I believe this is a debut puzzle for Mr. Crandall. If so, congratulations! It's a great feeling to see your first puzzle published in the LA Times, isn't it?
And here are the stars of the show:
17A. Pound : BEAT WITH A HAMMER
25A. Pound : STRAY DOG SHELTER
43A. Pound : MEASURE OF WEIGHT
58A. Pound : BRITISH CURRENCY
It's Thursday again, so I must be Marti. Four 15-letter themers. Pretty impressive, with totally different meanings in each entry. Pretty straightforward, so any questions?
Across:
1. Breakfast brand : TOTAL. I like Special K, myself.
6. Omega, to an electrician : OHM. Or a yoga chant, to Marti.
9. Stage : PHASE. I'm still trying to grow out of my "awkward" PHASE.
14. Hippodrome, e.g. : ARENA. So, is that what I now have to call those saddles below my waist?
15. Yellow ride : CAB. Not submarine? 2:26
16. Come again? : RECUR. I love to recur!
20. Ocean flatfish : SOLE. Oh, sole mio!
21. Half a dance : CAN.-can. Or, cha-cha?
22. Beginnings : ONSETS
23. Church title: Abbr. : REV.erend
24. Ship destroyer in Sinbad's fifth voyage : ROC. Yikes!
34. Dilemma for Jonah : WHALE. Yikes!
(I am going to have nightmares tonight, for sure!)
35. Eggs : OVA
36. Coastal raptor : ERNE
37. Astrological Ram : ARIES
38. Econ. yardstick : GNP. Gross National Product. Jazzbumpa?
39. ZZ Top and Cream : TRIOS
40. Campus military org. : ROTC. Reserve Officer's Training Corps.
41. Hat with a tassel : FEZ. I thought of Abejo!
42. ___ City, Oklahoma : PONCA. Map. Famous for? (Bullwinkle had relatives there!)
47. Homer's neighbor : NED. All I know about the Simpsons, I learned in crosswords!
48. Chaired, say : LED
49. Degenerate : EFFETE. Spoiled, burned out, corrupt, debased.
53. Rte. provider : AAA. American Automobile Association. "Triple 'A'"
54. Astrological edge : CUSP. I believe the Libra-Scorpio CUSP is coming up on 19-October. Any astrologers out there?
61. Capital on the Aar : BERNE. Another map.
62. Holiday ___ : INN
63. Church centerpiece : ALTAR
64. Place : STEAD
65. One may have a sitter : PET. Or, a sematary
66. Small world? : GLOBE. It's a small world, after all. (Caution: "ear worm") 6:04
Down:
1. Bar obligations : TABS
2. Longtime Hydrox competitor : OREO. Did you hear about their new candy corn cookie?
3. Freshwater duck : TEAL. Yumm!
4. Chip in a new pot : ANTE. Poker chip.
5. Principle : LAW
6. Common choir music book size : OCTAVO. About 6 x 9 inches.
7. Chemistry Nobelist Otto : HAHN. The "Father of Nuclear Chemistry".
8. CEO's degree : MBA. Masters of Business Administration. Chief Executive Officer.
9. Ride proudly : PRANCE
10. Haws' partner : HEMS. Not "gees?"...geez!! Oh, wait: here we have it at 38D. Opposite of hawed : GEED.
11. Top : ACME. Also, Road Runner's supplier. ("Meep, meep!!")
12. Cooking fat : SUET. Southern for "lard."
13. Overthrows, maybe : ERRS. This one gave me fits. I wanted "usurps," but it wouldn't fit. Of course, we are talking about a baseball error here, I think?
18. Coffee, tea or milk option : ICED. Yay!! Not "Ice" tea...
19. Fuss : HOOHA. Oh yeah! 0:05
23. Whiskey orders : RYES
24. Invitation initials : RSVP. Répondez s'il vous plaît, meaning "Please respond.”
25. Group in a hive : SWARM
26. Severe pang : THROE. I really, really, really wanted "Throb"...
27. Eastern yogurt condiment : RAITA. Learning moment. I'll have to try this recipe, made with cucumber, yogurt, coriander, cumin, mint and cayenne. Serve with Seekh kabab.
28. Smart guys? : ALECS. Baldwins, et al.?
29. "Great" Muppet daredevil : GONZO
30. "Vive ___!" : LE ROI. ("The King")
31. Camera-to-telescope adapter : T-RING. Another new one for me. Any amateur photographers out there who have one?
32. Methuselah's father : ENOCH
33. Posed again : RESAT. meh...
39. Adorned in a prankish way : TP'ED. Short for "Toilet Papered". It is getting to be that time of year when pranksters will adorn your trees.
41. Lets go : FREES. And a clecho:
44. Let go, as a prisoner : UNTIED
45. Show off : FLAUNT
46. Fray, e.g. : WEAR
49. Abates : EBBS
50. Worry : FRET
51. Camper's cooker : FIRE. Anyone for BBQ?
52. Europe's highest active volcane : ETNA.
53. Promgoer's concern : ACNE. Not to be confused with 11D.
54. Basic organic unit : CELL
55. Golden rule word : UNTO. "Do unto others..."
56. Healing sign : SCAB
57. Flammable pile : PYRE
59. Trendy : HIP
60. Joplin piece : RAG. And I leave you with this, until next week! 3:34
Hugs,
Marti
EZRA...Ezra Pound, where are you?
ReplyDeleteGood morning, folks. Thank you, Jeff Crandall, for a swell Thursday puzzle. Thank you, Marti, for a very good review. You caught my FEZ. Thanks for remembering.
ReplyDeleteDid not know TOTAL for 1A. Got it later. I am a Cheerios guy.
OHM was easy. Used it all my life. Ohm's Law. E=IR
My first theme was BRITISH CURRENCY. The rest came easily.
Ah, NED, again. I feel I know the Simpsons quite well. As Marti, I have never seen the show.
Did not know the word RAITA for 27D. However, I am sure I have eaten a version of it many times.
Enjoyed the confusion over HEMS and GEED. Took me some thinking.
I did know LE ROI. I know, that's amazing, but I remembered that from an earlier time.
Not sure what a T RING would look like for 31D. I have a camera but no telescope.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
Morning, all!
ReplyDeleteI managed to get through this one unassisted, but it certainly slapped me around a bit.
PONCA and RAITA were complete unknowns that I couldn't believe were correct when the perps filled them in for me.
Had CHA instead of CAN for awhile. HAHN was another unknown, but I had strong doubts that there was a famous scientist named HAHA...
Also had TAM instead of FEZ at first (confused a tassel with a pompom) as well as GPS for AAA.
My first thought for 34A was WHALE, but I couldn't figure out how it was a "dilemma." I was thinking the main definition ("a situation requiring a choice between equally undesirable alternatives") and not the more general "any difficult or perplexing situation or problem."
Thank you Jeff and thank you Marti.
ReplyDeleteTook 55:08 to complete this one, and I almost gave up a couple of times. Had to walk away and then refocus. The East Side TRIOS, PONCA, LEROI, T RING and ENOCH gave me absolute fits. The Crossing C was a WAG.
I initially had THROB in STEAD of THROE and TAM in place of FEZ. And RAITA was no gimme, but the perps took care of her. Or it. Ditto EFFETE. Had no problem with getting Homer's neighbor, NED Flanders. The Simpsons was actually a pretty funny show at times, but you had to get to know the characters, and their peccadilloes. Great writing.
Speaking of RECUR, which side of the noun fence are you on ? RECURRENCE or REOCCURRENCE ?
Greetings!
ReplyDeleteVery challenging puzzle, Jeff. Was surprised when I finally got it done (no cheats). Great expo, Marti, as per usual!
Mostly what Barry said.
I was stunned when I logged on late last night and read windhover's entry. I cried for a long time after. CA was a very intelligent, kind and insightful person. Really enjoyed her contributions here.
PK: loved your original poem!
Long Jewish holiday will be over and workmen will hopefully come back to finish all of the undone jobs. I must try to get to sleep. 4:06 is much too late for me to be awake. (A habit that developed in the last three days, as my swimming partner has been unable to come. Feel like a root vegetable.)
Cheers!
Good Morning, Marti and friends. I loved this POUNDing puzzle. I was looking an appearance by our frequent crossword guest, Ezra Pound, though!
ReplyDeleteThe hat with a tassel must be a FEZ because mortaboard doesn't fit. A nice shout out there to our own Abejo!
Hand up for wanting Lard instead SUET. I also wanted Scar instead of SCAB.
The CAN-CAN makes me think of Toulouse-Lautrec.
I was reluctant to write in ICED only because I am not familiar with Iced Milk.
Interestingly, there were actually 3 OTTOs who were the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Our Otto HAHN won in 1944. Otto Wallach was the recipient of the prize in 1910, and in 1950, the recipient of the prize was Otto Diels.
As well as TP'ing their friends homes, kids here stick tons of plastic forks in front yards, thereby "forking" their friends.
QOD: I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt (October 11, 1884 - November 7, 1962)
PS My daughter, who was for several years a community college math teacher in San Fernando, gave that up and became a self-styled Reiki healer (see yesterday's blog). Theoretically, she heals her previous customers by phone from Colorado. When she was here, she gave me a crystal to wear. (I did not see any progress.) She has refused to come into my home for several years due to its purported bad energy. I am told that she cries a lot at home and has few customers (at $100/hour). My s-i-l is still here in L. A. as he has a well-paid job as a CPA at Kaiser Permanente. Thank goodness for Skype, as I now can see my lovely grandson and granddaughter occasionally. I really miss them. (Can't get my daughter in on Skype as she believes that computers have bad energy also.
ReplyDeleteGood Thursday puzzle.
ReplyDeleteWould've been great were it not for iced milk.
D'OH ! Simpson character idiosyncrasies, not peccadilloes.
ReplyDeleteGood morning, Marti, C.C. and gang - certainly not a simple solve for me this morning - I had many of the same problems already mentioned. Loved the cluing, 'cause I fell for most of the misdirection, most notably with 'overthrows, maybe' where I was trying to think of something related to 'ousts'. Very, very nicely done puzzle with the glaring exception of 'iced milk', as anon mentioned.
ReplyDeleteLeaving in a little bit for the 8-9 hour run up to Atlanta for the aforementioned 50th reunion. It should be interesting; one of the few times when I have to face how old I am in physical years.
Lucina, better study up for the exam.
Hope it's a great day for everyone.
Enjoyed this puzzle. Never heard of Raita, Leroi, Tring, or Hahn. Had Throb instead of Throe for the longest time. I also didn't know Effete. Eventually got it all sorted out with perps. Congrats on a great debut puzzle Jeff!
ReplyDelete"I love to recur!"
ReplyDeleteI saw what you did there, Marti... ^_^
I haven't done the puzzle yet, sorry for intruding, but after the last couple of days i felt you might appreciate some cheering up.
ReplyDeleteBecause you are all Puff the Magic Dragon fans, you might appreciate his cousin,,, "Piff."
Witty blog, as usual, Marti. This was a fairly straightforward solve. I didn't know RAITA, but the perps were solid and easy.
ReplyDeleteI had HAH right away. Only N would make a name, and a dance with CA had to be CANCAN. The German HAHN means rooster in English.
I didn't know PONCA or T-RING, but I was missing only one letter. The only reasonable entry was N to make T-Ring. PONCA did look strange.
Although spell check accepts “reoccurrence” and it appears in dictionaries, it seems awkward and is little used.
Hahtoolah, priceless QOD. LOL
My “N to make T-ring” comment above reminds me of a school incident. We had an open floor plan where anyone walking down the hall could see into and hear the lesson in any classroom. I asked, “How do you make babies?” just as the principal was walking by. She was startled and stopped to listen. Then she saw I had written BABY on the board and was teaching the –ies plural rule. Of the course, the second graders did not catch on to her concern.. That would not have gotten by kids a little older.
Long ago Spiro Agnew fixed EFFETE and “nabob” in my mind. He said, "A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an EFFETE corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals."
ReplyDeleteAgnew’s “nattering nabobs of negativism” is a classic, penned by William Safire. I would have been embarrassed to utter many of the colorful lines that were written for Agnew. They did not enhance his image.
I did enjoy reading Safire’s NYT columns “On Language.” He originally was a grammar nitpicker, as was I. I evolved toward accepting the more liberal view of the descriptive linguists. Eventually Safire did, too.
Great Xword Jeff; Thanks Marti
ReplyDeleteWEES
I concur with recur ;~)
Oh, I actually went to Ponca City in my youth (don't remember a thing about the place)
Barry G. @ 7:31, LOL.
ReplyDeleteMostly WBS except his 1st and 4th paragraphs--I was completely stuck on the mideast not knowing TRIOS or PONCA, as well as those Barry mentioned so ended as a DNF.
ReplyDeleteKevin Ajax On,
Think Vive le roi! as in "the king is dead, Long live the king!" ROI is KING in French.
A fun theme of grid spanners and clever fill? I can’t imagine how hard that would be. Thanks Jeff! Marti, here’s hoping you get to RECUR often ;-) Maybe Eleanor did just that against that wall.
ReplyDeleteMusings
-The NE corner held out as I ERRed with Lard (SUET) and Gees (HAWS). Later GPS (AAA), Gown (ACNE), Throb (THROE)
-Our neighbor’s yellow lab wound up at the Pound after he nipped grandson who required stitches
-“A pints a POUND the world around”
-The Shriners around here are usually rich men of my vintage with FEZzes on their heads riding in small cars in parades and doing great things for their hospital charity.
-All I know about French, I learned from cwds and Madame Marti.
-Jon Stewart’s Moment of Zen about Brittney Spears’ HooHa (I opted for a discussion rather than pictures which abound on the web)
-Find the word GEE in Chubby Checker’s Pony Time
-I’ve never heard a baseball person use the word ERR in discussing an error. Now if Shakespeare were doing play-by-play, “He didst ERR on gathering that ORB falling from the heavens to his bosom”
-Try to get a 3 year old to RESIT if you miss the first picture
-TPing is thought to be good natured but I don’t see the perpetrators coming around to clean up
-Hollywood credo, “If ya got it, FLAUNT it”
-Fermatprime –I know some people with estranged children and can’t imagine the heart ache.
Well I got a late start today, so WEES.
ReplyDeleteI liked 66A: Small World? GLOBE
I wanted CHA CHA instead of CAN CAN.
I wanted THROB instead of THROE.
I wanted GPS instead of AAA.
My mind's way off today!
Lerarning moments were EFFETE and RAITA.
Hope you have a great day, (and hope mine gets better!)
Good morning all.
ReplyDeletePretty much what Kazie said. Missed TRIOS. At least the long theme acrosses were getable with some perp help. BRITISH CURRENCY came first. OCTAVO was a new one for me as was PONCA. Had 'ran' before LED. Overall I thought Jeff did a good job.
Had my 50th year reunion 7 years ago. Oddly everyone else seemed to have gotten quite a bit older than I remembered them.
Enjoy the day.
I hope my father-in-law never figures out that LE ROI means the king. His name is Leroy and if he found out his head would swell up so much this ROI wouldn't be able to wear his crown!
ReplyDeleteGood monring, everybody!
ReplyDeleteThis was a nice romp this morning, but not a PRANCE. And isn't PRANCE something you do and not a way to ride?
I got sent to PONCA City once back in the '80's to investigate a crane accident. I believe the city consists of a huge Phillips Petroleum refinery...and not much else.
Hand up for LARD before SUET. RAITA was a learning moment. Marti, I've never heard it referred to as "RECUR" before. Classy!
TTP, I feel the same way about RECUR/reoccur as I do about preventive/preventative.
T-RING? Really? How can a ring be T-shaped? I wasn't able to parse it correctly. I thought maybe it was a combined form for some kind of TRIpod thiNG.
Hi Y'all, Fun puzzle! Great writeup, Marti.
ReplyDeleteI did fine on the bottom 2/3 except for the "T" and "I" in TRIO. Got the NW block until I got to LA_. Principle and LAW still just don't seem right to me.
I didn't know what we were BEATing. Wanted something to do with a drum. Funny I didn't get this because I had a brother-in-law who would grab a hammer and start beating on anything that didn't work right. There were lots of family jokes about it.
Couldn't get OHM and had forgotten OCTAVO so long has it been since my choral days. I put "cha" and was sticking with it. But Marti showed me the ERRS of my ways.
I'm glad you found my poem meaningful.
As others note, BRITISH CURRENCY was the easy one of the theme answers (maybe because my parents are traveling to London next week?); shook the rest of them loose.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely had RESAY instead of RECUR, HEES instead of HEMS, CHA instead of CAN, and THROB instead of THROE on the first time through.
"I wear fezes now. Fezes are cool."
Never would have guessed SUET because I only think of that for bird feeders.
New ones included ROC, T-RING, and PONCA. Wouldn't ever have guessed those.
Thanks for the great blog.
Cheers!
Thank you Jeff Crandall, for a lovely, lovely puzzle .... Another Thursday under my belt... Woo Hoo ! Thank you Marti, for your oh-so-delightful commentary ... Thanks to Barry and you (again - ), I 'got' the recurring joke ... I must start reading your comments with greater concentration and contemplation ....
ReplyDeleteI was going to have a nit - about condiments - but I read the meaning from Wiki, and found that it has been used correctly. I read it as a spice, and I thought Cumin. But a condiment is a sauce. Raita was a surprise though, through the perps. Its definitely an acquired taste - my parents ate it with every meal, I eat it 3 times a week, and my kids wont touch it. Its like coleslaw, in yogurt. The yogurt dissolves the capsaicin, from the chillies, and other spices, and eases up the stomach.
Could 'pound' also be the past tense of pounce ? ... in the south ?
I had 'Basel' or 'Basle' before Berne, and 'Hees' before hems and 'GDP' before GNP, and 'map' and 'GPS' before AAA.
Thank you, thank you for the 'It's a small world' link ... made my day !!! I love that song. But the video had no lyrics ... perhaps because its was from Disneyland, Paris ... and there are probably no French equivalents to the English words and lyrics.... I did get the words from the accompanying video.
ALT QOD:- I put my bag in the x-ray machine and found out it has cancer. It only has six more months to hold stuff. ~ Mitch Hedberg.
Have a good week, you all.
desper-otto @ 9:05, The "T" in T-RING comes from the company that first produced it as a universal adapter for camera lenses:
ReplyDelete"Tamron"
Thanks Kazie. I knew roi was king I had just never seen vive leroi before. I will file that in the old memory bank, but I'm sure it will be vive (something else) next time. Thank God for perps I guess.
ReplyDeleteSome months ago, we had a discussion about Schroedinger's Cat - where according to quantum physics principles, .... a cat in a box could be both alive and dead - at the same time - until somebody (actually) took a look at it.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, David Wineland (US) and Serge Haroche (France) got the 2012 Nobel for Physics, for developing techniques for 'looking' at that cat - by studying the experimental and theoretical interplay of light and matter, atoms and photons, at the sub-atomic level.
Google them, if interested.
On a related matter, all you cat lovers, especially Marti and Hahtoolah - Beware, and be very afraid - your cats are now at risk. (lol).
Vive La France! Vive la difference!
ReplyDeletemarti with your throbbing and recurring, I do not know how you had time to blog.
I found lots to like here, most of which you all have said; I liked
ZZ Top and Cream : TRIOS, requiring some thought, NED followed by LED and I alsways thought of EFFEETE as the men with scented handkerchiefs up their sleeve, and their noses in the air.
Your TEAL pic made me wonder which ducks we actually eat, and I found this suggestion of the order of yum in the duck world:
1. Gadwall
2. Mallard
3. Teal
4. Wigeon
5. Wood Duck
6. Specklebelly
so there you are. Thanks m. and Jeff, nice initials.
'Toid as in FACTOID? MASTOID? or the sad RHEUMATOID?
ReplyDeleteWelcome
Good morning:
ReplyDeleteHad a bit of trouble early on with throb before throe, lard before suet, hees before hems. Learning moment was degenerate for effete. Somehow I always though effete meant privileged. Also never heard of raita.
Nice puzzle, Jeff, and nice expo, Marti. I needed a lot of perps and some wags but did finish w/o help which surprised me after such a rocky start.
Happy Thursday to all.
Well, I didn't quite get all of this, but I did get the theme early for a change, and thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle--so, many thanks, Jeff! I liked your "Yikes!", Marti.
ReplyDeleteAh, Ezra POUND! My biggest and silliest problem was that I had OCTAVE instead of OCTAVO and that gave me -e- between STRAY and SHELTER. I figured it had to be STRAY PET SHELTER but ICED P didn't make sense and I've never heard of TONZO. I have to remember that when things don't work like this, it means I goofed somewhere. I got TRING all right, but kept asking what the (bleep) is a Tring? But that's all part of the fun of a tricky puzzle.
We have thunderstorms today, and of course, I forgot to turn off the sprinklers.
Have a great Thursday, everybody!
Lemon, I just couldn't resist...
ReplyDeleteThese "tiods" recur alphabetically -
allantoid, apoplectoid, balistoid, basaltoid, blastoid, cactoid, cataleptoid, cestoid, cottoid, cystoid, cytoid, dartoid, deltoid, demantoid, dentoid, dermatoid, dermestoid, elementoid, elephantoid, epidermatoid, epileptoid, erysipelatoid, filametoid, granitoid, graphitoid, haematoid, haliotoid, hematoid, histoid, hydatoid, keratoid, lentoid, leucitoid, mastoid, mattoid, mycetoid, nematoid, nitritoid, odontoid, paramastoid, parotoid, pegtatoid, petromastoid, phytoid, planetoid, pleuronectoid, pyritoid, rheumatoid, spermatoid, sternomastoid, stylomastoid, tactoid, teratoid, thanatoid, trachytoid, trematoid, zoophytoid,
Marti. thanks for the T-RING explanation.
ReplyDeletePRANCE can mean "ride a prancing horse."
We can buy SUET for cooking in our grocery stores in NJ. We're quite multi-ethnic here.
IMO THROE is even more severe than "throb," so it was my first choice.
A 2 letter prank+ed at this time of year brought TPED to mind immediately and so helped to open up that section.
We have "pound parties," where everyone donates a POUND (or several) of sugar, coffee, powdered creamer, instant iced tea mix, etc. to stock our coffee hour pantry at church.
This one had me scratching my noggin. I have never seen OHM clued that way, didn't know HAHN, never heard the term OCTAVO. And TRING? What's a tring! Ohhhhh...t-ring. Geez. All in all, it made me smile. Thanks Jeff.
ReplyDeleteI didn't comment yesterday about the news regarding Lois (CA). I did get a chance to sit across the table from her at lunch a year ago. It was such a delightful afternoon meeting her, Lucina, Chickie, JD and Dodo. Boy did we laugh....and laugh...and laugh! We'll miss you. Rest in peace, Lois.
Well, this was a gem of a debut. although RECUR and ERR gave me fits. Thanks to Marti as usual. You are not awkward with language, so take heart!
ReplyDeleteIced milk still sounds weird to me. Is it like "lite" ice cream, or do some people actually drink milk with ice cubes?
Out here on the plains, SUET is something you put in a bird feeder. I wanted LARD, but the perps would't allow that.
Funny you should mention BBQ, Marti. I am going to try some ribs in my new pressure cooker tonight.
I agree with Lemonade about the meaning of EFFETE.
Good afternoon everyone.
ReplyDeleteI sleep late and go to bed late, so I did not read about Clear Ayes until late last night. The words from so many were very moving as were the poems.
I took a poetry class at U. of Illinois in 1951, and all we read was T.S. Eliot. Therefore it is hard to find one for Clear Ayes. So I have a T.S.Eliot fragment with which to mourn the passing of a most outstanding member of this group,
I am saddened to hear about Lois/ClearAyes, and also about eddyB. RIP
ReplyDeletePortrait of a Lady
ReplyDelete"You do not know how much they meant to me, my friends,
And how, rare and strange it is to find
In a life composed so much, so much of odds and ends, ...
To find a friend who has these qualities,
Who has, and gives
Those qualities upon which friendship lives.
anonymouse: considering our blog yesterday, your alternate QOD might have been better saved for another day...
ReplyDeletePS: desper-otto, I totally agree with your comment about recur and preventive.
ReplyDeleteI freely admit to being a stickler, in the words of "Eats Shoots and Leaves".
DNF this puzzle. Never did figure out all of each of the theme ones. Which didn't give me the perps to get traction on many of the others.
Cheers, if we can.
Fermatprime, Sorry to hear about your problems with your daughter. Family things are so fraught with angst. By bad energy, does she think you are haunted or something? Maybe you could ask her to come and do a house blessing/cleansing or whatever they do--sprinkle holy water and pray or burn sage and use a feather to waft around the smoke. (I've watched a few paranormal shows on TV) Even if you think it is ridiculous, it might be worth it if she came and brought the grandchildren. With all the problems you have had with your house, a blessing might even help!?
ReplyDeleteMornin' All!
ReplyDeleteLike many of you, got the themes right away. I got 'beat with a hammer' first, then it all fell in place. Didn't even think of Ezra, oddly enough.
I also was annoyed with PRANCE. Looked it up and, indeed, Webster says "2. To ride a prancing horse" along with a couple of other surprising (to me) defs.
No prob with RAITA--been making and eating them for many years.
I wanted BANDS for ZZ & Cream, till TPED put me right.
PONCA was an unknown to me.
Also had CHA for CAN, til HAH needed an N.
The D in ICED also gave me a problem... Annoyed the heck outta me... :-)
Hatoolah, thx for the hilarious Q.O.D.
And thanks to Jeff for a very fun puzzle, and to Marti for a great writeup.
Suet was/is traditionally used by the British for spotted dick pudding and Christmas pudding among other puddings. See article for the origin of the df sounding name.
ReplyDeleteLink spotted dick
Link Christmas pudding
YR, Spotted dick pudding not only sounds DF, but positively diseased! Think I'll stick with Jell-O.
ReplyDeleteHello, Marti and all. Yes, Marti, you are in top form today! Must be all that RECURring. LOL
ReplyDeleteSlept in today, the first time since vacation and it felt so good. Then sashayed right through most of Jeff Crandall's opus, mostly downward as needed many perps to fill the themes.
My first dance was the CHA but like Barry, thought a scientist named HAHA was unlikely.
Then I HEMmed and hawed at PON_A and finally consulted my handy road atlas for PONCA. However, GDP never made the cutting floor so GODZO remained a muppet. DNF
Very clever theme from Mr. Crandall and I also thought of Abejo at FEZ.
Dennis, you have no idea how hard and often I am studying for that exam! It's a recurring activity.
You all have a stupendous Thursday! Nail and pedi day for me.
Suet is lamb or sheep fat. Not lard which is pork fat. Southern nothing. Lamb is not popular in the south.
ReplyDeleteTea that is iced, IS iced tea. When one writes "ice tea" it indicates tea made from ice...a whole "nuther" ball game. The same would apply to "spiced tea."
ReplyDeleteSuet is lamb or sheep fat. Not lard which is pork fat. Southern nothing. Lamb is not popular in the south.
ReplyDeleteFermatprime: I have much empathy, only mine is a son...
ReplyDeleteYellowrocks: you make me eager for Christmas. Every year, I make plum pudding with SUET.
Here In SoCal both SUET and LARD abound in the markets before Christmas, as that is tamale-making time.
Anon. @ 11.54, .... on hindsight, which is always 20/20, I now deeply regret typing in that ALT QOD, .... which I get out of the daily newspaper ...
ReplyDeleteThank you, Marti for the explanation of the T-Ring - I was only familiar with what is called a 'bayonet' for interchanging of lenses in a SLR.
I used to think of 'Effete', as effeminate - now it's 'degenerate' as well ?
Welcome, 'Troid' to the web - and come often and contribute.
For 18 D... I was tempted to put 'Coffee, Tea ...' - 'OR ME'.
I always thought of Otto Hahn, as the father of the Atom Bomb - and the biggest compelling reason for the Manhattan Project... But, more accurately, it is Edward Teller who is considered the 'father' of the Atom bomb. In 1937, Otto Hahn discovered nuclear fission, together with Lisa Meitner (who was never given due recognition, nor a Nobel - ).
When my daughter was in college, they poured the juice and milk into glasses...sometimes the milk was nearly room temp. when she got to it.( someone obviously knew very little about the fact that, the longer milk stays un-refrigerated, the more the already-present microbes multiply.) She started putting ice in her milk and still does. Milk actually gets colder than water, when iced, because milk has a thicker composition.
ReplyDeleteSpelling, grammar, and meanings change over time. English is a living language. The most formal literary terms are not the only terms acceptable for every day communication. In fact, many times after decades the language used by the people eventually becomes the formally accepted language. Otherwise we would still be speaking Elizabethan English, or maybe Chaucer's English, or farther back, the language of Beowulf
ReplyDeleteIce cream is not made of ice. Ice cream was was once called iced cream.
Link ice tea/iced tea
What the Anon. above probably meant was, that the milk gets colder, ( i.e. even below 32oF ), than water, because the milk (colloid) has the property to freeze at an even lower temp. below 32oF , - much like salted ice.
ReplyDeleteIrish Miss and I must be on the EXACT same wavelength on this puzzle (both of us Irish I guess). I stumbled on the same spots and agree with her about EFFETE.
ReplyDeleteNever heard the word GEED used in a sentence before.
Never heard the word SUET,TRING, RAITA.
Looks Like I need to either go back to Freshman English Class or get out some of those crossword puzzle Dictionaries my Dad gave me back when I was 12.
Suet is put in bird feeders here, as well. The birds need the fat in winter. Suet is more solid, for pecking and chewing, whereas lard is pasty, like butter, which, unlike suet, it is RENDERED fat.
ReplyDeleteTurmaline: I use BEEF suet in my plum pudding. To my knowledge, suet is the lacy fat around the kidneys in BEEF as well as MUTTON (not lamb, which is baby mutton). Ooh, I'm getting hungry...lol.
Dang it , I wish we could edit for a tad AFTER posting....
ReplyDeleteThat first para should read " which, unlike suet, is rendered fat.
Turmaline @ 12:27, yes. My DH is southern and cooks with good old pig lard, never "suet." That's why, in my mind anyway, in the South SUET would automatically translate as "lard."
ReplyDeleteLucina, I also had to laugh at Barry's comment about a scientist named HAHA...
YR, I have heard of spotted dick, but never saw a recipe. Thanks for linking it. My mother always used to start in the first week of Advent to make her Christmas pudding. She was not a drinker, so never poured the flaming brandy on it. Instead, she would make a "hard sauce" (sans booze - she substituted vanilla.) I could have eaten that sauce over plain bread, and never would have missed the pudding!
Hi gang -
ReplyDeleteYes, I too was looking for Ezra.
Good theme, and pretty impressive with 4 grid spanners. Very few clunkers, though I think RESAT is a bit EFFETE. OCTAVO is new to me.
Struggled through and almost had a DNF until the light came on for ENOCH. Crossing PONCA is a Natick - no?
Simply put, GNP equals Gross Domestic Product (GDP - the sum of all economic activity with the borders) + net income flow from assets abroad. Usually there is not a big difference.
I think about GDP a lot, and coincidentally put up a post about it at Angry Bear today. Have a look if you're into that sort of thing.
Tigers bull pen blew it AGAIN. Hope Verlander can pitch a complete game tonight.
Cool regards!
JzB occasionally known to FLAUNT
Whose pudding was "A Triumph, My Dear, Another Triumph!"?
ReplyDeleteAn excellent puzzle today! The theme was very doable, & enjoyable. Some of the fill one one hand, was very easy (for me), crossed by the incomprehensible. Had me going for quite a while. All in all a wonderful puzzling workout!
ReplyDeleteForgive me Marti, my 12 year old mind was puzzled by everyones reference to your recurring joke. Every time someone would mention it, i would go back to 16D, & think "a cur is a dog? I don't get it!" It wasn't until the 3rd time i checked that i went,,, ooooohhhh! Which makes me kinda mad, because i should have had that V8 moment earlier after yesterday. I was trying to explain to my neighbor about the Blog, & Tinbenis' response to "lickety-split," when he jumped in & asked, "was he coming, or going?"
66A Globe/small world. how cruel of you to up THAT video! (ACK! Earworm nightmare!) I used to hate our visits to Disney World just because of the hour long wait to be annoyed by that song! Except the last visit, taking our 14 year old, i spent the hour waiting telling her how awful this ride is, & how much she is going to hate it, all the while smiling my ass off! (yes, i am evil!)
I enjoyed Jeff's puzzle. It was hard for me though, especially in the area of TRING and PONCA. Good writeup as always Marti.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a sad couple of days around here. I hope all the families and friends are doing OK. Best wishes for them and for us.
Here's a little puzzle. I hope you'll try it. There is next to no math involved; just logic and some confusing-sounding words to parse.
The hairiest hare
Suppose you have more hares than the hairiest hare has hairs and there are no bald hares. What are your chances that at least two of your hares have the same number of hairs?
With all the talk of lamb and sheep, has anyone here ever heard of hogget? I remember as a kid, my mother referring to it. It's yearling sheep--older than lamb, but not yet old enough to be mutton. She also used to talk about older women dressed unsuitably young as mutton dressed up as lamb.
ReplyDeleteMutton fat has a yellowish tinge to it usually, not clean white like lard, and it does set very hard and more crumbly.
Hello everybody. Definitely WEES today. I guess GM do indeed TA; I fell for the same traps and made the same incorrect entries that many of you have mentioned. DNF, though, as I never figured out what letter to put in at the crossing of TRI_G and PO_CA. Like desper-otto, I kept thinking of some sort of TRIpod thingy. When I got the T in RESAT, and the M in SWARM, I over-confidently filled in POET and waited to see what the rest of the answer would be, such as MISUNDERSTOOD or something. Nope, not our friend Ezra.
ReplyDeleteMarti, a pleasure once again to read your comments and enjoy your wit. May you have many recurring recurrences
Lemonade, my initials are JC, too. Hence my on-line name.
My mom used to make SUET pudding when we were kids. We also put it out for the birds in winter, the suet not the pudding.
I used to do business with an Egyptian guy whose last name was TAHA.
Hahtoolah, thassa a lotta OTTOs!
Best wishes to you all.
In defense of ICED milk, earlier nomenclature for low fat ice cream.
ReplyDeleteI won't defend it as a desert choice, though.
Cheers!
JzB
Hi all, it's been months since I checked in but I was so saddened to hear from JD (she is in Italy) about CA (Lois). She was a classy lady, had such a great upbeat attitude and I had hopes she would beat that scourge of a disease. Alas, she had 2 different cancers going on at once (a fairly rare event). She fought the good fight and is now no longer in pain. She had such a wonderful way of explaining 'delicate' issues on this blog. I had many a good laugh reading her posts and she also always had an appropriate poem to share with all of us. She will be greatly missed.
ReplyDeleteOh, I wanted to add that it was such a pleasure to meet CA in person at the California Coven meeting in 2009. She is just as you would imagine, wonderful personality! I had to travel from Portland,Or but it was worth every mile to meet the 5 great ladies that attended that luncheon. It was great fun. I know CC has pictures in her files.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling Pat likes DESSERTS but not icedmilk.
ReplyDeleteI dunno-- klimdeci might be a condiment somewhere . . .
ReplyDeleteOops Bill G. @ 1:19, I published my answer, but then realized that it had been loss than an hour since you posted the question...soI'll send you an email.
ReplyDeleteCED, I was hoisted by my own petard when I linked IASW...I still have that annoying song going through my head!!!
Marti: Wonderful write-up & links.
ReplyDeleteRan into an old High School buddy at Disney World, last time I was there, I said: "Small world!"
So I didn't fall for that earworm ...
At Villa Incognito, Avatar is never ICED. I would consider that blasphemy.
Learning moment bonanza today. OCTAVO, HAHN, RAITA, ENOCH, PONCA.
Gotta like a puzzle that has PRANCE & FLAUNT and HEMS & GEED.
Hoping for some more "Evil-Empire" magic tonight. Go Yankees!!!
Cheers !!!
JzB, I'll be watching. When Verlander is on, he can mow 'em down.
ReplyDeleteJayce, Pat told me, "Desserts I desire not, so long no lost one rise distressed"
Wow, TTP, well done! JazzB, you may be right about that.
ReplyDeleteJayce: Ooh! It never occurred to me that Pat would like desserts. Good one! TTP, I'm impressed all to pieces! I'm awash in everybody else's cleverness!
ReplyDeleteEd, I saw Harpo Marx ram Oprah W. aside.
Credit not deserved here, but thanks anyway.
ReplyDeleteI just knew desserts / stressed, and a quick search found the rest.
Just returned from a sawdust-making exercise in the garage.
ReplyDeleteMarti, thanks for the T-Ring explanation.
Speaking of POUNDing, a common awl-field solution to any problem is to "Get a bigger hammer!"
Jayce, enjoyed your comment about Pat's DESSERT and also TTP's palindrome.
In my family's parlance PRANCing could result in RECURring.
Lucina, just how do you study for that sort of exam? LOL
I dunno,,, the theme & commentary today reminded me of Betty White...
ReplyDeleteGonzo, the biggest fool to hit the big time! (oh stop groaning & watch the clip, it's only 1:59)
Marti, you must watch at least one Simpsons Halloween episode.
1A Total,, i prefer Post Bran Flakes,,, everything else tastes like the box to me...
Hahtoolah, excellent Q.O.D.!
Bill G.@1:19,,, once again you have me pulling my hair out! Just for that, can you name, the name of the Inn, that both Bilbo & Frodo visited? (but at different times.)
I am off to see if i can locate Bullwinkles relatives in Ponca City!
Jayce and Jazzb., you guys are too funny. klimdeci on top of desserts? Pat would surely approve...
ReplyDeleteCED, ROTFLMAO at the Betty White link. Too true!
But really? Watch the Simpsons? Moi ??
CED, that would be the Prancing Pony in Bree.
ReplyDeletehello everyone. great job Heart Rx or Marti. whoever did the work.
ReplyDeletedidn't care for the 'pound' clues although they were interesting. favorite combo was 'come again' recur! luv it!
good to see Dennis back in action. he wasn't around for a while.
Hi all,
ReplyDeleteI haven't blogged for awhile. I have a different computer and it takes some getting used to. That isn't the reason for not blogging, though.
This puzzle was fun, I didn't get it all but more than usual for a Thursday. I did get the 4 theme aswers except I had pet at first instead of dog.
I knew Ponca City as my husband had relatives who lived there at one time.
Have a good day!
Marge
CED, I really enjoyed your Gonzo clip. My kind of music.
ReplyDeleteI tried to like Lord of the Rings, I really did. I read most of The Hobbit and quit because of boredom. When I found out the movies were over three hours, I was sure that would be too much for me. My rule of thumb is that a movie has to be really good to deserve over two hours of my attention.
desper-otto@2:54
ReplyDeleteIt's rigorous hands-on training.
Bill G, I did read The Hobbit and the three Ring books, but man oh man it was a slog. I felt The Hobbit was okay, but that it really was another "road journey" or "quest" story like so many others. I can't remember now why I decided to stick it out and read the whole Ring series through. Maybe it was just because everybody else was doing it and I wanted to be up to date on what so many people were raving about. The movies were not bad, but like the three books, I liked the first one the best. The 2nd one, like the book, was tedious and confusing, and the 3rd one was overblown and anticlimactic.
ReplyDeleteThe passing of Clearayes (Lois) has weighed heavily on my mind since finding out about it yesterday. Thanks Lemonade. She was a woman of great wit, wisdom, humor and had so many talents and interests. Although I don't post much anymore, I still think about all of you from way back when this blog started.
ReplyDeleteOh, I forgot to say, I did not and will not read the Harry Potter books or watch any other movies than the first one which we went to with our grandkids. In that movie,Harry Potter seemed to me to be the farthest thing from a hero, able to do nothing but stupidly gape, open-mouthed, at the events going on around him, and wonder what the fuggawi was going on.
ReplyDeleteNo, I will not quit my day job to become a book or movie critic :)
We think of you, too, jeannie.
ReplyDeleteLolita, how fabulous to see you. I know it made CA smile where ever she is.
ReplyDeleteCED, the Betty White was outrageous! Outrageously funny!
I also like the rib quote, but men are not like other animals, our sex life is much more complicated,
"No animal spends more of its allotted time on Earth fussing over sex than Homo sapiens -- not even the famously libidinous bonobo [one of our closest primate relatives]. Although we and the bonobo both average well into the hundreds, if not thousands, of acts of intercourse per birth -- way ahead of any other primate -- their 'acts' are far briefer than ours. Pair-bonded 'monogamous' animals are almost always hyposexual, having sex as the Vatican recommends: infrequently, quietly, and for reproduction only. Human beings, regardless of religion, are at the other end of the libidinal spectrum: hypersexuality personified.
"Human beings and bonobos use eroticism for pleasure, for solidifying friendship, and for cementing a deal (recall that historically, marriage is more akin to a corporate merger than a declaration of eternal love). For these two species (and apparently only these two species), nonreproductive sex is 'natural,' a defining characteristic.
"Does all this frivolous sex make our species sound 'animalistic'? It shouldn't. The animal world is full of species that have sex only during widely spaced intervals when the female is ovulating. Only two species can do it week in and week out for nonreproductive reasons: one human, the other very humanlike. Sex for pleasure with various partners is therefore more 'human' than animal. Strictly reproductive, once-in-a-blue-moon sex is more 'animal' than human. In other words, an excessively horny monkey is acting 'human,' while a man or woman uninterested in sex more than once or twice a year would be, strictly speaking, 'acting like an animal.'
Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality .
Hearti you keep getting better and better.
Thanks for the hairy input (at my e-mail address). Good work.
ReplyDeleteJeannie, it's so good to hear from you again. How is everything? New job?
There are at least three fouls in this puzzle's clues, and the third has a foul in the answer also.
ReplyDelete34A "Dilemma for Jonah": WHALE. Even if you allow the definition of dilemma, "a choice between two equally undesirable alternatives," to devolve (in the era of Webster's Third International) to "any difficult situation", as the disreputable dictionaries of today do, it should still require a choice. (Barry G. made the first half of this point.) Jonah had two options for rescue -- faith and luck -- but, unless you are a true believer, he didn't have a choice. And even if he did (this is the "atheist in a foxhole" predicament), the choice was not difficult.
41A "Hat with a tassel": FEZ. A fez is not a hat. It's a cap.
39D "Adorned in a prankish way": TPED. How many ways is this wrong? Let's start the count with the answers. The answer, of course, is TP'D (TPED is not merely an abbreviation for toilet-papered; it's a MISSPELLED abbreviation. And, misspelled or not, it requires a hint in the clue that an abbreviation is required -- e.g., "Pranklishly adorned, in brief": TP'D.
Jeannie: Good to see you again. I always think of you and CA together. You two seemed to have such a bond. I hope you will stop by often. I miss your wit and your recipes.
ReplyDeleteJeannie, so good to hear from you. We often wonder how the job is going, and miss your sparkling humor.
ReplyDeleteLemony, interesting treatise on sexuality and the bonobo ape. Hmmm...do I sense a recurring theme here?
Jeannie: have missed you! How are things?
ReplyDeletePK: Thanks for suggestion! Can't hurt to try.
I knew it. Bern has no 'E'. This is NOT (IMHO) an acceptable variation.
ReplyDeleteMarge@4:11, Your related to Bullwinkle???
ReplyDeleteMarti, the only relative i can find is Uncle Dewlap, residence unknown.
Can you pls advise your source of information? (note: under "other appearances" it is mentioned that Bullwinkle was interviewed by Hans Conreid on Fractured Flickers. Boy i wish i could see that episode!)
My paper (Newark Star Ledger) had a "thought for today."
TFT: "When a friend speaks to me, whatever he says is interesting." Jean Benoir, French movie director (1894-1979).
Jayce, speaking as friends,,, the Lord of the Rings trilogy is..............................
CED, check out the wiki article on "Ponca, OK" under "In Popular Culture"...
ReplyDeleteI finally found Mr. Big. Now who was it that was asking about him?
ReplyDeleteAh, it was the Husker. What cartoon had MR. BIG (BEEG) as a character?
ReplyDeleteThanks to Marti for the write up and Mr. Crandall for the puzzle. I guess one day I will learn all the Simpson stuff. For now I rely on the "perps" as everyone here says. I didn't effete either so had some learning moments today, which I alway appreciate. To everyones good health!
ReplyDeleteI have to agree about the Harry Potter movies/books. I did not think they were inspiring for young people excepting that it brought some children back to the joy of reading. I never found what was so interesting.
ReplyDeleteFermatprime I know all too well about the trials of a child who won't communicate (with me) and thus share your wish to find a way through it.
Bad tape but MR BIG .
ReplyDeleteThanks Marti, there was some confusion as to the title of the show. Wiki says Rocky & his friends, season 2 Episode 38, but i was surprised to find it on YouTube as "The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show."
ReplyDeleteThe entire video is 22:31. References to his relatives in Ponca City are at 2:58 & 18:55. (& yes,,, i watched the whole thing...) but it wasn't a total loss, i learned that John Holland built the 1st modern submarine, & the Holland Tunnel in NYC!
Good to see Jeannie here again. I too would like to know how your job situation is going. Unfortunate how life gets in the way of blogging sometimes, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteLemonade, the video of Mr. Big brought back great memories. Thanks for sharing. Everyone here comes up with the best stuff to link. I finished my "blue" profile yesterday...(at least for now). So learning to link will have to come soon!
ReplyDeleteMichele, feel free to e-mail me if you need some help with creating links.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bill G. Does my email show up yet?
ReplyDeleteI don't see it on your profile.
ReplyDeletePonca City, OK didn't just have an oil refinery--it was the headquarters of Conoco. Bartlesville, OK was the headquarters of Phillips Oil. Once Conoco/Phillips merged I'm not sure what part of the company they have in which city.
ReplyDeleteGot hung up with Berne because I knew Bern didn't have an E--filled it in with perps and decided maybe it was a French spelling. Learning word of the day: Raita.
I can't believe all you people who don't know "raita" -- it must be a West Coast thing. it's served as a condiment in Indian restaurants, the basic ingredients are yogurt and cucumber, and it cools the burn!
ReplyDeleteAnon,
ReplyDeleteYou will be happy to know more of us remembered it when we had it again on Nov. 1.