google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday, April 25, 2013 Jeffrey Wechsler

Advertisements

Apr 25, 2013

Thursday, April 25, 2013 Jeffrey Wechsler

Theme: POP! goes the puzzle...

17-Across. Pop : CARBONATED DRINK.

26-Across. Pop : PUNCTURING SOUND.

43-Across. Pop : WARHOL'S ART STYLE.

56-Across. Pop : TOOTSIE ROLL ITEM.

Jeffrey also has a puzzle in today's New York Times - a rare occurrence for a constructor. Congratulations, Jeffrey!

Four fifteen-letter theme entries have totally different meanings for the simple word "pop." And we have a fifth fifteen-letter entry that has nothing to do with the theme, at 7-Down. Outdoor security options : EXTERIOR CAMERAS. Did that throw anyone off?

Really easy puzzle, for a Thursday. I flew through it in just over my typical Monday time. Let's see what I missed...

Across:

1. Dot-___ printer : MATRIX. We used to have to put these noisemakers in a special room.  The sound of them running payroll on Fridays was deafening.

7. Hash house sign : EATS.

11. Org. that financed many public murals : WPAWorks Progress Administration (Later renamed Work Projects Administration). One of the lesser-known aspects of Roosevelt's New Deal program. I wanted this to be NEA, but that one comes later in the grid...

14. Brand with a Justice for Potatoes League : ORE-IDA. Because "Lays" was too short.

15. Inside information? : X-RAY. Fun clue.

16. Ancient pillager : HUN.

20. Air France-___: European flier : KLMKoninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij. Literally, "Royal Aviation Society," better known as "Royal Dutch Airlines." (And yes, I did have to look up the spelling of "Royal" ;-D)

21. Cathedral areas : NAVES. Apses/Naves always have to wait on perps.

22. Place in a 1969 western : ETTA. Etta Place was the name of the schoolteacher that took up with Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. Great misdirection! (Couldn't resist...)

23. Tech staff member : CODER.

24. Camel hair colors : TANS.

32. Bat mitzvah locale : SHUL.

33. Bands from Japan : OBIS.

34. Gp. concerned with dropout prevention : NEA. Ah, there it is. But wait! It's not the National Endowment for the Arts that I thought of for 11-Across, but the National Education Association.

35. Run smoothly : HUM.

36. Condor's booster : UPDRAFT. Haha,  I was thinking of a rocket, until I imagined that the condor might not appreciate such a "boost."

39. Ruckus : DIN.

40. "___ you sure?" : ARE.

41. Charcutier offering : PORC. Pork, in a French butcher shop.

42. 2010 Angelina Jolie spy film : SALT. Never heard of this movie. Any good?

48. "Sooey!" reply : OINK.

49. "Goodness gracious!" : MERCY.

50. Kitty's sunny sleeping spot : SILL.


52. TV and radio : MEDIA.

53. Toulouse : oeil :: Toledo : ___ : OJO. French and Spanish "eye".

60. An official lang. of Kenya : ENG.lish.

61. The "a" in "a=lw" : AREA.= length x width. (Bill G., are you proud of me?)

62. First word of Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride" : "LISTEN, my children, and you shall hear..."

63. Technique : WAY.

64. Chews the fat : YAKS.

65. First step toward nirvana : SATORI. Learned from crossword puzzles.

Down:

1. Poke fun at : MOCK. 4-Down. Poke fun at : RIB. 54-Down. Poke fun (at) : JEER.

2. Shrinking sea : ARAL. Despite the efforts of Kazakhstan with funding from the World Bank to reverse the trend.

3. Duration : TERM.

5. Defensive denial : I DO NOT! (Response to "You always leave the toilet seat up!")

6. Second word of Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" : XANADU. "In XANADU did Kubla Khan / a stately pleasure dome decree..."

8. Battling god : ARES.

9. Itty bit : TAD.

10. Pink Floyd's Barrett : SYD. Here's one of his classics. 4:13

11. Pentecost : WHIT SUNDAY. The name is a shortening of the word "White," and refers to the Holy Ghost descending on the apostles.

12. Flat-bottomed boat : PUNT.

"Two Women Asleep in a Punt Under the Willows"
by John Singer Sargent

13. "Put your Head on My Shoulder" singer : ANKA. Hard to believe that this one was just four years before 10-Down. 2:42

18. Claim with conviction : AVER.

19. Truckee River city : RENO.

23. II into D : CCL.

24. "Yay, the weekend!" : TGIF. "Thank goodness it's Friday!"

25. Short right hand? : ASST. "Short" for ASSistanT.

26. "Balderdash!" : PSHAW.

27. Chekov bridgemate : UHURA. Star Trek.


28. Quantitative "science"? : NUMEROLOGY. Nice fill.

29. Bulls' org. : NBANational Basketball Association. Chicago's team.

30. "Jurassic Park" co-star : NEILL. Sam Neill played Dr. Alan Grant.

31. Father of modern Italian, per linguists : DANTE.

36. Very soon after : UPON.

37. President between Tyler and Taylor : POLK.

38. No and Who: Abbr. : DRs. Neat misdirection.

42. Messy room : STY.

44. Excalibur part : HILT.

45. Change the colors of, say : REDO. I want to re-do my bedroom, but can't decide on a color. I just can't 57. Put into words : SAY. the look I'm going for.

46. Wavy lines, in music : TRILLS. Like this.

47. Justice who's the son of an Italian immigrant : SCALIA. Alito is also the son of an Italian immigrant.

50. Get into a lather : STEW.

51. New Rochelle college : IONA.

52. Overly submissive : MEEK.

53. "The Simpsons" bus driver : OTTO. I really have to watch that show someday...

55. Intro to science? : OMNI. I was thinking of high school courses. (Hey, I'm not omniscient!)

58. It's usually FDIC-insured : IRAIndividual Retirement Account.

59. Bassoon end? : IST. Bassoonist. And that's the end of my story!

Hugs,
Marti


Note from C.C.:

Happy Birthday to dear Kazie, the language expert on our blog. Kazie grew up in Sydney, Australia. She has been living in Wisconsin the past two decades. (Correction: Kay has been here since 1974.)  She speaks fluent French & German and is always the first person I go to whenever I have a linguistic problem.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfWuApM8m7_BaJB-G-lrPb_M4U3mC3hhLCTn9Dnfso9x5YAeemUQfmXAxGcISQdylujOq1QHObNhyRoyX7ZvZF_MDXrdCeGXAtmC7Bq0kEcYABNzauE07D_rj4TQrlbug0e2UdiSFX9KWA/s1600/K10.PNG
Barry (Kazie's husband), Hemingway & Kazie, Spain, 2012

82 comments:

Barry G. said...

Morning, all (and Happy Birthday to Kazie)!

Wow. I'm glad this was a walk in the park for Marti, but I struggled throughout. I did finally managed to muddle through most of it, but crashed and burned in the NE. Put in and took out both HUN and ANKA multiple times, because I just couldn't get anything else to work up there.

I eventually thought of PUNT for 12D, which let me change NEA to WPA at 11A. So far, so good. But the crossing of ETTA and WHITSUNDAY did me in. Never saw the movie, so I had no idea "Place" was somebody's last name. Wanted YUMA, but it didn't fit. And WHIT SUNDAY is just totally, utterly and completely out of my wheelhouse. I finally just started plugging in random letters until I got the *TADA* sound...

[tsBdgest]

Lemonade714 said...

A double header for Jeffrey and so many clechoes. I wondered about the symmetry issues caused by 7 downs and had trouble with puncturing.

Saw the 3D version of Juraslsic Park with my son, awesome!

Thanks Jeffrey and martin

Dennis said...

Good morning, gang - well, I thought I was going to have a smooth solve, then I hit the NE. Had some unknowns with 11A and 22A, so I skipped them and went on. By the time I came back, I had _hitSunday for 11D and _PA for 11A. Going through the alphabet, I paused at 'S', but SH*TSUNDAY just didn't have quite the right religious tone to me. Finally settled on 'W' because it looked right and WPA rang a bell. Obviously, I've never heard of WHITSUNDAY.

That was my only real stumble other than putting ADO for 'Ruckus', and DANTE quickly corrected that. Nicely done puzzle, and quite an accomplishment for Jeffrey, having a rare 'double' today.

Lemon, I was about a half dozen hours earlier than you at Brewzzi's; I'm having an affair with their MeatShop Pizza.

Have a fun day -- weekend's almost here.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

WBS. Marti is just too clever for me.

Jeffrey sure packed a lot into this one, with all those grid spanners. I fell for the Toledo trap and put in Eye right away. Whitsunday is not really known to me but somehow it emerged from a disused cranial fold once I had the Sunday filled in. Satori was all perps - guess I'm not on the road to Nirvana. Rats.

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Marti and friends. This was a fun Thursday puzzle.

Dorothea Lange is probably one of the more famous artist from the WPA. Ii think more of photographs then murals from the WPA.

Happy Birthday, Kazie. Hope you have a great day.

QOD: The only thing better than singing is more singing. ~ Ella Fitzgerald (Apr. 25, 1918 ~ June 15, 1996)

[afocto]

Argyle said...

An altar boy who doesn't know Whitsunday?! Dennis, turn in your robes.

Some of the outdoor action scenes in "Salt", were filmed on the interchanges in Albany, NY. The only reason to see it.

WPA mural in Wichita. Pioneers.

Dennis said...

Argyle, when I was an altar boy, pterodactyls were still visiting our bird feeders.

I somehow lost a paragraph in my posting process; a very Happy Birthday to Kazie, who always has the right answer for the frequent language questions here, and Marti, I really enjoyed the write-up; great as always.

Mari said...

WB&DS, Marti you must be smart as a whip, because this one did me in. I probably would have had a fighting chance had I used pencil, but my grid has turned into one big ink blot full of write overs.

Oh well, I had fun working in it. Of the few clues I answered corrrectly I liked 15A: Inside Information? XRAY.

I'm working on a history project that entails reading a lot of newspapers from the 1920s. Back then people spelled it "clew" instead of "clue". So whenever I type here about clues I first type "clew" and then have to go back and correct it!

I hope your Thursday is better than my grid! :)

Mari said...

Argyle, I agree. Salt was a dud.

Happy Birthday Kazie. I hope you start your weekend of celebrating early. Enjoy yourself :)

Diane said...

Just wrong in so many ways. Junk for punt, ado for din, external for exterior, and so on....never heard of Whitsunday. Did get porc!
Have a wonderful day everyone.

HeartRx said...

A most wonderful Happy Birthday, Kazie! You are my heroine when it comes to puzzling out the nuances of German!
.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.

I think WHIT SUNDAY probably saved my bacon, because it solidified all the answers in the east. So if you didn't know that, I can see where it would seem a lot harder than I made it out to be.

Thanks for the comments on SALT...I think I'll pass on that one, if its only saving grace is scenes of Albany's interchanges!! (^0^)

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Happy Birthday, Kazie. Another trip around the sun. Drei mal hoch!

Tougher one today. Loved the theme starting with CARBONATED something or other, but DRINK came in due course. Four grid-spanning theme fills and one vertical span. Very impressive. Had to revisit a couple times but eventually got it all w/o look-ups. Remembered OJO from before. Very clever cluing for ETTA, OMNI, and some others.
@ 48a - I wonder of Sooey's origin is related to the Latin for pig: Sus which is the pig genus.

Have a great day.

Yellowrocks said...

I liked the theme and the long down at 7D. Informative and witty write-up, Marti.
I found that the bottom third and most of the west side was a walk in the park, as Marti said. For a while I had ANON instead of UPON, but I knew 41A was some kind of meat and APDRAFT didn't cut it. But then, I didn't know DANTE, NEILL, and SALT. At last I wagged them without red letters. . I knew WHITSUNDAY, also called Pentecost. Along with Christmas and Easter it is one of the three mega-festivals in the Episcopal and Catholic tradition. It commemorates the birthday of the Christian church.
Dennis, funny that you thought of starting WHITSUNDAY with an S. One year our church typist substituted S for W and SH*TSUNDAY appeared in the bulletin.
For some reason I always want to add an N to SA(N)TORI.
I've known PSHAW almost all my life, maybe from the Comics page in the paper. I have never heard it spoken. Anyone?
Happy birthday, Kazie.

Montana said...

Happy Birthday, Kazie. I always enjoy what you say. My grandson is dual Aussie/American and his mother is Aussie/Kiwi, so I sound smart when I repeat things I have heard from you.

It is Thursday (a DNF), so I automatically start with red letters on. Someday, maybe not. But it is a different experience than paper/pencil. So, for example, I need a 3-letter word that will be Ado or Din. I type in the A—red letter, so I type in DIN and move on.

This was a very enjoyable puzzle. Yes, I used red letters, but didn’t need too many of them. I like that. I also got the theme answers and the theme.

Forecast here is for 79° for Friday and Saturday, after I just showed you pictures of snow on Monday! Guess I will stay in Montana.

Montana

kazie said...

Thanks to all for the birthday wishes! This is another landmark for me--I will have outlived both my parents in another 6 weeks, but they both smoked and I never have, so here's hoping I can outlast them by a lot more years.

My AR son called yesterday to wish me a happy birthday, and at first I was amused, thinking that he'd confused the date, but then he asked what time zone I was born in, reminding me that it was already the 25th in Oz. What a guy!

My newspaper had all or part of six clues missing today--those at the bottom of each column, so I had to got online to get the others, and was still lost so played alphabet search with red letters to get done. There was too much that I didn't know, like WPA, PUNT, ETTA, ITEM and SATORI.

AnnieB8491 said...

Good Morning all - Thanks for a real 'thinker' this morning Jeffery and congrats on your double! Thanks Marti for your expo. Explained a lot of my unknowns for me.
DNF for me today. Had trouble in the NE and SE corners. Had Dory for RUNT until I got CARBONATEDDRINK, then I was lost. I did have WHITSUNDAY, ANKA and HUN but WPA and ETTA were lost to me too. In the SE I got TOOTSIEROLL.... - could NOT come up with the rest. Had JIBE, JEST for JEER; OTTO, OMNI, OJO, and LISTEN (could not think of first word) and SATORI were more blanks. Had APSES before NAVES, and PORC was not known, but perps helped me there.
But still had fun - getting most of the puzzle and coming up with some fill-ins that I didn't know I knew. :)
Happy Birthday Kazie - hope you have a great day!

Another day closer to going home. Have a great day everyone!

rofogra

kazie said...

Montana,
I forgot I was going to comment: I am also a dual national since 2003, after the Oz government decided it was legal for Aussie natives to have dual citizenship. Oddly it was allowed for our sons, both born here, much earlier.

C.C.,
Thanks again for remembering my birthday, and for everything you do for us all!

One more thing, I have actually lived here since 1974, so a bit more than two decades--almost four!

desper-otto said...

Sure Happy It's Thursday! (And Happy Birthday, Kazie!)

Montana, Sam NEILL (30D) of Jurassic Park Fame was also a main character in another big 90's movie. In that one he opined that he would live in Montana and raise rabbits. And his wife would cook them for him. (I'll bet AnnieB8491 knows exactly what movie I'm referring to.) He later decided he was going to need two wives, a second in Arizona. Lucina, you up for the job?

Alas, today was another DNF. I had ORNI(thology, a science,) instead of OMNI(science). I did think ROLLITER looked weird. D'oh!

JJM said...

Bad cluing, fills that made no sense, overall a puzzle that the average person, or for that matter a daily solver, could not solve w/o help. I had to red letter 7 times. I don't think I've ever had to do that.

Argyle said...

Salt porc with a mercy oink, oh my!

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Jeffrey Wechsler, for a great Thursday puzzle. Thank you, Marti, for the swell review.

Well, this one was daunting at first glance. Five grid spanners. However, once I got started it was quite easy.

WHITSUNDAY was easy once I has a couple letters.

The five long ones were also quite easy once I got a foothold and had a few letters.

I had OLE for a while at 53A. Fixed that to OJO. Should have known. We have had that word recently.

Did not know SATORI. Perped it.

Did know LISTEN. Have read that poem many times.

Got XANADU once I had the X.

PORC threw me for a while. Then figured it was french.

Liked OINK for 48A. Very clever.

Off to my day. Lots to do.

Happy Birthday, Kazie. Many happy returns.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

(doetake)

AnnieB8491 said...

desper-otto - Why yes I do! :)

Anonymous said...

Tough puzzle today.

"Salt" isn't bad, plenty of misdirection (like today's clues), but not a must-see. I thought it was refreshing to see a female lead in a spy movie though.

Would someone please explain how "pop" is "tootsie roll item"? Over my head, I guess.

Anyone else think Kazie's husband and Hemmingway are very similar looking?

Dudley said...

Mercy, I forgot to wish Kazie a Happy Birthday!

desper-otto said...

Anon@10:35 -- a candy sucker with a Tootsie Roll center is a Tootsie Roll Pop.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, desper-(53 Down). I'm used to them being referred to as "Tootsie Pops," and I failed to make the connection.

Anon@10:35

Mari said...

Interesting item from the Chicago Tribune, August 12, 1933

"A cow, today, kicked Vidus Blair, a farmer and fractured his jaw."

That's the entire article. Must have been a slow news day.

TTP said...

Last spring we had unusually warm weather, and this year we're making up for it. WGN's Tom Skilling just said it's the coldest spring in the last 17 years, and the 29th coldest in 143 years.

Speaking of lows... I'm 0-4 this week. Crashed at the same intersection as Barry. Then totaled her at in the southeast. Couldn't put ITEM at the end of Tootsie Roll, and had OTIS driving the Simpson's bus. Knew SATIRE couldn't be the first step to nirvana. Finally turned on Red Letter assist.

Other than that, I thought it was a great puzzle that really challenged.

Happy Birthday Kazie !

thehondohurricane said...

Kazie, Happy birthday. I hope you enjoy the day & get to do everything you would like to.

Not enough time for the puzzle these days. Getting ready to visit Irish Miss territory this weekend. I..M.., if time allows, why don't you come down to Wolf Rd and say hello either Sat or Sun?

Lucina said...

Hello, hello. My, everyone seems to be in good form today, especially you, Marti, who never fail to amuse while enlightening.

First, this was really fun, thank you, Jeffrey Wechsler! It was not a sashay but a great romp none the less.

I enjoy the misdirections and the many aha moments they provide.

inside information, X-RAY
bands from Japan, OBIS
two ways to poke fun at, MOCK and JEER

Those were all clever clues. And in sixth or seventh grade I had to memorize "Listen, my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
Hardly a man is now alive who remembers that day and year . . ."

Now, Argyle, there is a perfectly good reason why Dennis might not know WHITSUNDAY if he was a Catholic altar boy. Presbyterians, Anglicans, Episcopalians and Lutherans all use that term but Roman Catholics always call it Pentecost.

It took me a long while to recall it since I had the NEA/WPA debate Marti had then It took a another long while to place ETTA and AMES came before ANKA.

PORC was a pure guess since I don't know charcutier. SATORI was also a WAG.

Even OJO came slowly because I misread oeil as cell. And now I believe I know most of the Simpson characters without ever having watched it.

Is that a minis theme with PORC, STY and OINK?

Lucina said...

A very happy birthday, Kazie. I hope your celebration is fabulous! You truly are one of the solons of this blog.

TTP said...

Forgot to thank you Marti. Excellent write up. I liked SALT, but then again, I would watch anything with Angelina Jolie.

Also, meant to mention that Chekov's bridgemate (is that a word ?) was initially UHURU so I had WURHOLS for a bit and my meat store offering was PORK, but EXTERIOR KAMERAS just didn't look right...

Can we cool it with the roman numeral math :>) ??? Maybe get a bit more current ? Maybe not, then we'll be having one of the young guns with a clue like "Concatenated 171 and 186, in Hex"

Gotta run to my next conference call. See you all later.

Dennis said...

Lucina, no, I was raised Methodist -- and Lord, do I have methods...

In my defense, I wasn't very tuned into the altar boy role; I was led to believe there would be wine, women and song, and while the first and last ones were plentiful, there was a severe dearth of the middle one.

GarlicGal said...

Good morning. WES. Same misdirections and the NE was last to fall for me too. I had never heard of Whit Sunday either. Finaly...FINALLY got punt.
Whew. My brain is addled!

JJM, thanks for the Luce suggestion. Interesting group. Don't you just love ITunes?

CrossEyedDave, thanks for linking the spark plug video. With the new safety glass that's used in newer cars today, there is no crashing/noisy breaking glass. It shatters nicely (?) and the crook just pushes the window into the car.

I am lovin' this warm weather. Sorry for you folks still fighting the cold and snow.

Happy B-Day Kazie!

Steve said...

Happy Birthday Kazie!

Absolutely WBS - this one kicked my rear (like Mari's Chicago Trib cow).

Nice work, Jeffrey!

Ol' Man Keith said...

Yeah, I agree: this was fairly easy for a Thursday. Nothing to slow me down except that I temporarily tried JIBE instead of JEER, and I'm never sure between ONEIDA and OREIDA.

I also enjoyed the misdirection on ETTA Place, but it only took a second look. The long one, EXTERIOR CAMERAS, fell gradually but steadily from start to finish.

Looking forward to a Friday challenge....

Ol' Man Keith said...

BTW, I want to thank the powers that be for making the code words legible! I'm referring to the words I must type to "prove [I'm] not a robot."

It seems silly to "protect" us from interlopers in the first place, but I could never understand why it had to be an eye test as well! For the last two days I could read the smudgy letters without strain. Much appreciated!

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. I had a hard time with this puzzle, not only because of its difficulty level but also because I couldn't get my mind on the right wavelength. WPA and NEA killed me. Well, so did ENG, but that's because I wanted SOAP for 50D. Never heard of WHIT SUNDAY or SHUL. Liked the theme, though.
Happy birthday, kazie, and best wishes to you all.
P.S. I think the captchas are still the same as they were, namely a squiggly sequence of letters and photograph of a number, except now it is a photograph of a word.

Mari said...

Does anybody else see a resemblance between Keith Fowler and Jayce? Maybe I just need my eyes checked from reading all of these dang capchas.

Montana said...

Kazie, I have a DIL from Lithuania. She cannot have dual citizenship, but 2 granddaughters can IF they get American passports first and Lithuania second.

When I was little cousins and I would race to the house for Gramna's chicken dinner. All was great unless we found 4 Legs! Then we realized we had just eaten rabbit.

Argyle said...

21-Across. Synagogue : SHUL
Monday, April 8, 2013 C.C. Burnikel

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, First a very happy birthday to Kazie. May you have a wonderful day.

The puzzle wasn't easy, but doable after some lookups. I didn't know the Simpson's bus driver, or Chekov bridgemate and had forgotten the first word of "Paul Revere's Ride". With wanting air lift for up draft the center section took a while to fill in. Polk took care of that problem, but Exterior Cameras didn't come easily. I thought that this had to have something to do with the theme, but pop wasn't part of the clue!

My favorite clues today: Inside information/Xray, and Bands from Japan/Obis. I thought,"How am I to know about bands that play in Japan?" A good chuckle when Obi appeared.

NEA came readily as I am a lifetime member. I did think of National Endowment for the Arts, though, for WPA.

A puzzle with learning moments, aha's and whews when it was completed.

Have a great day, everyone.

Irish Miss said...

Hi Everyone:

Very late due to appointments and errands. After going astray in the south east with nano before omni, I finally completed that area but, no TADA. I had filled in junk for punt, not knowing either the WPA or Etta.

I thought it was a difficult Thursday offering. Kudos to Jeffrey for the challenge and bravo to Marti for a most enjoyable write-up.

As Lucina said, we never said Whit Sunday; it was always Pentecost Sunday.

Hondo, can you send me an email with the location, time, etc. for Saturday and Sunday? I would love to say hi.

Kazie, I wish you a very Happy Birthday.

Have a good day.

john28man said...

I thought this was a Saturday one and maybe it wasn't becasuse of the theme. I got about 2/3 of it on paper but needed a lot of red letter help. Some error:

ALLIOTO (sp) for Scalia,
HAFT for HILT.

I am especially embarassed about Paul Revere. I went to that Elementary School and I had the 2nd line in my mind as the start, ie Twas the eighteenth of APril...

Pookie said...

KAZIE!! Joyeux Anniversaire!
Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!
(no idea, just looked it up)
In any language, have a great birthday!
Thanks Marti, you cleared up a lot for me.
Thought I was really off to a good start with XANADU and the NW corner.
CARBONATED...... was clear right away. Then WEES about the whole east coast of the puzzle.
Marti: " I really have to watch that show someday..." (Simpsons)
I REFUSE to watch that show. Wish constructors would back off from cluing with that reference.
Just like TTP @ 12:25
Can we cool it with the roman numeral math? Maybe cool it with the Simpsons.

Pookie said...

Mari, Got a kick out of your newspaper article! Sounds like a fun project!
Forgot to say that TOOTSIE ROLL ITEM
was meh.
Hondo, great to "see" you lately!

Lucina said...

Dennis, why am I not surprised that you are/were a "Method"-ist? That should have been an easy guess.

And I have a few methods of my own which, to answer desper-otto's question, if Sam took me as a wife he would never want to return to the first one, and that's the truth, as Edith says.

Anonymous said...

pas de chat, boy, you're a real treat.

Bill G. said...

I enjoyed the puzzle. Thanks Jeffrey and Marti. And yes Marti, I'm proud of you but I was even before your breakthrough. :>)

Happy birthday Kazie!

You know how much I like the Animal Tracks slide shows. I think this one is even a little better than usual. Animal Tracks.

Lemonade714 said...

KZ, HBDTY and many more; you are one of the originals and remain an original, thank you.

A TV show that lasts more than 20 years, like it or not, will be in the culture.

Jayce looking like Keith Fowler, as my father used to say, perhaps Zwischen den Beinen.

2poodles said...

I did better on this one than most Thursday puzzles, but didn't finish. I did like the theme, tho. Happy BD Kazie, a fellow Wisconsinite. We must get the same paper -- mine was missing some clues, too!

Jayce said...

How quickly I can forget certain things! I forgot SHUL but remembered OJO. Some things stick and others don't.

I think Keith Fowler's forehead is much nicer than mine, and his facial hair is far more "kempt."

Bart said...

@pas de chat

Haters gonna hate...

JJM said...

Garlic Girl...

"JJM, thanks for the Luce suggestion. Interesting group. Don't you just love ITunes?"

I think the iTunes Store can't wait for me to click on it knowing how much money I've poured into their coin slots the past 10 years... and that I probably will continue to do so!

HeartRx said...

Mari, interesting that you pointed out the similarity. I usually glance at the avatar to see who is commenting, without always checking their names. So I often get Keith Fowler and Jayce mixed up!!

HeartRx said...

Oh, and Bill G. - loved the Animal Tracks this week. Especially the one of the newly shorn alpacas in #15. For some reason, 20-22 wouldn't display for me.

Jayce said...

I just did an internet search for Zwischen den Beinen because I don't know what it means, and holy wow! I still don't know what it means.

Lemonade714 said...

Steve, how nice to see you commenting. How is all the traveling going?

Mari said...

Jayce @ 3:24 pm: Too funny! ;)

Sfingi said...

@Kazie - Froliche Zeit!(sorry, pepper with your own Umlaut).

SCALIA's family comes from Agrigento, SW Sicily.

Didn't know SYD, UHURA (Chekov?), PORC, NEILL, ETTA but got all from cross currents, no Googling. Tomorrow should be scarier,
Theme pretty good. Would have like a reference to good ol' Dad.

kazie said...

2Poodles,
Yes, the WI State Journal, right?

Pas de Chat,
Thanks for the multi-lingual effort! My son and d-i-l just called from Germany and sang Happy Birthday over the phone, as well as three or four German birthday songs. Then they had to tell me excitedly how Lea had rolled over on her own yesterday. I couldn't remember that being something I'd noticed with our own kids.

Montana,
They're off to Berlin next week to get her US passport before their visit in June. There I guess the dual citizenship thing works as one would expect--they already have her German one.

Thanks again for all the additional birthday wishes! I'm trying to relax a bit before our celebratory dinner out tonight!

kazie said...

Jayce,
The literal meaning is "between the legs" but I saw the YouTube Joint Venture song about it, which seemed to refer to what men have there. It's a lament about all the cute succinct words in other languages for that, but says German has none. However, I know they use "Schwanz" that way, which can also mean "tail" in polite circles. So now you know!

Jayce said...

Thank you, kazie.

lois said...

Good evening Marti,CC, et al., An interesting puzzle but a DNF'er. 'What' Sunday? Thank you, Lucina. Being a crib catholic I've never heard 'WHIT' used that way. Only as "I don't give a WHIT." I too wanted YUMA, Barry,like Johnny Yuma...but oh well. Marti, loved the links, esp Sundance. Excellent job. I need to go back to helping
5th graders so I can feel smart again...ok, 3rd graders.

Dennis: I really like your new picture. Very handsome couple. Love the image of you as an altar boy ringing somebody's chimes!

Santa Baby: I really like your new picture too. I've seen that pose before tho'. I'm pretty sure it was just before you came in my chimney last Cmas Eve. What I'd give for some ESP. You are adorable.

Bill G: I loved the Animal Tracks. LOL with the last two slides. More often than not, my men resemble #23 then #22 at any given time. Probably b/c I resemble the red squirrel/nut job #20. What I said was.. I need a man-cure. What I got was slide 20.. nails like talons. Some people just read too much into things. It's all good.

Happy Birthday, Kazie. I LOVE that picture of you and your husband. And yes, he does loook like Hemingway. Adorable of both of you. Wish you many more happy birthdays.

Enjoy your evening.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Great puzzle! Great expo, Marti!

Happy birthday, Kazie!

WEES. Hands up for NEA/WPA confusion. I didn't think of WPA as doing murals despite having stood before the painting in Wichita. In my home county where I did a lot of historical research/published articles, WPA was very active building many native limestone edifices: a football stadium, bridges, well housings. These still stand today.

I had trouble with the bottom two theme endings. ITEM? Put in TOOTSIE ROLLolly since POP is short for lollyPOP. Heard "lolly" used a lot as a candy in British novels. STYLE had to come from perps for WARHOL, but not easily. Mucho red-letters.

SATORI POPped into my head with no thought. Does this mean I'm finally on my way to Nirvana? I hope! I hope!

Hands up for not knowing Whitsunday. The church I grew up in called it Pentecost.

GarlicGal said...

Hey Keith Fowler, if it ever comes up again...and you know it will... an easy way remember the Oneida/Oreida spelling is Oreida is a combination of Oregon and Idaho, the states where all those Oreida potato products come from.

How's that for trivia, Mr. Trebek!

CrossEyedDave said...

I tried to do the puzzle on lunch break, went red letter, & still ran out of time which caused me to cheat like crazy with the solve button. (They really should make that button harder to use...) So Jeffrey, I guess that makes me unqualified to critique your puzzle. & now that it is 6:30EST, I have a hard time remembering things about the puzzle that I wanted to talk about. Nothing pops into my mind at the moment...

PK Yesterday @10:47pm & (?) (thats weird, PK's earlier post seems to have disappeared!?)

Anyway, I can't let Manac dangle on the hook. It was I that sent Manac that wash the cat link as a joke. Pls know that Manac & I are both animal lovers, & we would never do any of the crazy/silly things we imagine. But I must know, this poor cat you mentioned, was it declawed! I would rather wrestle a wild grizzly bear with my bare hands than try to give a cat a bath! I can't imagine how these 2 toddlers were not cut to ribbons!

Oh, & here is another example of animal abuse!

HeartRx said...

GarlicGal, brava!! I never needed help remembering Ore\Ida, but now I know why!

I remember having Oneida silverware in my "Hope Chest." (OK, so we were on a budget - what can I say?)

CrossEyedDave said...

Anywho! I am having a little trouble finding a HBD for Kazie, & decided to set aside a separate post. (mustn't go over 20 lines you know...) Finding a cake with "Kazie" on it is not easy, & being a former Aussie myself, I thought an Australian theme might be appropriate.

My 1st attempt... (Hmm, that might work for a Sheila, but something tells me Kazie is a Lady.)

My 2nd attempt... (Crikey,,, that's awful!)

My 3rd attempt (Hmm, not bad,, but is it a cake???)

4th attempt (Well, it is a cake, but boooring! Just does not convey my sentiment.)

Ah,, Perfect!

willow said...

Hi, all! With so many language mavens here, canc any one advise me on a good English-French dictionary to down-load to my new Nook? Also looking for a English-German dict. to download.
Fun puzzle today.

John V said...

Congrats, Jeffrey on the two-bagger! This was the harder of the two for me, by a wide margin. SE did me in, with SATORI just not in my kit bag. Alas.

Good puz. Thanks!

Spitzboov said...

Willow - For German-English I found Beolingus Wörterbuch quite useful. You can search in either language and it will give you the other. (Seems to arise out of Chemnitz where I think Kazie's son and DIL live.)

Did anyone see Jeopardy tonight? They had a question about Xi'an, C.C.'s home town, and its famous terra cotta soldiers.

PK said...

CED: My friend did not see the boys put the cat in the pot and didn't know how they did it either. Probably just carried it lovingly in and let go over the hole before it knew what hit it. It was a half-grown kitten. But these boys wouldn't be deterred by a little blood. Their dad was a huge cop and he was raising them tough.

As for the cat on the rumba, did you notice how its tail enhanced the cleaning ability of the machine? Quite a duster.

Anonymous said...

Careful CED, that koala might have chlamydia!

[requette absolutely]

Anonymous said...

Long and lovely legs seemed to be a prerequisite for serving on the Enterprise.

CrossEyedDave said...

Anon@8:45, Yes, I have heard of this, It is a very serious problem.

Anon@8:51 A link would be appreciated

PK, I was just watching clips of cats who like water (I will spare you the link) & came across this oddity!

(I thought all cats were afraid of the vacuum!)

Manac said...

Dave, You wanted Legs...
#1
#2
#3 (OK, not Star Trek )

kazie said...

CED,
Thanks for all those! good fun to end my day!

As to online dictionary options, alas I have no need of them since I have hard copies here and don't own any media like a Nook. Sorry.

Spitz,
You're right, they are in Chemnitz.

I think this anti-robot stopper was offensive: yuquir

Lucina said...

Was Uhura one of the Heaven's Gate cult that killed themselves to hitch a ride on Halley's comet?

fermatprime said...

Kazie: HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!

Challenging puzzle, Jeffrey; cool write-up, Marti. Was really tired last night as not much sleep the night before. Made stupid mistakes and ended up cheating. WHITSUNDAY, UHURA, LISTEN were gimmes.

I am really late to the party today. Not much sleep last night. Swam as fast as possible after Time-Warner repairman left. (Need to finish before helper leaves.) Then had a nap interrupted by beaucoup telemarketers. (Yes, I'm on the no-call list.) Then had to help a friend who wanted notes on the Euclidean Algorithm for his class tomorrow. Then Harv showed up really worn out and angry. But, will get fed shortly!

I kinda liked Salt.

Cheers!

fermatprime said...

Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) still alive and kicking. Born Graves Nichols, 1932.

Lucina said...

Thank you, Ferm. I'll have to research who was in the cult. Too late now.

Good night.