google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday Jan 23, 2013 Mark Feldman

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Jan 23, 2013

Wednesday Jan 23, 2013 Mark Feldman

Theme: Fun with Fauna, or Fauna-cation

The eight theme answers dotted throughout today's puzzle pair an animal with a noun to come up with a well-known word or phrase.

18A. Animal's paw warmer? : FOXGLOVE. We used to put foxgloves on our fingers as kids and pretend we had purple and green talons.


29A. Animal's hiking gear? : RAT PACK. Was there a rat pack before Sinatra and his cronies? Is "pack" the collective noun for a number of rats? How many more questions can I ask about one clue?

30A. Animal's laundry? : HOGWASH. Hopefully not all of my blog today. Doubtless some of it.

44A. Animal's golf club? : PIG IRON. His partner Fido uses a DOG WOOD.

47A. Animal's undergarment? : COWSLIP. Immediate mental image of the hippos in tutus in Disney's "Fantasia"

54A. Animal's apartment? : MOUSE PAD. The feline who lives in the apartment underneath gets in a CAT FLAP when there's too much noise upstairs.

3D. Animal's timepiece? : DOG WATCH. If you stand the Dog Watch during summer's Dog Days, can you be double-dog dared?

36D. Animal's instrument? : BULLHORN. Bullhorns always seem to crackle, but maybe that's just when someone is quoting cliches through them.

Hi all - Steve here with a fortuitous outing on the day the blog came back from Google's Slough of Despond where it was banished for reasons still unclear. C.C. has been dealing with the bureaucracy that is the Blogger Police Department and deserves a medal and a huge round of applause from everyone for doggedly pursuing justice, freedom and liberty for her blog.

I liked the theme today with eight clues both across and down. Some of the fill was a little scrappy but I'm getting the feeling that's the trade-off you make when you have so many theme answers in a 15x15, but I'm totally out of my depth analyzing puzzle construction and I'll leave that to the experts.

Let's check out the rest:

Across:

1. Exemplar of cruelty : SADIST. The Marquis De Sade's castle is now owned by Pierre Cardin (along with many of the other properties in the village).

7. Approach furtively, with "to" : SIDLE UP

14. Split and united? : ELOPED. Great clue, loved this.

15. 2001 Disney film subtitled "The Lost Empire" : ATLANTIS.

17. Pioneer transports : WAGONS.

19. Boston-to-Providence dir. : SSW I need to brush up on my geography. I pretty well always have to wait for crosses to get these right.

20. Strauss's "__ Rosenkavalier" : DER

21. Neighbor of Ger. : POL. I had "HOL" first and was going to pick nits about Holland not being a country, but then I found out I was wrong. The nits remain unpicked for now.

22. Subject of a China/India/Pakistan territorial dispute : KASHMIR.

26. Tokyo airport : NARITA. My only visits to Japan have been to Narita to change planes. Some day I'll get to stop for longer.

31. Put in a zoo, say : ENCAGE

32. Tippy transport : CANOE. Nice play on Tippecanoe.

33. Suffix like "like" : ISH

34. Sets the pace : LEADS

36. Marcel Marceau character : BIP. M. Marceau is responsible for us all being subjected to watching our friends attempt "man walking against wind" or "man in glass box", always badly.



39. Indian spice : CURRY. Nit Pick alert: "Curry" is a blend of spices.

41. Assistant professor's goal : TENURE.

48. Like some bagels : ONION-Y. My bagels are "everything-y".

49. Undoes, as laws : REPEALS

50. Heart lines: Abbr. : ECG. Electrocardiogram. I thought the "electro" bit was because the monitoring device is electrically-powered, but in fact it measures the electrical activity of the heart muscles.

51. Brief life story? : BIO

52. HEW successor : HHS. I had NO idea about this one. I was trying to think of presidents and eventually the crosses filled it in for me. I went to look it up here.

58. Melodic : ARIOSE. The "R" here was my last letter to complete. I was torn between "RNA" and "DNA" for the down clue, and decided that "ADIOSE" just didn't smell right. WAG'd the R and - Yay!

61. Wet ink concern : SMEARING. When we had to write in pen and ink at school this was truly traumatic. One smear and you start all over again. No UNDO in 1865.

62. Night noises : SNORES. Guilty as charged.

63. One on the lam : ESCAPEE

64. Hot spots : SAUNAS

Down

1. Stitches : SEWS

2. The Palins, e.g. : ALASKANS. My British brain knee-jerked Michael Palin (ex Monty Python) and wondered what his family had done for crossword-recognition.

4. Wall St. debut : I.P.O. Initial Public Offering of part of a company's equity. It used to be done to raise capital for investment, in recent years it's become more of a "cash in your chips" event for the early investors.

5. Obama, before he was pres. : SEN. I was trying to fit "not stressed out".

6. NFL stats : TD'S. Plenty of these in the Conference Championship games on Sunday; let's hope the Superbowl delivers more of the same.

7. More secure : SAFER

8. "Do __ else!" : IT OR. "Please" would be nice.

9. CCLXXX x II : DLX

10. Trail : LAG

11. Lab blowup: Abbr. : ENL. Not the chemistry lab, but a photo enlargement. "Doc" Rees, High School chemistry teacher, bored with tossing little chips of sodium in a beaker of water and watching them catch fire and zip around, went one step beyond on the last day of term and tossed a sizable lump of caesium into the school swimming pool and was lucky not to set fire to us all. Happy Days.

12. Paradise : UTOPIA

13. Turns on one foot : PIVOTS

16. Psalm instruction : SELAH. I'd only ever come across this in the letters of Hunter S. Thompson, it was one of his favorite sign-off lines.

20. Cartoonist Browne : DIK. I had DAN first, it sounded familiar, then it was ohhhh -  no, wait.

23. Health resort : SPA

24. Crone : HAG. "When shall we three meet again?"


25. Neil __, Defense secretary under Eisenhower : MCELROY. Toss-up between this and MCILROY. I guess I've been watching a lot of golf and Rory M. over the last few months.

26. Continuous : NONSTOP. I love nonstop flights, but I'm glad that the pilot decides to break the rules and make one stop.

27. Past : AGO

28. "The American Scholar" essayist's monogram : RWE. One of Emerson's most famous essays. Apparently. (I plead ignorance, I tried to  read "Walden" a number of times and eventually realized that it was going to join "Finnegans Wake"on my shelf of the "will never get past page 20" books.

29. Portuguese king : REI.

30. Swindled : HAD. This is an odd word - I've only heard it in the past tense, and passive at that - "I've been had!"

32. Low islet : CAY

35. Coastal flier : ERN

37. It surrounds the Isle of Man : IRISH SEA. The Isle of Man has no speed limits and hosts a week of motorcycle racing each year on a twisting street circuit around the island. When the racing is finished, the circuit is opened to anyone with a motorcycle and a death wish on a day known as "Suicide Sunday". And yes, people die. Every year.

38. Vigor : PEP

39. Gp. in a 1955 labor merger : C.I.O. Now the AFL/CIO

40. Coffee holder : URN

42. Ram's mate : EWE

43. Ultra-secretive org. : N.S.A. The National Security Agency.

44. Burns bread and butter? : POEMS. Favorite clue of the day. Robert Burns wrote the words to "Auld Lang Syne", mangled by all who sing it today.

45. Tips may be part of it : INCOME. And you must declare these in box something on your tax returns. You promise you will, right?

46. Lively Baroque dances : GIGUES

47. Corp. head honcho : C.E.O.

49. Fingerprint feature : RIDGE. The ridges make up whorls and loops. I don't know anywhere else you find a whorl.


51. Ruination : BANE

53. Cong. meeting : SESS. Congo? Conga? Conger? Ohhhh - Congress - in Session! Gotcha.

55. Anatomical bag : SAC

56. Victorian, for one : ERA

57. Die dot : PIP

58. Donkey : ASS

59. Biological messenger : RNA. Always torn between this and DNA as I mentioned earlier.

60. Debtor's marker : IOU. They don't take these in Vegas, at least not from me. Cash only.

That's it! Have a great day everyone, and Welcome Back Blog! Huzzah!

Steve




Notes from C.C.:

1) So Google (owner of Blogger) wrongly thought we're a spam blog and locked us from Saturday night until early Tuesday night. Here is their answer this morning:

"I wish that it was possible to identify specific characteristics of a given blog, that make it more or less susceptible to spurious spam classification.  Unfortunately, that will never be possible.  Fuzzy spam classification cannot be described, with any certainty, in words. Sorry."


2) In case you missed our puzzle discussions on my Ginger Roots blog, please click here for Sunday post, here for Monday post and here for Tuesday.

3) Captcha will be used in blog Comments section from now on. I know it's hard to recognize those damn letters, but it's a safe measure we need to take. Here are a few tips:

  • Please always save your comments in a Word document or in an email draft. In case you lose your comments to the blog black hole, you can always copy and paste.
  • Argyle discovered that you don't need Captcha to Preview. Captca is involved only when you try to hit the "Publish Your Comment" button.
  • It might take a few tries to get an easy-to-read Captcha. So please be patient. Other bloggers/posters have been using Captcha for a long time. We sure can take up the challenge and overcome this obstacle. This will be a learning experience for all of us.

Thanks again to Husker Gary for taking the time to inform all the regulars in his mailing list about our glitch & move of the blog. Contact him gschlapfer@gmail.com if you want to be included in his list.

Thanks also to TTP for giving me & Argyle detailed explanations about some technical issue. We learned a lot from him.

And to our long-time readers, Thank you so much for your loyalty and support.

137 comments:

Argyle said...

The captcha that is sitting there before you preview isn't needed for the preview and if you do enter it, after you review and hit Publish, it says you entered the wrong captcha and asks you to do it again. I did that myself the first few times until I learned you didn't need the captcha for the Preview.

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Cute puzzle, Mark! Amusing write-up, Steve!

Had a nap after working this, so some thoughts have flown the coop. Never heard of DOGWATCH, but the rest of the many theme entries were cool! Thanks for the fun!

SELAH and NARITA nearly got me. Emerson was a WAG.

Many thanks for all of your effort, CC, TTP, Argyle, etc.

Cheers!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Really, really loved the theme today. Every theme answer was a gem that brought a smile to my face. Well, every theme answer except for DOG WATCH, that is. Not at all familiar with that expression and struggled a bit in the NW as a result. It didn't help that I was looking for something more specific as an "exemplar" of cruelty (either a specific person or something that would complete the phrase, "as cruel as a ____").

Elsewhere, the puzzle was mostly smooth sailing with only a few rough spots. I confidently put in PIP at 36A and then did a double-take when I saw it again at 57D. Obviously, I had to change the first one to BIP.

As with Steve, I had no idea what HEW stood for or what its (his?) successor was. I also initially had ARIOSO instead of ARIOSE at 58A, so that section was a bit of a mess for awhile as well.

NARITA and MCELROY were both only vaguely known to me, but fortunately both were gettable via the perps.

All right, let's try this darn capcha and see if I can actually post this...

fermatprime said...

Took 4 tries last time! Also, appears to be a dirty word this time!

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Steve and friends. I laughed at the Animal Antics and Images in the puzzle, but actually found this a bit tough for a Wednesday.

Split and United = ELOPE is the best clue I have seen for this answer.

I liked seeing PEP and PIP in the same puzzle.

I, too, thought of "Tippycanoe and Tyler, too." John Tyler became president after Tippycanoe died a month after his inauguration.

I also thought, but Curry is a Blend, not a single spice.

SELAH is a Hebrew word found numerous times in the book of Psalms. It likely is a clue to stop and consider the words one has just read or heard.

Thanks to all who helped reconstruct this blog. Blogger's response as to why this wonderful blog would be considered as Spam seems weak.

QOD:Chocolate is the first luxury. It has so many things wrapped up in it: Deliciousness in the moment, childhood memories, and that grin-inducing feeling of getting a reward for being good. ~ Mariska Hargitay (Jan. 23, 1964)

I am not a robot - Really, I am not!

Middletown Bomber said...

fun puzzle got the theme early on.

Noticed the lame apology that Blogger gave to CC. Basically they did not guarantee that their system will not lock us out in the future. Still think a lawsuit could be a good idea but this blog is not the ideal plaintiff.

Unfortunately the idea plaintiff would be blogger's advertising service which of course is owned by google the same corp which also owns blogger. Either that or a blog which depends on advertising for income.

I think cc may want to find another free blog service in case this blog gets locked again.

I am enjoying a frozen hump day

Al Cyone said...

Well, at 5°F here in the beautiful mid-Hudson valley, it's too cold to say more than that I enjoyed the theme and SELAH was a complete unknown. [7:41]

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Really got caught at Selah, never heard of it. I guess I'm not up on my Biblical Hebrew words or something. Otherwise smooth sailing!

Good to be back where we belong. Thanks, C.C.!

Dudley said...

This post is a test: I'm finding out whether the Captcha "word" is case-sensitive.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

C.C., I think that explanation/apology from Google warrants one of those, "I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong!" responses.

Low Island -- AIT, KEY, no CAY. And Steve, as a pond-crosser you can be forgiven, but Walden wasn't written by RWE; that was Emerson's buddy, Thoreau.

Speaking of tax returns, I have to be off shortly to our annual pre-tax season meeting. I'm a volunteer tax preparer again this year.

Dudley said...

Oh, good. Apparently it's not case-sensitive.

It therefore shouldn't matter that my iPad automatically capitalizes the first letter of the first word it sees.

Anonymous said...

Dudley, you have an iPad? Oooooh.

Hungry Mother said...

Glad you're back. I was sure that "selah" was wrong, but I couldn't come up with anything better. I tried to get "seeth", but luckily failed.

Lemonade714 said...

A new day for the blog but we are here. Very impressive theme and some very difficult fill. Thank you gentlemen.

ben said...

just glad the blog is back!

HeartRx said...

Good morning Steve, C.C. et al.

Yay! It's nice to take a vacation every once in a while, but it's always good to be back home. Thanks for the superlative write-up, Steve!

Well, I have to confess to a FIW. I had gULLHORN at 35D instead of BULLHORN. Duh! gIP seemed as reasonable as BIP to me. But what the h- is a gullhorn? I thought maybe it was something they use in seaside resorts to get rid of the gulls that s**t all over the place. No? Did know DOG WATCH, though. Loved all the other theme entries, too.

GIGUES and SELAH took every single perp. Other than that, it seemed pretty straightforward.

Have a happy hump day, everyone!

Mari said...

Great puzzle today, I loved all of the animal clues (including ASS).
Hahtoolah - I love your cute avatar!

I also likved 14A: Split and united? ELOPED

Interesting cross of REI and RAT PACK (Animal's hiking gear) as REI is a sporting goods store.

I noticed there was no bad news in the notes of today's blog. That's great! Let's hope everybody remains safe and healthy today.

PS: The tempureature in Chicago is double that of yesterday (16 vs 8 degrees). We must be on our way to spring!

Mari said...

SELAH appears pretty frequently in the Psalms.

HeartRx said...

Hmmmm...interesting. I just previewed and then published my comment, but did not get the Captcha box. Am I privileged in some way?

Unknown said...

Well hi there - I was wondering what happened to the blog and now I see the Google Monster got it. It's nice to see it back.

I didn't find this puzzle as easy as past Wednesdays have been. Not knowing Foxglove or Cowslip didn't help, and slowed me down from seeing the theme. As always, I did enjoy the process.

Steve, your "non-stop" comment made me laugh out loud. Non-stop ranks right up there with near-miss.

I was very surprised and saddened to see someone suggesting a lawsuit over something as frivilous as the blog being down for a couple days. Is there nothing that can be done to punish lawyers who file these ridiculous suits?

Sorry for the rant, but to me, it's one of the bigger problems with our society today.

Wishing you all a good day.

TTP said...

Happy National Pie Day everyone !

Thank you Mark Feldman and thank you Steve. And thank you CC. We are all so appreciative of you and the team!

That Isle of Man video was intense. I have plenty of bike stories. Gave bikes up in the late 80s.

FAvs: Split and United = ELOPED, Tippy Transport = CANOE, and Burns bread and butter = POEMS

In golf, you only want to use a dog wood on a dogleg hole, unless you are trying to slice or hook around an obstacle. Good thing for perps in a couple of areas, like SELAH.

Almost failed at the I in ONIONY crossing with GIGUES, which I wish I could pronounce. Like I often did as a child, I'll make up my own pronunciation of it. ONIONY was further troubled until I wagged the Y MCELROY. Even then, I parsed it as M.C. ELROY. (I don't have my coffee until later.) Took a bit of thinking to get the MI in KASHMIR. Don't pay much attention to cartoons, unless they are in the editorial section, so didn't know DIK.

Ultimately, it was the crossing R in NARITA and RWE that prevented the TA DA! Sorry Ralph.

Running late this AM. See you all later.

thehondohurricane said...

usGood morning,

Winter has arrived in Connecticut...... very cold but invigorating. I'll take it over the three H's becoming all to common in summer.

I don't mind having to log in with CAPCHA, but can't they make the letters legible?


Today's puzzle was a incorrect finish. Steve went with ARIOSE, I chose ADIOSE (Amigos). 50A I wagged ECS, never having heard of GIGUES.

Hated ONIONY & ENCAGE. Loved 44D, POEMS. Took a bit for me to figure that one out.

Happy hump day.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

First, I want to thank all of you who posted expressions of sympathy concerning the recent loss of our daughter. It was very comforting to know one has the support of such a good group.

Happy Birthday wishes to John Lampkin and to Marge.

Today's puzzle was a nice distraction and I enjoyed the theme. Several good misdirections. Only hiccup was ONIONY. Favorite clue was for POEMS.

New word for me today was GIGUES. Here is Hilary Hahn playing a gigue.

Enjoy your day.

Anonymous said...

Was the "glitch" money problems?

CanadianEh! said...

Glad to see the blog back at its proper spot. Just checking in to see if I can get past the captcha. Will do crossword later and return.

LaLaLinda said...

Hi All ~~

A very enjoyable puzzle, although like Marti, I FIW. I gambled and lost with O at the crossing of NARITA and SELAH. Unfamiliar with both - will I remember them?

After getting DOGWATCH, I thought the theme might be some sort of reversals, since I immediately thought of 'Watchdog' - more familiar to me. Wrong! It did help with knowing what to look for in the other theme answers, though.

Favorites: Split and united / ELOPED, Burns bread and better / POEMS and Tips may be part of it / INCOME.

BIP (or Bippy) is the nickname of my youngest sister. My next sister is known as 'Teenie' and I, of course, am 'LaLa." Strange family. ;-)

Thanks for a wonderful write-up, Steve. I'm starting to recognize your style before seeing your name.

Thanks, C.C. for all you had to go through to get us re-established. "Spam blog" indeed! Nice to see the lurkers and new folks who have joined us after the past few days ~ Welcome!

Anonymous said...

Selah is in many of the psalms thought to be a pause for the reader or an instruction to the musician.

Cong. Sess --could have double meaning congress meets in session as noted before and some denominations have congregational leadership meetings as Session as well.

kazie said...

WBS--Mostly anyway. I really enjoyed this one. Burns B&B was my favorite clue. I had to grin over several of the theme answers. But wags were SELAH, NARITA/RWE, and BIP relied on perps.

Thanks again C.C. for your constant efforts. I don't think most of us would want to do the puzzle daily if it weren't for this blog!

BTW, how am I supposed to read a fuzzy distant photo of a number (or something else?) on the edge of a door? Hopefully the second attempt will be readable!

Pinto said...

Anyone else read the clus as "Split and untied"?

I was thinking of a certain someone's bikini. Then I woke up.

Montana said...

Morning all, Great puzzle and writeup. Thanks.

DNF because of the A in SELAH and NARITA. WAGed wrong.

Steve, many years ago, HS science teachers were supposed to clean their labs of dangerous substances that had no business being in HS labs. Three of us science teachers took a small mayonnaise jar (no kidding) of potassium (under oil) to a bridge over our river (not on the main highway, though) and threw it into the river. The explosion surprised us and we fled, fearing the sheriff would be on his way. It was okay to keep sodium in the lab. Biology teacher and friends took some bottles of stuff out to a field and used them for target practice. More big explosions. We cleaned our lab out pretty good!

Kazie, are you a member of Delta Kappa Gamma?

It’s warming up here in the NW, so better days are headed to a lot of you,
Montana

kazie said...

I guessed, and it worked. The one awaiting me now is at least readable!

kazie said...

Montana,
Yes, I edit the WI newsletter. You too?

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Mark Feldman, for a very good puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for the excellent review. Liked the Isle of Man race.

First, I am glad we are back to our normals digs. Thank you, C.C., for all your hard work. Thank you, Husker Gary, for keeping us in the loop.

Went through the puzzle quite easily, for the most part. Thought ELOPED was an excellent clue/answer.

As others, SELAH was not known to me. Perped it. However, I will look it up in the Bible.

Enjoyed the theme. Very clever. FOXGLOVE was my first answer.

Almost wrote in AFL for 39D, but held off. Glad I waited. No write-overs today, which is rare.

Enjoyed The Palins/ALASKANS for 2D. I really like her as a potential candidate. Too bad the media is skewed in one direction.

Off to my day. It was a sizzling 15 degrees when I got up this morning.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

Sfingi said...

Though I finished, eventually, there were several words I didn't know: DOGWATCH (Navy term) BIP (clown) MCELROY NARITA HHS. The word I disliked, that slowed me the most was ONIONY.

I would have preferred "toadstool," or "cashcow" to DOGWATCH, but I learned something - after looking it up.

Agree with @Hahtoolah that curry is a blend. Anyone suggest a mild one for this wasp?

Love to see refs to fingerprints. My great uncle G. Tyler Mairs was one of the first American experts on prints, working for the NYPD. He forever warned that the day will come that 2 will match.

Abejo said...

Hey, I proved I am not a robot.

Abejo

Pinto said...

" I don't think most of us would want to do the puzzle daily if it weren't for this blog!"

Huh?

As great as this blog is, I been doing the puzzle daily for over 30 years! I remember doing my mother's puzzle once while visiting her and she slapped it out of my hands saying "hey! that's all I've got left to do today!" Now I understand.

Abejo said...

Speaking of fingerprints, I gave blood last week and they fingerprinted me at the blood bank. That is what I will use to identify myself when making future blood donations.

Abejo

kazie said...

Pinto,
What I meant was, we'd be less motivated to stick with the more difficult ones if there weren't instant feedback to motivate the extra effort. A day (or more) later I'd never remember what my previous day's thoughts on my attempt were.

Anntique said...

So glad you are back !

Spitzboov said...

Sfingi - Thanks for mentioning DOG WATCH. On our ship, at sea, the 1600-2000 watch was always dogged. It allowed the various watch sections to rotate through out the day, each coming day. It also allowed the off-coming watch to eat dinner at 1800. The oncoming watch for the 1800-2000 slot would have eaten at about 1730.

Here is a pilot's view of approaching the San Francisco Airport in an Airbus 380. Link

VirginiaSycamore said...

Hi all.
This is from a frozen 9F in Cleveland.

I have an intense hatred of catchas. I often have to blow them up to read them. One time I tried the sound alternative and that was worse.

I looked up GIGUE in Wikipedia and it sounds like English jig, which it is based on.

It seems that no one is SURE what SELAH meant. But it was llikely to be an instruction to pause or use some musical instrument.

Sorry I don't have the links, but I am not sure how to imbed them.

AnnieB8491 said...

Good Morning all - I have enjoyed your blog for quite a while and decided to jump in. I'm an avid crossword puzzle fan, but memory prevents me from retaining much of what I learn from one to the next. lol However, I enjoy a challenge. Today was one of those ones where I got almost all the way thru the clues the first time without writing much down, but once I started, many fell into place. The instruments were pretty easy with a few letters in place, then the animals came pretty quickly after that. RNA and DNA are a toss up to me as well, but didn't know ARIOSE and chose Adiose. Selah and Narita were also unknown.
I am not sure of protocol, but I guess I'll learn as I go. I always enjoy reading all of your comments.

Yellowrocks said...

1404arxivac 244Wow! Terrfic theme! I liked DOGWATCH (thanks to reading many Royal Navy novels)
SELAH (thanks to reading the Psalms in Sunday School)
ONIONY (in my family the more ONIONY the better)
DIK Browne (I can picture his name on Hagar the Horrible comics)
POEMS ( I like Bobby Burks’s work).
The word play on Tippy CANOE was my favorite.
Steve, thanks for the fun write up.

CC and team, the amount of angst and hard work you must have put in to keep this wonderful blog alive is immeasurable, as is my gratitude.

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

Marti,
Blogger software decides that the person who spends at least 3 hours every Thursday to write us a witty post can't be a robot!!

Kazie,
Just ignore the numbers on the left. You only need to type in letters on the right.

AnnieB8491 & all new tyros,
Welcome! I'm so pleased that you joined us.

CrossEyedDave said...

If i were a constructor, i would find using the "N" to cross Narita & Natick to be irresistible. (I would love to see the comments on that one.)

Loved the theme, & i even looked up funny images for "all" of them. But then i realized i was even annoying myself... So here are just two:

RatPack & HogWash

Tinbeni said...

Probably my slowest Wednesday solve ever.
Needed every perp to get SELAH, NARITA, GIGUES and ARIOSE (with a lucky WAG for Rna).

Enjoyed the Animal themes. Mark Feldman: Thanks for a FUN puzzle.

Fave was URN 'cause I like coffee until "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere."
Cheers !!!

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

Montana et al,
Can you all confirm that the number on the left of the Captcha is not needed when you try to prove you're not a robot? I tested a few with Boomer's account and went through typing only letters on the right.

kazie said...

C.C.,
Thanks, all except the first have been quite readable, but I was amazed that the first one worked anyway, but it must be because they ignore it. I was dutifully doing as told to "type the two words".

Annie, Welcome to our family!

Spitz,
Great video! I enjoyed all the side comments in German too!

Dudley said...

Test of CC's question

Dudley said...

C.C. -

It looks as though you're right. My prior post was put up without the numeral portion of the Captcha thing.

CanadianEh! said...

Fun puzzle and theme today - great visuals esp HOGWASH, MOUSEPAD.
Had some trouble initially but the perps helped to fill in.
Was totally misdirected by Burns bread and butter, and lab blowup. LOL.-great chemistry stories Steve and Montana.
Daughter used to fly through Narita on her way to S.Korea to teach. Knew Selah from Sun school. Daughter-in-law says different areas of India use different spice mixtures in their curry.

Lucina said...

Hello, everyone. Thank you, Steve, for a most amusing analysis.

And thank you, Mark Feldman, for a fun puzzle. SADIST always reminds me of the movie which was very disturbing. Did anyone else see it?

Loved the clever theme answers but DOGWATCH had me wondering. Thank you for all the explanations.

Brilliant clues at ELOPED, POEMS and INCOME. Loved those!

Argyle, you said last night that everything looked all right. Did you mean you can see my name in blue and my Avatar? Because I cannot.

Have beautiful Wednesday, friends! It's in the 80s here.

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

Kazie & Dudley,
Thanks.

Lucina,
No. You're still in black. I talked with Argyle this morning about your question last night. He misunderstood you.

Can you sign out of Blogger, then sign in again?

Anonymous said...

Definitly not a wednesday puzzle . Should have been a thurs or possibly friday puzzle. 11 question clues, fridays usually have only seven. Where is abbr. in 60d clue? Cowslip and foxglove never heard of, must be farmer slang. Kashmir is one of my fave Zepp songs. No clues or any answers stick out for me. Pretty ordinary puzzle for a friday.

Spitzboov said...

anon @ 1034

IOU is not an abbreviation according to Merriam Webster. If you would take the time to read Steve's intro, a very nice picture of FOXGLOVE is shown; hardly farmer slang. A cowslip is a common European primrose (Primula veris) with fragrant yellow flowers.

Irish Miss said...

Good morning:

I liked the theme very much but thought the puzzle was a little tricky for a Wednesday. Like others, loved the clues for poems, eloped, and canoe. Selah-Narita a toughie. Thanks, Mark, for a work-out and thanks, Steve, for your always witty and entertaining expo.

Many thanks to CC and everyone else who worked so hard to keep us up and running throughout our undeserved and unexplained (satisfactorily) lockdown. Let's hope we are back on the right track for good.

Our high today is going to be a balmy 13 and our low a temperate 2. All I can say is brrrrrrr!

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

Anony Mouse said...

Marti, I thought you didn't have to use Captcha because you've already been 'captured'. (lol)

Thank you, Mark Feldman, for a nice and wonderful puzzle. I got almost all of it, and really enjoyed it. I thought 32A, 'Tippy transport' was also 'Wagon' .... as in paddy wagon. 2 Wagons in the same puzzle ?? Finally corrected. I misread it as 'Tippler's transport'.

Steve, you da man ! I had 'Cumin' before 'Curry' .... Curry ?? Why not, 'Bubba's Cajun burnt fish spice' (mix) ? I never use curry - curry is for wimps - a stale, adulterated, mish-mash. I dry roast the cumin and coriander seeds whole, then hot grind to powder - just before each dish is prepared. The flavor is 5 times better.

Foxglove has digitoxin, digitalis, (cardiac glycoside ) which causes the heart to beat harder, by increasing the intercellular Na+ ions etc .... but you already knew that.

Re: Hippos in tutus .... were they all female ? (lol).

Re:Cesium .... seriously now, how does one obtain it, and where ? (lol).

My couple of feral cats live under our front sloop. I always tip toe on the wooden deck to avoiding disturbing them, lest they be presumably cohabitating. I don't want any cat flips.

have a nice day, you all.

Misty said...

Delightful puzzle, Mark, and great write-up, Steve. But before I spend a lot of time commenting I need to try out this new system. I shall return.

Lucina said...

C.C.
Thank you. I am signed out but not voluntarily. It just happened and I have to type my name every time I post.

Misty said...

I'm back! Took three tries and am still not sure how to work it, but I'll learn.

Anyway, loved the puzzle and got the whole thing. Guess I know my critters! WSS (what Steve said) about DNA versus RNA and about the Burns POEM being a fabulous clue. Also, great photo of the three Macbeth witches, Steve. Never heard of SELAH, DIK, or GIGUES, but they filled in all the same. And thanks, fermatprime, for explaining RWE to me. I of course put in RLS until it didn't work, and never did figure out EMERSON.

Welcome, Annie, and have a great Wednesday, everybody!

Vairnut said...

I found this Wednesday puzzle to be very easy, until I reached the SW corner. Got stumped by POEMS, didnt know GIGUES at all. After looking up Baroque dances (and counting on PIGIRON to be correct), I filled in the rest. Lots of fun cluing today!

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

Lucina,
Now you sign in your Blogger account, tick "Stay signed in" beside the "Sign In" button.

Anonymous said...


I wanted to comment on the reference to Walden. It was written by Henry David Thoreau, not RWE.

River Doc said...

Happy Y2K + 13 to everyone! Or is that 12/21/12 + 33 (those darn Mayans!)

Glad to see the Corner is back after the glitch du semaine….

Steve, agree with you 100% that “C.C. deserves a medal and a huge round of applause from everyone for doggedly pursuing justice, freedom and liberty for her blog.” Question – was the word “doggedly” intentional?

Spitzboov @9:10 – Absolutely riveting video of an approach to an airport I’ve landed at many a time. It’s been forwarded to all my family and friends in the Bay Area, so Thanks!

Not exactly sure (but we’ll know in a second!), but if the captcha phrase looks a little too muddy, I think you can change to a different set of letters by hitting the icon that looks like a rotating arrow just to the right of where you type in the answer….

JD said...

Good morning all, and a warm welcome to Annie, Pennybank, pje, Jill, OW, and Beachwine,

Mark, LOVED your theme,and your
clever cluing ... which were definitely a-ha's for me. Wed. always takes more time because of words like adiose, gigues, selah, and even some of those wee ones: bip, hhs,& nsa.

Narita is one airport I remember.

Mousepad= C.C.'s garage. You need a cat.

Thanks for a fun write-up, Steve.

"My" cat is back! Well, he isn't mine; he/she (?) is a feral that we have been feeding for the past 3 months.I was worried because he was gone for 4 days.

Anonymous said...

Lola said:

O.K. You've peaked my interest. I have to see what all the chatter is about captcha. The puzzle was enjoyable except for fill like gigues and selah. Glad we're home again.

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

Vegas Doc,
Wow. I never noticed that arrow. But it lost effect after one extra try. Then the Computer asked me "Are you sure you want to leave this page?"

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

All the Boomer tests were from me. I don't get Captcha myself, neither does anyone on my blogging team.

g8rmomx2 said...

Glad to see the Blog is up and running. I went on Sunday and saw that the blog was not on.

BTW loved this puzzle! I already can't read this captcha, so we shall see how long it takes me to post this.

Anonymous said...

Good afternoon everyone.

Congratulations C.C. and your helpers for getting us back to the regular blog.
What good does a captcha do when it's right on the write up? And I see only one word plus numbers. Not sure it I'll make it through.

I thought this puzzle was a lot of fun, as I love animals.

DNF because of SELAH & ARIOSE. Had all but a couple of letters in each, but couldn't get the rest.

Thanks for a great puzzle, Mark, and a good write up, Steve. Laughed
out loud at Fauna-cation.

Cheers

Tinbeni said...

True Story from 2005 (and captcha test).

PART 1
This is the best lawyer story of the year, decade and probably the century.
A Charlotte, NC, lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars then insured them against fire among other things. Within a month having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars and without yet having made even his first premium payment on the policy, the lawyer filed a claim against the insurance company. In his claim, the lawyer stated the
cigars were lost "in a series of small fires."

The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason: that the man had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion.

The lawyer sued....and won!

In delivering the ruling the judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous. The Judge stated nevertheless, that the lawyer held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure them against fire, without defining what is considered to be unacceptable fire," and was obligated to pay the claim.

Rather than endure lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid $15,000.00 to the lawyer for his loss of the rare cigars lost in the "fires."

Tinbeni said...

OK, so after I "Preview" I just typed the "new" captcha, hit "publish" and it worked.

Part 2

NOW FOR THE BEST PART... After the lawyer cashed the check, the insurance company had him arrested on 24 counts of ARSON!!!!

With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used against him, the lawyer was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and was sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000.00 fine.

This is a true story and was the 1st place winner in the recent Criminal Lawyers Award Contest.

ONLY IN AMERICA

Cheers !!!

Anony Mouse said...

Thank you, Spitzboov, for a 'real life' simulation of a 'landing' video. I really enjoyed it, including the droll German comments. My wife, (who happens to be home today - ) also enjoyed it ... which is a miracle in itself. After many, many plane flights, we still don't realize the tense moments during a 'take-off' and a 'landing'..... so many repetitive instructions, so many automatically repeated confirmation responses to those repetitive instructions - just to avoid the hint of a miscue or a misunderstanding. Too much at stake.

I am also glad that the official Global Civil Aviation protocol requires ALL wireless- communications between pilot(s), and to the ground, all over the world, has to be in ENGLISH. This could have been a foundation for a disaster, like if the Europeans, especially the French, decided to use their own language, in their own air space. A non-native speaker could have been left wondering, if 'wind shear' was a masc. or fem. noun, while forgetting about his own air speed entirely.

Diane said...

So glad the blog is back. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed reading it every morning until it shockingly was gone! As for today's puzzle--nothing new to comment on, so what everyone else said.

Pinto said...

Spitz, enjoyed that video. I was surprised to see that John Elway has to supplement his income by working the tower at SFO(9:40) and that some crosswordese made an appearance at 11:30. Thanks

Lucina said...

Well, I see that I'm the only one here who lost her identity! It must have something to do with my computer. Any ideas to correct this will be welcome. TIA

Lucina said...

Oh, my goodness. I don't understand it but now I'm back!!

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

Lucina,
Good. You're blue.

Tinbeni said...

Lucina, You, and your Avatar, look fine to me.


And ... YES, the Lawyer/Cigar story above (@12:07 and @12:11) is an Urban Legend that has been circulating since the 1960's.

Just wanted to test the "captcha" thingy's discussed above.

At least "It's Five O'clock Somewhere" (Finally !!!)

Cheers !!!

Husker Gary said...

You cannot believe how many people have written to me to be put on our mailing list so they will never miss the blog again. I have 12 people waiting in my gmail box right now. The reach of CC’s blog is phenomenal. Here are just some comments I have gleaned
-Please include me in your list when things "go south" in CC's Blog.
-I enjoy the blog, except for the snarky comments, and would like to be on your email list. Cheers
-I lurk on the LA Times Crossword Corner to check my puzzle and possibly, probably, learn something from the clue links, etc. I enjoy the humor within and was afraid I’d lost y’all. I’m glad it is straightened out, but would appreciate being included on the mailing list should the site get relocated or whatnot again.
-Thank you for returning the LA Times blog. The daily crossword has been one of my daily habits/addictions for decades, and I've been accessing the blog daily as well, (well, maybe not so much Mondays or Tuesdays) ever since I discovered it way back when. I used to Google for answers before I found your blog shortly after it went live. The blog is much easier than Googling for answers, and it's quite entertaining.
I use a fine point pen when I fill in the xword, and my goal each day is to have no do-over boxes. I must admit, the Thursday/Friday grids get a little messy though.
I consider the blog solvers all my early morning friends.
-Please include me in the corner list. I'm almost suicidal without this daily fix.
-have been a blog follower for a couple of years and am an infrequent commenter as "retatty". I read the blog every day and was, like every other regular reader, very distressed to see it disappear . I'd like to stay connected and assume it would work best if I "went blue"-can you give me information how to do that? Thanks for your help. This is my first experience with a virtual community and it has been very interesting-especially from the standpoint of the diverse geographical locations of the contributors.

Argyle said...

Am I the only one that had Burns/ PO*** and put in POWER? Too much Simpsons, I guess.

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, It is so nice to be back "home" for the blog. Thanks to C.C. and all the others who spent so much time and energy in getting us back here to blog once again.

I loved this puzzle and had so much fun trying to find all the animal entries. I chuckled at each entry and then went on to find the next animal. Such a fresh, fun, puzzle today.

I had a terrible time in the SW corner. I had Gavots for Gigues and Salary for Income, so nothing would fit. I finally had to look up Gigues. This is new to me, so I wouldn't have had it in my memory bank in any case.

I thought the clues for Eloped, Split and united? and Burns bread and butter? were super today. Both took me a while to figure out, but once in helped fill in the rest of those areas.

Have a great day everyone.

Husker Gary said...

I’m teaching PE today and just now got a chance to blog. Mark’s puzzle was fun and theme immediately obvious and helpful. Steve’s assessment in his last paragraph was spot on.

Musings
-I still prefer my laser tracking, hand-held mouse (sans PAD) to the finger mouse on my laptop
-I used/needed a BULL HORN to clerk the starts of track meets
-Some of those WAGONS carried people here to the heartland
-Talk about your unstable unstable boats
-FDR led the REPEAL of perhaps the most unpopular amendment to the constitution in his first term
-Those nose strips prevent SNORING about 60% of the time
-Running for office requires SMEARING your opponent
-Steve, have you seen the new Tiger/Rory commercial for Nike?
-Here comes another group to run the mile! Read y’all later.

Jeanie said...

re RNA/DNA, if the clue includes something about "messenger" it's gonna be RNA. FWIW, "mRNA" is scientific terminology, not just CWblog-ese.

Wikipedia's "List of RNAs" has 30 items listed. The 1st is "mRNA" and I was happy to see that the definition of the last ends in "maybe"

Pookie said...

Yay!!!! Back in business. No time to read comments, hope no one else said this.
Thought BURNS bread and butter needed an apostrophe.

JD said...

Gary, what nice posts from some of the many who read, but do not post. C.C.'s world is growing as we read, write, capcha.

Hooray for returning to blue, Lucina!

Tinbeni, hilarious story; shared it with DH.

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

Gary,
So sweet & rewarding to read those comments. Thanks for taking time responding to our readers.

JD,
Now I have 2 traps waiting for that mouse.

G8rmomx2,
Great to see you!

Tinbeni,
So it's not a true story? I'm disappointed.

OK, the blog is now running smoothly. I'm out.

Chickie said...

I have an easier time deciphering the Captcha if I squint at the words. I takes some of the fuzziness out of the letters and they show up better.

Fermatprime, dirty word or not, just type it in and see what happens! LOL.

God Bless you, Desper-otto
for volunteering to do taxes for someone else!! That is a job that should get anyone points in my book.

Is the Google Monster anything like the Cookie Monster?

Mari said...

Anonymouse @ 10:57 am: "Tippler's Transport", whatever TIN drives :D

We bloggers are growing by leaps and bounds! Welcome newcomers and former lurkers.

I have at least 3 stray cats that come to my back stoop for the free kibble. I hope they are doing OK in this cold snap we're having.

TTP said...

Hondo, all,

"I don't mind having to log in with CAPCHA, but can't they make the letters legible?"

Advancements in Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software pretty much dictates that the characters have to be a bit hard to discern. It's also why the letters are not on the same plane. Otherwise, the cyber c bad guys could just employ OCR and their bad guy coding to automatically read and input the characters into the field. Thus, the reference to "Please prove you're not a robot"

Mari, thanks for shivering with me yesterday. But I must ask, whose chest of drawers is that ?

Bill G. said...

Hi everybody! The weather has been Chamber of Commerce perfect the last few days; clear skies and highs in the 70s. Now it's clouding up with showers predicted tomorrow and Friday. I always look forward to some rain but am often disappointed.

Remembering EddyB, I decided to give Castle a try.

Maybe most everybody already knows this but if not, with Captcha, you can get a new 'word' to type by using the circle underneath the letters. It will give you a new set of stuff to type that may be more legible that the original. You can use it as often as you want to get something you can make out. To me, some of them are much easier to figure out than others.

Jayce said...

Tinbeni, I loved the story about the lawyer convicted of arson. Thank you!

Bill G. said...

I forgot to say earlier how much I liked some of the clues in this puzzle, especially the 'Burns bread and butter' clue for POEMS. I agree with Pas about the missing apostrophe. I brought that up before with regard to 'Jobs creation' for IMAC but most folks didn't seem to agree.

However, I was underwhelmed with the theme. It was OK but nothing special.

Kuroda said...

If Narita is a natick to anyone, you might consider Fukuoka Int'l Airport on Japan's SW island of Kyushu. The 3-letters on the baggage tags will provide a built-in mnemonic.

desper-otto said...

Bill G, so do you like Castle or not? I think it's an OK show. I like both of the leads, and the supporting cast: Beckett's two detective underlings, Castle's mother and his daughter, and the female coroner, are all interesting characters. It ain't "quality" TV, but it's a fun way to waste an hour (actually 42 minutes on DVR). It's a lot like watching NCIS, but without the head-slaps.

Avg Joe said...

Good to see the old digs up and running. Thanks to all involved in making it so!

An enjoyable yet challenging offering today. It's all been said, especially about that Selah and Narita crossing. But I actually did laugh out loud at the DogWood comment Steve.

And with so much discussion about robots, it's only appropriate to add a soundtrack: I Robot.

Actually, the title track to this AP album is an instrumental, and a bit repetitive, so I chose another cut that seems to fit the scenario nicely.

desper-otto said...

Kuroda, in Houston they've got a street named Fuqua -- but it's pronounced Foo'-Kway. I said it wrong a time or two before I was "learnt better."

PK said...

Hi Y'all, Great puzzle and comments! Bravo, C.C.!

Hands up for not knowing SELAH/NARITA/RWE. Also had a fiasco in SW. 50A had "art." for artery. Couldn't think of PIG. Wrote in 44D "toast". Well, "burned bread"? Finally, contemplated Burns as a name but didn't write in anything. Talk about screwed up. Finally got MOUSE & SMEAR but never PIG or ECG. Duh!

Sptzboov: loved the video. When did they do away with the stick/yoke/steering mechanism? Made me nervous seeing no real manual control.

Desperato, wish you were here to help with my taxes next month. I've done taxes all my adult life, but can't get the figure correct for how much tax I have to pay on my Soc.Sec. That form is nonsensical.

Anonymous said...

Thank you to C.C. for starting and growing this blog. Thanks to everyone else who participates. I have spent many happy hours here, and plan to spend many more.

WEES about this one. I'm disapointed that I didn't finish a Wednesday puzzle. Usually I can. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

After a high of 17* with wind yesterday here in Cincinnati, today's 23* and no wind feels almost balmy.

desper-otto said...

PK@2:12 -- It's confusing because it's a sliding scale dependent on how much other (non-SS) income you've got. With low income, none of the SS is taxable. With higher income it can increase to 85% taxable, but no higher. When the time comes to do your taxes, if you're still having problems with the form, shoot me an email. I'd be happy to figure it for you.

Hahtoolah said...

Desper-Otto: there are Fuqua Streets in Louisiana, too. Henry L. Fuqua was governor of the state in the mid-1920s. He died in office, s obviously couldn't finish his term.

K-Dub said...

Note to Steve: I believe you can have 'whorls' in your hair, too. An area where the hairs kinda spins or twists naturally.

Anonymous said...

I had to log on as an anon so I can see this Captcha everyone is talking about. Now I understand why many of you are having trouble deciphering the letters! But why does it ask you to type the TWO words, when you only need to type one?

Tin, loved the lawyer story - thanks for letting us know it is an Urban Legend, because I am gullible enough to believe anything.

Husker, great comments, and I'm sure they represent how most of us feel about the corner.

Marti

Mari said...

TTP @ 1:25 pm. It's not a chest of drawers, but a drawer of chests (in a way). It's inside Rosehill Mausoleum in Chicago. This was taken awhile ago so I don't recall if I'm standing in the Sears or Montgomery Ward family crypt.

Avg Joe said...

Karl, you could be right about that. I've never heard them called that, but what they are usually called ties in nicely with the theme......cowlicks.

Argyle said...

Gorilla suits storage. APE HANGERS

Steve said...

Thanks to everyone for the correction regarding Emerson and Thoreau. They both belong on my "no further than page 20" shelf!

Paul said...

greetings and thanks from a snowbelter in Central NY. Thanks for the awesome site... enjoyed it for many months and just wanted to say hi to all.

thehondohurricane said...

Wow, so many new folks. CC deserves every bit of the praise that has been mentioned today.

Tin, loved the lawyer story. I always respected the profession, but a couple of times in my career I saw a couple of them "crash & burn". Never felt one bit sorry for either of them.

Anony Mouse said...

Steve, could you email me your 'no further than page 20' dept. list. ( lol, I need to limit my reading .....).

Mari, Thanks for your comment on 'Tippler's transport'. I avoid naming people, for fear of offending them, but this article caught my attention. Cleveand Plain Dealer, editorial page .... boy, they must be short of 'hard' news.

Lets see if I can get the hang of this link ....Shackelton's Scotch.

Anyway, in case I mess it up, its about some bottles of 110+ yr. old Scotch, 3 cases of Highland Malt Whisky - Scotch - that Ernest Shackelton never retrieved, at his base camp, Cape Royds, in 1907, in the Antarctic. Now, in 2007, the researchers have retrieved it, syringed some and recreated it.... and now the original bottles are going back to his hut, in the frozen tundra, as part of its restoration.

The final lines say,

" .....Neat, huh ?

Or, in a nod to Shackelton, over ice.... "

Tinbeni is so not going to like that.....

It could be of interest to Tinbeni and Argyle (?).

Mari, when I saw your latest avatar, it seemed like you were in a morgue. I've been to one, a long time ago, .... when we used to know the Coroner and a Dpty. Cornr. in our county .... anyway, its a long story. Those drawers behind you look like they could hold a body, or two, but I don't know you well enough to suggest those things. Glad you cleared that up.

MollyB said...

Shouldn't the clue read, "Burns' bread and butter. And, sorry, but Walden in by Thoreau. Glad you're back.

Montana said...

Been gone all day. Sorry to answer you late, CC.
As I click to change the Captcha, the numerals and letters switch places. Now I'll see if only the word works for me.

Montana

Montana said...

It is nice to be able to enlarge the Captcha on an iPad. Can one do that, easily, on a computer?

Montana

Lemonade714 said...

114 and counting, and they tried to derail the corner. It is great that all the newbies are commenting, so there is a silver lining in this mini-debacle.

I cant wait for tomorrow now.

A ROBOT trying to beat the system, said...

I knew Tinbeni's lawyer insurance hoax was a 'hoax', because of at least 4 legal precedents, er, points.

1. Insurable Interest - Once the lawyer had 'smoked' the cigars, he(?) had no 'insurable interest' in the property.

2. Double Indemnity - you cannot claim insurance monies, after having already 'benefited' from the outcome of the risk.

3. Deliberate set fires, are not a casualty risk. Thus 'arson', directly or indirectly is specifically excluded.

4.

On the other hand, Judges are also sometimes 'under'-qualified, especially if they are elected in small towns. I doubt this would pass appellate judicial review.

Robot, from 'R.U.R', over and outttt ....... (battery down).


BTW, Captcha is also an I.Q. test, because it asks you to 'type the two words' - when there is only one word, and one set of numbers - hmmm.

HeartRx said...

Anony Mouse @ 5:06, fascinating info about Shackelton's whiskey. I have read almost everything there is about that expedition, but never heard about that whiskey! They were totally unprepared for what faced them. They took cross country skis to cross the ice, but no one on the expedition knew how to use them. They took a bunch of dogs to pull sleds over the Antarctic ice, but the dogs had never been trained, and did not know how to react to their harness. I highly recommend "The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition" by Caroline Alexander, for those who are interested.

Dudley said...

PK 2:12 -

Airbus is one of the earlier adopters of the fly-by-wire concept for airliners. In large airplanes, the control surfaces are so big they have to be moved by some form of power greater than that available from pilots' arms and legs (akin to power steering in vehicles). With such systems, the need for traditional control columns simply goes away, because their inherent force-multiplication isn't needed. So, it makes sense to tuck the modern, all-electronic control "stick" off to the side, out of the way of the panel, in a comfortable place for the pilot's arm.

Spitz - Great video! considering all those coordinated camera angles, this must have been a big production.

Marge said...

Hi all,
Wow! I sure am glad the blog is back, hope it can stay now. Thanks to C.C. and all the rest of you who worked to bring it back.

Thank you also C.C. for birthday wishes.

I got the top part of puzzle but not the bottom. I did know Selah but forgot there was an H on the end. Two days ago we had Sela Ward.

It's snowing again. It has also been very cold, an it is in other parts of the country

My DH is making supper so I better close.

I love this blog!
Marge

Pilot said...

I suspect it must have been the first A380 landing at SFO?

TTP said...

Mari, I was way, waaay off ! Thought it was either a Shaker chest of drawers or Paul Bunyan's.

Avg Joe, yep, cowlicks. But whorl sees apt.

D-O, did you hear about the court ruling ? Anyone can now prepare taxes for another. No registration and no competency required. Unbelievable.

I remember Fuqua in Houston. Probably still know Houston streets better than Chicago.

JD, yes, if Boomer keeps leaving the door open, CC will have to get a mouser. Anony-mouse may be able to supply one or more.

As Mari said, welcome all !

TTP said...

Dudley's post just reminded me that I didn't thank you Spitzboov. I enjoyed that immensely. Links, Rechts or Geradeaus ? Ok, so I can't spell the German words. I really enjoyed it. Great views flying into SFO. We flew into San Jose on our recent trip.

Heading out to a comedy club for a fundraiser. See you all tomorrow !

Abejo said...

Spitz:

Great landing video.

Abejo

Tinbeni said...

Spitzboov @9:10
Really enjoyed the A380 landing link.

Anony Mouse @5:06
Saw that Shackelton scotch story on the internet last weekend.
Now I have a reason to visit Antarctica. (Whoopee!)
(Trust me, if it was up to me, those 3 bottles would have been drained and their contents replaced with tea. LOL!)

A Robot @5:43
re: the Lawyer/Cigar hoax ...
Just curious, did the fact I commented @12:45 that the story was an Urban Legend that has been circulating since the 1960's give it away?

Cheers !!!

HUTCH said...

One question boys and girls! I always thought "or" meant the actor and "ee: meant the actee. Why is one on the lam "escapee". Although I "got it", I dont understand it.

HUTCH said...

relesly

CrossEyedDave said...

Spitz, great landing video. What surprised me was around the 7:00 mark, with flaps full, there appears to be 3 separate ailerons working independently. I have never seen that before.

Bill G. said...

Here is a cool article and video about a scuba diver who got a once-in-a-lifetime chance to help a dolphin in distress. Dolphin Video. I watched the video nearer the bottom of the article.

Accomplished Robot, again, said...

TTP, read your court case by Federal District Judge Boashire, Washington D.C., declaring all IRS rules for Tax Preparers, null and void.

( Note:- He was appointed by the 'current' President .)

Now the 0.38 % with AGI over $ 450,000 can have their taxes prepared by the homeless. 'Big refunds, guaranteed, for a used sofa'.

This is a great idea-

1. Next lets do away with the lawyers. ( Will fight/ plead your case, for food.)

2. Then lets do away with physicians, surgeons and pharmacists.

AVM ? ( arterial-venal-malformation ) .... no insurance ? Will do brain surgery, pronto - Have no fear, Super-Doc here.

Addicted to Cannabis ? - Mary Jane, here we come. All on paper, All Legit.


Practically, I think, either this IRS case is going to be overturned, on appeal

OR Congress will specifically pass a law - and quickly - giving the IRS the necessary sanction to allow them to do what they've always been doing.

Meanwhile, for 2013, do we MAKE UP 'dependents' or 'depreciable assets' to get the highest refund ( that we can imagine, we are entitled to - ) ?

Manac said...

Evening late nighters,
A Wed. DNF for me with the crossing
of Selah and Narita. Oh well.

-1 degree here now and the weatherman says it will go to -12 to -24 in outlying areas tonight. Well I'm not in one of those Inlying areas.

All three stoves going tonight.

Keep warm to all having to deal with this.

downtonabbey said...

Hi everyone:
Lots of comments today. Thanks to Steve, C.C. and the constructor, Mark Feldman. I liked the same clues others mentioned above. Did this puzzle this morning but have had a busy day. Enjoyed the landing video Spitz. Have never flown into that airport. Will have to show it to my mate, who likes to fly RC crafts. Happy Wednesday!

Bill G. said...

Somebody asked my yesterday (sorry, I forgot who it was) if I liked 'Castle.' No, not especially though I haven't given it a fair chance so far. It's no NCIS. For me, whether I like a show or not depends mostly on whether I care about the characters. I cared about the characters on The Closer. I care about the characters on NCIS and The Good Wife; on Castle and Elementary, not so much.

PK said...

BillG, The dolphin clip was marvelous. No one can tell me that some animals don't have ESP. That fish knew who would help him. Thanks!

pennybank said...

Really enjoyed this puzzle and the write-up...thank you Mark & Steve. I, too, thought the theme answers were going to be reversals (with DOGWATCH & RATPACK), until I came up with MOUSEPAD. What is a pad mouse?? So stopped reversing. Worked much better.

Don't think I will forget IRISH SEA as that is a heart-stopping race there on the Isle of Man. Would be fun if common sense didn't enter the picture.

Split and united was clever. Chuckled when it showed up.

Kazie @9:00 I understand perfectly. The Fri, Sat (and now Sunday since our paper doesn't have the Sunday LAT puzzle) would usually call for my crossword dictionary, Daniel Webster and Mr. G to get through,as well as a lot of time. They would end up, most of the time, undone. Finding this blog has given me a reward to keep at it, with some help if needed, as I can then meet up with some new friends that turn the whole Friday, Sat, and Sunday experience into a grand time.

Wonderful story about the dolphin, Bill G. They have shown some great intelligence. What an experience for that diver.

Have a good night, everyone....

pennybank said...

Waaay back when, when I was pretty young, the attorney for our bank used to sit in the cafeteria and do the crossword puzzle in the paper with a pen and he would zap right through it like he didn't even have to think. I wouldn't do it until that evening (most definitely didn't do it at the same time as him) and, well, I certainly didn't do it in pen! Much better at it now, but he was intimidating to me when it came to crosswords at that time. And I think of him whenever I get through a Mon, Tues or Wed puzzle, in pen. Yes, I could use a pencil but, Mr. Royan, this pen is for you!

Till later.....

Argyle said...

Reminds me of the story about this fellow that came in the restaurant and did the crossword in no time flat. He left the paper one day and they discovered he was just putting in letters; only half were right.

pennybank said...

Now that's funny! I wonder if he felt sheepish when he realized he left the paper behind, if, indeed, he did realize it. Would be a good April Fools gotcha!

downtonabbey said...

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