section, but it took way too long to realize that CAPSEL wasn't a real word and finally set things straight.

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  4. Not ALIG, that would be Ali G, as in "Da Ali G Show", early Sacha Baron Cohen TV show.

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  5. Good Morning, C.C. and friends. I liked the funny theme, but had difficulty with the rest of the puzzle. HIT THE ROOF was my first theme answer.

    After I realized that Moos were not heard in herds, I was reluctant to write in BAAs because all I could think of was sheep, which are in flocks. I forgot about the goat herds.

    I wanted Oak instead of ASH for the hardwood tree and Oat instead of RYE for the cereal grain.

    In addition to MAGDA, there is also Zsa Zsa, who is still alive at 95, and Eva, who was on Green Acres.

    Argyle, I was listening to Click and Clack as I did today's puzzle. Not the one where CELESTA was explained, though.

    Isaac came to stay and dropped a lot of rain. We lost electricity for a few days. Fortunately, there is only tree debris in my neighborhood, which is filled with lots of live oak trees. I didn't see any downed trees. I know there was a lot of damage along the coastal parishes. Thanks, to all who sent me e-mails of concern. I greatly appreciate that.

    QOD: I only like two kinds of men, domestic and imported. ~ Mae West

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  6. Good morning, C.C. and fellow Sunday Solvers.

    This one had several unknowns in it -- at least for me: ALI G, SPIRANT, ANADEM. Otherwise, except for entering HABITAT for ELEMENT, things went pretty smoothly.

    C.C., I don't think Jeeves refers to a specific character, but to any butler. The name Jeeves is to butler as Fido is to dog.

    Thanks for the shoutout. My pickup is in the shop until at least Tuesday, awaiting parts being shipped in from Memphis. I can't imagine that there's no such part in all of Houston, but there is one in Memphis. Oh well, I didn't want to go anywhere this weekend anyway.

    Happy holiday weekend, all!

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  7. I wasn’t a 4:00 AM solver today. I wakened at 2:00 AM and couldn’t sleep, so I solved this and the logic puzzle. By dinner time I'll be running on empty.

    I was on Ms. Uthlaut's wave length and zipped through most of this one. I had no title, but it soon became evident. My last section, the one Barry mentioned, hung me up for a short time. I WAGed AGE and GAIT. Finally ON SITE broke the section open. I then found HEARSE, great clue. Last to fall was the P for SPIRANT. Then, oh yeah, POST made sense.

    Yes, CCC, all the answers were past tense and also tense answers.

    I love the word SPELUNKER.

    Knew CELESTA. CC thanks for the link.

    Fermatprime, it’s such a shame about your water problem. Our condos had a water leak under our street, which we own. The leak was before the water meter so didn’t run it up. But the town was going to fine the Assoc. thousands a day, if we didn’t fix it ASAP. The block long water main and connection to each condo, plus repaving was very pricey.

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  8. I'm catching up on last night's posts. I'm glad I didn't get to log on until after I solved the logic puzzle and emailed Bill. Spoiler alert, if you were going to do it today, someone gave the answers last night.

    -PK, lovely poem. You are talented.

    -HG, I know what you mean about the MASH and Roseanne shows losing their zip after becoming preachy. The hilarious Ellen De Generes early sitcom also fell into the PC/unfunny trap.

    Hahtollah, glad you survived with little damage.

    Herd of sheep doesn't bother me. This is from Wiki: A group of sheep is called a flock, herd or mob.

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  9. I lost a lot of time with IBID instead of IDEM, which led me on a little research project and a learning moment. IBID is apparently to be used for a reference to the same source and the same page, with IDEM to be used for the same source but a different page. I probably knew that at one time in my life...

    My primary battle was caused by the fact that my border guard WENT OVER THE LINE. Couldn't get that fixed without red letter help. This was still a very enjoyable puzzle though.

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  10. Good morning everyone. Thanks for the comments, C. C.

    Glad to hear that Hatoolah is ok.

    Enjoyable Sunday puzzle with medium difficulty. The theme phrases were fun and provided continuity for the solve. I knew Brooklyn HTS, but I would guess that a lot of people unfamiliar with NYC might stumble here. SPIRANT, a new word. I usually see 'labiodental' in that context. Also new word ANADEM. I knew the Treaty of GHENT was named after Ghent, Belgium, but did not know Ghent was actually the the capital of East Flanders (Oost-Vlaanderen). Perps narrowed the choices. I thought the clue for ASTERN was cleverly phrased.

    ADIEU

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  11. Good morning, folks. Thank you, MaryEllen Uthlaut, for a great Sunday puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for the excellent review.

    Well, I did not get Saturday's puzzle done (yet). But I will.

    Anyhow, today's was much more to my liking.

    Just jumped all over and entered words as they became obvious.

    The theme answers came easily. Helped a lot with the enti puzzle.

    Remembered SEA HUNT. That was quite a show way back when.

    Did not know CELESTA, but had all the perps.

    SPIRANT is a new word for me. I did not get GAIT right off the bat, so that was a tough area.

    Did not know APRES. Perps fixed.

    Wagged Brooklyn HTS and lucked out.

    All in all, great puzzle.

    Raining in PA today. Assume it is the tail of the hurricane. We can use the water.

    Hope to finish Saturday's puzzle today.

    See you tomorrow.

    Abejo

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  12. Hahtoolah: Glad you are OK.

    Fermatprime: Good luck with your water. Give Harvey my regard.

    Abejo

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  13. Sea Hunt starred Beau Bridges, father of Beau and Jeff.
    I loved that show. Also liked this puzzle and C.C.'s comments.
    Enjoy Labor Day, everyone.
    emjay

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  14. Is anyone else having a problem downloading the puzzle using cruciverb.com. It won't load into the Crosswords app on my iPad and if I do it from my computer I get a 404 error.

    It's been working fine all week until yesterday. I've seen it mentioned here previously. Does anyone know if it's a LA Times problem and if there is any way around it.

    Thanks for your help.

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  15. We’re back home, the Huskers won and a Sunday puzzle with coffee. Ain’t life grand? BTW, our cwd school ELON got shelled 62 – 0 yesterday.

    Musings
    -A fun theme, clever cluing and learning (SPRIANT/ANADEM?).
    -The Gabors were the Kardashians of their day – beautiful and untalented
    -I’d go OVER THE EDGE too, C.C., to escape Kim’s “worker’s paradise”.
    -Several of us are TEMPS except in the summer
    -Two S’s in dessert (everyone wants more dessert not desert)
    -ARE not AGE, POST not HOST, my red letters were EDITS before EXITS, I wanted HEAD somewhere in the HEARSE procession leader answer
    -APRES, I’m learning a lot of French here. Abejo?
    -Durante must have been a great man with a…
    -My LATS went south a month ago
    -Wind CAVE offers spelunking tours. I’m game for most anything but…
    -If DEALS seem too good to be true…
    -Politicians usher all people in TATTERS away from their convention arenas before they convene
    -A lot of those ALTAR knots seem to be of the slipknot variety
    -Dad loved CREAM SODA after he dried out
    -Sit-ins are much more confrontational now and some want to get ARRESTed
    -At first Richard Dreyfuss wanted someone else to be RE-CAST in his Jaws role (Who is this Spielberg guy anyway?)
    -Ear flap is an Elmer Fudd fashion statement

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  16. Good morning:

    This was a fun and clever Sunday offering. Needed perps in a few areas but was mostly smooth going. Thanks, Mary Ellen, and thanks to CC for a neat expo.

    Going to a family outing later today; looking forward to lots of good food including mini chili dogs, home- made Manhattan clam chowder, steamed and raw clams, corn-on-the-cob, chicken parm, eggplant parm, spaghetti and meatballs, sausage and peppers, baked ziti, Italian bread, salad, etc.

    There should be 50-60 people but my nephew's yard is huge, as is his deck. And there is a swimming pool
    which I'm sure the kids will use for the last hurrah of the summer. It's a perfect day; sunny, bright blue skies, and 80 degrees. What more could we ask for?

    Have a great and safe holiday everyone.

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  17. P.S. Hatoolah, glad to hear you are safe and sound.

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  18. Greetings, solvers.

    I really enjoyed this puzzle as almost all the answers were tongue in cheek misdirection or puns. Very entertaining, thank you Ms.Uthlaut. And thanks, C.C., for your lovely review.

    Not much time to comment except that any unknowns were completely gettable, even ALI G which meant nothing to me. DNF at SEISMS because I had SCISMS which didn't seem right but I refused to give it up. Ah, well.

    It's great to see you back and safe, Hahtoolah.

    Have a terrific Sunday,everyone!

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  19. Whew! Just finished Bill G's logic problem from last evening -- needed a 30 X 30 logic grid, but I finally worked it out.

    Hahtoolah, good to hear that you didn't get flooded out by Isaac.

    @Anon 9:48 -- Actually, it was Lloyd Bridges who starred in Sea Hunt. I think that's what you meant to say...it just didn't come out that way. He had some great comedic roles in his later years.

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  20. Flew down to Naples Fla Thursday to close on the house. I was very happy to find a dynamic duo crossword to do on the trip. It kept me busy for 2-1/2 hrs,,, normally this would have been a DNF for me, but being trapped in a plane, i had no choice. The NW had me stumped, but just as we were about to land, i finally gave up Nestea for Salada. So i am like, DON"T LAND THE PLANE YET! I GOT IT FIGURED OUT! & hastily filled in the blanks before the Air Marshals came to handcuff me.

    My DW Sisters house A/C broke, so it was stifling, no TV, no WIFI, No crosswords or blog! ( i think i am suffering from withdrawal!)

    PK, love yr poem!

    Interesting to learn about RR's "do not hump",,, but can some explain what it has to do with bridges???

    Manac, LOL Flashbeer! It's good to know i can retire & someone is there to take my place to make this Blog a little more silly!

    CC: it is not curiosity but necessity that will make me go to a nail salon, i can barely reach my feet anymore, & DW will not help! She says she will pay for the pedicure if i have my claws trimmed, but insists that i do not go to her nail salon & embarrass her!

    I used to love "Sea Hunt", but the theme is not what i remember (it stinks!) maybe i got it confused with Perry Mason!

    (note 2nd side link, Leonard Nimoy b/4 he was famous!)

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  21. Good afternoon everyone.

    DNF. Didn't even come close, but I did get 45 answers correctly.

    Great write up C.C. And clever clues Ms Uthlaut, even though I couldn't grok so many of them.

    CrossEyedDave, so glad you're moving to Naples. Maybe when you're settled in we can get together with Grumpy1 and have a nice get together.

    Have a nice Labor Day everyone, and let's not forget why it exists!

    Cheers

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  22. Hi all! I read this blog religiously, but haven't commented before. Now I really must, because I'd like to know if the answer to the logic puzzle will be given.

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  23. @Anon 1:04 -- look at last night's late postings. Somebody posted the answers.

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  24. Thank you, desper-otto!

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  25. I am happy to give the answer to the logic puzzle but I haven't only because I figure these kinds of puzzles are self-checking. If you solved it, you are pretty sure you have the correct answer. If you didn't solve it, you probably don't care. Anyway, I didn't want to post it before everybody had a chance to solve it. (I solved this years ago and didn't keep my answer. I found this answer on the Internet. If you want more info, Google Einstein's Logic puzzle.) Spoiler alert! Answer below.

    First Second Third Fourth Fifth
    Yellow Blue Red Green White
    Norwegian Dane Brit German Swede
    Water Tea Milk Coffee Beer
    Cats Horses Birds FISH Dogs
    Dunhills Blends Pall Malls Princes Bluemasters
    The German has the fish and drinks coffee in the green house, which is fourth on the block.

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  26. Ah, well, I was referring to the train puzzle. Couldn't find it even after desper-otto's post. Must be like the crossword titles; just not available to me. Unfortuntately I re-posted it to a group and we are very frustrated that we can't solve it. (Well, one guy thinks he did....but....)

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  27. OK, sorry. Here's the train puzzle answer.

    I won’t go through the entire solution, but I will explain several of the clues. Since the brakeman lives exactly halfway between Chicago and Detroit, the people who live in those two cities can’t be his nearest neighbor. Mr. Jones can’t be the brakeman’s nearest neighbor either since his salary of $40,000 is not exactly three times any number (it’s not divisible by three). Continuing on, I finally concluded that Smith must be the engineer. (The brakeman is Jones and the fireman is Robinson.)

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  28. Seahunt starred lloyd bridges! Beau and jeff are lloyd's sons. Alan alda's role in'aviator' was as senator brewster of maine.

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  29. Hello everybody. Two days in a row now that I couldn't get a grip on the puzzle. ANADEM stumped me, although I remember the word DIADEM from hymns we sang in church. SPIRANT stumped me, too, and I ended up not finishing that area. My favorite answer was HIT THE ROOF, and I laughed at the mental image of the elevator operator not stopping in time. Ooops!

    Hahtoolah, glad you were not water damaged. Fermatprime, sorry you were.

    Best wishes to you all.

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  30. Lloyd Bridges was the star of Sea Hunt. He is the father of Beau & Jeff. Great puzzle today.

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  31. Today on discovering that a herd or flock of sheep can also be called a MOB, I can't get the image out of my mind. It is quite apropos. On the one lane back country roads of Scotland we were often halted by a huge MOB of sheep which surged around us and blocked the road in front of us.

    On the narrow road if a lorry (in American English, truck) or other vehicle approached one driver would have to pull off the road, usually by backing up, into the nearest pull out spot called a lorry lay-by. It sounded sort of DF to our uneducated American eras.

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  32. PK:
    Your poem from yesterday demonstrates ARTISTIC talent. I like it! Do you still write and do you have more?

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  33. Hatoolah, I've been thinking about you and so glad to hear you are doing OK. I can't imagine having a few days without any power. You are a trooper!

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  34. Good Day to You All.

    Got up really late today and took an hour and a half to slog through today's puzzle. Technical DNF for a lot of the same reasons mentioned earlier by others (in the East).

    Speaking of the East, I didn't get (Brooklyn) Hts, but now that I have the answer, I am reminded of the theme song to the Patty Duke Show. Anyone else?

    Is it just me or do the answers "Altar" and "I Do" appear together an inordinate amount of the time?

    The Ivan Tors studio in Miami was the setting for many underwater adventure films, including the TV series Sea Hunt and Flipper.

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  35. Excuse me, I meant the West, not the East.

    Also, "MADAM, I'm ADAM" is my favorite palindrome...

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  36. Vegas, my first thought was Car 54 Where Are You? but that was Jackson Heights. I do remember the Patty Duke theme song

    One more travel note (last one, I promise), Is there any motel chain that has soft water? I could have rubbed on those cakes of soap until St. Swithun’s Day and I would not seen even a hint of suds.

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  37. HG:
    You might have to go to Hawaii for soft water. There, soap lathers in an instant.

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  38. The plumbers are going to set me back another $12,000! This is with cutting off several of the peripheral pipes away from the house.

    Hahtoolah: Happy that you survived!

    Do our Anons actually read these posts? Lloyd Bridges is mentioned not once or twice, but thrice by them!

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  39. Great word, thrice. I was thinking of posting the Lloyd Bridges answer one wore time, just in case....

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  40. The puzzle was fun today except for WEES. I got all the theme answers but crashed elsewhere. I wanted Brooklyn brg. C.C.'s comments were all gold.

    Glad Hahtoolah wasn't all wet and only in the dark!

    Thank you for your nice comments on my poem. It was titled "Timeless" which I forgot to post. My poetry period was when my children were small and I didn't have time for any other writing. I have a small collection of my poems.

    As a compulsive writer, my needs were met when the new newspaper publisher invited me to contribute to his publication after I wrote a letter to the editor he liked. After that I free-lanced and wrote a humor column while my kids were small then went in-house full-time off and on--a total of 20 years not consecutively. Pouring your brains onto paper can be exhausting. Now I write only letters and email. Rather read.

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  41. PK: Re your poem from yesterday...it really was quite lovely. I didn`t mean to denigrate it in any way with my "doggerel."

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  42. Anon @8:37: I thought your "doggeral", as you called it, was funny. I got a good laugh over it. Honey, I wrote for publication 20 years and got a very thick skin. Also a lot of what I wrote, I expected people to laugh at. I encourage anyone to try writing. If nothing else, it's a good catharsis. I stayed sane writing my troubles into humor--which is what you were doing with your wee cat.

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  43. I'm confused. Why isn't this Sunday puzzle the one that was in the LA Times today? The Saturday puzzle posted here is the same as the one in the paper yesterday so why is this one different?

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  44. The LA Times (paper edition) run a Merl Reagle crossword but their own syndicated crossword runs in other papers and on line. Why? We don't know.

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  45. I was on Ms. Uthlaut's wave length and zipped through most of this one. I had no title, but it soon became evident. My last section, the one Barry mentioned, hung me up for a short time. I WAGed AGE and GAIT. Finally ON SITE broke the section open. I then found HEARSE, great clue. Last to fall was the P for SPIRANT. Then, oh yeah, POST made sense.

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