The first word of the starred answers phonetically reveals the ... ummm... reveal! (I always wondered why it was called a reveal, now I know!) You see it, I see it too!
18A. *"The Golden Girls" actress : BEA ARTHUR. Here's her USMC ID headshot. Semper Fi!
23A. *Interior designer's forte : EYE FOR DETAIL. Eye for Inflating the Budget also, if we're not careful.
39A. *Traveling : EN ROUTE. Crying European foul here. I say "en route", you say "en route". Hmm - let's see - I say "On Root", you say "eN Rout". But wait, you say "Root 66", but the wireless thing in the corner is a Rout-er. Oh well - on a recent trip to England I saw, regarding the actor Sean Bean - "Look, you can be Seen Been or Shawn Borne, you can't have it both ways".
52A. *"My goodness!" : GEE WILLIKERS! If I was a constructor I'd retire in glory, Hall Of Fame bound, with this answer. Marvelous!
62A. *Head-slapper's cry : OH BROTHER. I prefer "D'oh", but I've got nine empty spaces to fill.
71A. Name spelled out in a canine song, and also by the starts of the answers to starred clues : BINGO. Also, a clue which is so long that I had to scroll to read it.
Happy Boxing Day, everyone! Steve here with a potpourri of a Neville Fogarty puzzle - we've got all kinds of things working here, so let's get to work!
Across:
1. 1978 co-Nobelist from Egypt : SADAT. Former President Anwar Sadat.
6. Bookstore ID : ISBN. The 13-digit International Standard Book Number which uniquely identifies the volume in your hand. It used to be 9 digits, but apparently we were running out.
10. Romantic gift : ROSE. An excuse to post this earworm
14. Rowing teams : CREWS
15. Cpls. and sgts. : N.C.O.'S Those non-commissioned officers still make me wonder how to punctuate and pluralize!
16. In pain : ACHY. Just slightly painful, surely.
17. Monteverdi character seeking to bring Euridice back from Hades : ORFEO. Learning moment for me, I knew Orpheus but ... now I know
20. Chum : PAL
21. Williams-Sonoma purchases : PANS. Don't get me started on the wonderful broiler pan I bought from these guys two weeks ago.
22. Make good (for) : ATONE
27. Advanced math assignment : PROOF. Hmmm - not sure about "advanced" here.
28. __ v. Ferguson: 1896 segregation case : PLESSY
32. Gem of a Hitchcock film? : TOPAZ
34. Gumbo vegetable : OKRA. FOOD! In my experience there are two things you can do with okra - put it in Gumbo or make Bhindi Bhaji with it. The latter has my vote.
37. Playbill listing : ROLE
38. Thurman of "Pulp Fiction" : UMA. This is one of my favorite movies and I'd love to post links to the dialog, but this is a family blog and I'd like to be here next year.
42. Like a limbo bar, late in the game : LOW
43. Fishhook feature : BARB
45. Mideast VIP : EMIR
46. Record's two : SIDES. I'm old enough to remember this, but might be clued shortly as "Retro"?
48. Like chinchillas : ANDEAN. Perps all around. Wanted Llama, Rabbit, Furry Things, all kinds of wrong answers.
50. Beaded counters : ABACI. Yes! I love it! Finally my Latin class at school paid off!
57. Playbill listing : ACTOR
60. Biol. branch : ANAT. Anatomy and Biology? I though they were separate when I was at school learning how to spell 50A!
61. Dirt road feature : RUT.
64. Common herb in Italian cooking : BASIL. You say Bay-sill and I say bah-zil.
66. In proximity : NEAR
67. Oliver's request : MORE
68. River past Geneva : RHONE
69. Biblical reformer : EZRA
70. Small bit : IOTA. I had "MOTE" at first when I had the "OT". Eventually scrubbed and replaced.
Down:
1. Sharpshooter's apparatus : SCOPE. Really a telescopic sight, but "scope" is quicker to say and fits the grid.
2. Matrix, e.g. : ARRAY. MOVIE didn't work, but eventually this did. I've certainly been dragged (kicking and screaming) to High School today.
3. "Pour Some Sugar on Me" rockers : DEF LEPPARD. I could link some music here, but in the spirit of the holidays, I won't do that to you. This is what you're missing:
4. Wonder : AWE
5. Chinese menu general : TSO. Still haven't tried this.
6. Breaking all the rules : IN BAD FORM
7. Act subdivision : SCENE. Quickly - soliloquy association - Shakespeare's Hamlet; Act 3 Scene 1 "To ...."
8. Talk a good game : BOAST
9. Code-breaking org. : N.S.A. The National Security Agency is the United States Cytological Organization, or the USCO - wait, no - encrypt that - the NSA.
10. Audible snake : RATTLER.
11. Dos y dos y dos y dos : OCHO. I like my math workout in any language. Today's challenge was Spanish - thank goodness I didn't have to say "9,000,245,693.29" or we'd be here until next year.
12. Ostracize : SHUN
13. Brontë's Jane : EYRE
19. Skatepark component : RAIL. I had RA and wanted RAMP, but eventually sanity prevailed. RAIL it is.
21. How some amateurs turn : PRO
24. Monk's title : FRA. I thought Fra. Angelico was an Italian liqueur until I went to Florence:
25. Move viscously : OOZE
26. Give __ on the back : A PAT
29. Continues despite hardship : SOLDIERS ON
30. Plumlike fruit : SLOE. I've eaten plums, and made gin from sloes - they're not really alike, I'm sorry. They're alike in the sense that a domestic kitten and a Bengal Tiger are similar, but you really don't want to confuse one with the other, trust me.
31. Trees with elastic wood : YEWS. The source of the wood to make either longbows or cricket bats. The English would claim either was a tool to subjugate the masses.
32. Bass brass : TUBA
33. Yemen neighbor : OMAN
35. Decorative pond fish : KOI
36. The sticks : RURAL AREA
40. Hawaiian flier : NENE
41. 57-Across Morales : ESAI
44. Galway "Golly!" : BEGORRA. Oh please, if we're going to have a phonetic mis-spelling of Begorrah! can we at least make the alliteration work? How about "Belfast Bollocks!"?
47. "That's nasty!" : ICK
49. Dynamic start? : AERO. Aerodynamic.
51. Brief diner order? : B.L.T.
53. "Hooray!" : WAHOO!
54. Like a noble gas : INERT
55. Wishing one hadn't : RUING. I still want an "E" in here somewhere!
56. Canonized fifth-cen. pope : ST. LEO. Was this LEOI or LEOX or LEOIV or one of the other convenient LEOs? Because you can't be Seen Been or Shawn Born (c.f. 39A)
57. Topnotch : A-ONE
58. French eatery word : CHEZ. Nous, Max, Maman, Steve - oh wait, that's here.
59. Skier's transport : T-BAR. Another "retro" entry? I'm old enough to have fought my way up an Alp on one of these things - trying not both not fall of yourself nor push your co-rider off the precipice either. Not easy. I hope never to see one of these instruments of torture again.
63. Texter's "I've heard plenty, thanks!" : TMI
64. Texter's "I'm away for a moment" : BRB (Be Right Back)
65. Sushi bar tuna : AHI.
And try as I might I couldn't sneak a Boxing Day reference in anywhere!
Steve
1) Happy Birthday to Andrea!
 | |||
| Back row: Dot (85) and her husband Irv (99). Hope I got the ages right, Dot. Front Row: Kazie and Andrea. Sept 19, 2009 |
2) Belated Happy Birthday to SL Zalameh (Zcarguy). Here is a photo of him and his wife Kathy.
83 comments:
Happy birthday, Andrea and a belated happy birthday to SL Zalamath and Fermatprime. Andrea and Zcarguy, great photos.
-The hardest answer for me was DEFLEPPARD, all perps. I had heard of the group but didn’t know the odd spelling. The group never occurred to me.
-My Williams SONOMA knife is terrific.
-Unlike Steve, I could not stand Pulp Fiction. A friend rented it and invited me over. I hated it so much I developed a terrible “headache” and had to go home. The old “headache” dodge.
-I love general Tso’s chicken although I know it is not authentic.,
-For a while at 25D I was looking for move viciously, instead of move viscously.
-Steve, I say EN ROOT, not ON ROOT or EN ROUT. Unfortunately one of my major gift purchases is still EN ROUTE.
-It was clever that Bingo was spelled with sound alike words in the theme answers
-Fun write up Steve,
-Thanks for all the birthday greetings. More on that later.
I enjoy and usually solve Neville's puzzles but this one got me by one letter. I left 3 squares open last night, filled in two this morning, but absolutely could not see that I needed an S (vertically) in _oldierson and I didn't know Plessy. I had it parsed correctly, but after three mental times through the alphabet, I gave up. Enjoyed it anyway.
Thanks, Steve, for the review. The Aussies at my holiday gathering celebrate Boxing Day today.
Hope the three birthday bloggers of yesterday tell us they had a great day.
Montana
Morning, all!
Another fun puzzle. As with Yellowrocks, I struggled with DEF LEPPARD. I remembered the DEF part, but went with LEOPARD at first. Couldn't figure out what an OROOF was, though, so I changed it to LEPPARD/PROOF and got the *tada*.
Also wanted IN MOTION for 39A, even though it didn't fit. That didn't last very long, however.
Everything else was pretty much smooth sailing today.
Happy birthday to all the birthday folks!
Good Morning, Steve and friends. This was probably one of the easiest Wednesday puzzles we've had in weeks. I just loved the BINGO theme, but was even more impressed with the long down answers, including: SOLDIERS ON, RURAL AREA, IN BAD FORM and DEF LEPPARD.
Anwar SADAT and Menachem Begin shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978. Too bad we are still not there.
Plessy v. Ferguson was infamous for its "separate but equal" standard. Unfortunately, this concept is still alive in some areas.
I made several loaves of Italian herb bread over the weekend and used lots of BASIL.
Proof was also a Broadway play about a mathematician. I was supposedly based on a real mathematician. I saw the play on a trip to New York. It was very good.
I hope everyone survived the terrible storms that swept through the country yesterday.
Happy Birthday, Andrea. I hope you and your family are well and you can stop by soon. Have a wonderful day!
QOD: The one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we never give enough is love. ~ Henry Miller (Dec. 26, 1891 ~ June 7, 1980)
Good morning, Steve, C.C. and gang - boy, Neville never disappoints, does he? Very clever theme, some original cluing.
I liked "Gem of a Hitchcock film?", "Brief diner order", "Brass bass" and "Limbo bar, late in the game", and of course the theme, which I couldn't figure out until the reveal.
I agree with Steve about BEGORRA; never saw it without the H, so I refused to write it in until the perps did it for me. I needed perps for PLESSY as well, and mistakenly put ICH for 47D and YAHOO for 53D, which kinda screwed up GEE WILLIKERS for a bit. Overall, a nice Wednesday puzzle.
I had no idea Bea Arthur was a Marine; jeez, she would've made one hell of a Drill Instructor. By the way, women Marines had (have?) a nickname of BAMs - "broad-ass Marines", although you took your life in your hands if you used that term in person. We had a healthy fear of them.
Happy Birthday Andrea, and from yesterday, a belated Happy Birthday to SL Zalameh, and great news, LaLaLinda, about your husband. Nice Christmas present.
Steve, your blogs are always a treat and today was no exception.
Hope it's a nice 'wind-down' day for everyone.
Birthdays and bingoes abound. HBDTY Andrea.
Neville is joining C.C. Marti and Gareth as frequent contributors and I found this sticky in places part because i say 'on' route, in part because i have not thought of Plessy since law school and did not know ORFEO.
All in all a fun puzzle and a Boxing Day present of Steve's write up.
Off to fix a tire.
Good morning! Happy birthday, Andrea. And belated happy birthday to ZCarGuy.
Neville almost did me in. I had the LEPPARD, but thought it was DED. Ultimately ORDEO just looked too weird to stand.
Nice shoutout to Abejo's TUBA. And good to see that we've moved the NENE back to Hawaii.
I say bayzil (the herb) but Baazl (the Rathbone). And there's one more thing you can do with OKRA -- you can leave it alone.
It was exactly one year ago today that I learned Boxing Day has nothing to do with the sport of Boxing. I think I may have learned it here.
Up with and out with the dogs at 5:00 AM (EST) but then went back to bed (I forget what time the puzzle shows up on the Chicago Trib site). Anyway, a fun, typical, Wednesday puzzle though I didn't hear the "Tada!" after filling it. A quick scan revealed I had CHEF instead of CHEZ which, when corrected, made a lot more sense with EZRA rather than ESRA (who?). [8:25]
Neville, I always enjoy your puzzles. Great job Steve. Ditto on your write ups.
At 18A, I got Betty Boop.
At 23A, I got Illumination
at 39A, I got Nearing
At 52A, I got Great Heavens
At 62A, I got OBOYOBOY
That explains how I got BINGO at 71A
LOL at your 39A. I also had RAmp at 19D for a sec, but didn't like the look of 23A ending in ML, and 28A starting as PP
Thank goodness for perps to fill in ORFEO or I would have DNF'ed.
Thank goodness for perps to fill in PLESSY or I would have DNF'ed.
Thank goodness for perps to fill in BEGORRA or I would have DNF'ed.
Liked 5A 21A 25A 48A No longer fooled by 50A
24D, Monk's title - DET, as in Detective Adrian Monk. It's a jungle out there.
31A "The English would claim either was a tool to subjugate the masses." Subjugating the masses... I was just reading Aldous Huxley's response to George Orwell's 1984. Maybe they were both on LSD. Turns out Huxley was more correct Brave New World v 1984
32D Tuba - "Tubas with the bell pointing forward (pavillon tournant) instead of upward are often called recording tubas because of their popularity in the early days of recorded music, as their sound could more easily be directed at the recording instrument."
Al, aren't they fun ? Having German Shepherds is like having 3 year olds. They can be so smart and manipulative, but they also need a lot of guidance and "training."
I had a wonderful birthday and Christmas. Like my parents when I was growing up, my son and D-I-L always celebrate my birthday at the evening meal on Christmas Day with candles, singing, and the same presents I would have gotten if my birthday were in any other month. On that day I receive phone calls, and emails from family too far away to come. I have always enjoyed having a Christmas birthday. I only thing I missed out on growing up was having a party with my friends, which I now have twice hosted for myself about a week or two before hand on the birthdays ending in -0 and -5. One of my gifts was a Kindle Fire from my son and his family. Our family has birthday pies with candles, instead of cake. Mine was chocolate satin pie. Yum.
Two of my sisters spent Christmas Eve with us. One of them stayed over until after breakfast this AM. My son, D-I-L and grandson also spent Christmas Day with us. I hosted because they are renovating their downstairs. It was a wonderful day. My Yorkshire pudding ended up looking exactly like CC’s picture the other day, except it was all in one piece. After all these years I discovered that mixing it an hour in advance and letting it set before baking makes it even better.
La La Linda , how wonderful that your DH is now on the mend and could be home for Christmas.
Good morning Steve, C.C. et al.
Happy Birthday Andrea, belated wishes to Zcarguy and happy Boxing Day to all!
Wonderful write-up, Steve! I am not sure how I would pronounce EN ROUTE, but I think it'd probably be a mish mash between the options you listed, LOL.
Like others, I never got the theme until the reveal. But I still had to stare at the theme entries, trying to figure out how you get BINGO out of Beego. Finally slapped my head and said OH, BROTHER when I finally figured out that it was the phonetic spelling, not the first letters of the entries. Very clever!
Hahtoolah already mentioned my favorites, but I'd also add WAHOO to the list. Oh, and T-Bars are still very much in use in the glaciers of the Alps. I was once told that they cannot build chairlifts on some glaciers because of the annual movement of the snow.
Have a wonderful day, everyone, whether you are boxing, or just wrestling with bills...
-Sure, Neville, hide the theme right out in the open! Loved it, once I was told what it was.
Musings
-BEA as a marine. Go figure.
-We drove through WAHOO, NE (former home office of David Letterman) on the way to Lincoln yesterday
-One of my McJobs was a paper rowte not root
-Hitchcock movies are the only ones I can instantly tell who made them just by watching
-Answering Chubby Checker’s question - “How LOW can you go?” Not very.
-Wagon train RUTS constitute a tourist attraction at Spring Creek Prairie down near where Avg Joe lives
-A Matrix/ARRAY is certainly an upper math component if PROOF isn’t
-Basic cable seems to be on a mission to display country, southern people in a “RURAL AREA” hunting RATTLERS, gators, catfish, and other fauna. Are they making fun or just showing us life there?
-Videos abound of skateboarders having painful landings on RAILS
-Our YEWS are covered in snow and Christmas netting lights
-“Fresh from the garden” tomatoes demand we make BLT’s
-Sheldon’s BRB is AFK
-HBD Andrea and SL Zalameh.
Great Wednesday puzzle. Goes well with snow.
"BEA ARTHUR. Here's her USMC ID headshot. Semper Fi!"
Wow. That's all I'll say.
"Advanced math assignment : PROOF. Hmmm - not sure about 'advanced' here."
I guess it's advanced for those who have trouble with algebra.
"Gumbo vegetable : OKRA. FOOD! In my experience there are two things you can do with okra - put it in Gumbo or make Bhindi Bhaji with it. The latter has my vote."
...or leave a can of it in the pantry to collect dust.
"Thurman of 'Pulp Fiction' : UMA. This is one of my favorite movies and I'd love to post links to the dialog, but this is a family blog and I'd like to be here next year."
Yes. Zed and his pal are inappropriate topics for yuletide conversation.
This was a very enjoyable outing. Not a romp, by any means, but fun to solve picking through it carefully. Did have the nit about Begorrah, but still liked seeing it. Def Leppard, not so much. Knock off artists in every regard, IMO.
Thank you Neville and Steve.
Since you brought up a Shakespearean quote, Steve, I have to mention watching the movie MST3K on Netflix yesterday. There's one scene where this alien asks a main character "Shall I compare thee to a summers day?" in the voice over. Along with many other comments, I laughed myself to tears several times....it's an hilarious movie if you liked the TV show.
Good morning:
Great job, Neville, you keep us on our toes. Like others, didn't get the theme until the reveal and then, like Marti, thought Beego???? And then the penny dropped, aha, it's phonetic spelling. And to Steve, thanks for providing a few chuckles. Sure and Begorrah, we need plenty of those!
Happy Birthday, Andrea, and LLL, so glad your hubby is home. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
HG @ 9:02 - As soon as I filled in BRB, I immediately thought of Sheldon's AFK.
Hatoolah @ 6:14 - I saw the movie, Proof with Anthony Hopkins and Gwenyth Paltrow, I believe. It was excellent, as was A Beautiful Mind with Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connally. That was definitely based on a true story.
Happy Wednesday, although it feels like Sunday!
Avg. Joe @ 9:42 - Forgive my ignorance, but what is MST3K?
Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was a long running comedy show on TV and they made a movie in 1996. Here's the Wiki Link that will tell you about the plot. Not for everyone, but it's great comedy for sci fi buffs.
Greetings All and happy Boxing Day!
Happy birthday, Andrea! I hope it's wonderful.
BINGO! I got it and quickly. Thanks, Neville for a fun puzzle. My only hesitation was the same as Barry's on OROOF and LEOPARD but I soon saw the error and wrote PROOF/LEPPARD.
There is a news anchor here whose name is SEAN, pronounced SEEN as he has a brother named SHAWN.
You all have a wonderful Wednesday! I have to go fight the mobs to return something. If I'm not back, it's been nice knowing you.
Steve, thank you for the witty commentary!
YR
Your birthday celebrations sound delightful. I'm very glad for you.
Happy Birthdays all round, those missed and today's--Andrea, are you out there? My d-i-l's grandmother in Germany also has a Christmas birthday.
Great puzzles both today and yesterday, but I was too late to comment last night on our return from celebrating with s-i-l up north.
Today I was done in only by not remembering my Latin myths enough to remember Orfeo, and had no idea what the DE-LEPPARD should be. They were never high on my radar. I opted for a double L and got ORLEO.
Steve,
Enjoyed your blog--lots of humo(u)r. I too was thinking of boxing day today. It's a public holiday for most in Oz, where "public" holidays really are "public" and not just for public servants like here.
Good puzzle Neville.
Fun commentary Steve.
Liked your EN ROUTE observations. We have a major thoroughfare here in Ohio that we call "rout"4 , but we also say "root"66. Probably because of the song. But EN ROUTE, among my friends, is split. If were going fishing, we are "N root" to the lake. If we are going skiing, we are "N rout" to the ski resort. Go figure.
Also appreciate the seen/Sean comment. Many a teacher would pronounce my name like 7d on the first day of school and my friends would laaauuggghhh. Thus it became a way of teasing me. I've since embraced it, obviously, and my nephews actually call me Uncle Seen.
I dated a French girl for a while who called me 12d, pronounced quickly. I liked it. Now that I think about it still gets my... Oh nevermind.
I thought tubas with a forward oriented bell were called Sousaphones.
Avg Joe @ 10:09 - Thanks for the info and link. Being Sci-Fi explains why I never heard of it: not a genre for me.
Lucina @ 10:11 - You have courage! Good luck.
Thank you Mr. Fogarty fo a nice and challenging puzzle. I had a bare DNF, because I've never heard of 'Gee Willikers' ( - even my spell check doesn't like it - ) .... and not familiar with 'Soldiers On'.
Thank you Steve, the foodie king, for your wit, and your very thoughtful remarks. I notice you travel a lot to England - must be fun to enjoy two cultures, on a periodic basis. There is something kind, gentle and sensible about England, that does not exist in the US. IMHO.
Loved your reference to Bhendi Bhaji - its been months since I cooked it. I don't really care for it - but my wife loves it, so I cook it just as an offering for her.
Knew 'BINGO' ... my grandson's are visiting, and that's all I've been singing all day.
I thought of Yellow Rocks at dos y dos y dos - in another context, because of her love for 'square' dancing.
Have a happy, joyous and safe week, and best wishes.
Was recruited by the NSA in the first year of college. Was easy to say no.
My fishhook had bait on it, but without the barb, I suppose there wouldn't be any catch and release, just feeding the fish.
I thought records had three sides, though only two could be played.
How many ski resorts still resort to using T-bars?
Good morning, everyone – and Happy Boxing Day to you, too, Steve! Thanks for a very entertaining write-up. Got a laugh out of your “on root vs. en rout” dilemma. Thanks for an enjoyable puzzle, Neville. Thought the spell-it- out theme was lots of fun, and the long down fill was fresh. Really wanted SIGHT instead of SCOPE for Sharpshooter’s Apparatus until the perps set me straight. Hand up for RAMP before RAIL at 19 Down. Favorite clue/answer was Gem of a Hitchcock film? = TOPAZ.
Happy Birthday to Andrea and (belatedly) Fermatprime and Zcarguy!
Awoke to find everything covered in ice courtesy of last night’s storm. Good thing my day-after-Christmas tradition is to hunker down at home and avoid the crowds at the mall. Hope everyone else has a relaxing day.
BTW, I think, the clue for 'Proof' was a stretch - I came across the Theorems, and the corresponding 'proofs' in Euclidean and Pythagorus Geometry in the Eighth Grade. "Advanced math" indeed.
Also, Steve, a small nit - you wrote 'N.S.A. .... is the U. S. Cytological Orgn. ....' . You probably meant Cryptological.
Cytology, as I'm sure, you're well aware of, is the study, and the function and the pathology of biological cells. At first, I thought, maybe that's EXACTLY what you meant, in a sort of witty way - because spies ( and terrorists - ) work within isolated 'cells' - for security purposes. If so, then its probably not a spelling error , after all. If that was indeed meant, my apologies.
Liked todays puzzle awesome
DW just returned from a shopping excursion to the "local" Super Target -- 15 miles away. She said there were only a handful of shoppers there. Doesn't bode well for that store.
We woke up to freezing temps for the second time so far in 2012. It was windy last night, and my next door neighbor had a pine break in two about 15 feet off the ground. It was about 12" in diameter and definitely tall enough to hit my house. Fortunately, it decided to fall the other way and didn't harm anything.
OK, I'll bite. What's BRB and AFK?
Java Mama: We luckily avoided the sleet/freezing rain. All snow here. Up to six inches so far and expecting 9" to 12".
BRB ---Be right back
AFK---Away from keyboard
Anon@12:05 -- thanks. Quick question. How can you type AFK if you're away from the keyboard?
AFK? O, IC
Hi Kids,
Very FUNNY Neville ! :-(
Knew BINGO right away, Saw "B" and then thought SCOPE was wrong because it should me an "I" next, anyway What Marti Said (WMS)@8:30
"trying to figure out how you get BINGO out of Beego."
ISBN and NSA a Natick for me.
yAHOO screwed everything up for a while.
Went out with DH yesterday and bought a 2 pound lobster at the Asian market. (8.99 a lb.)
Ate it all, DEEE-licious!
Happy Birthday Andrea and ZcarGuy.
Anony-Mouse - Cytology - I wish I was that clever! Just a fat-finger typo on my part.
Avg Joe - here's my favorite MST3K clip ever - The many names of David Ryder. "Big McLargehuge" is genius!
FYI if you're interested, the origin of the Boxing Day holiday name is subject to much speculation, but the most believable to me is when the churches opened the charity boxes which collected money throughout the year and distributed the contents to the poor. Seems mean to make 'em wait until the day after Christmas though!
Hello everybody, and appropriate greetings to you all. Wowie zowie what a great puzzle this is! I agree Neville could earn Hall of Fame fame for his GEE WILLIKERS entry. Not a clunker to be Seen anywhere, IMO.
I learned that chinchillas come from the Andes, not Siberia. I guess the Siberian fur-bearers are sables.
Took me a long time to parse out --DIERSON, and not knowing PLESSY slowed me way down in that area.
When I filled in ACHY I had to forcibly drive out of my mind that horrible song horribly sung by Miley's father.
I agree that ANATomy is not a branch of biology. OTOH, if you consider biology to cover the study of all living things, I suppose the anatomies of those living things is indeed a subject of biological study. It's a good thing I have two hands or phrases such as "on the other hand" would not make much sense. LOL
AFK now ...
In Virginia growing up, we said Paper Rout but otherwise, Root. Dunno why. That's just the way it was.
I agree with YRs. I didn't like Pulp Fiction either. There were no good guys to root for. Quentin Tarantino used to run a video store here locally with his partner, Roger Avary.
We're about to head out to Junior's to have lunch with Barbara's brother and extended family. I would prefer a smaller group but ...
Maybe the Lakers have turned a corner. Maybe not. We'll see.
GEE WILLIKERS crossing BEGORRA was perfect. (I don't mind alt.spellings).
ORFEO was all "perps" a learning moment, and a WTF?
But 2 "Texter's" clues was ONE to many.
ATTA,AS.
Cheers!!!
On the Root/Rowt topic: I've never heard a computer router or woodworking router pronounced anything other than rowter. But then I've never heard Route 66 referred to as Rowt 66. Our milkman had a root -- remember the milkman? Our paperboy had a rowt. Go figure.
Hi Y'all, Tricky Neville, I had a great urge to flail your head and shoulders with a pillow when after lengthy puzzling I finally figured out the phonetic thing for BINGO (which showed up much earlier). Engrossing & fun, anyway! Wore down my eraser.
Thanks for entertaining us on Boxing Day, Steve!
ORFEO was pulled out of the dark recesses of my mind where I remembered the musical piece, "Orpheus IN Hell". "P" instead of "F" resulted. OH, Neville is being phonetic again.
I had "Taboo" for the Hitchcock movie a while????
Hands up for hating "Pulp Fiction". The only good part was when John Travolta got wasted on the pot. His character was so idiotic & unlikeable.
Didn't associate PROOF with math at all. To an old editor, a PROOF is something to edit.
HBD to SL Z & Andrea!
HG: I once lived in West Texas where they have rattlesnake hunts. We'd often see them coiled up on the highways at night they were so plentiful.
BillG: Watching the Lakers play was so disheartening, I quit. Then I missed seeing my favorite player, Steve Nash make his return & their subsequent wins. Bummer! Clippers games have been much more entertaining.
Any Gluck opera lovers in this crowd? That's how I learned Orfeo.
Link Orfeo ed Euridice
CC,is there any possibility of publishing a birthday list for the blog?
We had a coating of snow Christmas Eve after 9:00 PM which made the roads slick. Today it has been snowing hard here for about an hour. We should get 4-6 inches. Time to build a fire and settle in for the evening. Then a larger snowstorm is expected on Saturday. Fortunately, none of this has interupted any of our family's vacation plans.
We're back from our Christmas staycation in Newport Beach--still glowing from the lovely birthday send-off you all gave me before we left. Cross-eyed Dave, belated thanks for the sweet birthday wish on your blackboard, and again, C.C., and everybody thanks so much!
I love Neville's puzzles and had a great time with this one this morning. And Yellowrocks, count me in as a lover of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice.
Happy Birthday, Andrea, ZCarguy, and Yellowrocks! And glad your husband seems to be better, LaLaLinda!
It's wonderful to be back on the blog! Have a great Wednesday, everybody!
I can if those on the list are comfortable releasing their birthdays on the blog.
I look at the list every morning. I don't believe I've missed or pre-announced or goofed on any regular's birthday.
The reason for the late SL Zalameh birthday announcement because he did not let me know in advance.
If any regular mentions their birthday on the blog (rather than emailing me), I always immediately add it to my list.
I'm emphasizing on REGULARS here. You'll notice that quite a few old timers never even showed up on the day we celebrated their birthday. They've stopped reading the blog. I'll skip their names next year.
C.C.
I enjoy finding out about birthdays (and anniversaries, etc) the way you do it now.
It is a nice surprise when you mention it at the end of the puzzle write-up.
I would not like a list being published. TMI for personal reasons.
A Toast To All, AT Sunset. (ATTA,AS.)
Cheers !!!
Todays puzzle kept me busy for quite some time. Wees!
My major problem was that i had scope 1st, & then realized the phonetic spelling later. I was sure 23A Interior Designers Forte had to be "Indoor" something, which made me think 1D Sharpshooters apparatus might be plural. (Scop"i")???
Well if abaci is the plural of abacus, why not scopi as the plural for scope? But people who spoke ancient Latin did not have telescopic sights! AAARRRGH! ( i really thought too much into this!) Anyway, i finally did the whole puzzle, except i put an S at the crossing of 58D & 69A. (French + the Bible, i never had a chance!)
Steve! This is a family Blog! Why didn't you tell me a year ago!!!
HBD Andrea
Also, i meant to post again yesterday to wish SL Zalameh an HBD, but have you ever tried to find a cake with Zalameh on it? I searched & searched to no avail. I even tried an Arabian theme... Then i tried funny Camels (which was a big mistake) because it led me to images of something i never knew before,,, Camel Toe??? Well i like the learning aspects of the Blog, but after camel toe, i never did get back again...
I hope this works for you SL Zalameh!
Loved the puzzle,especially the Plessy reference. 12/30-1/1 the Emancipation Proclamation will be on display at the National Archives, a must see.
Thanks and be safe!
What Tinbeni said re birthday notices.
CrossEyed Dave, if the Latin were scopus, then the plural would be scopi. Would the plural of apparatus be apparati?
Hand up for liking Gluck's Overture to Iphigenie en Aulide. I confess I'm not familiar with any of his other works, although I have probably heard some of them.
Opus -- opera: hmm, doesn't follow the pattern.
See yawl tomorrow.
Plessy is featured on Jeopardy today. 10 hours too late to be of any help.
I'm still baking and cooking. My daughter's best friend (from childhood) and husband are coming over tomorrow so we can see their baby. Since my daughter missed Thanksgiving with us, I'm preparing a small turkey, etc.
Lucinda, my husband and son went out today to make a few exchanges. I'm glad to stay home. Phewww!!
HG, Just like Hitchcock, I can spot a Steven King scripted movie quickly. "Green Mile" movie was very good, but twisted as only the mind of King could create.
I watched 15 min of "Pulp Fiction" and that was enough for me.
Happy Birthday, Andrea!! Hope you are getting your own celebration among the holidays.
Had bravo before WAHOO and ramp before RAIL.
We like OKRA coated in cornmeal and fried here.
RURAL describes most of Kansas. In SW Kansas, you can drive for miles spotting only barbwire fencing and the occasional tumbleweed.
Solved this mid-week puzzle pretty quickly after getting theme. Perps fixed any difficulties. Thanks Steve for a very enjoyable commentary. LOL on your comments about SLOE!
Birthdays... I like how C.C. informs us on the day.
Evening All,
Been a real busy couple days round these parts and just when I thought I could relax, They are calling for 10 to 18 inches of snow around here, and a mix of sleet near the end...Yay!
Going out now for gas for the snowthrower. Which brings to mind...Did someone here mention that they just bought a snow thrower from Home Depot?? Just some friendly advice, Check the oil for water contamination, It happened to me a couple years back, I caught it right away but if I didn't it would have meant a seized engine.
Hope All had an enjoyable holiday!
Whew! I'm back!! It wasn't the actual returning process that almost did me in, it was the parking! I'm certain no one in the county is at home; they are all parked at the Mall! I finally found space on the top floor of a 7 story parking structure.
Then had to collect my granddaughter to buy a new outfit to replace the returned one. Same problem at the Mall near their house, parking. The Mall is surrounded by several acres of parking spaces and finally someone pulled out and I could take the space.
C.C.
I agree about the birthdays. It's a nice surprise to find out on the day itself.
CED, this is a family website if the family were the Addams family. Some of our senior members appear less often as we do stimulate their
imagination.
Latin plurals are not as simple as US to-I; there are five declensions of words and they follow different rules. E.G.; OPUS OPERA; GENUS GENERA; CETERUS CETERA; as well as ALUMNA ALUMNAE, AQUA AQUAE; AGRICOLA AGRIGOLAE; BELLUM BELLI.
I agree with the way C.C. does the birthdays and sadly with the dropping of those who do not reappear.
Blue Iris, you evoke a couple of vivid memories. First, I have a friend in W KS that tells me about "the tree". This is (was) a landmark that everyone used as a guide when giving directions...."Drive to the tree, then go 3 miles north". The thing is, the tree has been gone for 20-30 years. It died, fell down and was burned. But it's still a main landmark cuz everyone knows where it was.
The other memory is a friend that grew in the OK panhandle in the mid 60's and he told of a highway beautification project promoted by Lady Bird Johnson. With the allocated funds, they planted trees along a highway......one every 10 miles.
True stories, both.
We just got back from lunch with Barbara's brother and his family. It was nice to see them all again. Her brother is an unusual combination of a pediatrician/singer-songwriter. They have moved to Virginia Beach since he retired.
Bonnie drove. She had a recent breakup with a boyfriend and is in a sullen mood. Typically, I'm lucky to get anything more than a one-word response.
Jordan came with me to the coffee shop. I brought along my Nook and we read my most recent book purchase; a Magic Treehouse fact book about weather and twisters.
CC, I like the way you do birthdays these days.
PK, I also love to watch Steve Nash. He doesn't have the most raw ability but he is so intelligent and not show-offy at all.
Good evening, folks. Thank you, Neville Fogarty, for an excellent puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for the excellent review.
SADAT and SCOPE and were easy for 1 and 1. Anwar Sadat was a good leader and I have a scope on my deer rifle.
Never heard of ORFEO. Perped it.
Got BEA ARTHUR after I changed OCTO to OCHO.
Had WINE for 21, then fixed that to PANS.
Liked TUBA for 32D. Anonymous: A Sousaphone does have a front facing bell, it is a marching horn. The tubing wraps around you and you carry it on your shoulder. A recording tuba, as I have, and which was described by TTP, you hold in your lap. For concert use.
Got CHEZ with perps.
Liked NENE. An old favorite.
Never heard of BEGORRA. Perped it.
Liked the theme. Had all the answers before I had BINGO.
Happy birthday to all. LLL, glad yourv husband is doing better.
I have a miserable cold. Hopefully better tomorrow.
Abejo
Avg Joe, your tree story reminded me of this photogenic tree. I've enjoyed looking at it and climbing on it each time we've visited Santa Barbara.
Fig tree.
Husker Gary, I'm picking up on your drift. I've been "off" for seven or eight days now, and I'm inventing things to do around the house. Don't know what I'm going to do when I'm retired, but I am going to have to do something, especially in the winter when the golf courses aren't open.
Found this while rooting (routing ?) around on the web. Goat Tower
ANON @ 10:35, I'll defer to Abejo, but from what I read on WIKIPEDIA, that while both have the bells pointing forward, one major difference is that a "recording tuba" sits on the lap, while a sousaphone is designed to be carried on the shoulder.
Blue Iris, hand up for Fried Okra. Love it. DW and I drove to Houston shortly after we were married, and stopped in to a Black-eyed Pea restaurant for late lunch one day. She'd never had chicken fried steak, fried okra, or turnip greens. Such a sheltered life !
Manac, I remember someone saying something about a snowblower recently. Last season I sold my 30 something year old (purchased used) MTD Sno-Flite for $50 and bought a new Ariens "Compact 24" at Home Depot after reading the ratings from Consumer Reports. Much, much lighter and blows (or throws) much farther, but doesn't do as well in the heavy ice-encrusted sludge at the end of the driveway as the old MTD did. Despite that, Consumer Reports got it right as they so often do. Easy to start, throws snow a long way, and is easy to maneuver. As of late, it's been "staged" in the garage but hasn't seen any action yet. We've had no snow to speak of in Chicago.
Steve, C.C. and all thank you for the blog today. Thanks also to Neville for this puzzle. I found today's work fairly easy.
Happy birthday all!
BLT's are a weakness of mine. My Dad has a garden every year. He grows the best okra and tomatoes.
I have learned to "toast" the okra in the oven to get it to taste very much like when it is fried.
Sister had snow in Hope, Arkansas yesterday. Relatives visiting from Tucson were happy to see it!
Good evening everyone.
Lemonade714, i am so glad this is a family website, now i can post the Rhymes With Orange i saw a couple of days ago in the comics of our family newspaper!
Manac, how would water get into the oil? Sounds like a major snowthrower defect!
Anon @? Canned Okra???
Bill G. Awesome fig tree! Reminded me of climbing one as a kid. I came down out of it as a sticky mess...
TTP, what the heck is a goat tower? Well, i guess Wiki explained what, but it doesn't explain why???
Wow, Bill, that looks like a Texas Live Oak
Yes Bill, that's an amazing tree. Amazing! Had to laugh at the qualifier though (1,000 or 10,000).
But just to be clear,the trees I was referring to weren't extraordinary, they were simply the only trees around.
CED, well, some guy in Portugal decided that since goats like to climb, he'd build a tower so they could. So then someone else did, then the guy in Norway did, then the guy in Illinois did...
Bill G. Awesome pic of that tree.
TTP, My first snow thrower was an MTD
made version. Problem was they used brass gears in criticle areas, probably to save a buck, Hence.. They arent in business anymore.
CED, HD would leave these out in all types of weather and it wouldn't surprize me if the cap was loose. It was easier to flush it than take it back and argue. Works great since. Gonna need it tomorrow!
Well, who wouldn't love a puzzle with Wahoo, Oh Brother, Begorra, Ick, and the best...Gee Whillikers! Lots of fun clues too. I had no knowledge of Orfeo or Plessy.Def Leppard was a real puzzlement as I could not read it for a few tries even after the perps filled it.
Great write up Steve, loving all the extra tid bits. Had no clue chinchillas were from the Andes. Just know that friends raised them in their basement where they could keep a constant temperature.
C.C., I like the way you announce birthdays; I think I was one who was on a family trip to the SD Zoo that weekend..can't always get WIFI to respond.But, I think you know who is still reading. :-)
Happy Birthday Andrea!
La La Linda, good news.
Thank you all for the birthday wishes! I've had a great day with family, starting with my 6 year old letting me sleep in, and then bringing me breakfast in bed with the crossword puzzle. Finished up with a wonderful dinner at our restaurant, which was a treat, as I rarely get to eat dinner there...
This is 49 for me, so I've been hard at work thinking of a fabulous way to celebrate next year's Big Event. Any suggestions are most welcome. Right now the leading candidate is a week of biking and cooking in Provence. What a fun thing to ponder!
Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays.
Hope I`m not repeating anyone:
IDK I don`t know
LMK Let me know
TTYL Talk to you later.
OMG POS Oh my God Parent over shoulder
ZZZZZ U R boring
Andrea, your menu sounds great! I've had sweetbreads only once before and would love to try them at your place.
Dang, the Lakers look lethargic again.
I did notice PLESSY on Jeopardy since Montana had alerted me.
I am just starting to try out the Franklin Crossword Puzzle Solver. I would prefer not to need any help but I would much prefer to finish a puzzle with help rather than just leave it unfinished.
for Manac: MTD
Most everything is made by MTD, no matter what the name says.
Bill G.
The Moreton Bay fig takes its name from Moreton Bay a little north of Brisbane in Qld., Australia, which is the center of its range of natural growth. They are common up and down the eastern coast, and a few of them can be seen in the Botanical Gardens in Sydney.
Argyle, Maybe it was Tecumseh I was
thinking about. That was the engine on
my MTD snow thrower. My wood splitter of over twelve years is an MTD but with a Briggs & Stratton engine. Tough to keep up with all the changes some times. I hadn't seen a MTD trade name in a while.
You are right about that. But order parts and they come from MTD.
CED: Windhover could answer you better, but goats seem to seek the highest point they can access. I remember once when I worked for a car dealership, some guy who had just bought a brand new pickup came in madder than hell. He'd gone out to see a goat farmer and when he came out of the house there was a big billy goat perched on the cab of his new pickup. He was afraid to get into his vehicle until the farmer got it to move. He had to have body and paint work on the hood and cab.
Hmmm, can't bring up today's puzzle (Thursday 12.27.12) online.
Went to the Washington Post and get a message "Sorry ! There are some problems with loading puzzles."
Went to the USA Today Site and it loads a puzzle from Jan 27 12.
Stan Newman's is correct.
Weird. Common server must be down. Guess I'll have to wake up with old USA Today Puzzles and Stanxwords
TTP,
Chicago Tribune has the correct puzzle on line.
Hi CC. No, It's still pulling up Neville's Wed puzzle, and the WP Site still has the same message.
I've tried getting to the puzzle via my bookmarks and via the Tribune Puzzle pages and google hits. They all bring up Wednesday's puzzle. I can see that there is now a Thursday blog entry, but still the Wed puzzle.
TTP,
Very strange. I pulled up the correct puzzle from the Chicago Tribune website both from my bookmark and the Google search.
Thanks CC
I don't know what is going on. I decided to clear cache on my browser and try the Chicago Tribune site again, and this time I got the Thursday puzzle. So I opened new windows and tried to get the WP site and get the same message, and the USA Today Site is still opening to Jan 27th. I think I may reboot the PC in a little bit... Weird.
TTP,
I don't solve those puzzles. But I just tried both. Both have the correct puzzles for today. You must have done something naughty :-)
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