THEME: Appendix, as in Append IX, adding IX which is the Roman Numeral for nine which has absolutely nothing to do with the theme. .
Another cute and tricky (as in TR- IX are for kids) theme from our Friday femme fatale, as we have a classic 4 theme puzzle with the "ix" added to the first word of a common phrase to create a completely different and rib tickling new phrase. Simple but clever, and the rest of the fill is very clean and does not include many 3 letter answers and has a bunch of middle range words like BOSSIER, EYE EXAM, FARADAY, HANG ON TO, PETER OUT, BOX OFFICE and LOBBYISTS. Well let us see if all the tryptophan has dulled our senses or the day off from TOIL (yes I said TOIL!) given us the strength to have no leftovers in our solving this little gem.
17A. Impish chutzpah? : PIXIE CRUST (10). Pie crust changes into a rather self-contradictory phrase suggesting both cute and tough.
24A. Royal handyman? : FIXIT FOR A KING (13). My favorite visual, but whether the clue is fit for a King I am unsure.
46A. Betty Crocker's empire? : MIXING DYNASTY (13). The Ming Dynasty is replaced by the Queen of cake mixes.
56A. Watergate, notably? : NIXON ISSUE (10). Politics are non-issues here, but Nixon and Watergate will never go away.
Across:
1. Stroll : AMBLE. Exactly the speed I want to travel after a day of stuffing my face. I did not pour this in and the perps made it worse.
6. To-do : FLAP.
10. Bottle in a crib? : BABA. My son Aaron never used a pacifier, but loved his baba, cool to see this today while I am at his house.
14. Cry near the sty : SOOEY. Ever called a hog? Can also be spelled SOOIE (1:48).
15. Aruba, for one : ISLE. One of the ABC isles.
16. Muslim prayer leader : IMAM.
19. Enemy of a ratón : GATO. A Spanish Cat does not like rats, not referencing people from Boca. Right Dennis?
20. __-pitch : SLO. This clue was a real softball, and mirrors the last clue, 59D. Cat lead-in : SNO.
21. Capital of Spain : ESS. If you all were trying to fit Madrid in there, S is the only capital letter in the word.
22. Pennsylvania site of the Crayola Factory : EASTON. Also birthplace of boxer Larry Holmes.
28. 90's trade pact : NAFTA. The North American Free Trade Agreement.
30. Agreeable : SAVORY. Here is where I hit a speed bump; I know it means pleasant or agreeable in the context of food, but without the reference this took the perps, as did.
31. Geometry staple : AXIOM. The 5 which are the basis of EUCLIDEAN GEOMETRY.I will defer to our math whiz Fermatprime, but when I saw the clue I just could not see marti's angle.
32. Sign on for another hitch : RE-UP. "to re-enlist," 1906, U.S. armed forces slang, from re- "back, again" + up "enlist." Online Etymology Dictionary.
33. Airport near Forest Hills, N.Y. : LGA. Laguardia, named for Mayor Fiorello Laguardia, and an unforgettable setting where you glide down over the water until the landing strip appears with the skyscrapers in the distance.
36. ___ de gallo: Mexican salsa : PICO. Do you all love Cilantro?
37. Core : HEART. Notice how our divine miss m keeps working these clues in.
39. Trashcan scavenger : COON. Aside from pejorative meanings, this is a legitimate stand alone word for raccoon so no real nit to pick here. Though I certainly have had to outsmart raccoon back in the day of small garbage cans off of which they easily got the top.
40. Legal ending : ESE. We are adjourned, just did not fit. Legalese.
41. Wedding ring, e.g. : BAND. This little one baffled me for a bit, maybe this is why I am so long divorced.
42. Watson of the PGA : BUBBA. 2012 Masters champion and the third PGA Tour winning golfer from little Milton Florida high school, as well as being a SINGER (2:17). He is in the overalls.
43. Fads : MANIAS. Some might say Bubba is a maniac.
45. Electron circuit : ORBIT. We could go round and round about this clue.
50. Its components are often bought separately : STEREO.
51. Come-___:teasers : ONS. Like these ADS (9:30)?
52. "Gross!" : ICK.
55. Zola title heroine : NANA.
60. Posting place : BLOG. A shout out to all of us.
61. Dressage pace : TROT. The pace of showing horses.
62. Submission : ENTRY.
63. Edible dessert container : CONE. Really nice simple, but evocative clue. Sugar or waffle?
64. Spanish medals or metals : OROS. Spanish lesson, meaning Gold.
65. Valentine's Day gift : ROSES. Another shout out to our Valentine baby. I wonder why there are no Js in her puzzles?
Down:
1. Threats to Indiana Jones : ASPS. You all recall SNAKES on the PLANE (0:18)?
2. Work hard : MOIL. Of course i fell into her damn TOIL trap, and felt cut off from ever solving the NW. When the M in amble became mandatory, my heritage brought MOYLE to mind, and my energy waned, You could say it was about to 9D. Fizzle : PETER OUT. Which can be very painful with metal zippers.
3. Where a smash is welcome : BOX OFFICE. Mario and Luigi did not fit. Fun fill.
4. Island chain? : LEI. This is how to clue a three letter word and still make it fun.
5. Test for pupils? : EYE EXAM. More clue/fill magic.
6. Baby book entries : FIRSTS. How fitting with my little Charlotte now among us.
7. Sch. with a pelican on its official seal : LSU. Hey Hahtoolah, it is Louisiana State University.
8. Singer Green et al. : ALS. Like this SONG (3:16).
10. Idaho State's conference : BIG SKY. Home of football powers Eastern Washington and Montana State.
11. Valuable violin : AMATI. Amo Amas, Amati, I love a good violin! Sadly, STRAD was my first thought.
12. A racer may pass it : BATON. Okay, here my first thought was GAS, then I went to Kidney Stone. It took awhile to get to a team race.
13. Encircled by : AMONG.
18. CBS series with regional spinoffs : CSI. Crime Scene Investigation. fading and soon to be gone. Ted Danson and Elizabeth Shue just pose too much, and she is always smiling inappropriately. She is a pretty woman but there are dead bodies. They even brought back the ghost of Warrick Brown in an attempt to bring back audience.
23. 50-and-up group : AARP. American Association of Retired Persons.
25. "Am ___ late?" : I TOO. Like our late night poster always worry.
26. Electromagnetic induction discoverer FARADAY. This MAN.
27. "Your turn to talk" : OVER. Cute CB Radio talk clue. Over.
28. It's hidden by a ponytail : NAPE. Tattoo would not fit.
29. Turning point : AXIS. We had ALLIED-AXIS, now we have another meaning.
33. Influential Washington group : LOBBYISTS. Nice $10.00 word here.
34. Desert that borders the Altai Mountains : GOBI. You want to LEARN?.
35. Future doc's subj. : ANATomy. This brings to mind one of my favorite obscure terms, METONOMY. which my friend uses daily when he says he is going to the track.
37. Keep : HANG ON TO. Are we going back to hoarders from last week?
38. Lover of Geraint : ENID. One of only two books which I began and did not finish, Tennyson's Idylls of the King.
39. Short and not so sweet : CURT. I could not think of any short and acerbic people, though Kurt Vonnegut was close, but he was a K.
41. Scourge : BANE. I love this word.
42. More domineering : BOSSIER. Does this fill look like a French word that got lost and ended up in Ohio?
43. Vegas hotel, with "the" : MIRAGE. Steve Wynn's huge palace which changed the strip.
44. Snobs : SNOOTS. I never heard this used as a noun, only like, "The maitre'd was Snooty because I was wearing sneakers," Both come from the same stem word SNOUT (NOSE) from holding the nose up in the air.
46. "Hardball" network : MSNBC. How many remembered where the MS came from? Microsoft and the National Broadcasting Company.
47. 1895-'96 ___-Ethiopian War : ITALO. The First of two such wars. This is the HISTORY. It really looks like marti is trying to teach us stuff this week, while we are all too full of Turkey. (Okay Barry G.were going to say I actually am too full of....)
48. It might be in the spotlight : XENON. One of the inert gases used to make "neon" signs and lights.
49. Curry of "Today" : ANN. More brouhaha about her firing and the continued decline of Today versus GMA, but come on, Kathie Lee and Yoda?
53. "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me" band, with "The" : CURE. Not familiar with album, here is the SONG..(6:20)
54. Ring jinglers : KEYS. A little early Christmas music, jingle keys, jingle keys?
57. Damaged, as mdse. : IRRegular.
58. Pencil game loser : XOO. Tic Tac Tomorrow we will have more leftovers, and I love my baby. If any of you actually come and solve, thank you and I hope you had a great holiday. See you all next time.
Lemonade
65 comments:
Hello Puzzlers -
Hand up for Toil, an early choice that slowed the pace in that corner to well below a trot. Caught on to the theme someplace in the middle, and it definitely helped fill in some gaps. Thanks for creating a puzzle my food-addled brain could manage, Marti!
Hi Marti, Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Wonderful puzzle ! You are brilliant - ( but I always knew that - ).
Wow ! Brilliant, witty and beautiful - your DH is so lucky.
You must be booking your charters for renting that alpine chalet in Germany/ Austria / Siwtz.
Be careful, out there on the slopes.
Have a great week, you all.
Morning, all!
Well, I managed to survive Thanksgiving and everything ended up turning out very nicely despite a few culinary mishaps along the way...
Fun puzzle today! Took me awhile to twig the theme, though. At first, I thought 17A was punning on PIXIE DUST and there was some sort of D-->CR swap going on. Then I thought XI was being inserted until I got to the last theme answer and realized it was actually IX.
A few unknowns today, including BUBBA, NANA and ITALO. In fact, those last two made the SW corner the one difficult spot in the puzzle for me. Fortunately, I remembered where "Hardball" was aired and that saved the day for me.
Elsewhere, I initially had ISLA instead of ISLE, which caused a bit of grief up north until I fixed it.
TOIL here too, and FSU (Florida) before LSU, and BIGTEN before BIGSKY. I got the theme with MIXINGDYNASTY and that helped. A tad easier, I think, than most Friday puzzles. [12:00]
Good morning! Thank you, Lemonade, for your fine and always thorough analysis. Do you have any FIRSTS in the baby book yet?
Marti, I smiled when I saw HEART in the center. You go, girl! What a brilliant puzzle.
Is there anything better than Thanksgiving Day dinner? Ours was superb! Then followed by Scrabble to which my queenship has met a challenge. I lost one round.
This puzzle is so clever and I especially liked seeing NANA as I am one to my two granddaughters.
I also started with TOIL but that soon became MOIL. I thought all the cluing was great but especially for BABA, BOX OFFICE, XENON, and LEI.
One good thing about the recent presidential campaign: I learned about dressage! Otherwise an unknown.
I hope your Friday is fabulous everyone and if you're a shopper, best of luck to you!
Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. Man, oh man, this was a toughie for me today. Clever theme, though. Marti showed us her HEART in this puzzle! Betty Crocker nearly did me in.
Hand up for Toil long before MOIL (which sounds like mohel).
I knew I had two choices for the Valuable Violin, and, of course selected the Strad instead of the AMATI.
The School with Pelican on its seal was a gimme, but did you know that the Law school has a different seal to distinguish it from the rest of the university?
Are the people of Bossier City BOSSIER and more domineering than people from other places?
Although I am not a big fan of ice cream, if I have a CONE, I would select a Sugar cone.
QOD: Erté (né Romain de Tirtoff, November 23, 1892 ~ April 21, 1990).
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Marti, for an excellent Friday puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, for a great review.
Enjoyed this puzzle. Started in the NW with TOIL for 2D. Then LEI for 4D. Nothing else there for a while. Eventually fixed TOIL to MOIL and got the rest of that corner.
The NE corner was easier. IMAM and GATO were easy. I used to work in Los Gatos, CA.
My first theme answer was NIXON ISSUE. Slowly I got the other three. The IX helped.
NAFTA was easy. I am still unhappy about hat arrangement. Did not like it when it started.
ITALO Was easy for 47D. I remember Italy invading Ethiopia in WWII as well. Not sure why. Read an excellent book about Ethiopia. "Cutting for Stone"
LOBBYISTS was easy for 33D. That was one of Ross Perot's campaign issues. Eliminate Lobbyists!
Had a good Thanksgiving yesterday. I fried a turkey in oil. It was good, but not as good as I expected. I had a tough time keeping the oil temperature up after I put the turkey in. My first time. I will try it again.
See you tomorrow from Johnsonburg.
Abejo
We were all set for a turkey-less, meat-less Thanksgiving - when yesterday morning, out of the blue, on the eleventh hour, literally, one of our friends invited us over .... she had the 'bird' and all the trimmings .... she filled the bird with crab meat in lobster sauce, and once the bird was done, she threw the filling in the trash (!), - it was only for the flavor (!). It was such a 'glittering' company - 8 M.D.'s, 4 Ph. D.'s ( some with multiple doctorates - ) - Bill. G., quick, how many people were there ? .... I was the only uneducated, without a doctoral degree. You would have thought, that with all that, we would be discussing Kafka and Nietzche - but, after 3 goblets full of a sweet, heady, red wine, we watched Youtubes of bimbos trying to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon powder ?? ...( It cannot be done - you will choke on it, spit it out and worse .... ).
The company found the videos a hilarious riot ( moi excluded - ) ... so I studiously perused the berries in my cranberry sauce...
Best of all, none of my relatives were there - something I should be truly thankful for. They all descend on me today - en masse - please say a prayer to St. Francis for the serenity of my soul ....
Good morning everyone,
My eraser got a good workout today, but I managed to get this tricky offering from Marti done. Lemon, I simultaneously laughed & cringed when I read your comment on PETER OUT! And I enjoyed the link for BUBBA. Heck of a foursome.
Hand up for toil, reluctantly settled for MOIL although I wasn't sure it was a word. And another hand up foe Strad before AMATI.
Even though I figured out the theme relatively early, this solve was a slog. Wag upon wag until a section began to fill in and look like it made sense.
Lemon, one issue I have ,,,,, if you were mocking the Big Sky... that conference routinely puts a team or two into the 16 team playoff for the Div II schools. And quite often those playoff games are a lot more entertaining then some of the BCS pre-arranged spectacles.
Anyone going to experience Black Friday?
Great Friday puzzle.
"'It's hidden by a ponytail : NAPE.' Tattoo would not fit."
ICK
An enjoyable outing for the day, Marti. Since the first two theme answers had XI in them, and the second two has IX I thought the theme was a reversal and I was going to call foul due to the inclusion of Axiom as an answer, but upon closer inspection I saw the IX in the first two, so that nit went away. Otherwise, a tough but doable puzzle.
Also got a chuckle about the Peter Out comment, Lemon. The guys I golf with (which is very rare) play by that rule if you don't clear the red tees on the first shot. Never have seen it enforced, thankfully:-)
Good Morning, all.
Apparently we all survived gluttony day. Since you're reading this, you certainly did.
Boy, we got a one-two punch with a DG/CC followed up immediately by a Marti offering. And both CC and Marti gave themselves a shoutout front and center in their puzzle -- neat.
Hand up for ISLA before ISLE. I was sure that 5-letter network would be AANDE...D'oh! Like Hahtoolah, I thought of BOSSIER City in LA, even though it's pronounced BO-ZHER. Lemon, your COON dissertation was absolutely Churchillian.
That GOBI answer reminded me of the back story in the BBC's Planet Earth series. The camera crew went to the GOBI to film the elusive Bactrian camels. They got 'em, but only due to their super zoom lenses -- and lots of patience.
Marti,
My hat's off to you! Brilliant--which I wasn't. It got the better of me with too many unknowns to get through it all, especially as the theme escaped me too. I just thought it was a cute group of phrases with IX in them. I never do catch onto the additional letter themes too easily.
BABA is completely new to me. My kids never had pacifiers or bottles. Mom's nipples were all they needed. I was a fanatical breast feeding mom.
One more thought--although NAPE was one of my successful WAGS, I think pony tails actually reveal the nape rather than hiding it, more than would be possible with loose hair covering it.
I had a wonderful day eating what my son and dil prepared, spending much of the day holding my precious Charlotte. I leave the book entries and the diaper changes to the parents.
It is extra fun to have a marti puzzle to share. glad you all read so carefully that my silliness does not zip by.Enjoy the day off and rest up for the mall.
When I saw this was one of Marti's puzzles and I knew Lemon would explain the clues, I tackled it last night. I solved, it seemed, a letter at a time. Each time I would get a random answer, a letter would trigger a perp answer. I kept going across and down, over and over, and I solved it (without help!). Never got the theme, but when perplexed a few times, thought to myself, "Could a word with an X fit in here?"
Nice to see BigSky Conference again. I am very familiar with it (big surprise?). I mostly only follow football, however. One son graduated from Eastern Washington and the other 3 are Montana State alumni. And if one of those teams loses out in the playoffs, we cheer for ND State, Qli's team.
I, personally loved non-Euclidean geometry. Great fun, when the last textbook series I used introduced non-Euclidean ideas to my high schoolers.
I will fly into/out of LGA to spend Christmas in Connecticut. Have only flown over water one time. I usually look down and see some sort of stadium as we come in. I seem to bring weird winds for NYC when I visit.
Not at any mall today,
Montana
Happy day after Thanksgiving! What a bear--moil?..When I took geometry in the dark ages they were called "theorems"
Oh we'll. staying away from the malls.
Bill G, to answer your question from yesterday--summers in the eastern two-thirds of MT are hot, hot, hot. But it is a very dry heat, so quite bearable. Humidity is often in the teens, temperatures in the 90s and 100s.
Side note: even though temperatures to -50 are common, in the 38 years I have lived and taught in Malta, we have never missed a day of school for weather. Our governor did close all schools in the state for 2 days when Mount St. Helen erupted, since the ash blew our way. Otherwise, we have parkas, boots and engine block heaters. Lots of snow plows too.
Western MT has a much nicer climate. They have much warmer winters and cooler summers than where I live. So, that is the attractive area for tourists.
Montana
DNF, but i had a lot of fun trying...
Moil just did not seem right, & i kept trying to change it.
I had "yuk" instead of "ick", which messed up my SE. & CSNBC instead of MSNBC which messed up my SW.
Tx Marti, i did not think i was going to get anything at 1st, but an hour of sussing later, i got most of it done!
Re: Yest. I went thru a lot of catwalk videos, which were not funny, until i settled on one that you might get a chuckle from...
Had SmoREs before STEREO.
DNF in NE - BIGSKY (sports) crosses GATO. (Did not know raton, apparently Spanish for rat, rather than some version of vermin.)
Whenever I see MOIL, I think mohel, which I pronounce MOIL, so the word is somewhat disagreeable.
@Kazie - me to, but my son rather liked his thumb, too.
Otherwise, the theme was very cute and fun, and no Googling.
Fun Puzzle Marti. TOIL instead of MOIL in the NW so couldn't resolve ATB_E across and _EI for Island Chain. Doh! Finally realized LEI, and then AMBLE was clear. I liked the puzzle because there was either a tough clue or word in each sector, yet there was always a nearby clue that was straight forward or an easy word.
Enjoyed the write up Lemonade. BYW, you looked so happy in yesterday's pic holding your beloved Charlotte.
At 21A Capital of Spain, immediately thought of Madrid, with backup of Toledo, but only saw the three letters and realized it was the old capital trap. 30A SAVORY. To me, pies are either sweet (eg pumpkin) or savory (eg, pastys) and both are agreeable, so had a hard time with the clue, but the word was filled entirely by the perps.
36A PICO. Cilantro ? Ah yes, fresh Coriander. Probably not too many middle of the roaders. I'm on the "Love it" side. Love it as one of the bold flavors in PICO, but recognize it can easily overload the palate. For instance, unless used sparingly, it will overwhelm the other greens in a simple salad.
45A ORBIT. Did I miss a previous discussion ? They can be quick to pull up stakes and leave home, for which we should be thankful.
7D LSU and 12D BATON. Was looking to fill ROUGE somewhere. Got BOSSIER instead.
Was thinking of this song at 53D.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Marti. After my rough day yesterday, I really needed a great and doable puzzle this morning. I could not have asked for anything better than this. I figured out the theme after getting PIXIE and NIXON, though like others I first thought the addition was an XI rather than an IX and wondered about the flip in NIXON. Lemonade, I liked your TRIX reference! And Lucina, thanks for relating that HEART at the HEART of the puzzle to our Marti HEART.
You won't believe this, but after Thanksgiving dinner last night, we played a game of Pigmania with my little grandson, and we had to explain to him the meaning of SOOEY! How topical is that!
No black Friday shopping for us, but we are thinking about maybe going to the movies to see "The Life of Pi." My husband loved reading the book and I'm a big Ang Lee fan.
Have a good one, everybody!
Good morning Lemonade, C.C. et al.
I love you new avatar Lemony. I think Charlotte already "gets" your humor. I should have known better than to put MOIL and PETER OUT in the same puzzle - especially on a Friday, LOL!!
Thanks for the nice comments everyone. I put HEART in the heart of the puzzle, and knew that all the Crossword Corner people would "get it."
CED, ROTFLMAO at that silly catwalk...
Good afternoon:
Great job, Marti, and Lemony. Super clever theme.
Had toil before moil, key before lei, and trends before manias. After corrections, everything fell into place.
Hope everyone had a good turkey day.
Anony-mouse @ 7:16 - I can't imagine a crab meat/lobster sauce concoction inside a turkey. What did the turkey taste like?
Have a pleasant Friday.
Good afternoon everyone! Had fun with this challenging but ultimately do-able Friday offering from Marti. The “IX” theme twist revealed itself fairly early on, which helped quite a bit. Also helpful was the fact that MOIL came to mind immediately, probably from having memorized The Cremation of Sam McGee way back in grade school. (Why is it I can remember this poem, but can’t recall where I put my glasses five minutes ago?) Hand up for having YUK before ICK, which slowed me down in that section.
Lemonade, tell Charlotte thanks for sharing Grandpa’s attention for a little while so he could provide us with his usual witty and insightful comments (LOL). My older daughter and SIL will be coming in from Texas in a few weeks with their 3-month old bundle of joy, so I know how precious those moments are. Can’t wait to get that l’il cherub in my arms!! We had a very nice visit via Skype yesterday, which is a great way to keep in touch – BUT, you can’t cuddle Skype :(
BTW, has anyone seen the new “Lincoln” movie? Sounds interesting. DH and I rarely go out for movies (thanks, Netflix), but I wondered if this one was worth a trip to the multiplex.
I always hunker down at home on Black Friday, so I won’t be leaving the house today unless it’s on fire.
Have a great day, all!
Yes TTP, Charlotte is amazing, wonderful and I am a very happy (name to be decided). marti you do it all knowing i will jump all over the hidden meanings.
Good afternoon to all and happy Friday to all.
Thanks Marti, for a good challenge,and Lemon for taking the time for your insights.
We had a most enjoyable day yesterday, 13 of us all gathered at the local Cracker Barrel for a delicious dinner. I had chicken, not a fan of turkey. Then we adjourned to our house for dessert.
Have a great day to all RJW
Lemonade, if you need a suggestion, Tata works for us. Of course, there's always Gramps, Poppa, Granddad, etc.
Lemonade: I just assumed you would be Zayde.
Double, double, Moil and trouble…?
Yesterday was all about the cats, and today we had un gato. I fully expect to see un chat tomorrow….
Nice to see the Vegas connections with CSI and the Mirage; both answers were axiomatic for me….
Heart is a great Band, as is The Cure….
TGIF - VD
I can’t add to Lemon’s excellent assessment of this fun Marti puzzle, blind alleys and all. It’s AXIOMatic that Marti’s puzzle is going to be clever and require a lot of TOIL, no, make that MOIL. I am getting started late because of shopping and the Husker game.
Musings
-SOOEY Pig is a big deal in Arkansas football
-IMAM talked me out of STRAD to put in AMATI
-The Petraeus story is more than a FLAP
-I have had family and friends hurt themselves playing SLO pitch softball. They need to check their birth certificates
-It’s hard to believe that some soldiers RE-UP for multiple tours in Afghanistan
-legalESE – the alleged perpetrator rapidly exited the premises. Real – The thief ran like hell.
-I’m not sure what Go Daddy is selling with those come-ons but I’ll take a dozen
-Do real CSI agents look like those guys on TV?
-Hilarious OVER, Roger, Vector, etc scene from Airplane starts at 40 sec. (second day in a row referencing that great movie)
-Non-Euclidian geometry wasn’t fun for me, Montana. The shortest distance between two points is supposed to be a straight line, damn it ;-)!
-In what movie do we see George C. Scott doing dressage?
Great puzzle, Hearti! For once I was on your wave length. I got the theme on the second one.
Lemony, joy over Charlotte has inspired even wittier heights! PIXIE CRUST could describe your offerings today! Loved the "Golf Boys" since I watch PGA.
AMBLE was first immediate fill. My hangup was "Hold" ONTO & "Gold" although I figured MIXING made sense. Didn't know ENID. Tried "Elsa". Halon before XENON.
I moved Idaho to three different conferences before getting SKY. Much like all the schools switching now conf. now to try and find one they can win in.
Hatoolah: My AF son & DIL lived in BOSSIER City before recent move. They had to be bossier than a lot of folks because they have 4 boys.
T-giving dinner was with my two daughters, Chef Son-in-law & granddaughter. Chef did a sage rub on the turkey. The girls prepared yummy side dishes & pies. Chef was stirring the gravy & realized no potatos or stuffing to put it on. Each girl thought the other made stuffing. Gravy went on turkey.
The afternoon was spent playing Quiddler, an anagram card game then Mexican Train Dominos. I had never heard of either, but had a lot of fun. Some ribbing banter but no cross words all day, how thankful can one be about that?
We were laughing because I raised my kids to be helpful rather than competitive--no win or else at my house. So we're playing this game and when one or the other of us makes a dumb move, someone suggests a better move and allows a redo, sometimes to their own detriment. We hope my granddaughter carries our kindness forward. She won the dominos game which went to 500 points.
My learning moment of today-- moil- never heard of it or its definitions, just mohel (pron. moil) as a Jewish circumciser.
As a midwesterner, wanted to put Tom Watson in, but did catch a bit of the 2012 Masters so could segue to Bubba when more letters were required.
Fun puzzle.
HG @ 12:49 - would the George C. Scott movie be "Patton"?
Good afternoon everyone. Good intro, Lemonade.
Nice Friday cw, Marti. See you snuck in HEART at the core. Cool beans. Seemed daunting at first but several of the lesser sections slowly came together. First theme solve was MIXING DYNASTY, then began to see the IXI pattern in the others. Finally saw the overall pattern whereby taking out the XI leaves a familiar phrase. I had toil before MOIL, too. But it all worked out and left a feeling of accomplishment.
PK: That's funny about your son and dil being BOSSIER in Bossier City (and yes, I know the name of the city is pronounced Bo-Zher).
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
DD, that was a fabulous CATWALK yesterday. CC, did you have all of us cat lovers in mind? Marti, I loved your witty write up.
CC, I am thankful for this wonderful blog, all your witty, informative guest bloggers, and all of our virtual friends. What a delightful community! I can't wait to log on several times a day.
Misty, how is your doxie?
Marti, thanks for a great puzzle today and to Lemony for his always delightful blog. My first entry was AMBLE, which gave me MOIL, a very common word for me. I puzzled over the "mohel" comments until ANON @1:40 explained it. Now I remember having seen that word.
PK @1:40, that’s how my sister and I played Scrabble this AM. We were neck and neck until I got a lucky break on the next to last turn. She is actually better than I am, but is so sweet and unselfish.
No Black Friday for me. I hate crowds. The last of my company left at 2:00PM today. I am just vegging out the rest of the day with a glass of Merlot. Microwaved leftovers for dinner.
Lots of constructors create themes by adding letters. It's rare to see an X as one of them... extremely hard to pull off.
Loved MIXING DYNASTY, but I was floored by a lot of the fill! BUBBA, BOX OFFICE, BIG SKY, BOSSIER, PETER OUT, and LOBBYISTS
shine.
Jerome, originally I was going to do a theme titled "IX-nay" where I removed IX from the theme entries. But the phrases just weren't working for me, so I decided to turn it around and add IX. It did prove to be much more difficult than I thought!! So thanks for your kind words...it makes me want to try harder on the next one.
Hello everybody. Loved this puzzle! Brilliant describes it perfectly.
Because the X was preceded and followed by I in the first 3 theme answers, I didn't know if the added letters were IX or XI. But then along came Watergate and NOXIN just didn't work.
We had 20 people over for a wonderful day and feast yesterday. Been enjoying family and sunny weather all week and will continue to do so through half of next week as well.
Best wishes to you all.
Delightful puzzle. Thank you Marti and thank you Lemonade. Needless to say it was a struggle for me.. :) but fun all the same...
Lemonade your Charlotte is absolutely adorable. If you are looking for a name for yourself to be called.... just as a thought... my stepfather's dad was called Papa too.... now that I think about it I have no idea if it was meant to be Papa two or Papa too.... :) :) just an idea...
Thanx to all for the enjoyable company...
T
Yeah, Marti, somehow SAINT CRO clued as " Caribbean caveman's holy one" doesn't cut it... :)
You’re right, Walt. George C. Scott did ride a horse doing dressage in Patton. He also won an academy award for his portrayal and refused to come pick it up.
Well the Huskers won a squeaker in Iowa City today in very frigid weather with an incredible wind. On to the B1G Championship and a bowl game.
Just want to comment on C.C. & Don's great CATS puzzle yesterday. Such fun! I didn't finish the NW, partly because I got too sleepy. I came to the blog and read Marti's commentary then went to bed and sleep at 7 p.m. I did read the CWC posts about 3 a.m. before I zonked out again. Thanksgiving socializing is tiring!
Yellowrocks, thanks so much for asking about our doxie. He is miraculously fine this morning, after our hours in Urgent Care yesterday. So this is one other huge thing we are incredibly thankful for today!
Best wishes for a wonderful weekend!
HG, NEBR WISC should be a good game. Congrats.
Misty, glad to hear that your doxie is doing well.
Saw something on the nightly news that all of the cat lovers might enjoy. MARU MARU is an internet star. Search mugumogu maru on Youtube for more. Cracks me up !
Darn it. Trying again.
MARU
National Dog Show is on NBC now. Hound Groups is up first. 3 types of doxies are showing in this group.
TPP - That cat video had me laughing to the point of tears, husband had to check up on me to make sure I was O.K.
PK - Made the same mistake as you with hold onto and gold. Fete before flap and a few other areas that needed sorting out before I could put the pen down. Finally got done.
Love Cilantro - husband hates it.
Waffle over sugar.
Another great puzzle, thanks Marti!
Forgot to vote on cilantro. Agree that you love it or hate it. I'm in the hate camp. Tastes like dirt to me. Bleah!
Avg Joe - That's EXACTLY the way my husband describes it.
Forgot to vote on cilantro. It's an essential ingredient for Mexican cooking! It provides much of the flavor in most dishes. Salsa is a good example.
Good night all.
We had Thanksgiving today because yesterday I had the stomach wobbles.
So we truly enjoyed our feast today. DH helped with turkey, did the mashed potatoes, and made cranberry sauce! I have never tried to do the cranberries – the canned ones seem just fine with me. And he bought a pumpkin pie. So all was good today.
Misty, let us know how "Life of Pi" is. I also enjoyed the book. We rarely go to the movies, but just saw "Lincoln" and it was as good as written about.
So glad to hear your dog is doing well today. Used to have a dachshund.
DNF today or yesterday. Slept yesterday and helped, somewhat, with cooking today. But I thought the cats yesterday were very clever.
Hi gang -
Brilliant theme with a couple of real clunkers in the fill: ESS and BABA. Is that supposed to be baby-talk for bottle? ICK!
Otherwise excellent puzzle. MOIL had me scratching my head. Never ever heard of that word.
Terrific write up, Lemon.
Our guests left to go back to FLA early this a.m., after a wonderful fun-filled visit, and lots of fun among the cousins.
Then we went to Toledo and got home late this evening.
I'm tired, so good night everyone, See y'all next week.
Cool regards!
JzB
Curses! Foiled again!
This Carpenter person is starting to get on my nerves. I stared at moil wondering what the heck was she drinking! Would not let go of Big ten
so finally had to cheat. Marti, as always, a pleasure to do your puzzles whether a Ta-Dah or Dnf. You make me look forward to tackling a Saturday's.
Greetings!
Tough, but fun puzzle, Marti! Managed to get through w/o temptation to cheat. Cool write-up, Lemon. Thanks to you both!
Went out for a nice dinner! Brought some home for tonight! Nice company. (Unfortunately, back causing terrible pains today.)
Just heard a dear friend died. Hadn't seen her in a few years. Slightly younger than I. Spinal cord cancer. Very sad.
Axioms are necessary for any coherent study of geometry. (The universe is non-Euclidean, of course. We are only locally Euclidean on Earth.)
Have a nice weekend, all!
I do like cilantro in salsa, fish tacos, etc. Probably not so much as a topping on baked potatoes, waldorf salads, BLT sandwiches, etc. It's all about the environment.
Right. Axioms are the foundation, theorems are the building blocks. Axioms are accepted without proof. Theorems are all proved.
~ Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn't much but the reception was excellent.
fp appreciate your comments on geometry evsn if i am more confused. thanks all, have a great weekend.
BillG@10:38
LOL! Funny joke. I'm sure antennas can read each other's signals.
Bill,
I haven't finished all my bar jokes yet.
Yabba
Its Friday, I got all night.
TTP and Sallie, thanks for caring about our doxie. They are a sweet breed, aren't they? Sallie, we postponed seeing "The Life of Pi" fearing that we wouldn't be able to get parking on Black Friday. Hopefully we'll make it in the next week or two, and I'll let you know.
Went Blue. Testing
Good job, Walt.
Testing picture...
Argyle @ 3:52 AM - Thanks. Been a lurker for the past year or thereabouts, so figured it was time to "get official," so to speak.
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