Theme: Disorderly Conduct - The initial consonant sounds of the "A THE B" phrases are switched. All conversions experienced spelling changes.
23A. Avoid caviar? : SHUN THE ROE. Run the show.
28A. Rouse a duck? : WAKE THE TEAL. Take the wheel.
34A. Back beachgoers? : STAKE THE TANNED. Take the stand. Was surprised by the two "Takes".
51A. Strongly desire daredevils? : CRAVE THE BOLD. Brave the cold.
61A. Respond to a face-licking? : KISS THE MUTT. Miss the putt. (Correction: Miss the cut. Thanks, Barry!)
77A. Work for nothing? : WAIVE THE PAY. Pave the way.
88A. Forgo long stories? : SKIP THE TALES. Tip the scales.
102A. Select one's jousting weapon? : CHOOSE THE LANCE. Lose the chance.
111A. Apportion a side dish? : DOLE THE RICE. Roll the dice.
121A. Bench a cab company softball team player? : SIT THE HACK. Hit the sack.
Quite
a sophisticated theme for a non-English speaker. Spelling changes
always make the gimmick harder for me. When did you grok the theme?
Bold
grid arrangement today, esp considering there are 10 theme entries.
Four 10-letter non-theme entries placed in Across. Sometimes they
confuse solvers as to whether those are theme entries. But today's theme
clues all have question marks, so there shouldn't be any confusion.
I'd be a coward and black out squares 20, 25 & their symmetrical partners. Alan Arbesfeld (on the right) is a real pro.
Across:
1. 1994 Nobel Peace Prize sharer : RABIN. Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin.
6. Campfire rod : SPIT. 26. Camp sight : TENT
10. Biblical king of Israel and a captain : AHABs. Not familiar with the king.
15. Small matter? : ATOM. Can't fool me.
19. Coral reefs, e.g. : ECOSYSTEMS
21. Amazon tributary : NEGRO. Never heard of it.
22. Roof pointer : VANE
24. Sheets for jotting : SCRAP PAPER. I have my pretty little notebooks.
27. Sign : OMEN
29. Stella __: cookie brand meaning "star of gold" : D'ORO. Very helpful clue.
31. "__ tree falls ..." : IF A
33. Cigarette ad phrase : LESS TAR
39. 2000 title role for Renée : IRENE. In "Me, Myself & Irene". Not an easy clue.
42. HMS component : HER
43. Marx observation : QUIP. The Marx Brothers.
44. Tiny : WEE
45. Düsseldorf direction : OST. East.
47. See 82-Down : CAN. 82. With 47-Across, 2008 campaign slogan : YES WE.
48. Saharan : ARID
50. NBA scoreboard item : PTs
55. Weirdo : CREEP
57. What an applauding audience may want : MORE
59. Academy founder : PLATO. I was thinking of Oscar.
60. Word on a dollar : ORDO. Novus Ordo seclorum. Latin for "New Order of the Ages".
64. Over : ATOP
65. Thor's father : ODIN
66. Python in "The Jungle Book" : KAA
67. Guesses : STABS
69. Routine : ACT
71. For fear that : LEST
74. Golfer Jay : HAAS. Saw him in 3M Championship. His son Bill Haas plays in the PGA Tour.
83. Iams competitor : ALPO
84. Title role for Michael and Jude : ALFIE
86. Whole bunch : SCAD. Often in plural.
87. V-formation fliers : GEESE
91. __ Fáil: Irish coronation stone : LIA. We used to have fun with this entry.
94. Polite title : SIR
95. Put a coat on? : WAX. Nice clue.
96. Inside look, briefly? : MRI
97. LAX postings : ETDs
99. "Charlotte's Web" monogram : EBW. E. B. White.
100. In reserve : ON ICE
106. "Can you imagine?!" : THE IDEA. Can you imagine TTP goes 0/7 this week?
109. N.L. Central team : STL
110. Massachusetts Bay city : LYNN. Unknown to me also.
114. Jeté, say : LEAP
117. Familia members : TIAS
120. With "The," Frederick Forsyth thriller : ODESSA FILE. Lemonade might have read this book. He's into thrillers.
124. Doctor's orders : DOSES
125. Pasta that doesn't sound very appetizing : VERMICELLI. "Little worms". Have you ever had Chinese bean thread noodles? They're often translated as Vermicelli.
126. Hardy heroine : TESS
127. New followers? : AGERS. New Agers.
128. Roles : USES
129. Bear, to Brutus : URSUS
Down:
1. Leftovers : REST
2. Feel pain : ACHE
3. Parental settings : BOUNDARIES. Oh, set the boundaries.
4. Falls short of being acceptable : ISN'T OK
5. News initials since 1851 : NYT. Let me check LA Times... 1881.
6. Part of a goblet : STEM
7. Parent to Philippe : PERE
8. "Leave that to me" : I'M ON IT
9. "The Waste Land" monogram : TSE
10. Looped handle : ANSA. Classic Xword word.
11. Give a hard time at the comedy club : HECKLE
12. "Deal!" : AGREED!
13. Nightmares for nana : BRATS
14. Campus group : SOPHS
15. 2009 James Cameron epic : AVATAR
16. Save for later playing : TAPE-RECORD. Wish I had tape-recorded some family stories my grandma & dad told me.
17. Most fit to serve : ONE-A
18. Jazz keyboardist Saunders : MERL. The guy on the left. I must have googled him before.
20. Grow dramatically : SHOOT UP
25. Dress designation : PETITE
28. Baseball Hall of Famer Paul or Lloyd : WANER. Husker Gary mentioned last time that Paul is the "Big Poison". Lloyd "Little Poison".
30. Like basic courses: Abbr. : REQ
32. "The Burning Bed" star : FAWCETT (Farrah). Never saw the movie.
35. Country singer Clark : TERRI
36. Casino request : HIT ME. Boomer will be bowling at Treasure Island today. Fantastic buffet at the casino.
37. __ Downs : EPSOM
38. Tide table term : NEAP
40. Nita of silents : NALDI
41. __ a sour note : END ON
45. "Beetle Bailey" dog : OTTO. And 112. "Garfield" pooch : ODIE
46. Patronize : SHOP AT
49. Big Apple locale? : DESKTOP. Not New York.
52. Big name in pickles : VLASIC. Love this word. Love pickles.
53. Put away : EAT
54. Coverings for tiny toes : BOOTEES. Do you spell it as BOOTIES as well?
56. Educ. fundraiser : PTA
58. Georgia neighbor : RUSSIA. Georgia is always the country in Xwords, unless it's Ty Cobb related.
62. Comedy club sounds : HA HA HA
63. Fancy marble : TAW. Learned from doing Xwords.
68. Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh, e.g. : BASSIST
70. Use MC or Amex : CHG. OK, MasterCard. Charge.
71. Roy Rogers prop : LASSO
72. "The Magic Kingdom" novelist Stanley : ELKIN. No idea.
75. "Potent Potables for $200, __" : ALEX. Misty loves him. Not me.
76. Back on board : AFT. Back of the ship.
78. Parking lot runner, perhaps : VALET
79. Head of Hollywood : EDITH. Edith Head the costume designer.
80. Tulips and dahlias : PERENNIALS. We had an awful experience dealing with Michigan Bulb last year.
81. Easy __ : AS ABC
85. Sesame Street giggler : ELMO
89. Brief online updates : TWEETS
90. Uneven : EROSE
92. Long Island university : ADELPHI. Well, I'm sure the Saturday Stud nailed it. Splynter has beautiful handwriting, by the way.
98. Shifty : SLY
101. Storage units : CHESTS
102. Red shade : CERISE
103. Arm raiser on the street, often : HAILER. Hail a taxi.
104. Magazine awards : ELLIEs. From Wiki: They are generally considered the highest award in the magazine industry; in the magazine world, they are roughly equivalent to the Pulitzer Prizes.
105. Stamen part : ANTHER
107. "If __ Hammer" : I HAD A
108. Get the mist off : DEFOG
111. Knucklehead : DOLT
113. British tax : CESS
115. To be, to Brigitte : ETRE
116. 20 holders, briefly : ATMs
118. Rights gp. : ACLU
119. They're worn on moguls : SKIs. Slope moguls.
121. "Law & Order: __" : SVU. I don't like this spinoff at all.
122. Bygone French coin : ECU
C.C.
54 comments:
Good Morning, C.C. and friends. Interesting puzzle with the Spoonerisms. I had figured out the last words of many of the theme answer, such as ROE, MUTT and TANNED, but it took WAKE THE TEAL on the second pass to grok the gimmick.
When I was in graduate school, I ate lots of the Stella Doro breakfast treats. I hadn't thought of them in years.
A nice shout-out to Lemonade's granddaughter with EBW's Web (Charolette's Web).
QOD: Of course I make mistakes. I’m human. If I didn’t make mistakes, I’d never learn. You can only go forward by making mistakes. ~ Alexander McQueen (Mar. 17, 1969 ~ Feb. 11, 2010)
[isdscu]
Morning, all!
I love Spoonerisms, so this puzzle was (mostly) a delight once I figured out what the heck was actually going on. The title of the puzzle did not help at all in that respect, btw...
Most of the phrases were common enough to infer after figuring out the theme and getting a few perps. The only weak one in my opinion was KISS THE MUTT, since the underlying phrase ("miss the cut" not "miss the putt") seems a bit obscure to me.
A bunch of unknowns/forgottens today, including HAAS (74A), ELLIES (104D), ELKIN (72D), CESS (113D), LIA (91A). All came via the perps, though, so no complaints.
Really hated CHG at 70D, however. Maybe it's a perfectly valid abbreviation, but it was the one sour note of an otherwise great puzzle.
[ntmendar]
Hello all!
Interesting puzzle, Alan! Swell write-up, CC!
Took me forever. Had a natick at one L in Ellies and STL. Is that St. Louis? Otherwise OK. Took longer than usual to grok the theme, but when that happened I was off and running on the theme answers. Quite humorous!
Maybe I should consider going to sleep. (Tough when you really hurt almost everywhere.)
Have a peaceful Sunday!
Hi Y'all, WAKE the TEAL was my first theme fill and gave me the them which I found amusing. Fun puzzle, Alan! Great expo, C.C.!
For anyone who follows professional golf, MISS the KUTT is often heard because they "cut" anyone not making below a certain score after two days. ISN'T OKAY! They don't get to play in the last two days of the tournament. No money?
I have Stella D'ORO day lilies.
How did I never see ORDO on a dollar all these years.
I TAPE RECORDED both parents and MIL and wrote stories for our families book. Need to do my own story now. Procrastinating. No one wants to hear the truth.
Didn't see "Burning Bed" either. Title NOT appealing.
91A picture: definitely phallic.
I read "The ODESSA FILE" years ago. A gimmee. Didn't know the mag prize or other authors.
I went to see my two local grandsons in a small-town grade school version of "The Little Mermaid". My 7-yr-old grandson played a sailor and sang a solo to open the show. I was surprised. Then his brother came on and sang another solo as the prince who falls in love with Ariel. Really cute with good costumes.
The final love scenes were somewhat lacking. At age 12 the prince and Ariel DID NOT kiss, despite a song by the chorus telling them to. My grandson started to take her hand for the final bow which was not allowed. TOO funny! It would never play on Broadway, but who cares.
My son & DIL & boys left right after the play to drive to the airport to fly out this morning (about now) to Orlando for a Disney cruise to the Bahamas.
The weather radar has shown the airport here under
rain & snow clouds all night. DIL's mom was so upset about the cruise, I hope she wasn't watching the weather channel. I'm mildly nervous compared to her considerable anxiety.
Good morning C.C. et al.
I finished the puzzle ten minutes faster than my typical Sunday, but did not see the theme while I was going along. I actually had to stare at each theme entry for a while when I was done, before it finally hit me. Boy, did I feel stupid!
I was also surprised to see the two base phrases with TAKE, but the spoonerisms were different, so I guess that was OK. Although it might have been better to separate those two in the grid. (But I'll bet Mr. Arbesfeld tried that...)
Is LYNN our new Natick?
Have a happy St. Patricks day, all you Irish and would-be Irish celebrants out there! And a special Happy Day to our Irish Miss!!
Good morning, all!
I think my brain must be fried this morning; I really struggled with this one before it finally succumbed. I stared at TAPER ECORD for quite a while, failing to parse it. I understood the question, but couldn't remember the ANSA. And hand up for snapping to the theme at WAKE THE TEAL.
Where I grew up there was no SCRAP PAPER, only scratch paper. Never read The Odessa File, but I did see the movie. And yes, I had BOOTIES until I realized that's where THE had to cross, so it became BOOTEES.
Thank you Alan Arbesfeld. I didn't see the spoonerisms even after getting WAKE THE TEAL, KISS THE MUTT, and SIT THE HACK. Getting THE helped with some of the other fills. Got most of the second words easily enough, except LANCE for some reason.
Thank you CC. Great write up. Without you, I Would have been left wondering about the theme. THE IDEA that I would go 0 for 7 this week was looming large in my pea brain. I will not be so careless tomorrow as I was last Monday and Tuesday. I need a confidence builder.
My mess started with 3D "Parental settings" as PG THIRTEEN. That was corrected soon enough.
I don't think I have ever seen BOOTEES spelled that way.
Pirates fans know of Big Poison and Little Poison. And Honus Wagner and Pie Traynor. And Roberto Clemente, who was the answer to a Jeopardy question last evening. It was the first time I've tuned in to that show in a long time. Thought that young man was going to lose, but he nailed Thoreau to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
IFA man is all alone in the forest and says something, is he still wrong ?
Best wishes to Boomer tonight.
Hatoolah, re your QOD. I made plenty today. ALT QOD "Every St.Patrick's Day, every Irishman goes out to find another Irishman to make a speech to." Shane Leslie (1885 - 1971).
Time to start the corned beef.
I loved the spoonerisms. With the title and getting the first theme answer right away, I had the theme from the start. It did help. But this still took my usual Sunday time.
I liked the QOD. I've seen some new square dancers wearing a pin that says, "Don't ruch me. I"m making mitakes as fast as I can."
PK, how foresighted of you to record your family stories. I wish I had. My siter and I went to see a former teacher in the small rtown where we grew up.She was a fountain of knowledge and memories. I wished I had my tape recorder.
IMHO Women wear booties. Babies wear Bootees.
...and then there's this booty.
Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone. Nice intro, C.C.
Not much additional to comment on. Didn't understand 113d, CESS but got from the perps. Several very clever clues, especially 96a, MRI and 49d, DESKTOP.
52d - pickles. My favorite after years of sampling is Nathan's New York style kosher spears. Nice and crunchy.
76d - AFT is an adverb; not an adjective. When an adjective is needed to denote something that is aft, use 'after'. Examples are: after steering, after engineroom, after berthing, after gangway, after 5" gun mount, and so on.
Top 'o the mornin' and a very Happy St. Paddy's Day to all. Thanks, Marti, for your special good wishes.
As Cruciverb was down (Again!), I printed the puzzle from the Mensa website. Unfortunately, it was untitled so I was in the dark re the theme. Nothing made sense to me until I filled in the last theme entry, Dole the rice, and then the lightbulb went on. Add the fact that there were several down clues missing, it was a tough slog in some areas.
I DNF because of the Naldi/Ordo cross. For 51A, I had Crave the food, mixing up daredevils with devil dogs! Also had cherry before cerise and ETAs before ETDs. Overall, it wasn't an enjoyable solving experience but that could be my annoyance with Cruciverb.
Kudos to Alan for a very clever theme and cluing; well done. And thanks, CC, for "de-fogging" my befuddled brain.
Happy Sunday to all.
Good morning C.C. and all. This was a lot tougher for me than most Sundays, but finally managed to whip it in about 1 1/2 hours. First theme fill was Shun the roe, but the light didn't go on until I filled Waive the pay. That helped a great deal, especially with "the". Clever theme, crunchy fill and lots to like.
For those that haven't seen The Burning Bed, I'd encourage it. A very good movie with a dark theme. And the first movie where Farrah actually got to act instead of just look good. She was far better than most realize from her time as an Angel.
I've used bean thread noodles in a Vietnamese dish I make that basically involves taking a chicken apart, grinding up the meat and reassembling it by sewing up the skin with a ground filling. It's delicious, as well as interesting to look at, but takes about 4 hours to make, so it's not made often.
Corned beef goes on at around 3 PM in our house. Reubens on Tuesday!
Talk about slow! I kept thinking there was something about the theme answers. It wasn't until I got here that I saw what it was.
Inspired by # 48 Saharan, I'm going to indulge in some arid pedantry and point out that the OED says aft is both an adjective and an adverb. And since they have several hundred years of usage on their side, I'm going with them.
Happy St Pats day to all! Our Irish family so enjoys this day! Leftovers taste as good as the first meal ! Off to do the other puzzle in our paper now, need the practice!
Excellent puzzle Alan! Great write-up, C.C.!
Although I finally got the puzzle, I did not get the theme until I read C.C.’s explanation.
WIMS (What Irish Miss said): “I printed the puzzle from the Mensa website. Unfortunately, it was untitled so I was in the dark re the theme… Add the fact that there were several down clues missing, it was a tough slog in some areas.”
I think this was tougher than a typical Sunday puzzle, but solvable with perps. Maybe more like a Thursday? Or maybe just me!
Good luck Boomer!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all!
Top O'the mornin' to ya! And how are you, C.C.? Your blog indicates you are in good humor. Oh, and good luck to Boomer today.
What a brilliant puzzle today by Alan Arbesfeld! I can't imagine what it must take to construct such an opus. But then, all constructors do such a wonderful job.
I found this just a tad more difficult than most Sunday XWds with many unknowns, HAAS, LYNN, TERRI and a few others.
However, I am very familiar with THE ODESSA FILE and have read it twice. Before Ken Follett there was Frederick Forsyth, a master of thrilling writing. I have read all his books in fact. Day of the Jackal was exceptionally good. I liked seeing his work referenced in a puzzle.
ALEX, too, as we have been discussing him. I really think it will be very difficult for whoever replaces him as he is just superb in that role, such a gentleman and so knowledgeable.
And though I am no longer as PETITE as I once was, that is still my size because I'm under 5' and my BOOTIES came before BOOTEES which changed with THE.
Great clues, I thought:
put a coat on, WAX
inside look, briefly, MRI
small matter, ATOM
After church I'm invited to a friend's house for the usual Irish fare, corned beef and cabbage. Yum!
Happy St. Pat's day, everyone!
1. Evidence has been found that William Tell and his family were avid bowlers. Unfortunately, all the Swiss League records were destroyed in a fire, ....and so we'll never know for whom the Tells bowled.
2. A man rushed into a busy doctor's surgery and shouted, "Doctor! I think I'm shrinking!" The doctor calmly responded, "Now, settle down.. You'll just have to be a little patient."
3. A famous Viking explorer named Leif, returned home from a voyage and found his name missing from the town register. His wife insisted on complaining to the local civic official, who apologized profusely saying, "I must have taken Leif off my census."
Happy St. Patrick's Day to you Sunday solvers!
CC, I really appreciate your blog.
I, too, use 'scratch paper' not 'scrap paper.' I have never heard of Stella D'oro brand.
And in New Canaan, CT, the ATM dispenses $50s not $20s. I prefer $20s.
Have a great day,
Montana
Spitz @ 11:48 grooaaaannnn! (But they did make me laugh!!)
Oh, and Montana - I loved your green kitty avatar, but don't you think she'd prefer milk rather than green beer?
Hi Everyone ~~
I ran into a couple of problems before even getting to the puzzle. As mention by several others, Cruciverb had no LA Times puzzle. My newspaper carries MERL on Sundays so I had to search for something to print out.
I found it and got started. I was having trouble making sense of it all when I realized there was no title printed. So I conducted another search and found that. Knowing the "Disorderly" part helped a lot! What didn't help was the fact that several of the down clues were missing from 82D - 92D - I managed with perps. ANYWAY...
It took me all the way down to CHOOSE THE LANCE to figure out the theme. I was able to use that to fill in / make sense of all the other theme answers. My one trouble spot with the theme was at 88A where I tried Stop before SKIP and Sagas before TALES.
~ 11D reminded me of a Seinfeld episode where Jerry was being HECKLEd at the comedy club.
~ Favorites: Small matter / ATOM and Parental settings / BOUNDARIES.
~ I really liked this theme - lots of fun to figure out! Thanks, C.C. for explaining many of the things that I had filled in but didn't know. Good luck to Boomer and enjoy the buffet.
~ Hahtoolah ~ thanks for the link to "Spoonerisms" - fun!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Happy Sunday Morning, everyone!
Thank you, C.C., for explaining the theme. Not a big fan of spoonerisms. Also, WBS about the puzzle title not helping AT ALL with the long answers….
Finally grokked (sp?) that there was a “THE” in the middle of each answer, which helped a smidgen….
Several write-overs (ETA for ETD, ORTS for REST, UPI for NYT, LAUGHS for HAHAHA, AS PIE for AS ABC, ad nauseum)….
Also really wanted vermiNelli, since it sounded a LOT more unappetizing, to me anyway….
I reluctantly accept Bootees, but prefer Booties as the correct spelling….
Tried to cheat with the “word on a dollar bill” clue, but alas, the wallet was sans singles this a.m…..
Merl Saunders is a favorite mine (tho I never thought I’d see him in a crossword puzzle!), mainly because I got to see him live a number of times in the Bay Area. The pic of him in C.C.’s expo is with Jerry Garcia (hello, Phil Lesh!). Best album is Fire Up! – I’d include a link to Amazon, but Fantasy Records cut a lot of the better songs (like She’s Got Charisma) when they went from vinyl to CD, imho….
Speaking of answers I never thought I’d see in a crossword, (Sergio) Romo from yesterday!
Spitzboov @11:48, Groaners? Okay, here we go….
• Haunted French pancakes give me the crepes.
• England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool.
• They told me I had type-A blood, but it was a Type-O.
• I changed my iPod's name to Titanic. It's syncing now.
• This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I'd never met herbivore.
• When chemists die, apparently they barium.
• Did you hear about the cross-eyed teacher who lost her job because she couldn't control her pupils?
• When you get a bladder infection you know urine trouble.
Vegas Doc QOD (and coincidentally my personal theme for trying to solve today’s puzzle): “Once I thought I was wrong, but I was mistaken.”
Hello everybody. Great puzzle, but I found it to be exceptionally difficult. Caught onto the gimmick after filling three of them, and knowing THE was somewhere in each one helped a little bit. Some of the fill was and still is totally unknown to me. For example, even after filling CESS I still don't know what the heck it is. The same with EROSE. I'll look them up after I post this comment. I had to turn on red letters to finish; without them I would have been unable to.
Brown ale, not green beer, for me today. Newcastle Brown Ale; delicious sipped and savored, chilled only down to about 60 degrees F.
Best wishes to you all.
No, no, nurse! I said prick his boil!
I did some research, and apparently CESS can be used interchangeably with TAX in many instances such as "land cess" or "irrigation cess." I'd only ever seen it as a prefix for "pool."
Vegas Doc, those are groaners, indeed. I really did enjoy Pas de Chat's bathtub sanity test yesterday. If you missed it, it's worth checking out.
Oh, my, I love the groaners!
One of the ATMs I use dispenses $50 as well as $20s. Sometimes that's handy.
Happy St Patrick's Day to all!
Hand up for BOOTIES, easy as PIE, ORTS, ETA
Glad to see ALEX. He is Canadian (born in Sudbury) and he mentioned the other night on Jeopardy that he went to the University of Ottawa.
Also glad to be reminded of Peter,Paul and Mary with "If I had a Hammer". Good memories from the 60's.
Does anyone know why we haven't heard from Tinbebi?
Sorry, Tinbeni.
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Alan Arbesfeld, for a great, but tough, puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for the swell review.
Well, I started this before church and worked on it after getting home. Took me about 3 hours. Very difficult.
Picked up on the theme after a long while. My first was KISS THE MUTT. My last was STAKE THE TANNED.
Could not remember RABIN for the life of me. Finally got the R and N. RABIN appeared.
VERMICELLI is my favorite spaghetti. That is what I buy.
AHABS was tough. I was looking for a 5 letter king. Kept trying DAVID. Then it finally hit me there was an S on the end. Duh!
My FIW was ALES for 75D instead of ALEX.
VLASIC was easy. Love them. Dill.
I have a lot to do later. Buying Corned Beef for our dinner on Wednesday. Our church brass group is practicing tonight, but not at the church. We want to celebrate a little of St. Patrick's Day, so we are meeting at member's house.
See you tomorrow.
Sabejo
(henywiro)
(inlarso)
I would have finished sooner, but there was the pesky task of digging/hoeing/pulling weeds today, Yuk. During rest periods (there were several) I worked on the puzzle. Hand up for BOOTiES. Wanted orts for REST, but I figured TENT would be 25A, so I waited. Also got WAKE THE TEAL fairly quick, but interpreted it as TAKE THE WEAL. (weal meaning wealth.) So I was even more confused. Sussed the theme at CRAVE THE BOLD, which allowed me to add lots of letters to theme answers. Ended up looking up lots of answers, but I did know LEAP for JETE from last week. Had ETaS for ETDS, and sou for ECU. Favorite clue was 49D, Big Apple locale? DESKTOP was also my last word to fall.
Spitzboov and Vegas Doc: GROAN, but LOL!!!
I've been thinking today that Rich really deserves some sincere applause for how well he manages the sequences of these puzzles. We have been toying with a St. Pat's Day theme all week. Today instead we get a very subtle bit of Irish blarney with Spoonerisms which was "foreplayed" several puzzles ago. Many times we get the same word several times to keep a thread of continuity going. So BRAVO, Rich! Keep us guessing and solving!
Groaners are better than pills for lifting the spirits! Keep 'em coming, guys!
Wouldn't CESS be short for assessment? Government entities assess taxes here. The British seem to put a different "slant" on a lot of common words for slang.
Lucina and others, it looks like reruns of the final two episodes (4 hours) of Downton Abbey are on tonight. I hope PBS doesn't impose too many doggone pledge breaks, but I think they probably will.
I love vermicelli. I love all pasta, including all the various Chinese noodles.
May I add my applause to PK's in admiration of and encouragement to Rich. I hope he reads this blog so he knows.
Isn't Tinbeni on vacation or travelling somewhere?
I had a linguistics teacher in college whose last name was Vlasak. He told us it is pronounced Vluhsuck. That was when I learned what a schwa is. I did well in his class the first semester of it but got bored during the second semester and skipped most of it. Yep, he gave me a real live F, which I deserved. I am interested in many things, but typically get bored when going too deeply into a subject. I guess that's why I never finished my Ph.D. just never had the fire in the belly for it.
*I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.
*To write with a broken pencil is pointless.
*A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was a nurse said 'No change yet'.
I found a site with visual puns:
35-terrible-puns-to-brighten-your-day
CED, I laughed at those terrible puns. Then I started looking around that site and found this link. Hilarious cat poses!
An Irish friend remarked today that corned beef is seldom eaten in Ireland. I researched it and found that years ago the Irish seldom ate beef. The English appropriated the best Irish farmland and used it to raise cattle. The resulting beef was corned (preserved with salt) which made its way back to England and was eaten by the English at home, traded, and was used to provision sailing vessels. The Irish didn’t eat corned beef because they couldn’t afford d it. The fact that the best irish land was used for raising cattle which they couldn’t eat gave the Irish even less chance of being self supporting. They took up potato farming on the marginal land left until the potato famine disaster.
Irish immigrants in the U.S.A. had a better standard of living and could afford some meat, especially corned beef which was relatively cheap.. They bought kosher corned beef from the Jewish immigrants. This corned beef coupled with their own potatoes and cabbage became the Irish immigrants’ traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal. St. Patrick’s Day was more of a holy day back in Ireland, but here it became a huge secular festival.
We had delicious Reuben sandwiches on Thursday and corned beef sandwiches and potato soup today. Do any of you make homemade saod bread?
Corned beef is boiling,taters and carrots are peeled, cabbage is stripped to the right layer. OK, I'll play.
Did'ya hear about the Arizona cartographer that was laid off?
He'd lost his sense of Yuma.
I didn't make any soda bread but did score a hunk (with raisons) from a man that did.
Great puzzle; fun theme. A lady came into my office yesterday. She shouted "Cant,,,Wont...Shouldnt...Couldnt...". It was apparent she was having contractions.
I'm so embarrassed... so here's some more....
• How does Moses make his tea? Hebrews it.
• A cartoonist was found dead in his home. Details are sketchy.
• I tried to catch some fog, but I mist.
• Jokes about German sausages are the wurst.
• I know a guy who's addicted to brake fluid, but he says he can stop any time.
• I stayed up all night to see where the sun went, and then it dawned on me.
• I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. I just can't put it down.
• I did a theatrical performance about puns. It was a play on words.
• I didn't like my beard at first. Then it grew on me.
• What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary? A thesaurus.
• I dropped out of the Communism class because of lousy Marx.
• All the toilets in New York's police stations have been stolen. As of now, it appears the police have nothing to go on.
• Velcro - what a rip off!
Jayce:
You have my taste in beer. Same temperature as well.
Abejo
(lyclowee)
It's St Patrick's Day. Can't we have some Irish Jokes ? Here's one:
Paddy was driving down the street in a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking place. Looking up to heaven he said, "Lord, take pity on me. If you find me a parking place I will go to Mass every Sunday for the rest of me life and give up me Irish Whiskey!"
Miraculously, a parking place appeared.
Paddy looked up again and said, "Never mind, I found one."
Challenge accepted.
Did you hear about the two Irish men who were, shall we say, rather fond of each other...?
Hugh Fitzpatrick and Patrick Fitzhugh...?
Recovering from a bit of a cold, that is going around down here after I 'cold' spell, so this fun puzzle took my befuddles brain longer than usual. Thanks for the shout out with Forsyth, and I have read the book but as my eyes have faded I am reading more straight mystery stories and historical mysteries and less intrigue and adventure.
Will post ne Charlotte pic tomorrow.
Have a great week all
A pleasant Sunday morning diversion. I took me quite a while though.
Spitz, Vegas Doc and others; good ones! No groans from me; just a smile of appreciation.
Barbara was watching a women's tennis match. I didn't even have to look to tell who was playing. Sharapova's screeches were rattling the dishes on the table. I don't know why they ever let those annoying grunts get so far out of hand.
Marti, those photos of sleeping cats are a lot of fun.
The Dodgers in spring training are looking like they can hit better than they did last year. I'm guessing changing hitting coaches may have helped. This year it's Mark McGwire.
[poopydroop]
St Patty jokes huh?
Padraic Flaherty came home drunk every evening toward ten. Now, the Missus was never too happy about it, either. So one night she hides in the cemetery and figures to scare the beejeezus out of him. As poor Pat wanders by, up from behind a tombstone she jumps in a red devil costume screaming, "Padraic Sean Flaherty, sure and ya' don't give up you're drinkin' and it's to Hell I'll take ye'". Pat, undaunted, staggered back and demanded, "Who the hell ARE you?". Too that the Missus replied, "I'm the divil ya' damned old fool". To which Flaherty remarked, "Damned glad to meet you sir, I'm married to yer sister.
BillG, Captcha is getting naughty. "Poopydroop"!! I had "peeivee" today. No way do I want that added into my veins.
I didn't know what ACC stood for yesterday. After we had TERPS yesterday, I just happened to turn on the TV to a Maryland Terps game with North Carolina. I didn't think I'd ever heard of Terps before, so it was quite a coincidence. Then I looked again and realized that the coaches on both teams had good teams once in my state. Terps coach had played ball in college here too.
We are pretty happy around here as both the UAllbany men and women's basketball teams are going to the Big Dance! The men's team is playing Duke in the first round so their stay will be short and sweet. I don't know who the women are playing. But it still a great achievement, no matter the outcome,
Also, in high school hoops, four area schools won the State Championships in their divisions including Argyle's boy's team and my Troy girl's team. The Troy boy's team lost the semi-final in overtime.
Thanks for all of the amusement, folks!
Thanks for the concern yesterday, also.
Favorite answer today: DESKTOP. (Of course.)
Haven't been here in a while. Didn't get this puzzle until I completed it (after 2 days, I do it here and there). Enjoyed the outcome! Disliked "bootees" very much. My favorite children's novel will always be Charlotte's Web, EBW was easy. Stella D'Oro had their bakery (and at one time a great Italian restaurant)near Manhattan College, my husband's alma mater, in the Riverdale section of Manhattan. Oh, the aromas that came out of that place! You still can get their cookies around here (Rockland Cty, NY), but I don't know if that great factory is still their baking site.
Best wishes to all, Liz
Post a Comment