google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, Nov 10th, 2012, Barry C. Silk

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Nov 10, 2012

Saturday, Nov 10th, 2012, Barry C. Silk

Theme:  Saturday Silkie

Words: 72

Blocks: 28

  I do hope all you Orthorunicans managed to get on Mr. Silk's wavelength today - my first pass was nearly blank, but once I changed "RIM" to "FLU", I was off and running - "FORGED AHEAD", if you will.  A pleasant puzzle with little in the way of obscure people, and just a little misdirection on some of the old standbys - for example, see 54D.  Triple 11's and double 10's make up the pinwheel, and some of the notables:

15. 1989 Best Original Song Oscar winner : UNDER THE SEA - From the Little Mermaid

27. Windows alternatives : AISLE SEATS - ah, not "APPLE iPods", or something along one's computer software line; just the regular everyday windows found on airplanes
 

53. Solos : GOES IT ALONE - we just had "GO SOLO" yesterday~!


onWARD~!!!

ACROSS:

1. Fictional sleepwalker : LADY MACBETH - I am not up on my Shakespeare, did not know this; the perps were enough to try a WAG

12. __ shot : FLU - not RIMshot

16. Seed used in cat grass : OAT

17. Holiday staple : ROAST TURKEY - we are almost there ~!!

18. GRF succeeded him : RMN - Richard Mihous Nixon, who became the POTUS after Leslie Lynch King Jr. - see here

19. "The Memory of Trees" album maker : ENYA - crossword staple

20. Join the cast of : ACT IN

21. 1940s Time film critic James : AGEE - crossword staple, I guessed

22. Head turner : NECK - My first thought, but I didn't actually fill it in

24. Winter warmer : MITTEN

26. Consented : SAID O.K.

29. Soften : MODULATE

31. Firing spots : KILNS

32. Bus stop : DEPOT

33. Exhibits : HAS

34. Home of the Kon-Tiki Museum : OSLO

35. It may be marked : TRAIL

36. Signs of neglect : WEBS - cobwebs, that is

37. Mass garb : ALB

38. Worker, informally : PROLE - short for proletariat

39. Kerosene source : SHALE

40. Product with the slogan "Get What Fits." : LEE JEANS

42. Fair one : MAIDEN

43. Political position : STANCE - no more posturing and prattling~!

44. __ tape : DUCT - yes, it's ducT tape, not ducK tape, but there is a brand that went by that name

45. Paint company with an ursine image in its logo : BEHR

 

46. Skiers' aids : T-BARS - crossword staple

48. Rescue team, briefly : EMTs - crossword staple

52. OPEC member : UAE - United Arab Emirates - OPEC is an abbreviation, so...

55. Orch. section : STRings

56. All fuss and feathers : PRETENTIOUS

57. Literary monogram : T.S.Eliot - crossword staple

58. Antipastos, e.g. : ASSORTMENTS

DOWN:
 
1. Fly in a river : LURE

2. Presently : ANON

3. Time to 6-Down : D-DAY - cross referenced with; 6. See 3-Down : ATTACK

4. Equivocal reply : YES AND NO - well, maybe?

5. Bouncer-turned-actor : MR. T - I pity the fool who didn't get this one

7. Berry of St. Louis : CHUCK - also a WAG, but I was right

8. Game show host Convy : BERT - this guy

9. Klondike bar relative : ESKIMO PIE

10. Cause of screaming and fainting, perhaps : TEEN IDOL - always think of the Fab Four

11. Stable diet? : HAY

12. Progress at a faster rate : FORGE AHEAD

13. Unfortunate : LAMENTABLE

14. __ Reader: alternative media anthology : UTNE

21. Hawks' home: Abbr. : ATLanta, the NBA team

23. Volkswagen model : EOS - this car

25. Subject of a 1922 discovery : TUT - King Tutankhamun - more here

26. "Cheers!" : SKOAL - not SALUT

28. "You can count on me!" : I'LL BE THERE

29. Board : MEALS - as a carpenter, I wanted "WOOD", but this is the college "room and board" version

30. City north of Cologne : ESSEN - map

32. They develop from unfertilized eggs : DRONE BEES - huh

35. Cultivation wheels : TRACTORS - good misdirection, not looking for TILLERS ( yes, it's short one letter )

36. Benign fiction : WHITE LIE - from now on, I am going to tell people it was "a little benign fiction"; sounds acceptable, doesn't it?~??

38. Declaration of Independence writer? : PEN - har-har

39. RBI fly : SACrifice - when you swing for the fence, and give your runner on third a chance to 'tag up' and sprint for home before the relay throw - hey, I know a little baseball

41. Tip holder : JAR

42. Taboo word : MUSTN'T - big block of unruly consonants

44. Paint additive : DRIER - not COLOR

45. Run in : BUST

47. About : AS TO

49. Noyes's "ghostly galleon" : MOON - poem

50. Hardware bit : T-NUT - crossword staple

51. Mtg. : SESSion

53. Credit-weighted no. : GPA - Grade Point Average

54. Balance-reducing equipment, often : ATM - crossword staple, our "20's Dispenser" with a new lease on life, so to speak - the Automated Teller Machine - so let's give it a little time in the limelight

Splynter


Note from C.C.:

Happy Birthday to Husker Gary's wife. He said:

"Today is my wife's (she is on the left) and her twin sister's 66th birthday. This is a picture of them at a party where they did not know what the other was going to wear. Well, they both shop at Kohl's and they are twins."
 



52 comments:

James said...

I had VIN for 5 down to start. He was a bouncer. oddly, I say DC Cab the other day.
I figured 8 down was BURT because the only BERT I know of is Blyleven.

UNDERTHESEA stayed in my head till 28 down. What a nice rescue!

Eveningtime here. Off to Taipei with the missus to have Hainan Chicken Rice at 101. As far as I know, only place in the country to get it. But it is worth it!

Kampai everyone!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Struggled way too much on this one. I guess I just wasn't on Mr. Silk's wavelength today and just couldn't get past some of the tricky clues. Once I put in PLEBE instead of PROLE, I was pretty much doomed in the middle section.

Ah well, there's always next week...

desper-otto said...

Good morning, Saturday soldiers!

When I saw Barry Silk's name I knew this was going to be a BEHR. And it was. But little by little, it came together...with 20 seconds to spare.

DRONE BEES, who knew? Leslie Lynch King, Jr., who knew? Bad ESSEN, is there a good ESSEN? :>)

The excitement around here has been the injured barred owl that a neighbor lady found in her back yard. With the help of police and local agencies she managed to catch it, send it off to the vet for xrays and a checkup, and then off to a wild animal rehabilitation center. Hope it fares better than that squirrel. He didn't make it.

It's clean up the litter day to spruce up the town for the coming holidays, so I'm out to help with the effort.

TTP said...

Great Puzzle Barry Silk, and Great Write Up Splynter !

After first pass, 6 words across, and 5 words down, but 3 of those 11 were wrong. One of those was 1D with Bait instead of LURE, but was pretty sure it wouldn't be bait. Also wasn't too confident with AGREED as the correct answer for 26A, which turned out to be SAID OK.

On the Other hand, was highly confident of answers ROAST TURKEY, ESKIMO PIE, LEE JEANS, DRONE BEES. As I went through the second pass, was feeling pretty confident this would be a TA DA at the end, albeit a hard earned one, which proved true when I got back down to the mid south and south east. At 35D I wanted SOD DISCS instead of TRACTORS for cultivation wheels, but that wouldn't work with LEE JEANS. Finally replaced Paint additive LATEX with DRIER, which led to T-BARS (doh!) which gave TRACTORS, then ASSORTMENTS, PRETENTIOUS and GOES IT ALONE. The majority of time spent on this puzzle was in the mid south and south.

I racked my brain trying to develop something for "Taboo Word" that would fit and was fixing to use a taboo word until those 3 near-spanners gave me the MUSTNT. I understand the validity of that word, but I don't think I have ever heard anyone use that contraction. Maybe it's common in 19th century literature. I would tend to think that most would use Must Not to be emphatic.

54D "Balance-reducing equipment, often" = ATM was a favorite clue / answer. As was MEALS for Boards.

Last letter to fill was the crossing P for _ROLES and _ENS. Had to walk the alphabet to get it. Then said PENN is spelled PENN, not PEN, and he wasn't a Declaration of Independence writer. Then it hit me. Doh !

Have a great day everyone. Going to do yard work.

PK said...

Hi Y'all, Well, I got more of a Silkie than usual, but the E & SE were pretty much a BUST. Had to have Splynter get me started with FLU instead of "tee" shot and FORGE AHEAD. Then that long E section fell in. GOES IT ALONE filled in nicely with what I had so I could get the last two long words.

For awhile I had as "head turner": raCK. I've been hanging out with all you BUST oglers too long.

I'm a fool all right. Pity me, go ahead, see if I care. I had MRT but didn't parse it as MR. T. Duh! Too long ago since I saw the original shows.

54D escaped me too. I've never used an ATM. I kept thinking "Mtg." stood for mortgage and "liens" didn't work with EMTS.

Ah, well, WBS...

JJM said...

Good brain buster today. It took a while, sometimes one later at a time, but I made it through. Got all the 11 tile words fairly quickly ,and then struggled in the middle.

Husker Gary said...

I stumbled around for some linguistic Easter eggs too and got ESKIMO PIE first. What a delightful chore! I put DRONE for worker and so I missed 2 cells. DEN/MEANS? I should have known it would not be near the other DRONE. PROLE ain’t in my lexicon but neither is UTNE and I got that one.

Musings
-I went through computer Windows alternatives too
-Oh yeah, LADY MACBETH. Wasn’t she the one with the laundry problem?
-I’ve never had a FLU shot or the FLU
-I got GRF for Ford but put STA first because he succeeded Spiro first and lost to Jimmy Carter because he pardoned RMN.
-MITTENs are better on the snowblower because your hands and fingers are stationary and can warm each other
-I thought she SAID OK but it was YES AND NO.
-A cantor at church cannot MODULATE her voice. Yikes!
-A bus DEPOT can be a very scary place
-SHALE not CRUDE. Kerosene was first big money maker for JD Rockefeller until electricity negated that business but then Standard Oil started making some other stuff for which Ford had a use.
-LURE not BAIT (sushi ).
-MR T’s acting range went from A to B.
-Musical I’LL BE THERE
-ESSEN and OSLO have to be in the cwd hall of fame
-My neighbor does not CULTIVATE, he plants, sprays and picks/combines (no till).
-Off to Omaha for wife's BD!

HeartRx said...

Good morning Splynter, C.C. et al.

Fun fun fun Saturday puzzle. Fastest Silkie I have done in a while.It seemed daunting at first, but then I started filling bits here and there, which let to other bits and then more bits, until I had a whole bunch of bits...and no nits!

Thanks for a great write-up Splynter. Interesting fact about Leslie Lynch King...who knew?

Have a great day everyone. Snow is still covering all the unraked leaves int he backyard, so there's no raking today...(yay!!)

Anonymous said...

Terrific Saturday puzzle.

Thank you.

Al Cyone said...

I usually skip the Saturday puzzles but, for some reason, plugged away at this one. I thought I had it solved but, alas, no "TaDa!" music. I stared and stared and finally figured out it was FORGEAHEAD, not SURGEAHEAD. (Made more sense for FLU and OAT too.) [20:04]

Yellowrocks said...

This was the fastest,smoothest Silkie ever for me. I did start with BAIT at 1D, but ANON , DDAY, and ENYA soon changed it to LURE. BEHR, JAR, LEE JEANS, KILNS, OSLO, and ALB made the four columns in the west fairly easy.

I skipped the center for a while. I thought of LADY MACBETH, but I had OAT at 11D, O instead of H. I had ROAST and was thinking of the Dec, holiday and didn't think of TURKEY, DOH.

I moved over to the three columns in the east. FLU, RMN, AGEE, and MITTEN quickly opened up all that section. OAT was over there, so I changed 11D to HAY, which confirmed LADY MACBETH.

I worked the center from the bottom up. PIE gave me ESKIMO PIE and then TURKEY.

I hear and have said to kids, "You mustn't do that." We have seen UTNE a good bit in x-words. I knew PROLE, but spelled it PROLL, at first. I like ATM as balance reducing equipment. This was a great puzzle. No clunky fill, no unheard of words. Wags and perps carried the day.

Avg Joe said...

I had a hunch we were due for a Silkie. I really struggled with this one, but did manage to complete it in about an hour. Started out with Lure, B_rt and Hay, but then had to abandon that area. Mad small progress throughout the grid and li'l by li'l it fell together.

Didn't really care for the clue for neck, but thought your answer was hilarious PK!

Splynter, our paper ran an article today about the local power company aiding in the effort to get power restored to Long Island. Thought you might be interested. LES

Montana said...

I don’t do Saturday puzzles without help, but after a couple days of snow from the east and now more snow from the west falling and temperatures heading below zero, I curled up in my chair and tackled it. I did notice it was a Barry Silk puzzle so thoughtI was probably going to get 2-5 clues.

BUT I knew LURE and ANON and DDAY and ATTACK and BERT and ESKIMOPIE and TEENIDOL and HAY so I kept going. Got FLU and OAT and RMN. Then I slowed down, skipped around and like HeartRx said, bit by bit the words fell into place.

I needed Splynter to explain what PROLE, SAC, and SESS meant but those words were in there by perps. I mentally went through alphabet to get AISLE, and OSLO (really??) evaded my mind for a long time. Most of the puzzle just fell into place. Wow! A Saturday completion! Don’t know if I have ever done that before.

Keep warm everyone,
Montana

Lucina said...

Hello, weekenders!

No time to comment much just to say how much I enjoyed sashaying a Saturday Silkie.

PROLE gave me pause and several erasures since I wasn't sure about it. Thank you, Barry. Loved PEN.

I'm off to a birthday lunch with my friends. Yes, a gabfest!

Have a delicious Saturday, everyone!

Lucina said...

I remember BERT Convy. He died young.

Irish Miss said...

Good morning:

Before I clicked on to Cruciverb, I thought, I bet it's a Silkie and, sure enough, there was good, old Barry. I found some areas easy enough, with perps and wags, but I got hung up in the southeast. It took a while, but finally finished w/o help. Nice job, Mr. Silk, and great write-up, Splynter.

We are supposed to have temps in the 60's for the next few days. The last hurrah for the golfers, I guess.

Have a great Sarurday.

LaLaLinda said...

Hi All ~~

I was zipping along thinking - is this really a Silkie? And then I came to a screeching halt at the mid-bottom section. The crossing of DRONE BEES and PROLE was the main culprit. I also was thinking of so many other meanings of 'Board' and MEALS took way too long to come to me. Finally getting TRACTORS opened up that whole section and I was able to finish. A very enjoyable challenge, Mr. Silk!

Favorites were 54D - ATM and 36A - WEBS.

Splynter ~ what a fantastic write-up! So much info - Leslie Lynch King, Jr. - interesting! Loved your pics, links and humor - ",,, hey, I know a little baseball." and "from now on, I am going to tell people it was "a little benign fiction." LOL You add so much to these tough Saturdays!

PK - loved your comments on 'Neck turner' - rack. :-)

Enjoy the day!

Anonymous said...

New to this site--what's with the yellow and blue on the finished puzzle?

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Finally got a foothold in the SW. Liked ursine - BEHR. Liked the SKOAL/OSLO cross. I've been to the Kon-Tiki museum. Liked the ATM clue. ENYA and AGEE were WAGS. I thought the TRACTORS clueing was a little stiff. Our corn cultivators were tractor mounted. Favorite was the Farmall BN with the driver seat on the right - right over the corn row; no head turning needed, and no stiff NECK.
See: Link.

PK said...

When I got to 38A &D, I spent a lot of time trying to remember Thomas Jefferson's middle name. Google says he didn't have one. What a relief to find something I didn't forget! But I wanted T in that spot so long...

Off to do winterizing chores before the predicted storm: drain & roll up the hose, change the cat's litter pan. And you thought I never had any fun...

klilly said...

Coming from another farmer, I did not think of tractor either.

I wanted chick lit for benign fiction.. You read it and there is no harm.. I liked white lie better.

I am reading exodus by Leon Uris..never read it before, great history lesson

desper-otto said...

Anon@10:16 -- There's no significance. It's just where the cursor was in the cw software when the screen-shot was taken -- a down answer was selected, and the cursor's on the initial letter of it.

Splynter said...

Hi again ~!

Avg Joe, SCCC is right around the corner from here, and if I had known they had a secret stash of gas....that's finally easing up, but then I left the lights on in the car yesterday, so now i need to go out and buy a battery....oh well.

Thanks for that article - we really did go out and celebrate; the LIPA man came over and said the "good thing" about hurricanes is that it brings people together - he is right.

Oh, and C.C., I went to see Skyfall last night - in IMAX, no less - thought it was great, but I happen to be one of the few men, I read, who like the 'gritty' style of Daniel Craig. Great story, too.

Splynter

Anonymous said...

My newspaper didn't arrive this morning, so for the first time I went to find the puzzle online. So THAT'S what you all mean by red letter help. Hah, it went so fast but I feel so dirty.

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. Whoo! Once again felt intimidated and overwhelmed by so much white space and so many long entries. But heck, it's a Barry Silk after all, so I knew it wasn't going to be easy. I also knew it was going to be fair and ultimately solvable. But when I had blanks all the way down to OSLO, which was my first entry, I felt despondent, that maybe I wasn't going to be able to solve this one. Then I got MAIDEN (I have *no* idea why I thought of that) and BEHR and things began to click. Fell into all the same traps you all did, thinking of some sort of disk machine instead of TRACTOR and looking for some sort of alternative operating system for Windows. Oh, and I got MOON right away because The Highwayman has always been a favorite poem to me.

Best wishes to you all.

Vairnut said...

My first pass resulted in only a few words- MRT, RMN, BERT, and BEHR. Wanted HALLE instead of CHUCK Berry. With just a few words in place, I somehow managed to WAG LADY MACBETH. From there, it all fell into place, except for the Southwest. Had AISLE, but hand up for thinking Microsoft product. Figured out UAE, and voila! all was done. Good puzzle, the usual Silkie.

Misty said...

I did it! I did it! I did it! My first Silkie EVER! Still can't believe it. Thanks for encouraging me to be patient and not give up on them, Marti. It did take a long time and a Sudoku break in the middle, but in the end it slowly all came together.

It helped that I know my LADY MACBETH ("laundry problem" is cute, Husker Gary). And that I had ROAST TURKEY on the brain since I just ordered our Thanksgiving dinner from Gelson's yesterday.

So thanks for a great Saturday, Barry, and you too, Splynter.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Jayce said...

I also learned that TNT was not discovered in 1922. 'Twas TUT, of course. And speaking of this famous son of the enigmatic pharaoh Amenhotep IV, I am currently reading a fascinating book about Ahkenaten, his monotheism, and his legacy.

Tinbeni said...

Splynter: Nice informative write-up & links.

DNF ... one hell-of-a Ink Blot.

I see that T-NUT was back in the grid ... so I guess we can discuss TBBT and Sheldon again.

Got sidetracked when I learned that 17-A, Holiday staple, wasn't PINCH SCOTCH?
It is here at Villa Incognito.

SKOAL !!! (yup, that was my fave today).

TTP said...

Congratulations are in order for Misty ! In today's vernacular, "You go girl !"

Tinbeni said...

Misty, Congratulations!!!


Forgot to mention.

In the spirit of staying until the last out of a 10 to 1 ball game.

My state, Florida, has FINALLY announced our Election Results !!!
(Spoiler alert ... Obama won!) lol

I'm so proud ....

chin said...

Great Saturday puzzle. It stumped me at first but little by little it came together. Last fill was prole, never heard it before.

Argyle said...

Anon@11:35 AM
If you use the Master Skill Level, you'll feel much cleaner.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Argyle. I will do that next time my paper doesn't show up.

Irish Miss said...

HG-Lovely picture of your wife and her twin and their identical dresses! -:)

HeartRx said...

HG, great picture of your wife and SIL - so funny that they chose the same dress!!

I was going through some old recipes, putting them into one central file on my computer. I came across this poem that was written by my dear late MIL, shortly after she got her first computer (at age 82!!)

"Computers" by Alice M. DuGuay

I think that I shall never see
Computers compatible with me.

Computers' glowing eyes which focus
On bits and bytes of hocus-pocus

Just muddy up the mystery
For uninspired nerds like me.

One tiny tap can send the mouse
Running amok throughout the house.

"Windows" don't mean ventilation,
Just guidance through the aggravation.

Computers - NEW AGE ABC -
And I'll hang in there, yessiree!

(with apologies to Joyce Kilmer :-)

Jerome said...

In 1979-1980 I was working three nights a week as a bouncer at a bar in Phoenix called Mr. Nice and Nasties. In 1980 there was a "Tough Man" competition for bouncers held in LA. My boss was going to send me... all expenses paid. The night before my flight I was hijacked by wine, women and song. Never made it to LA. Mr. T won and went on to fame and fortune. Me, I'm a beat up old carpenter, trolling for tips as a part-time bartender. Hell,now either one of our bouncers could kick my ass in ten seconds or less. I still have a full head of hair though.

Yellowrocks said...

This afternoon I phoned the entire membership of our square dance club. The greatest majority of them just had their electricity back today after 11 or 12 days without heat or power, sometimes with below freezing nights. A few still had no heat or power. Lake Hopatcong and Franklin were among those hardest hit. Fortunately no one had a wrecked primary home. All had extensive loss of trees. Our condo is in a lovely park like setting. We lost several dozen trees. As they are ground to bits by the chipper and shot into the dump trucks I see those chips as $ signs, a couple thousand $ per condo unit. People living along the shore lost EVERYTHING, including their means of livelihood. Some cannot even return to get an appraisal by the insurers and FEMA, and so get no benefits in the mean time. Although I am thankful and relieved, I am beginning to understand survivor’s guilt.

Yellowrocks said...

Thanks to you, Jayce, I just reread the Highwayman. It was very enjoyable, but too long to post.

HG, happy birthday to your wife.

Misty, yay! You did it!

We have an intersection where I must turn my head back more than 90 degrees to check the cross traffic. When I have a stiff neck, I absolutely realize that my NECK is a head turner.

PROLEs were the exploited workers, the lower class masses in Orwells' 1984.

Cute poem by your MIL, Marti. Most of my friends would agree, although they are much younger.

Bill G. said...

Gary, I accidentally skipped over your wife and her sister dressed the same. Great photo! It's hard to imagine they didn't plan that ahead of time. Twins are special.

Just got back from a grocery shopping errand.

Cute poem, Marti. It's funny. When I put grandson Jordan (eight years old) to bed at night, most often he wants to be read some poetry from one of several Shel Silverstein books.

Barbara is learning from Facebook that her town (East Rockaway) on Long Island where she grew up was very hard hit by Sandy. The high school kids have to be bussed somewhere else.

I'm going to head out for a short bike ride. It's pretty cold and windy so I don't imagine I'll be gone for long.

Lucina said...

Just had a chance to read Splynter's great commentary and link Leslie Lynch King. Imagine having a President King!

zpk
LOL at your NECK/RACK comment!

HG
Wonderful pic of your wife and her twin. Funny about their dresses.

Jerome
You are gone too much and I miss you.

YR
Thank you for explaining the origin of PROLE. I've never read 1984 and had not time to research it before I left this morning.

Lucina said...

Mrti
I like your MIL's poem and can relate to it.

HeartRx said...

Misty, congrats!! I knew if you hung in there long enough, you would start to "get" the Saturday puzzles. But if you never even tried, what chance would you have?? You are an inspiration to others to keep plugging away, even when they don't get the "TA-DA" at the end.

Glad you liked my MIL's poem. She was 100 % Irish, and as feisty as they come. Smart, too - member of Mensa. She always challenged me, and I have the feeling she might approve of my LAT crossword career!

Jayce said...

Marti, I figured you have smartness genes. I am in awe of your intelligence. Your MIL's poem is coolio.

Yellowrocks, you're welcome about The Highwayman. It's such a hardship for the people hard-hit by the storm.

Misty, Nice going. I know I have also gotten "smarter" as I work ever more difficult puzzles and learn from the comments people post here.

PK said...

Wonder if Leslie Lynch King shared a common ancestry line with Martin Luther King?

Bill G. said...

Wow! It was too windy and cold to enjoy much of a bike ride. I was out for maybe 15 minutes before heading off for a macchiato.

I thought you might enjoy hearing from Mr. Rogers again.

Avg Joe said...

If there are any PSU alum on the blog, sorry about that outcome. But it was a good game once the second half started.

And how bout A&M???

Jayce said...

Mr. Rogers is a classy guy.

Spitzboov said...

Just got back from the movies. Argo. Great flick.

Marti - Great poem by your MIL

HG - Great picture; two beauties. How did you ever pick the one you settled on?

downtonabbey said...

Great writeup today. I am beginning to "get" the twisted Silkie style. Had never heard of the EOS or thought of SHALE for kerosene. HG, my sisters and I do this sort of thing all the time. Happy birthday to your wife. This is a great group of folks.

Manac said...

Avg Joe,
Thanks for your comment yesterday.
So here's to our rivalry.just kidding Life is too short so its all in fun.

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

Avg Joe,
You're one classy guy.

Manac,
Welcome back!