Words: 68 (missing all the "good" tiles, J,Q,X,Z)
Blocks: 27
Man,
I got nuthin'....and yet, after turning on red-letter help, the answers
seemed to be much more obvious - I was just not on the constructors'
wavelength this week - I'm distracted by my latest carpentry project.
Four grid spanners, all great fill;
15A. Major influence in '60s music : BRITISH INVASION - Man, I wouldn't say this was an "influence" of 60's music, I would say it IS 60's music; my parents were born and raised in England, and I would listen to their collection of "Invasion" music on LP.
17A. Is subjected to a series of attacks : RUNS THE GAUNTLET
17A. Is subjected to a series of attacks : RUNS THE GAUNTLET
48A. Mideast pearl-shaped pasta : ISRAELI COUSCOUS - I had the couscous part, but the region it was from did not come to me; don't quite see the shape, tho
51A. Out of character : NOT IN ONE'S NATURE
Oh well -
No draw....
ACROSS:
1. Relinquish power : ABDICATE - got it
9. It'll knock you out : OPIATE - ETHER was too short, ANESTHESIA too long
18. Disturb : ANNOY
19. Even though : WHILE
20. Be off : ERR - not AIL
21. Like Walter Mitty : MEEK - not in my wheelhouse; more here
22. Spinal column? : TITLE - the spine of a book, that is - I was stuck in "Spinal Tap" thinking
23. __-dieu : PRIE
24. Base address : SIR - not APO, good misdirection
25. To the point : TERSE
26. "In bad company," to Bierce : ALONE - alas, I am still in that company
27. Right triangle ratio : SINE
28. Renders less dangerous, in a way : DEFANGS - yeah, that would be less dangerous - you wanna try doing it?
30. Brightly colored silica : AGATE - alternative, Saturday cluing to "playing marble"
32. No mere joy : BLISS - oh, it's much more than
33. Antarctic expedition vehicles : SNO-CATS
35. Three-sect. exam : PSAT - I thought it could be SATS, and I was close; math, reading and writing an essay
36. Deck out : ADORN
37. "Cattle" or "Reddish" wader : EGRET - reddish? That's the best they could come up with?
39. Lulu : PIP
42. River to the Gulf of Finland : NEVA - map
43. Bigwig in big oil : BARON - the person, not the company, like EXXON - but so close....
44. San Francisco Giants closer Sergio : ROMO - I am sure C.C. "16D-ed" this one; I was clueless
45. Onetime cohort of Eazy-E : DRE - Rappers; I tried B.I.G. first - BZZZT~!
46. Dance named for a horse's gait : GALOP - Hmmm, I wonder if the same person who named the egrets....
47. ACC team with a turtle mascot : TERPS
52. "__ & Juliet": 2011 animated film : GNOMEO - IMDb
53. Kentucky Derby wreath : RED ROSES
DOWN:
1. "Fringe" co-creator J.J. : ABRAMS - I knew him from his Star Trek: TNG work; this show, however, I just couldn't get into - I know we have some fans here
2. Sultanate on the South China Sea : BRUNEI - map#2
3. Many dates involve one : DINNER - only if you 31D them first
4. Words of consolation : IT'S OK - Dah!! I was looking at I'M....uh
5. Irving or Norman, e.g. : CITY - Fooled me, and I thought I was clever with NAME to start
6. Silent butler contents : ASH - never heard the term; I thought ALE would be a good thing to keep in a silent butler, next to the 'avatar'
7. It can be exciting to get down to it : THE WIRE - that makes more sense; my brain tried THE CORE
8. Round numbers : EIGHTS - I had ZEROES to start; the right idea....
9. Elementary seed : OVULE
10. Philatelist's purchase : PANE - jargon for stamp, as a philatelist collects them; I thought they also collect COIN - but that's a numismatist
11. Lobby extension? : IST - LobbyIST
12. Banking aids : AILERONS
- ARGH~!!! the banking done by planes; I have been in a small prop
plane; the rudder alters "yaw", the ailerons "pitch" and "roll".
13. Worn-down jewelry? : TOE RINGS - Well, I had EAR RINGS, since they hang "down"
14. Steaks and chops, say : ENTREES - ugh, not some type of "cut"
16. Threw out on the basepaths, in baseball lingo : NAILED
22. Precept : TENET
23. Braid : PLAIT
25. Colossus : TITAN
26. Key of Chopin's "Heroic Polonaise" : A FLAT - fill in the FLAT and wait....
27. Pelvic bones : SACRA
29. "Breakfast at Tiffany's" co-star : EBSEN
30. "Anne of the Thousand Days" playwright Maxwell : ANDERSON
31. Approach : GO OVER TO
33. Carpenter's activity : SANDING - I am remodeling the apartment at my mother's house; I will also be doing some wood CUTTing, cabinet HANGing....
34. Keep from escaping : SEAL IN - yeah, like the water in the kitchen pipes....
35. Suggest : PROPOSE
38. Apron wearer : GROCER - got it, so proud of myself
39. Like sponges : POROUS
40. Sullied : IMPURE
41. Western outfits : POSSES - the "outfit" in terms of a group
43. One of Mowgli's mentors in "The Jungle Book" : BALOO - I knew he was "---OO", and not NABOO - that's from Star Wars
44. Page 5, say, usually : RECTO - odd pages of a book/page; VERSO the other - but the online dictionary says it's the reverse
46. Modern map element : GENE - DNA mapping, a-ha~!
47. Member of an old Russian line : TSAR - WAG
49. Goal : AIM
50. __ so weiter: Berliner's "et cetera" : UND
Splynter
-I was on Doug's and Brad's wavelength. It is amazing to find a Saturday I could fill in consecutively instead pecking at a little here and a little there.
ReplyDeleteNo red letters. But, I did miss one cell. I couldn't decide whether it was SACRO or SACRA and I didn't reevaluate it later.
-I got COUSCOUS from perps and wags. I had the first and last I so it had to be Israeli.
-I knew Cattle EGRET and so figured Reddish Egret was another type. It is its real name.
-A PANE has 20 stamps on one page; it is called "pane" because it is oriented like a grid/window pane.
-RECTO is the right hand page. We had this recently. Page 1 and thus all the odd numbered pages are on the right hand side.
-A silent butler is a small receptacle with a handle and hinged cover, used for collecting ashes and crumbs. I’ve seen several of these.
Link silent butler
I couldn't go back to sleep and am facing a busy morning, so i worked the puzzle now. I'm still wide awake. I suppose I'll read.
Link better images
ReplyDeleteGood morning, puzzlers,
ReplyDeleteBeen up for about an hour, starting on second cup. I won't see this puzzle till Monday evening, so I'm posting before there are comments (other than YR).
The mini-maelstrom of the last couple days reminds me a lot of the Ron White comedy sketch (Avg. Joe for one will get this) where he says, after being arrested for PI, "I had the right to remain silent, but not the ability."
See you Monday. Drink some (green if you like) beer this weekend. Good for the soul, and the kidneys will thank you, too.
The Saturday puzzle is listed twice on the home page.
ReplyDeleteRemoved the extra. Thanks, Downtonabbey. I like Michelle way better.
ReplyDeleteMorning, all!
ReplyDeleteMan, I honestly didn't think I was going to get through this one today. I managed to muddle through the top 2/3rds, but the bottom section was a sea of white that daunted me more and more the longer I started at it.
Knew COUSCOUS, but never heard of ISRAELI COUSCOUS. Didn't know Sergio ROMO. Didn't know Maxwell ANDERSON (or is that ANDERSON Maxwell?) Didn't know NEVA. Couldn't guess DRE or EGRET from their clues. Plus, on top of all that, I had LSAT instead of PSAT.
My saving grace down there turned out to be GNOMEO. Never saw it, but remember seeing the commercials and thinking, "what a stupid looking movie!" I also managed to pull BALOO out of somewhere. Then I finally tried PSAT, which gave me PROPOSE. Then I guessed at ANDERSON because it was at least a real name. Also guessed DRE, simply because it fit.
At the end, I stared at GOO_ERTO for awhile, thinking I must have made a mistake somewhere. But then I ran the alphabet in my head and I finally parsed it once I got to V. *TADA*!
[achiina]
Hello Puzzlers -
ReplyDeleteDNF today. Almost, but still not quite. The Terps/Recto area was my undoing. We've had Recto recently, but it still didn't spring to mind. As for Terps, well, that's a sports matter, and I am simply not interested in sports. It does seem like one of the less-appealing team names to me.
Morning, Splynter, you're definitely on the right track with the three axes in flight. The ailerons influence the roll axis, as in banking, but the elevators handle pitch.
While we're at it, I was surprised we had AVGAS yesterday. It's common enough in aviation circles, but I figured it was otherwise obscure. Maybe Jack McInturff is a pilot.
Good morning Splynter, C.C. et al.
ReplyDeleteWould you believe, my first fill was UND so venter? Gaaak! I really thought I would never finish this one, but bit by bit things started coming back to me. I have seen GNOMEO - Barry, your son might enjoy it. It's inane, but cute.
They do the GALOP at balls in Vienna, and my friends tried to teach it to me (without much success, I might add.)
I finally finished, but wrong. I had GMAT instead of PSAT. EBmEN was an unknown, but I figured GROPOSE was a new term for suggestive groping. Go figure.
I was up early and did the puzzle with google help. I was happy I did get most of the long ones.
ReplyDeleteMy problem is I don't read the clues carefully. Like 53 across.. I just wrote the roses and then when I couldn't get grocer to work I looked again.
I also had no idea about 12 down. I think it has been discussed on the blog before but don't remember.
Thanks for the write up. I don't feel so bad when you say you used red letters.
As always yellowrocks comes through with great information.. Who knew about silent butler.. Not I
Enjoy your weekend..
Good morning, weekend warriors!
ReplyDeleteSplynter, I also fell into the AIL/ERR trap, and also filled in FLAT and waited to see what showed up.
Dudley, those "three axes in flight" conjured up a whole different image--kinda like Ed Ames on Johnny Carson.
So Brunei is part of Borneo. I thought it was further east, maybe part of Papua New Guinea.
It's been years since I've seen Breakfast At Tiffany's. I remember Audrey, George, Patricia and Mickey. I distinctly don't remember Buddy.
Busy day ahead. DW's out of town, and I've got a lawn to fertilize and water and a leaky toilet drain valve to fix; replacing the flapper didn't do it. Major surgery is indicated.
A clip of Phil Harris as Baloo, the bear. Bonus, a comment on suggestive groping.
ReplyDeleteArgyle, interesting clip about BALOO. Maybe I'll remember him next time. And hey, don't knock suggestive groping, because it was a perfectly valid mistake. When DH is feeling frisky, he GROPOSES me and suggests we take it upstairs...
ReplyDeleteAilerons control roll, but pitch is controlled by the elevator, or in the case of some high performance jets, the horizontal stabilizer.
ReplyDeleteGood morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteA real doozy today. But I expected some of the grid spanners to be common words or phrases, and most were. I love COUSCOUS. Much fill like WHILE and CITY had to be teased out. I used Splynter's approach to get the A FLAT.
Here is Heroic Polonaise. (I'm listening to it while posting here.)
Only a few easy ones like NEVA BRUNEI and BARON Fill like POSSES was diabolical but fair. Liked seeing GALOP.
Here is Cachucha Galopp.
Near the end, I had to rely on red ltr help in the NW.
Good job, Doug and Brad.
And after the grueling solve, some Filles to be entertained by.
This one beat me up pretty good, but at least left me with lunch money. Working both across and down, the first fill was egret. 2nd was terps and 3rd was tsar. Managed to fill in the entire SE before moving on, but the rest was a crawl. Took a number of wags then made erasures in the N, then finally had it all except a bunch of holes in the SW. HTG for Anderson, which unlocked most of the balance. Had SACRi for 27D, and ultimately googled for NEVi to discover that error. So, finished correctly with an hour spent and 2 googs. Tough, tough tough.
ReplyDeleteThe clue for aileron was brutal, but wonderful. Took half the perps to suss that one out.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteWell, Doug and Brad, you started my day off with a bang! This was a toughie which I DNF due to Neva and Dre, both unknowns. Great write- up, Splynter; I don't envy your task of explaining these Saturday stumpers!
We are celebrating St. Paddy's Day tonight at my sister Peggy's house because she is having cataract surgery on Monday and didn't want to prepare dinner for 40+ people on Sunday. She is cooking 10-12 briskets and Lord only knows how many pounds of cabbage, potatoes, carrots, etc. Traditional dessert is Lemon Meringue Pie. Lots of Irish singing and dancing and a wee drop of good cheer!
I told this before but I'll repeat it for the new comers. My sister Peggy is married to a Lebanese-American. When one of her daughters was in first or second grade and St. Patrick's came around, a nun asked the class if any of them were of Irish descent. My niece stood up and promptly replied, I'm half Lebanese and half Leprechaun!
Have a super Saturday.
One more Fastoche GALOP.
ReplyDeleteTough but fair! Finished on bus to KC. and points SE.
ReplyDeleteThat was really hard today. Never heard the word AILERON before, had to red-letter the A. Had difficulty with PANE also. Went slow but finished.
ReplyDeleteDNF
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I wanted an "h" in ABRAMS, so I filled in joshua. Then, I had "APO" instead or SIR. And gIant instead of TITAN. Finally, trepidations about EIGHTS, ISRAELI, etc. Did not know ROMO, TERPS, or the non-sports GNOMEO.
When I saw the answers, they all seemed simple (except AILERON ). So what was it about this puzzle that made it so hard? The word lengths, maybe?
Good afternoon, Saturday Solvers! Really enjoyed this toughie, Doug and Brad -- thanks for the workout. Splynter, it always impresses me how you manage to blog these Saturday puzzles, and with such good humor. Nice to see the shout-out to you at 33D.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I ended up with a DNF thanks to the NEVA / SACRA crossing (where I Wagged an “I” instead of “A” at the end), this was a fun solve. Favorites were BRITISH INVASION, AILERON (nice misdirection!), and Round Numbers = EIGHTS (fooled me for a little while). Hand up for being a fan of COUS COUS, although I like the more rice-like variety than the pearl variety. RED ROSES at 53A was a gimme, since DH and I were married on Derby Day over 30 years ago. When they were little, my kids absolutely loved the Disney “Jungle Book” movie, so I immediately thought of this (4:23) song at 42D.
Enjoy your day, all!
Hi All ~~
ReplyDeleteWow ~ a really tough one for me today. I had eight wrong squares in the SW corner and yet I had convinced myself that I had finished it. Well, I had, but I FIW! There was just too much in that section I didn't really know. It took forever to get the ISRAELI - part of 48A and not getting GO OVER TO at 31D really messed things up.
Thanks, Splynter for filling in my blanks correctly and for another wonderful write-up. You always make it sound so easy. :-)
~ I had 'Nabbed' before NAILED for 'Threw out on the base paths'
~ AILERONS was all perps - had no idea.
~ Having 'Seal up' instead of SEAL IN at 34 D was another thing that slowed down the SW.
~ 39A 'Lulu' - PIP reminded me of Archie Bunker -"You're a real pip, Edith."
~ Favorites: 7D - 'It can be exciting to get down to it' -THE WIRE, 13D - 'Worn down jewelry' - TOE RINGS and I loved the misdirection of 20A 'Be off.' I was thinking of leaving from somewhere.
A struggle, but an enjoyable experience from two masters!
Well, I did have to cheat to finish this, but I was surprised that I got the whole bottom half and more without any help at all. PRIE got me started, because MON didn't fit. And since I had braids as a little girl, I got PLAIT. I still can't believe I got ISRAELI COUSCOUS early on. And I remembered Maxwell ANDERSON. So I enjoyed this--many thanks Doug and Brad. And Splynter, all your early guesses were mine too. Made me feel better.
ReplyDeleteIrish Miss, I just loved your St. Patrick's day story. That is some dinner your family is going to have. I've been to Ireland a lot and years ago the food there was horrible, except on the seacoast where the fresh fish was great. But on my last trip there, the restaurants in Dublin were fantastic!
Have a great weekend, and a great St. Patrick's Day, everybody!
Pretty much WEES. Like Marti, I had UND as my first word, after scanning the entire puzzle. Second word was ASH. I was sure of ABRAMS, but, gee, base address was supposed to be apo, not SIR, so I left it out. I could not think of the word ABDICATE off the top of my head, but it later came to me, proving ABRAMS was right. I had to google a couple of things, look up two things in my CW Puzzle dictionary, but I think I did pretty well on my own today.
ReplyDeleteI cant believe I fell for IT SOK again, staring at it and wondering what the heck was a SOK??? Where is that V8 can?
reelclic
Good day, weekend warriors!
ReplyDeleteSuperb blogging, Splynter. I don't know how you do it.
Well, Doug and Brad delivered a doozy today, didn't they? After looking at the sea of white I bounced around and filled the few obvious ones, TSAR, PLAIT, SINE, TERSE and ENTREES. From there it was touch and go with each letter requiring deep thought thanks to the misdirection provided by our constructors.
AILERONS is a word I have loved for a long time because since I am more of a visual learner, I recall seeing the diagram of an airplane and learning that word and I like the sound of it.
The SE fell earliest because like some of you I knew COUSCOUS and RED ROSES. We saw RECTO recently.
When it comes to unfamiliar names on Saturday I go straight to Mr. G because it takes too long to suss them. Sadly I was sure that SACRI was plural and never checked back and I have even seen the NEVA. Drat!
I love the light bulb that turns on when clues like banking aids, worn-down jewelry and others become clear.
Have a terrific Saturday, everyone! 90+ degs. here.
IrishMiss:
ReplyDeleteHow is your foot? I hope you feel better.
I googled 8 and a half of the answers. I had couscous but didn't know israeli. If I didn't know couscous I couldn't have Googled Israeli so I'm not sure how to score that one. I came up with Borneo but decided to check it since I do these things in ink. Good thing I did. I would have never come up with Brunei otherwise. I'm getting better at this, but it is a process.
ReplyDeleteMan oh man, what a magnificent puzzle! So much white space, so many words and phrases that stack together! So many fabulous clues! I especially loved Round numbers, Banking aids, and Spinal column! With every entry I kept saying "Wow" in my mind over and over. I think this puzzle elicited more "Wow"s than any other I can recall. A funny thing is that I kept hearing BARON pronounced in my mind as "Bay-ron" because I had been fixated on such names as Enron, Boron, Chevron, and Exxon.
ReplyDeleteMolto bravo to Doug Peterson and Brad Wilbur for this superb offering!
Top-O-The-Mornin' to ya'll! It is still morning here...I think. The puzzle took me a little longer :)
ReplyDeleteAs I have said before, having an "older" husband comes in handy sometimes. Silent Butler - he knew exactly what that was. You'd think as many times as I have watched the Thin Man movies I would have gotten that. Tres tres Nick and Nora.
My fav - "in bad company". That Ambrose Bierce, what a card!
Recto/verso...finally, FINALLY in my brain. (today, anyway)
It's a beautiful day here. Too nice to clean toilets. Think I'll go and get the leaf blower out and blow out my car...open the doors/windows...easier than vacuuming. My Saturday Tip for Cleaning Living.
Erin go However you spell it.
I got IST.
ReplyDeleteYup, that's all I got.
Where's Tinbeni????
Just got this in my email.
During a visit to my doctor earlier this week, I asked him, "How do you determine whether or not an older person should be put in a Care Home?"
"Well," he said, "we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a
teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the person to empty the bathtub."
Oh, I understand," I said. "A normal person would use the bucket because it is bigger than the spoon or the teacup."
"No" he said. "A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed near the window?"
Lucina @ 12:09 - I think you have me confused with Blue Iris. (-:
ReplyDeleteHello all!
ReplyDeleteThis one was disastrous: several red letters. A FLAT was a gimme--used to play lots of Chopin. Had many of the conundrums mentioned by others. Thanks for enlightening write-up, Splynter.
May have been due to the fact that I fell in the bathroom trying to get back into wheel chair and had to call the paramedics. Luckily, I had a phone in the pouch on my nightie which I was returning to bathroom. No broken bones this time but ankle and knee were twisted. Had a few hours of sleep. Paramedics very nice!
Friday roadrunner (Time-Warner cable) was down for many hours. No phone, no internet. Am very happy that they got it running in time for me to fall!
Haven't been able to swim in a few weeks, so my legs are evidently very weak. Trying hard to find someone (inexpensive) to babysit me in pool!
Happy belated birthday JJM!
HONDO--Please come back!
Marti: loved the dog video!
What the heck does FIW mean. Have looked everywhere!
Finished latest Stabenow book the other day.
*Spoiler* Very disappointing ending.
Happy St. Pats, tomorrow, to the Irish and a great weekend for all!
I'm so glad you're okay, Fermatprime. Sounds like a scary experience. Thank goodness you had a phone nearby.
ReplyDeletePas de chat, your joke cracked me up. I'll have to print it and read it to my husband.
IrishMiss and BlueIris:
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry. For some reason you are intermixed in my mind! Must be that old age everyone talks about.
BlueIris:
How are you? How is your foot?
GarlicGal:
ReplyDeleteDo you watch Jeopardy!? Yesterday there was a clue/question about the Garlic festival in Gilroy.
Pas de chat:
Loved the joke!
Lucina, I saw Jeopardy yesterday and immediately thought of Garlic Gal when that answer came up!! I was wondering about Blue Iris, too. Great minds...
ReplyDeleteI will echo fermatprime's question about FIW. What does it stand for??
ReplyDeleteHey I actually got thru a Saturday puzzle on a Saturday; in one sitting no less. I only messed up the Latin plural of SACRA. I had SACRI and didn't take the time to think about the root word SACRUM. The cross was certainly no help. NEVA, NEVI, NEVE, whatever!
ReplyDeleteFermatprime, sorry that the ending of the book was disappointing. I used to be on a big Stabenow "jag" but got bogged down and bored half way through her 14th Kate Shugak novel, A Taint in the Blood. I haven't revisited it for several months.
ReplyDeletepas de chat, that was a good joke. Thanks.
GarlicGal, thanks for the tip on cleaning the interior of a car.
Splynter, thank you for consistently producing fun, interesting, and insightful writeups. Well, actually, thank you to all you blogging team.
I'm trying to convince my wife to let me buy her a new Macbook Pro; hers is really old, one of the original titanium ones, and is suffering from obsolescence. $2000 is awfully expensive, though. She wants to get the inexpensive Chromebook, but I don't think she'll like it.
Best wishes to you all.
FIW stands for Finished It Wrong.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't the Neva River run through St. Petersburg? It seems to be a favorite place to dispose of bodies in many murder mysteries. Wasn't Rasputin disposed of in it?
ReplyDeleteLucina and HeartRx - I do watch Jeopardy but last night we had theater tickets for "In The Heights" so I missed it. I'll have to check the Gilroy Garlic Festival facebook page to see if anyone mentioned it. Thanks for the heads up.
ReplyDeleteJayce, you're welcome. Love my blower........
ReplyDeleteAre ailerons the flaps on the end of the wings? No, not the end, the back side?
And I didn't finish but thought it was easier than yesterday's.
How do you guys get the puzzle so early? My paper doesn't come until 7:30 A.M. sometimes, and what really frosts me is mail isn't until after 5:30 P.M. these days. Or I should say nights.
Thanks, Misty, Lucina and Jayce.
ReplyDeleteI certainly can't contribute anything regarding the puzzle.
(sigh)
Here's a link to a web genius who will guess your famous person.
Akinator
Speaking of Jeopardy. I read in the SJ Merc this morning that Matt Lauer is one name being thrown around to replace Alex Trebek when A.T. retires. What do you Jeopardy zealots think about that?
ReplyDeleteHi Y'all, this was a LULU of a puzzle! I wanted to ABDICATE from the puzzle which made me feel like I had RUN THE GAUNTLET and needed an OPIATE to deaden the pain of my ERRs. Red lettered mucho.
ReplyDeleteSplynter, SIR, my hero! ALONE is not bad company. Sometimes being with someone is much worse.
Hearti, ah, I remember those days of suggestive groping--usually while I was washing dishes. ??
Don't think of SANDING as a carpenter activity since I always did the SANDING and the carpenters did the hard stuff I couldn't do.
I wanted GRandma in that apron.
Fermatprime, scary about your fall! Hope you aren't too bruised. I hated that ending of "Spoiler", too. Why would Stabenow do that to loyal readers? I'm having to do my own imaginary acceptable ending. It's as bad as J.A.Jance leaving Joanna Brady very pregnant for about two years.
Blue Iris, hope your ankle pain is not too serious. I broke a tendon in my foot year ago. Still a problem.
Garlic, I thought of you when I knew the Jeopardy question, too. As for Matt Lauer on Jeopardy, is this another case of "old morning anchors never die, they just get game?" I like Meredith Vierra on Millionaire, but would rather have a dignified unknown on Jeopardy.
ReplyDeleteI suppose the car cleaning with a blower method would work, I wonder if the neighbors would like to be down wind of all the junk on my seats right now?
In my earlier post, that was supposed to be: YEARS
ago when I broke the tendon in my ankle/foot.
I agree with PK: Jeopardy deserves someone with a lot of class and dignity. I don't know who would fill that bill. I also don't know anything about Matt Lauer other than having seen his name in print from time to time.
ReplyDeleteWell, I've now used up all my posts. If anything else comes up to which I want to respond, I'll just hold my tongue until tomorrow.
By the way, I got 12 out of 13 on that quiz last night. Didn't know the new Senator from Maine. See? I can't even remember her name as I type this.
Sheesh :)
Had to work at this one. Took over an hour, on and off.
ReplyDeleteNEVA gave me the start, probably because we've been to that river in St. Petersburg in recent years.
Of the long answers I got NOT IN ONES NATURE and ISRAELI COUSCOUS pretty fast, but RUNS THE GAUNTLET eluded me till the end, delaying me in the NW corner. I didn't like the clue for SIR. I would call that a "blunt address," but that would sacrifice the misdirection toward APO.
Finally, I missed one: POROUS, for which I had POMOUS, which I took to be a new word (to me) until learning it was NO word at all.
Miss Beckley, The ailerons are on the trailing edge of the wing in the outboard position. The flaps are also on that edge, but inboard. The ailerons move up and down in opposing directions to control the banking, the flaps, when extended, both move down in unison to provide more lift at lower speeds. That's called flying dirty.
ReplyDeleteGoing further, the rudder is on the trailing edge of the vertical part of the tail to control yaw (side to side motion on a flat plane). The elevator is on the trailing edge of the horizontal part of the tail to control up and down pitch. As anon mentioned earlier, this can also be performed by th horizontal stabilizer, and when that part is a single piece, it's called a stabilator.
JJM happy belated birthday. It sounds like you had a good day.
ReplyDeleteCute joke, Pas de Chat.
I had the puzzle early because I printed it from the Chicago Trib site. The temperatures earlier this week were in the 50s and I was running around with just a sweatshirt. Then it was back to winter coat weather. Right now it is snowing and sticking to the cars and grass although the roads are still clear,
Jayce:
ReplyDeleteThe NEVA and the Moika both run through St. Petersburg. They are large, powerful rivers with numerous bridges at certain points. I believe they must be an even distance apart though it's just a surmise. Besides being a depository for dead bodies, they Provide a skating area in winter.
I'm sorry I just can't see Matt Lauer replacing Alex. I would hope that a more sage person will be chosen.
Desper-otto, Oh! if only our leak here were a toilet. We could have fixed that much easier than the leak we've had a under a cememt patio in our front courtyard. we now have a fixed leak but a big chunk of the concrete is gone--measure 6 feet by 3 feet--so we have an unsightly patio now and chucks of concrete to haul away. UGH!
ReplyDeleteI tried the puzzle today, and had about 1/4 of it done, but I was stymied too often to finish up without spending a lot of time on Google! I usually try Saturday puzzles, but they are ones that usually stump me more often than not. I was stumped today.
Garlic Gal, I need that leaf blower to to clean the low roof over my kitchen addition. we have a redwood tree that drops all the leaves on the roof and they just sit until I get up on a ladder to rake them off. I think a leaf blower would be just the ticket! Never thought about using something like that on my car, too. Another excuse to buy a new gadget!
Pas de chat. Great joke. There is a charming children's book called, "The King's in the Bathtub and He Won't Get Out". After all kinds of things were tried to entice him out of the tub a Page came in and pulled the plug. Problem solved!
Kind of late to add any comments about the puzzle, other than I prefer to puzzle them out in ink on paper, but this one was actually a lot of fun on the computer using red letter help. Even with the red letters, I had a devil of a time trying to figure it all out...
ReplyDeleteBill G. re: Yest. link = small white dot on a black screen. Help me out pls by identifying what I typed in blue. This way I know which link gave you trouble. Unfortunately, on my end, everything is normal, so I cannot tell which link is suspect, & as you know,,, I link way too many links.... "However," on YouTube this am, I found a video that explains the "scope" of the problem...
Also, re: March 14th, when I saw this I immediately thought of FermatPrime, Hope your feeling better FP'.
& of course "aileron",,, I wanted to link something, but this at 8 minutes is way too long, & the sound reminds me of my last trip to the dentist! But it did lead me to this training video of a Cessna caught in a crosswind! I found it interesting because the camera is either free hanging, or held by a rear passenger, & gives real emphasis on how it feels to be caught in a crosswind!
Also, for Lois @ 8:13pm yest.: todays rhymes with orange
& for the Blog police... yes i know this post was 26 lines in preview mode. Can i just count it as two posts, or do I need to be punished...
Hi all !
ReplyDeleteWell, make it 0 for 6 for me this week. Started this one early about 6 AM and just couldn't seem to get going. Started the Saturday chores and tried again mid morning. Still wasn't feeling it. Ran errands . Decided to try a couple of easy puzzles. Must not be my day. Or week for that matter. I bought tomorrow's Tribune paper today. Not sure that I will attempt them tonight. I'm in a slump.
Thank you Brad and Doug and thank you Splynter.
What a scare! I read the posts from the bottom up and almost had a heart attack thinking there had been some announcement about Alex Trebek retiring from "Jeopardy"! Say it ain't so. But it sounds as though this is just speculation--whew. My husband and I can't live without Alex Trebek and Johnn Gilroy. I mean we've been listening to those voices and watching that elegant strut for, what, twenty five or thirty years, is it? There just has to be some immortality for something this precious.
ReplyDeleteMisty here you go:
ReplyDelete"The New York Post reported that Lauer is at the top of the list to replace Alex Trebek as host of "Jeopardy!" when Alex Trebek steps down in 2016.
Lauer is reportedly being at least partially blamed for "Today" falling to No. 2 in the ratings during its time slot, after 16 years on top."
Rest assured, Alex will be around until 2016!
I'm over and out.
This was a FIW but still consider it a personal victory as I hardly get this far from these two constructors.
ReplyDeleteTo my psychic cyber friend.. Garlic's post @ 1:10 deserves a link. Your honor your honor or I'll have to bite the bullet:)
Garlic Gal, many thanks for clarifying the Jeopardy situation. What a relief! Isn't it just like Alex to give us three years notice so that we can prepare ourselves for our loss? The man is a total sweetheart!
ReplyDeletePas, I LOVE that Akinator link. That is so much fun. Thanks.
ReplyDeletePK, I really like Meredith Viera too. Smart and attractive. She is wasted on Millionaire IMO. I used to enjoy that show when the questions started out easy and got harder. I always thought I might do pretty well. In its present tedious incarnation, almost all of the questions are so obscure that nobody can make it near the end and it's not fun for me anymore.
CED, here are the links that didn't work for me from two days ago, March 14th. I hope this is helpful. (Both showed up as a black screen with a one pixel white dot in the center.)
1) 9:46 Pi in trouble
2) 10:11 not funny!
pas de chat: your Akinator link is pretty cool. It guessed right on 3/3 tries, two of which I thought would be pretty arcane names (Jim Clark and Juan Manuel Fangio). It took a lot of questions, but the genie got it right.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle was difficult for us , anytime we got something going , it didn't lead us anywhere ! We had a number of the long fills but kept getting stumped ! Congrats to those who did well ... Maybe someday !!!!
ReplyDeleteBill G. @6:53pm
ReplyDeleteDo you mean you "never" got to see them? I thought by 10pm that day everyone had access!
1) 9:46 Pi in trouble, was a cartoon representation of "Pi" on the phone saying he had to hang up because his mother was calling him by his "full name". 3.14 etc etc...
2) not funny was a restaurant receipt showing the bill, the tip as a fraction of Pi, & the total.
So sorry you could not see them, but in future, if everyone could reference what i wrote in blue, I may eventually be able to figure out by the address what is private, copyright protected, & free public domain...
CED, Funny about those links, sometimes they worked and then they wouldn't. Not sure what I did different each time but will try different scenarios to see what I did.
ReplyDeleteGood evening, folks. Thank you, Doug Peterson and Brad Wilber, for an excellent, but tough, puzzle. Thank you, Splynter, for the great review.
ReplyDeleteWell, I got up and printed the puzzle from the Chicago Tribune Site. Then headed to a Lodge meeting. Took the puzzle and worked on it a little at the meeting when nobody was looking.
Came home and worked some more on the puzzle. then went shopping with my wife and worked it while she was shopping at JoAnn Fabrics.
Came home and worked it some more. Finally finished. Only 11 hours and 45 minutes. Not bad!
I had a lot of the same troubles as the others have mentioned. Lots of misdirection. APO/SIR, NAME/CITY, ZEROES/EIGHTS, FORCED/NAILED, SECURE/SEAL IN, EARRINGS/TOE RINGS et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
I got the top half and the West half. The SE big corner was the last. Do not remember Buddy EBSEN in that movie, but after I had EBSE I wrote in an N.
Thought GENE was clever for 46D.
Did not know GNOMEO, but I had most of it and SANDING gave me the G. So I wrote it all in.
Had most of ISRAELI. Did not have COUS COUS. then I got the first COUS and the second one followed.
Did not know BALOO, but perped it.
Fermatprime. Glad you are OK. Give Harvey my best.
So, the night is almost shot.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
(sleemo)
CED, yes, I got to see them after you linked them a second time. These were the earlier links that I found at the earlier times that I listed. Dunno why they didn't work the first time but did later on. That's a conundrum for you. :>)
ReplyDeletePas, I'm still fascinated by your Akinator webpage. (It doesn't take too much to amuse my simple mind.) It correctly figured out Isaac Newton, Emmylou Harris, Milton Berle, Veronica Mars, Ed Sullivan, my wife, my grandson, etc. I was REALLY impressed when it got Eratosthenes.
was delighted do find "mideast pearl shaped pasta" as a clue since itis the absolutely perfect couscous.
ReplyDeleteNow Akinator has correctly sussed out Michael Jackson, Tonto, my daughter, SpongeBob Squarepants, Mario, Scrooge McDuck, Sofia Vergara, my CPA, Chet Atkins, etc. That's quite an impressive bit of programming.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter and a friend are going out tonight so we got to babysit grandson Jordan and a four-year-old. He's quite a nice, well-mannered little fellow but after entertaining the two of them for a couple of hours, I'm exhausted.