google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday Feb 24, 2013 Melanie Miller

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Feb 24, 2013

Sunday Feb 24, 2013 Melanie Miller

Theme: "Excess Baggage" - BAG is added to each theme entry.

23A. Self-defense overkill? : HANDBAG GRENADE. Hand grenade. Hottest handbag at the moment.



33A. Red wines aged in autos? : AIRBAG PORTS. Airports.

50A. KEGO on your radio dial? : GASBAG STATION. Gas station. What is KEGO?

70A. Direct route to Loserville? : DIRTBAG ROAD. Dirt road.

90A. Entertaining show in a run-down hotel? : FLEABAG CIRCUS. Flea circus.

104A. Consumer Reports first aid recommendations? : ICE BAG PICKS. Ice picks.

121A. Activist grocery clerk? : PAPER BAG PUSHER. Paper pusher.

Normally puzzle titles do not repeat the key words of the themes. But "Excess Baggage" captures the gimmick so well.

Easier than our normal Sunday, probably because the theme came to me early on.
  
Across:

1. Corn at a picnic : EARS
 
5. Proofer's mark : STET
 
9. Wind surge : GUST
 
13. Protozoa genus : AMOEBA. The spelling Barry G prefers.

19. First Nations tribe : CREE

20. Kitchen aid : CAN OPENER

22. Elephant in the Jungle of Nool : HORTON. Dr. Seuss's "Horton Hears a Who"

25. Because : IN THAT
 
26. Secure : OBTAIN
 
27. Orbital extremes : APOGEES
 
29. The ones right here : THESE
 
30. Shocked, in a way : TASED

35. Water carriers : PIPES

38. Garbage collectors : BINS

41. Rose to great heights : SOARED

42. Dashboard Confessional music genre : EMO. Guessed.

43. Expanding concern? : OBESITY. And 32D. Plan to take off : DIET. Both fun clues.

46. Edible mollusks : ABALONES. I lived in a small city near Tsingtao for half a year. Amazing seafood/beer/government corruption there.
 
54. Get stuck (on), mentally : FIXATE

55. Ocean gathering : SCHOOL
 
56. Thread holder : ETUI
 
57. Series of turns, usually: Abbr. : RTE
 
58. Secret alternative : BAN
 
59. Solar __ : PLEXUS. OK, it's located in your stomach area.


 
63. Foreword, briefly : INTRO
 
65. Takes to the streets : RIOTS
 
67. Part of the Constitution that describes Cong. powers : ARTI. Short for article?
 
73. Stockings : HOSE
 
74. They may have spurs : BOOTS
 
76. Unfamiliar : ALIEN
 
77. How chicken may be served : ON RICE. I'd like some  UNAGI (10D. Eel, at sushi bars)  on my rice.


79. Bugler with horns : ELK
 
80. Chicago-based superstation : WGN. I wonder why Chicago is always so corrupt, TTP/Abejo?
 
82. Growing business : FARM

84. California peak rumored to hide advanced beings called Lemurians : SHASTA. Melissa knows this.
 
88. Giggle : TEE HEE
 
94. Vending machine options : SODA POPS
 
97. After Effects and Final Cut Pro : EDITORS. Both video editors. I googled.
 
98. Mount Rushmore prez : ABE. Did you know he's the most written person after Jesus and Shakespeare?
 
99. Pabst brand : STROHS. Windhover/Abejo is our authority on beers.
 
101. Large green moth : LUNA
 
102. Mythical enchantress : MEDEA. Lemonade's wife, in myth.
 
109. Rear-__ : ENDER

111. Retail benchmark : SALES

112. Close enough : IN RANGE. Made me think of Chris Kyle. Bradley Cooper is going to play him in the movie "American Sniper".


115. "Shortly" : IN A SEC

119. Like some domestic help : LIVE IN

124. "The Human Condition" writer Hannah : ARENDT. Haltoola might know her. Not me.

125. Contraption : APPARATUS
 
126. Italian capital : EURO. Money. Not ROME/ROMA.

127. They're popular in Japanese gardening : MOSSES


 
128. Unusable, as a cellphone : DEAD
 
129. It may be used to walk the dog : YO YO
 
130. Obey a red light : STOP
 
Down:

1. Chamber bouncer : ECHO

2. Many a Yemeni : ARAB

3. Borrow for a price : RENT

4. Unflappable : SEDATE

5. Checks out, as groceries : SCANS

6. Hash attachment : TAG
 
7. H.S. course : ENG

8. __ Bora: Afghan region : TORA
 
9. Italy's largest seaport : GENOA
 
11. Ritual meals : SEDERS
 
12. South American arboreal snake : TREE BOA. So they live in trees?
 
13. Hawaiian tuna : AHI
 
14. Least populous state capital : MONTPELIER. Wiki said "The population was 7,855 at the 2010 census".

15. Traditional : ORTHODOX
 
16. Wild blue yonder : ETHER. I don't understand this clue. Why "Wild"?
 
17. Sing one's own praises : BOAST. So Boomer now has 14 perfect games. Lumpy, one of his friends, has 75. Can you believe it? Lumpy is not tall, nor does he look muscly. He does manage a bowling center.
 
18. Kitty starters : ANTES
 
21. Verve : PEP
 
24. Leaning : BIAS
 
28. Swedish import : SAAB
 
31. Dies down : EBBS
 
34. Payola, e.g. : GRAFT
 
35. Correctly assesses : PEGS
 
36. Apple variety : iMAC
 
37. Elegant : POSH
 
39. Cryptologic govt. org. : NSA
 
40. Something to build on : SITE
 
43. Checked out : OGLED. For our leg-loving Splynter.


44. Hair color immortalized by a Renaissance painter : TITIAN RED. Did you all get this easily?
 
45. In its early stages : YOUNG
 
 47. Jar Jar Binks's home planet : NABOO. Strange land to me.

48. Virginie et Floride : ETATS. States, in French.
 
49. Horse __ : SENSE
 
51. Hasbro reaction game : BOP IT. New to me. Is it played alone?


52. Email letters : AOL
 
53. Short blaster? : NITRO. The N in  TNT.
 
57. Revved engine sound : ROAR
 
60. Capital of Shaanxi province : XI'AN. Yeah, my hometown. Capital of Zhou & Qin Dynasties, hence my Mandarin name Zhouqin. So, when you Google "Xi'An Zhouqin", what's the first image you see?

61. Modern search result : URL
 
62. Strong, drinkwise : STIFF
 
64. Small-government proponent Paul : RON
 
66. "__ the train a-comin'": Johnny Cash lyric : I HEAR.
 
67. Covers for a crook, say : ABETS
 
68. Battle on a log : ROLEO. Learned from doing Xwords.
 
69. Tipped, as a dealer : TOKED
 
71. Bluesy Memphis street : BEALE
 
72. Some are compact : DISCS
 
75. Brushed off : SWEPT ASIDE. Nice answer.
 
78. Vital life force, to acupuncturists : CHI. Literally "breath"/"air". It's different from the Chi in Tai Chi, which means "Grand".
 
81. Storied officer __ Ludwig von Trapp : GEORG. "The Sound of Music".
 
83. Junk __ : MAIL
 
85. Gob : SCAD. Often in plural.
 
86. Den focus, familiarly : TUBE. Not the "Scout den".
 
87. Sailing : ASEA
 
89. Stars no longer shining : HAS-BEENS
 
91. A/C measure : BTU
 
92. Unrivaled : A-ONE
 
93. Nana : GRAN

95. 1969 Arkin/Moreno comedy : POPI. Never heard of it. Alan Arkin/Rita Moreno.
 

 
96. Soccer protection : SHIN PAD
 
100. Minor injury : SCRAPE. I'm amazed by how stubborn my hamstring injury is. Still a  dull pain when I do some leg stretch.
 
102. Options list : MENU. Options is under Tools in my Firefox browser.
 
103. Takes out mistakes : ERASES
 
104. Faith of nearly a quarter of Earth's population : ISLAM
 
105. Where "Aida" premiered : CAIRO
 
106. Rivendell inhabitants : ELVES. Gimme for Marti/Jazzbumpa. Both avid fans of "The Lord of Rings".
 
107. Key letter : KAPPA. This Greek "Key" clue often stumps me.
 
108. "Golf Begins at Forty" author : SNEAD (Sam). Could be HOGAN, judging by the title.
 
110. Souse : DIPSO
 
113. Lab warning : GRR. Dog!
 
114. Cybermarket since 1995 : eBAY
 
116. Latched, say : SHUT
 
117. Designer Saarinen : EERO
 
118. Prune : CROP. Trim.
 
120. Some Windows systems : NTS
 
122. From __ Z : A TO
 
123. Chap : GUY

C.C.


59 comments:

  1. Enjoyable Sunday puzzle. Thought of you when I entered Xian. Pretty impressive your picture comes up first on that Google. Congrats on your success c.c.!

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  2. Morning, all!

    Very fun puzzle overall. I got the theme early on and it certainly helped. And no, I have no idea what KEGO is, either...

    A few unknowns here and there (GEORG, POPI, XIAN) and some tricky clues ("Lab warning" for GRR, "Growing business" for Farm, etc.), but nothing the perps couldn't get me through.

    Oh -- and Bop It can be played individually or with a group (you take turns following the commands and then pass it to the next person). My son just got one for his 8th birthday...

    [mdclarl]

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  3. And, yes -- it was nice to see AMOEBA spelled correctly in the grid today. ^_^

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  4. Good Morning, C.C. and friends. I knew that the word "Bag" would be added to a common phrase, but it took the second pass before I got the first theme answer. HANDBAG GRENADE was my first theme answer.

    Nice shout out to you, C.C., with your home town in the puzzle.

    The Congressional Powers are outlined in Article I of the Constitution, which explains ART I as the answer for 67-Across.

    Thanks for the shout-out. Yes, I am familiar with the work of Hannah ARENDT.

    I have relatives living in MONTPELIER, Vermont, so knew that it was the least populous state capital.

    I wanted Chic instead of POSH for Elegant.

    My first thought for They May Have Spurs was Bones instead of BOOTS. Hey, people can get bone spurs!

    ON RICE was not something that immediately came to me. I don't generally eat chicken on rice.

    QOD: Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected. ~ Steve Jobs (Feb. 24, 1955 ~ Oct. 5, 2011)

    [labinof]

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  5. Good morning.

    Impressive adding BAG to get new phrases.

    I think it is the EGO in KEGO that was being referred to with the K simply a radio station indicator. Reminded me of Imus.

    ART I is I think what the fill was, with ART the abbreviation. Thanks Ms. Miller and C. C.

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  6. Good morning, all!

    C.C., I think KEGO is really K-EGO -- GASBAG. I always thought the call letters of Chicago's 50,000-watters were interesting: WGN (World's Greatest Newspaper -- Tribune), WLS (World's Largest Store -- Sears Roebuck), WCFL (Chicago Federation of Labor), WIND (for the "windy" city, actually only 5,000 watts but so low on the dial that they had the range of 50,000). And there were a couple that, so far as I know, didn't mean anything: WBBM, WMAQ. I think the most unusual call letters belonged to a little radio station in Poynette, Wisconsin. They had a hydro-electric generator to power their transmitter. The call letters: WIBU (Water Is Being Used).

    C.C., the Air Force has an anthem that begins, "Off we go, into the wild blue yonder..." I surprised myself by getting TITIAN RED almost immediately. Of course, I already had the initial TI to work from.

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  7. Nice Puzzle great write up.
    My 10 yo son helped me on a few clues. On Bopit it can be played alone or in groups or even teams it can be rather addicting. My wife played it at a party years ago and went right out and bought it for our family. I haven't seen it in months as i think my son has it hidden in his room under a pile of stuff. enjoy sunday.

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  8. Great Sunday offering. Thank you.

    "Chicago-based superstation : WGN. I wonder why Chicago is always so corrupt, TTP/Abejo?"

    People are the same wherever you go.


    "ARENDT. Haltoola might know her. Not me."

    That's nothing to be proud of.


    "EDITORS. Both video editors. I googled."

    Sorry to hear that.


    "So, when you Google "Xi'An Zhouqin", what's the first image you see?"

    A tracking cookie.


    "Faith of nearly a quarter of Earth's population : ISLAM"

    Did you Google that too?

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  9. Good morning everyone,

    First crack at a Sunday puzzle in ages and success was not to be thanks to two incorrect letters, both of which were wags. I had a crossing A for 67a ARTA & 57D BOP IT. For 124 A, ARENDT & 120D NTS, I had a O rather than the T.

    I liked the theme clues and figured it out pretty quickly. Yet it took a lot of jumping around to finish this off. In the end, I thought the cluing was a little easier then expected, but overall a nice challenge.

    The storm turned out to be a dud, so it not only cost me a days business, I'm now on the hook for Sunday brunch.

    Wrigley Gum Network was never available in our area. I would have really enjoyed listening to Harry Carey do the Cub games. Only Vin Scully left from the bygone era. Today's announcers should shut up once in a while.

    Tihines

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  10. Good morning all. Thanks C.C. for further clarifying the origin of your name. Very interesting.

    Pretty much a workaday puzzle. No searches needed. The perps and the theme were helpful.
    WAGs included TITIAN RED, GEORG and CAIRO.
    61a, I'm guessing ART I. Hahtoolah explained it.

    71d, BEALE is the name of my avatar. (USS BEALE (DD-471). Haze Gray and Underway. My home for 2 years;

    Have a great day.

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  11. -I caught onto the “add an excess bag" theme right from the start, which made this puzzle very doable, but somehow I don't care for the gimmick. Did I actually say that?
    -I did like the misdirections, such as chamber bouncer=ECHO, growing business=FARM (Hi,Windy), and of course, OBESITY crossed by DIET. Apple variety was cute. I was into fruit for a little while.
    -It seems the only sushi crossword constructors think of is eel. Filleted and deboned unagi is commonly glaze-grilled, and it's called unagi-no-kabayaki. It's skewered and grilled with sweet basting sauce, and is popularly served on top of steamed rice. It is one of my favorites with that yummy sauce, but there are so many other types of sushi.
    -I wasn't so sure of POPI, but it fit.
    -AMEBA, although a variant spelling, is "correct," as well.
    -I thought of Titian immediately, but took a little while to add red, which seems redundant. The color titian is red.
    -CC, i cut and pasted, but did not find you on Google.

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  12. Titian is a shade of red, just as azure is a shade of blue.

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  13. Good morning C.C. et al.

    This was more difficult than a typical Sunday for me, but mostly because of my own stupidity. I shot myself in the foot right away by entering COBS instead of EARS at 1A, and it went downhill from there. I finally ended up having work my way backwards into that corner before I got it all straightened out.

    Sure, ELVES was a gimme. I just loved Liv Tyler as “Arwen,” and was fascinated how they spoke the imaginary fairy language for the movie. 1:28

    I also entered TITIAN RED, but I think of it as more of a ginger color, as seen here in “Woman With a Mirror.”

    C.C. I gg’d “Xi-An Zhouqin” and it bounced me right back to today’s write up!

    Today's storm is mostly a mix of sleet/rain/snow/slop. Time to get out that book and build a fire...

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  14. Good morning, folks. Thank you, Melanie Miller, for a very good puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for the swell review.

    C.C.: I will check that link later after I am done.

    C.C.: In my opinion, much of the corruption in Illinois stems from the job of Chicago Alderman. Much of what they do, taking payoffs for favors, is legal. Then they carry it to their next elected job, whatever that may be, and payoffs for favors are not legal. They just seem to forget that fact. They think payoffs/kickbacks are entitlements. IMHO

    Asfar as the puzzle, it was fun. Caught the theme easily. That helped with the puzzle.

    Took me forever to get CAIRO for 105D. We probably have had that before.

    GEORG for 81D was easy. One of the best musicals I have ever seen/heard. Pronounced GAY ORG

    EERO was easy for 117D. We have had him for years.

    The Chicago radio station WJJD derived its letters from James J. Davis, first Director General of Mooseheart. That station with those call letters was started at Mooseheart, IL, and used by the children to broadcast. During the Depression, the Loyal Order of Moose and Mooseheart could no longer afford to keep it running so they sold it.

    Off to my day. Church coming up and then a trip to Rockford. I will check in later.

    Abejo

    (icsglop)

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  15. Hi All ~~

    Sunday puzzles are usually time-consuming and this one was even more so. I did enjoy it and the added BAG did make it a bit easier to figure out the theme answers.

    PAPER BAG PUSHERS was the only one I didn't get right away due to my messing up the SE corner. At 103D - 'Takes out mistakes' I had convinced myself that EDACTS was a real word. DUH. I guess I was thinking of 'redact.' I finally got ERASES but having 'Clip' for Prune at 118D caused my confusion to continue. So it took me a while but I finally figured it all out.

    ~ I had 'Gram' before GRAN and got hung up on 82A -' Growing business.' I wanted 'Farming' so it took me a while to accept FARM. Also, 85D - Gob - SCAD was slow to fill.

    ~ I liked OBESITY crossing DIET and 'Den focus, familiarly' - TUBE.

    ~ So many possibilities at 5D - 'Checks out.' I first thought of something related to dying, then - ogles, and finally the grocery store with SCANS.

    ~ Thanks for a great write-up, C.C. ~ what fun to see you pop up first in Google images for "Xi'An Zhouqin!" :-)

    Enjoy your Sunday, everyone!

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  16. Thank you Melanie and thank you CC.

    I picked up the them almost immediately, and thought this was going to be easy, but entered a number of answers without fully proving them. That really slowed me down and almost caused an incomplete.

    Real trouble for me in the south east with REAR ENDEd, GRAm, oNeSEC, ChOP and DItSO, and for some inexplicable reasoning, had gRAdES instead of ERASES.

    79A had to be ELK, because VikingsCheerleader wouldn't fit.

    106D Elves ? Everyone knows the inhabitants of Riverdale are Archie, Veronica, Betty Cooper, Jughead Jones, Reggie, and others. I always favored Betty Cooper and Jughead Jones.

    80A WGN - The hapless Cubs may not be carried on WGN. CC, graft and corruption seem to be long accepted as the norm in this state and particularly in Cook County / Chicago. We now limit our Governors to two terms. One in office and one on the penitentiary. Jesse Jackson Jr was just the latest to get caught. They don't even try to hide it any more.

    16D ETHER - I accepted ETHER as the name for the conceptual ethereal (unknown, heavenly blue, "Wild Blue Yonder") "place."

    17D BOAST... 17 for Boomer and 75 for Lumpy. Still don't have 1. It's nice to share. Nah, that wouldn't be the same.

    Happy Hometown shout out CC ! I googled and then selected the "Images" button, and got your picture. How neat !

    I have the book, "Golf Begins at Forty." It was a birthday present. Can you guess which one ? That year, I also received "Chicken Soup for the Golfer's Soul." I liked that one too.

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  17. CC: The Army Air Corp song "Off we go into the wild blue yonder" has several references to air to air combat. When you're shooting at each other the blue yonder can get a bit wild!

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  18. @ 10:35. It seems we've been spammed again by somebody who went BLUE.

    HeartRx@9:44 yes, that example is the image I have of the color titian, not actually red. Also, yes to ANON, we don't need blue with azure or red with titian.
    Could someone please link, CC’s picture? Thanks.

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  19. Try searching without the quotes.

    CC

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  20. I TOKED my dealer a $100 , I thought he'll be STOKED , instead he thought I was TOKED.!

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  21. Good Sunday Morning, everyone (even though it’s 5 pm here)!

    It always helps this idiot when there are common words in the clues on Sundays. Still, didn’t get the moral victory of getting all clue answers (thank you, Popi)….

    Other write-overs included SKIES for ETHER, CANS for BINS, POP for EMO, ROMA for EURO, ROME for IMAC, LOL for AOL, the list goes on and on….

    Hondo @6:29, Harry Caray is widely known as the announcer for the Cubs, thanks to superstation WGN, but he actually started announcing for the St. Louis Cardinals. My friends and I have gone to Spring Training every year since 1991, and one year we actually bought Mr. Caray a Budweiser at HoHoKam stadium in Mesa, AZ. This was before announcers were shielded (behind glass) from the fans in the stands….

    C.C., I wasn’t aware of the option to Google images – thanks for that! On a lark I googled Vegas Doc. Sure enough, the pic I sent to The Corner is in the middle of the 10th row! So I tried to google my actual name and saw the faces of a bunch of strangers. Guess I’m not worldly enough, which is just fine with me….

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  22. Good Afternoon:

    Even though I got the theme almost immediately, I still had my share of pauses and write-overs. I did finish w/o help but not w/o some angst.

    Nicely done, Ms. Miller, and thanks, CC, for a great expo. And Boomer has a right to BOAST with that many 300 games!

    Have a super Sunday.

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  23. Good day, all weekenders. Thank you, C.C. and Melanie Miller for today's entertainment.

    C.C. you immediately came to mind when XIAN emerged as soon as solar PLEXUS appeared.

    This took me much longer than it should have because of the clever misdirections and my hesitation to erase my answers.

    The NW was easiest and I BAGged the theme which helped as soon as a B came up in the long fill. ORTHODOX is a great word to have in a puzzle as is UNAGI. That and ETUI, EMO, EERO and ROLEO I've learned only from crosswords.

    I see we have STIFF drink, STROHS and DIPSO as a mini theme.

    I loved:
    expanding concern, OBESITY
    plan to take off, DIET (and they cross each other!)
    ocean gathering, SCHOOL

    This is a lovely puzzle and provoked some hard thinking at times. That is always a good thing.

    I hope you are having a great Sunday, everyone!
    ndoxide

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  24. Hello everybody. I liked this puzzle; it has some cool fill, clever and amusing cluing, made me think and learn, yet was not fiendishly difficult. What Lucina said about ETUI, EMO, EERO, and ROLEO.

    Those Xi'An terra cotta warriors are fabulous artifacts!

    We had azure blue just yesterday.

    Had MONTGOMERY before changing it to MONTPELIER.

    Best wishes to you all.

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  25. desper-otto:
    The call letters of my hometown radio station, 1240 on the AM dial in Maysville, Ky., were/are WFTM, World's Finest Tobacco Market.

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  26. Relatively easy puzz today, with just a few mishaps. Got the theme right away,but it took a while to finish off the SE due to GRAN instead of GRAm. Who calls their nana GRAN? I also wanted tIPSO instead of DIPSO. Cant believe I got MONTPELIER with just the N and T in place.
    When I moved from Chicago to AZ back in 82, I found just as much corruption/ incompetence here as there was in IL. I felt right at home!

    tcheckel

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  27. KEGO is just a bad, bad clue. Horrible.

    Remember APOGEE bongs...er...waterpipes? My personal favorite was U.S. Bongs. I TOKED on both back in the 70's.

    More government means more corruption. Less government has less corruption. Hey! Maybe 'ol RON PAUL has something there.

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  28. i recall seeing POPI on TV many, many years ago but don't remember anything about it.

    Also, I, too, had CHIC for elegant and LIRA before EURO.

    61Rampy
    Corruption? Incompetence? In AZ? I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!
    joriesup

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  29. Just heard this on the Daytona 500 broadcast:

    Danica Patrick(over her two-way radio to her pit crew): "I'm feeling a vibration coming through the gas pedal"

    Pit crew response: "Roger that. If it gets worse, let us know. Keep us abreast of the situation"



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  30. Hi Y'all, Clever and fun puzzle, M.M. good!

    C.C. I WAGD XIAN at once and was delighted to be right. Very interesting commentary as usual. Thanks! You're becoming famous!

    Caught on to the theme early which helped with a couple hangups. However, an activist clerk doesn't push PAPER anymore. They want you to bring your own bags, which I do. There's now a sign in the parking lot asking if you've left your BYOBs in the car.

    Something I read lately said "AIDA" premiered in CAIRO. Was that here? The last book I read had a reference to a heavy drinker not being DIPSO so I
    got that one right away.

    Loved the OBESITY & FARM clues.

    Didn't Anne of Green Gables become reconciled to her hair color when someone asked "Who is the girl with the lovely TITIAN hair"?

    Hondo: I agree some announcers should shut up. I mute basketball games with 2 certain guys on.

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  31. 40 degrees and melting here today and tomorrow with predicted rain/snow/mess on Monday night for two or three days with possible accumulation of 12". Groan! I'm wondering why I didn't stow away in my brother's trailer when they headed to Florida.

    Oh well, I got a nice visit with my yard men when they shoveled my snow. Yardman Sr. had retired because of ill health. He is now back at it after finding out he was low on Vitamin D and taking mega doses. Unbelievable! I'm gonna chug right down and get me some.

    Hahtoolah: liked your QOD. My daughter & I were just talking along similar lines. We are three generations who are never satisfied with less than our best. Granddaughter at 13 is also a perfectionist.

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  32. Lucina: I'm guessing you have seen Casablanca more than once? :)

    isomesho

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  33. CED, of the last four links, I can only see an image at Heavy!. Just Plain Silly goes to a website logo???

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  34. Curious,,, is anyone else having trouble?

    They all come up for me.

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  35. CED ~ I have the same problem as desper-otto.

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  36. What happened to CED's post at 5:21?? Is he lost in a maze of links?

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  37. 61Rampy@3:33
    You too, I think. It's my favorite movie.

    CED:
    I could open five of the seven. There was nothing on "anti-therft lunch" or for "Manac."
    uishonu

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  38. I worked on this during the morning, took a nap, watched most of Sunday Morning, ran some errands, watched some of the Lakers game and finally got around to posting. Nothing much to add to WEES. I thought parts of the puzzle were hard. I enjoyed the writeup as usual. Thanks Melanie and CC.

    When I went to the supermarket, I noticed they had two sizes of Gala apples; the smaller 'lunchbox' size and a larger size. The larger ones were priced at twice as much per pound. So if you get a larger apple that's twice as big as the lunchbox size, it is twice as heavy and priced double so it will cost four times as much. Does that make much sense to you?

    I'm off for a macchiato. I'll take "The Last Convertible" along for company.

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  39. Fun puzzle & great write-up! 77a:How chicken may be served. I serve mine cracked corn & little pellets 2x a day. A little fresh water & they're happy.
    Also liked clue 88a:Giggle,following clue 84a, which seemed giggle-worthy, but theme hit closest to home. I'm planning a train trip thru' Canada. Just found out we'll have 1/2 day in Vancouver, but no place to check bags. I might change my plans & bring backback instead of small suitcase. Easier to carry. I'm so looking forward to this trip!

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  40. CED, I also saw no images after "heavy" - which made me think of my remark about luggage. :-)
    C.C., what a beautiful Japanese garden! Where is it?

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  41. Hello all!

    One interruption after another today! Hopefully some peace during typing.

    Great puzzle, Melanie; swell expo, CC!

    Theme obvious right away. Puzzle took much time, but finished w/o cheats. WEES.

    Keith: sorry I missed your birthday, yesterday! Hope it was great!

    That purse looks really ugly to me!

    Husker: yep!

    Cheers!

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  42. CED, Heh Heh, That will teach you to try and get me;-)
    Bill@5:57, I guess it all about marketing. For example, Your local home improvement store will sell you a 15' roll of 14-2 electrical wire for around $10. 100' feet will cost you about $35 and 250' about $48. As a homeowner that needs only 10',which do you choose? Will you ever use the extra? Sadly, I remember when a 250' roll was around $15 .
    CED, Seriously, A lot of your links didn't open for me.
    {superfragilisticexpialidocious}
    That was a tough capcha today!

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  43. CED @ 1210 - Thanks for posting a Beale link. More pictures seem to come out of the woodwork as the years go by. Agree about the Fletcher class. Their engineering plant had a very well designed redundancy in case of casualties. I know of 3 Fletcher class ships which survive (museum): one each at Buffalo, Boston, and Little Rock. I think there may be one in Greece, also.

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  44. CED: Do not get the last picture! What does the caption mean?

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  45. Oops, I misspoke in my 7:16pm post. Change Little Rock to Baton Rouge. (The cruiser Little Rock is also at Buffalo.) Sorry.

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  46. Just back from a long, fun day in Lincoln under a sunny sky. The main impetus of this trip was to see 16 year old granddaughter in Seussical The Musical where she was one of the Who’s that only HORTON could hear until the end of the play.

    This puzzle was a nice distraction on the drive and I will try to get all the comments read and yes, I thought of CC when I filled in XIAN. BTW, my Chicago superstation was WLS where we listened to Dick Biondi play rock and roll every night on a signal that had to traverse Illinois and Iowa.

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  47. Spitzboov: Would that be the USS Kidd?

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  48. I enjoyed the segment on Sunday Morning about Harry Winston, jeweler extraordinary. I'm looking for some of that jewelry on the Oscar's red carpet.

    Did you see the nominated animated short called "Fresh Guacamole" on Sunday Morning? Brilliant I thought. I found it online. Fresh Guacamole.

    I'm enjoying the Oscar telecast so far. It's always amazing to me to see the versatility of people like Seth McFarland and Charlize Theron. Did you know she could dance that well?

    Back to the TV.

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  49. I don't understand why the links failed, they work fine for me. To try again with smaller versions:

    The anti theft lunch bag was a ziploc bag with fake mold printed on it.

    just plain silly was a cat in a bag with holes for the head feet & tail.

    and for manac was a cat in a paper bag hat telling a dog to "bring me a shrubbery.

    Pls let me know if you can see the smaller versions.

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  50. CED, yes, all worked fine this time around. Before, for me, two of them were just a one pixel dot in the middle of a big black screen. Very odd...

    I think things like this Oscar telecast are the reasons that I really enjoy a DVR. I can record the show as it's live, start watching the recording, and when I get antsy, I just switch to the recording of the Lakers game or head back here to my computer and Crossword Corner.

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  51. Fermatprime@7:18
    Its a Monty Python sort of thing. Ether you like that type of humor or not.

    CED..... Later!:-)

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  52. Good night all.

    Belated happy birthday Keith.

    CED, the 2nd group worked just fine. The first ones were just black. Thanks for entertaining us.

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  53. Willow 5:58 How chicken may be served/ LOL

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  54. Hahtoolay @ 8:14pm - Yes, the USS Kidd is at Baton Rouge. We toured it in 2000 at one of our Beale reunions. It is a nice exhibit.

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  55. My husband and I spent our Sunday afternoon solving Ms. Miller's challenging cwp. We didn't understand some fill, so thank you C.C. for clearing our way in such an entertaining way.

    I bought my grown children key chain Bop-ITs, that really worked, for stocking stuffers. I think we still have normal size Bop-It in that basement we're clearing out.

    My sister and I both have red hair. It was never called titan red or for that matter we never heard it called ginger. (Is "ginger" an exported word from the Brits?) We were called carrot heads and teased about our "green hair." I didn't appreciate my red, curly hair until well after adulthood.

    I just finished watching the Oscar Awards. I don't usually watch all the way thru, but it was very entertaining. Liked all the music.

    Happy very belated Birthday, Argyle! Look forward to your write-up tomm.
    Happy Belated Birthday, Keith!
    Hope everyone had a great weekend!

    We are expecting snow again tomorrow.

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  56. Willow,
    I can't identify the exact location of that garden. The website (www.lakemarymusings.com) seems to be down.

    You can google Zen Garden, then click on Images, it's the 4th picture on the first row.

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