16-Across. *Classic paradox : CHICKEN OR THE EGG.
21-Across. *Memorable site of a 1965 Beatles concert : SHEA STADIUM.
36-Across. *Comes up with a solution : FIGURES OUT HOW.
51-Across. *Body shop's reappraisal : NEW ESTIMATE.
This theme has been done before, but Mark adds a grid-spanning unifier that gives it a little twist:
59-Across. Device useful in navigation, or in discovering the hidden theme in the answers to starred clues : DIRECTION FINDER.
Another nice touch was arranging the directions as they appear in order, going clockwise around the compass: North, east, south, west.
Marti here, to help you find your way around this puzzle!
Across:
1. Atkins diet credo : NO CARBS. A mixing bowl full of fruit is OK for lunch.
8. Medicare section : PART B. I haven't gotten there yet.
13. Freight lineup : BOX CARS. Also double sixes on a throw of the dice.
18. Fjord relative : RIA.
19. Extended break from svc. : LOA. Leave of Absence.
20. Together, on a score : A DUE. Often seen on scores as the abbrev. "a2" instead of written out.
26. Aetna's bus. : INS.urance.
27. Salmon for bagels : LOX. Not to be confused with "smoked salmon." I'll take it, either way.
28. LBJ's veep : HHH. Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Lyndon Baines Johnson's VEEP.
29. Residents along the Gulf of Bothnia : FINNS. My father was born on the "other side," along the Gulf of Finland.
31. "A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore" speaker : YOGI. Berra, not Bear.
33. Self-effacing : MODEST. Aw, shucks!
41. Horace works : EPODES.
42. Card game for three : SKAT. Learned about this game from "The Tin Drum."
44. Some choristers : ALTOS.
46. Down : EAT. One of my favorite clues for this little word was "Down a submarine."
49. Where agua flows : RIO. I thought of "mar" first, but then realized we were looking for flowing agua. (...although a mar does ebb and flow, no?)
50. Assam export : TEA.
55. Spheres : ORBS.
57. Reid or Robbins : TIM.
58. Deg. for Dilbert creator Scott Adams : MBA. Master of Business Administration.
65. Honeys : DEARIES.
66. Lowly laborer : PEASANT.
67. Party animals? : STAGS. Cute misdirection between ones who attend a party alone vs a horned mammal. Does that make them both horn-y animals?
68. Responds to the MAILER-DAEMON : RESENDS. You know those emails you get saying "Failed delivery?" In classic mythology, "Daemons" are benevolent spirits. Hence the reason for the name -- they are just trying to help you send your message (without saying what an idiot you are for mis-typing the recipient's name...)
Down:
1. "30-Rock" network : NBC.
2. Cry of wonder : OOH.
3. One-fifth of DLV : CXI. I figured out this one without even having to resort to a spreadsheet!!
4. West African capital : ACCRA. Map.
5. Sporty : RAKISH.
6. A little fresh air? : BREATH. "Like a breath of fresh air."
7. Phisher's target: Abbr. : SSN. Social Security Number.
8. French meat-and-veggies dish : POT-AU-FEU. Literally, "pot on the fire." My mother used to make a similar dish which we called "New England boiled dinner." It was corned beef, cabbage, carrots, onions and potatoes.
9. Silvery gray : ASH.
10. South American bird named for a Greek Titan : RHEA. The title of this image was "A rhea gallivanting."
11. Associated : TIED IN.
12. Many air rifles : BB GUNS.
14. Half-human Enterprise counselor : TROI.
15. Gets on : AGES. Becomes:
17. Antediluvian : OLD. Literally, it means "before the flood." So I guess that would be pretty old!
21. Wily : SLY.
22. Place for a shoe : HOOF.
23. Military vet : EX-GI.
24. Name of three Ottoman sultans : AHMED. Ahmeds I, II and III. All ruled in the 1600's.
25. Falls spray : MIST. Has anyone taken a ride on the Maid of the Mist?
30. Ordinal extremes : NTHS.
32. "___ that a lot" : I GET.
34. Verb ending : OSE. Verbose.
35. Antibiotic allotments : DOSES...of 56-Down. Shot contents : SERA.
37. "___ further reflection..." : UPON.
38. Icing buds on fancy cakes : ROSETTES. Here's how to make them. 2:47
39. Vegetable also called lady's-finger : OKRA.
40. Tarry : WAIT.
43. Little piggy : TOE.
44. Mountaintop homes : AERIES.
45. Unwitting test taker : LAB RAT. I dunno, some rats can be pretty witting...
47. Charge to bank non-members, often : ATM FEE.
48. Shinbones : TIBIAS.
50. 1860s presidential in-law : TODD.
52. Some Nintendo consoles : WIIs. Nintendo clearly states that the plural should be referred to as Wii consoles or systems or games, but "Wii" itself is never plurable... (From C.C.: Yeah, D-Otto, now you can find an electronic PAPER TRAIL of "plurable" on our blog!)
53. Angst-filled genre : EMO.
54. Parson's home : MANSE.
60. Slangy smoke : CIG.
61. "This American Life" airer : NPR.
62. Speed-skating gold medalist Jansen : DAN. 1994 Lillehammer.
63. Stop : END. Finito, pull the plug, sew up, call it a day. But there's just one more thing before we go:
64. Blockers for QBs : RTs. Right Tackle(s).
Now I'm done - see you next week!
Hugs,
Marti
68 comments:
Morning, all!
Sad to say, this one didn't do much for me. The theme was decent, except that I had no idea what a DIRECTION FINDER was (apart from something that finds the direction, of course). Is that the name of an actual piece of equipment, or just a general term for anything that lets you find your direction, like a compass?
I struggled with much of the fill throughout (HHH, AHMED, FINNS, HOOF [I had FOOT for the longest time], DAN, etc.) but finally turfed it on the crossing of of POTAUFEU and LOA. Simply could not guess the crossing A, so DNF for me today.
[angiust]
I liked it...not too easy, not too hard. Did have AHMET instead of AHMED so that made EPODES impossible but other than that very doable for a Thursday. A beautiful day here in Michigan --happy Thursday everyone!
Good morning!
I found this one to be easier than Marti's offering yesterday. I even got the theme before the reveal -- unusual. But, hand up for FOOT/HOOF. Otherwise, no slowdowns today.
Marti, when you get there, you need to be careful about PART B. If you're still employed, your employer's insurance will be primary to Medicare. But if you've retired and have continuing insurance from your previous employer, that insurance will be secondary to Medicare. And if you haven't signed up for Medicare PART B because you've got that employer insurance, you basically have no insurance. Ask me how I know that.
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Mark Bickham, for very good puzzle. Thank you, Marti, for the swell review.
Got started with CXI for 3D. I enjoy Roman Numerals. Then SSN. The rest in the NW emerged slowly.
The theme answers were not too hard, but I did not get the theme, the four directions. I probably did not look hard enough. DIRECTION FINDER was easy for 59A.
Did not know TROI for 14D. Got it with perps.
Did not know the french meat and vegetables dish, 8D, POTAUFEU, but with 8 perps it fell.
Thank goodness for LOA for 19A. That helped a lot with my two vertical tough ones.
Had EPOCHS at first for 41A. Fixed that to EPODES. That is my only write-over.
I knew OKRA once I had a letter. Never heard of the term lady's-finger.
An old favorite, AERIE, appeared today.
Off to my day. Working in the garden.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
(nlogiva)
Never have watched Stat Trek, so those clues are always a fill-in for me. Wanted "foot" but finally got hoof when I determined stadium. Fun puzzle.
Cute and doable puzzle.
Natick for me at LOA crosses TROI.
Had fOOt before HOOF, BREeze before BREATH, AHMEt before AHMED. Prefer AH MEn.
Can't believe I knew POT AU FEU.
OKRA, most despised vegetable, por moi.
Got RTS, but don't know what it means.
Morning, all! I just went back and read the posts I missed yesterday. HG - I never knew Mike Rowe used to sing opera (how did I ever miss that??)
Bill G. - incredible photo of lightning in the Grand Canyon!
CED - loved all your links, but the cat paper trail hit home. My newest addition has a fascination with toilet paper rolls, and we find paper trails whenever we leave the bathroom door open...
TTP, you transformed techno babble into an entirely amusing and understandable explanation of how spam blocking works - thanks!!
Good morning everybody. I liked this puzzle, but didn't see the NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST until Marti pointed them out. Very sneaky.
I had ODD instead of OLD for Antediluvian. An interesting word I've never heard of.
Why do my eyes keep seeing FALLS PREY instead of FALLS SPRAY?
Nice to know what MAILER-DAEMON means. It sounds like such a bad term, but at least now I know what it is.
Have a great day!
Thank you Marti, for your always cheerful explanations. Thank you D-Otto for your explanations on the Medicare Part B - I am still working, hence obviously quite confused. My doctor does not accept Medicare.
Of course, I plan to remain absolutely healthy all my life, hence no worries - what me, worried ? Eventually, of course, Obamacare will clean out my entire life savings, under one pretext or another, so might as well go straight to Medicaid, and join the rest of the crowd.
Marti - glad to know that Daemon is a benevolent spirit - I thought it was the spiteful devil - Don of the Web Underground Mafia casting his malevolent eyes on me.
Now, I'll be off, to work and ( keep trying to - ) fund the budget deficits.
StarTrek TNG was the only StarTrek show I watched, so TROI was easy for me.
I did like the reboot StarTrek movie with Chris Pine. If you hadn't seen it it was sort of a prequel and showed how Kirk met Spock, McCoy, etc. There is another one coming out in a few weeks.
Howdy folks,
This was a bear for me today, but I eventually won out. Under the threat of having to come out of retirement, I could not have figured out the theme. Had enough trouble getting the correct fills.
I'm with Barry, this one didn't do much for me either. I guess the only redeeming quality of this puzzle was a successful completion.
Now it's time to fess up. I had an error in yesterdays puzzle, so in spite of what I alluded it too, I ended up with a DNF. Had IOV for 59A & NAVAL for 51D. So a DNF for Hondo. My apologies, cheating isn't part of my make up.
Hello Puzzlers -
Not too tough, but I did have to come here to learn what LOA meant. I knew the crossing Troi was solid, having been a fan of Star Trek TNG in the day. The buxom Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi had a certain screen presence...
Good Morning all - I enjoyed the puzzle today - thanks Mark. But then I always enjoy a puzzle I finish :)
Great write-up Marti. Watched your ROSETTES video. I went to a cake decorate class many moons ago. For one year I made everyones cake - birthday, anniversary, bridal shower, going away celebration - and I had 4 siblings so that was a LOT of cakes. After 1 year I said enough! But I still did cakes for my kid's birthdays and had fun doing them. I used to start after they went to bed so I was up past midnight many times doing flowers, borders and stars. I split all my decorating tips among my DILs and they now they enjoy doing them.
Hands up for BREEZE/BREATH, FOOT/HOOF, EPOCHS/EPODES - which I didn't find until reading Marti's expo. I knew AHMEC was wrong and thought the C was a D but missed OSE - oops.
I had some blanks in northeast and was about to throw in the towel, when I'm looking at the puzzle and spot the word SOUTH in 35A (just the way I had it written, it popped out at me)l Then I was able to fill in ORTH in 16A which led me to finish the phrase out. Still had a blank for LOA, but wagged OLD then the OA and realized 'leave of absence' was right. I was so proud I finished a Thursday puzzle without lookups, but alas - not to be as I missed EPODES. Still enjoyed it though. Liked the hidden theme and the unifier.
Abejo - I enjoy roman numerals too - it's usually a 'given' fill-in for me. I usually have no trouble with them.
Our first video game was pong - anybody remember that one? back and forth, back and forth, back and forth...... We've come a long way baby!
I also thought Mailer Daemon was a 'demon' and a bad thing. Thanks for setting the record straight.
Have a great Thursday everyone!
offeloCo
Good morning all.
Fun puzzle today. Got the long acrosses ok but never saw the imbedded DIRECTIONS. At least 6 cheater squares but that did not deter me from enjoying the solve. Love LOX. Since I didn't know TROI, and was rusty with POT-AU-FEU, and my vocabulary lacked with 17d, LOA took a while in coming. Nice clue for RHEA. one of your ratites. We had RIO and RIA in the same puzzle. My aha moment came with 68a, RESENDS, a vague reminder of error message rec'd in the past.
Have a great day.
"Chicken or the egg" is not a paradox. It's a conundrum. A paradox is an apparent contradiction that contains some truth. An example would be "Gain through pain" or "Life through death."
Barry:
I used a RDF (radio direction finder) back in the '80s. It was a loop antenna that you aimed at a radio beacon to give you a line of position. You needed two beacons and two LOP's to get a fix. It was more accurate to use the nulls rather than the actual beacon.
Marti,
Thanks for explaining MAILER-DAEMON and LOA. I wanted LVE there to match to type of abbreviation in SVC. I've never seen LOA used before. I thought about LSL--long service leave, which is granted to employees of large companies and the government in Oz. People take off for 3 months paid leave after 10 years employment. Enlightened way to avoid burnout, don't you think?
I also didn't know AHMED or EPODES, so missed there, having ATMEN (=breath in German--looked good enough to me!)
I did get the theme early enough for it to fill in the unifier and give me a lot of helpful perps down there.
Dudley, if you watch NCIS, you can see Marina Sirtis as the new head of Israeli Intelligence. She finagled the job upon the death of Ziva's dad. She's not quite so sexy in her new role.
RE Mike Rowe -- until recently he was the voice of "This is the ABC World News with Diane Sawyer." The guy who does the intro at present sounds like Miguel Ferrer, but probably isn't. Rowe also narrated the How The Universe Works Discovery Channel miniseries in 2010.
C.C., glad you caught my use of your word!!
Good morning:
Happy to say I finished with no help and no write-overs, although needed some perps in a couple of areas. Learning moments: okra (lady fingers) and Daemons.
Thanks, Mark, for a fun romp, and thanks, Marti, for a fun expo.
We've lost our sunshine but still have mild temps so all is good.
Mari, did you see Chicago Fire last night?
Hondo @ 8:03 - "You're a good man, Charlie Brown."
Have a terrific Thursday.
As always Thursdays are fun days with merti's write up. Mark B. has stopped by in the past and maybe we will see him to answer the questions of the day. I do not think it was miss m's horny one.
I too really appreciated the directions being in order and surprised no nit picking on DEARIES.
marti, tell me about your Rat experiences...
Subbing today finding volumes of trapezoidal prisms and needing a lot of remediation. Today’s puzzle was fine but I have never heard the phrase DIRECTION FINDER although I use MapQuest on my iPhone a lot.
Musings
-Nice info on obscure entries, Marti. I still don’t get the SHOD/SHOE thing for a HOOF ;-)
-UP trains roll by our course constantly and the BOX CAR Graffiti is amazing. How do they do that?
-Behind YOGI’s malaprops was a great baseball catcher
-Oxymoron – “I am the world’s most MODEST person”
-Two boys I have today are Lowly Laborers on an Aronia Berry farm. Ever heard of that fruit?
-Larry the Cable Guy was working on an Ostrich (not RHEA) farm last night. They are powerful!
-We saw some antebellum homes last month but not antediluvian
-Hilarious LITTLE TOE Seinfeld story
-Our LAB RATS were on our Boa Constrictor’s menu
- Right handed QB’s depend more on their LT on his Blind Side than his RT and are highly paid!
Hello. It's good to "see" you, Marti, and thank you for explaining DAEMON which I assumed was bad.
Yes, I have ridden on Maid of the Mist and there's a good reason to wear those plastic ponchos they gave us.
This was a pleasant speed walk today. Hand up for FOOT/HOOF once I FIGUREd it out.
I am pleased with myself for sussing POTAUFEU.
And I quite agree with you on what did we do before GPS? I spent literally hours upon hours at times being lost.
Is RAKISH really sporty?
No wonder the new Israeli head of intelligence seemed familiar. Thanks, desper-otto. I didn't realize it was Marina Sirtis.
I have never eaten OKRA. How does it taste?
Have a great Thursday, everyone!
Husker, the way I see it, the smith shoes the horse, after which the horse is said to be shod. So if the horse is "sporting footwear," it must be shod. Of course, if the smith isn't very talented, the result can be shoddy shoeing.
Two more for the road
-I watched Driving Miss Daisy on TCM last night and forgot what a wonderful movie it is. Footnote, it is the last PG rated movie to win the Best Picture Oscar. What does that say about the movie industry?
-Drag Race with GREEN ONIONS prelude from yesterday’s question.
I liked this puzzle, even though a DNF, and I needed Marti's expo.
Have a great Thursday,
Montana
Otto, Oh, now I get it.
The horse is sporting (verb) footwear. I couldn't get past sporting (adjective) footwear. That Dern Marti! ;-). Ain't it funny how hard it is to get something in the right context?
Well, like Annie, if I finish a puzzle, I love it! So, many thanks, Mark! However, I would never have figured out the theme without Marti's great diagram and explanation. So, many thanks to you too!
Hmmm. I got MIST of course, although I've never thought of myself as a MAID OF THE MIST! Is that Niagara Falls? Wow!
Husker, loved your oxymoron example!
I'll ask our campus computer guru to double check my virus protection, although he did so just a few weeks ago, and all was well. Sorry for the trouble my problem with the spam filter is causing everybody.
Have a great Thursday, everybody!
Hello all. Thank you Mark and thank you Marti. Great puzzle and great write up. Very busy day today.
Poor start from jump street with EAT MEAT answer to 1A, but 1D NBC and 3D math quiz made me change that just as quickly as I entered it. Buckled down from there and the B and X gave me BOXCARS, and NO CARBS then fell in seconds. CHICKEN OR THE EGG followed and I was off to the races. 29:42 which is pretty good for me on a Thursday.
Had a DOH ! moment with 8A "Medicare section." I was thinking... there's a part A, a part B and a I think a part G and maybe more, but I don't know of any that are 5 letters. DOH !
No natick for LOA, my company offers them. But had a wayland with ADUE until I looked for tense on the 11D clue.
POT-Au-FEU is on page 147 and New England Boiled Dinner is on page 412 of my 1973 copy of IRMA's cookbook. I dare not drop this one, as the binding is almost non existent. I need to get a new copy.
Mary TODD Lincoln had personal demons in the form of repetitive delusional and irrational behavior after the death of her husband and a couple of her sons. Her remaining son had her committed at an asylum in nearby Batavia, Illinois, which is also the home of Fermi Labs.
Time for me to get back to work. Thank you all.
Hi Y'all! Great puzzle, Mark B. Great expo, Marti!
I filled the top three across rows as fast as I could type. Then I got hung up on LOA & S_EAST for awhile. The EAST was so visible, I got my first inkling of directions.
31A was such a classic YOGI, that was a gimmee.
Unknowns: POT AU FEU, TROI, EPODES, svc/LOA. I wanted AFRAME for mountain home for a while. Forgot where the Gulf of Bothnia was although I'd seen it recently I was sure. Alas, I resorted thrice to red-letter runs. But I still enjoyed this puzzle.
It has rained hard the last two nights. My grass seed is still in bags in the garage. My sewer line is a very muddy slash across the yard. My a/c is not reconnected. Oh, the frustration of not being able to do things myself like I used to when I couldn't motivate a man to do them!
My first pass through resulted in tons of white. Saw the Roman numeral clue, did the math, came up instantly with 555/5=111, and then put III for the answer. Needless to say, that screwed up 1&13A untill I saw my stupid mistake.
I looked at the unifier early on and wanted MAGNETIC COMPASS, but perps soon gave me the right words.
Had no idea what a POTAUFEU was.
Overall, this looked difficult at first, but proved to be fairly easy for a Thursday.
Funny how sometimes everyone else has trouble with something I find easy, and vice versa.
Lucina @ 1044. OKRA makes you bay at the moon. It gets slimy when cooked. Goes well with southern/cajun/gumbo dishes. Has a subtle taste, something like eggplant.
I figured out the theme, & found the hidden directions. (South helped me figure it out.) However 5D sporty = rakish threw me, so much so that as I was reading the Blog, I realized I never filled out 28A=HHH! (Oh well, I probably would have thought the Ottoman Sultan was "Akmed" anyway...)
HeartRx@7:54am LOL on having to close the door to keep your kitty away from the TP, but watch out! Some cats are very smart!
I think Bill G will like these 2 clips:
Laser missle defense test.
Starry Skies. (how did they get the open aperture effect @1:00 with a video cam?)
I was tempted to post some sexy pics of Marina Sirtis, but Deanna Troi is never more sexy than when she eats chocolate! Note that her Mom is pretty hot too! (you can call yourself a Trekker if you knew that Majel Barrett-RODDENBERRY also played Nurse Christine Chapel in the original series, & was Officer #1 in pilot episode.)
I came close to finishing a Thursday Puzzle but had Barry G's problem with A. I knew POT and FUE but do not know enough French to get the AU. Had to Google stews which gave me LOA.
Spitzboov@1:07
Thank you.
Bay at the moon? Hmm. A vegetable would not be my first answer if that were in the form of a question.
Hi C.C., it's Misty.
This seemed about right for a Thursday. Thanks Mark and Marti. I wasn't sure of the answer to "Icing buds" but even when the crossing letters filled in the answer, it didn't make sense at first. It looked like ROSE TTES to me. What is that?
CED, yes I did enjoy the clips.
Gary, I love "Driving Miss Daisy" too. I've seen it more than twice. Morgan Freeman is super good.
Did anybody catch Jay Leno last night? I watch a bit of late night TV before going to bed and it usually seems very weak to me but last night, one of the segments on Jay Leno was super good. Here is Part 1 of the segment. A guy on a two-way TV pretends to be giving the news but then starts talking to people at a Costco gasoline pump. This couple was a big surprise! Look at his wife in the car, at first embarrassed to death when he's singing. If you enjoy it as much as I did, Part 2 is just as good. (You can find it yourself in the menu of related videos in the upper-right corner.) It finally turns out that Jay Leno invited them both to come on his show and sing with the band. Pumpcast news Part 1.
Nice puzzle Mr. Bickham.
Thank you Marti for an always enlightening review.(Marti, I thought "LOX" WERE smoked salmon. No?)
Alas, a DNF for me today.
61 Rampy @12:08 "came up instantly with 555/5=111, and then put III for the answer."
Me too, except I put in CII. Aaargh!
Have never seen "A DUE" on a score.
Nit with 'Together, on a score"
"TUTTI" for me, (JazzB?)
Missed 6 words, WEES.
I am so out of the loop with some clues.
Never watched Star Trek, Simpsons, or any James Bond movie.
I'm back on a low CARBS diet, so no ROSETTES for me, but thanks, Marti, now I know how to make them!
CED, about your second video, I'm not sure but I'm guessing it wasn't done with a video camera. I think they made a series of photos taken 20 seconds apart (or so) and then linked them together. Each photo could be made with a timed exposure for maybe several seconds to let enough light into the camera to get the faint star detail. Then when they link them all together, it's like a time-lapse photo of a flower opening or something similar.
Pas, when I look for Lox at the supermarket, there are packages marked lox and others named Smoked Salmon. The lox has a much milder taste because it is smoked and cured differently.
Hi C.C. me again.
Who knew lox and smoked salmon were different? I had no idea.
Misty,
Just emailed you a picture. All of them needed interventions.
Bill G: That Leno clip was really good! Loved his wife's reaction in the front seat. LOL
I love LOX! Boston had a couple of Delis on Boylston St. in the 70's. Loved the bagels and lox and knishes. Mmmm
CED @1:08 That cat IS very smart!
why on earth would you put liquid oxygen on a bagel? (You guys know I have trouble with my parsing,) There is lots of info on the internet about "LOX", but I like Wiki's intro,,, "not to be confused with smoked salmon!"
Bill! loved pumpcast news part 1, but part 2 did not come up in my line up at the end of the clip! I think this is it, but it is cut short, & I cannot find "part 3."
Popular Science sent me another newsletter. This article really burns my buns(en burner)
Hello everybody. I agree with pas de chat about A DUE vs. TUTTI. That's my only nit with this puzzle, which I otherwise rather enjoyed. Didn't know what LOA or RTS meant until reading about them here.
We watch NCIS pretty regularly, but we didn't recognize Marina Sirtis. I'll keep an eye out, now.
Yogi sure had a silver tongue!
Best wishes to you all.
Lox (or belly lox)itself is very salty, as it is a heavily brined fish. Nova Lox is smoked lox containing much less salt. In restaurants it is the nova, or straight smoked salmon people are served when they order lox and bagels.
Gravlax.
CED, that Part 2 you found is all there is. Leno cut away at that point for a commercial.
And I agree with you about that science-experimenting girl. Somebody overreacted for sure. They should tell her she made a mistake, don't do it again and let it drop. I hope they reconsider.
Oops! We just had an earthquake. Not too big (3.0?) centered about 5 miles north of here.
I’m late to the party. I enjoyed this puzzle, Marti’s great write up and all the comments. I couldn't believe how quickly it was finished.
I loved Driving Miss Daisy and Morgan Freeman. I saw the movie several times, too.
Smoked salmon is a favorite in our family. Have you ever minced smoked salmon and added it to the stuffing for deviled eggs? Yummy!
I had no trouble with sporty being RAKISH. They both have the alternative meaning of jaunty.
It is shocking that the H.S. girl who did the bottle experiment was deemed a felon. The schools seem to be making rigid rules with no room for common sense. A five year old boy who kissed a kindergarten girl on the cheek was expelled as a sex offender. A little boy who tore his paper napkin in the shape of a gun was expelled.
When I retired the employer’s insurance company wrote me that I was required to have Medicare Part B and that if I signed up for any other health insurance than theirs, the company would drop me.
Today is my son's birthday so i allowed him to take the day off from the workshop. We went out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and roamed two malls. My old nemesis, Arthur Itis, became a pain in the a**, oops. I mean knees, with all the walking on a damp day. Alan likes to receive cash for his birthday and then go shopping. We had fun, giving him a whole day to be the center of attention.
This morning I went to see the attorney for the disabled. She believes that probably we will be able to save Alan's Medicaid. Keep your fingers crossed. Although I informed Medicaid two years ago of Alan's increased income they did nothing. Now that they are finally addressing it, they will ask him to pay back everything they spent on him these past two years from his bank account and from his monthly Social Security checks until the debt is paid. If I had been informed I could have bought Medigap insurance and would have nothing to pay back. It is well worth the payments, though, because it keeps him eligible for social services and eventually for housing when I am gone. If he has no money for a few years I can afford to subsidize him. My mind has been on a LOA these past two weeks from the stress. I am feeling more “present” now.
Hi, all!
Thanks for nice offering, Mark! No problems, but took a while to remember POT AU FEU in entirety. Great write-up, Marti!
To think that all of this time I thought "daemon" was just a variation of "demon."
Thought the character mentioned on NCIS looked familiar!
Have I mentioned a show that I recently discovered on PBS named Murder in Paradise? Really recommend it--somewhat like modern day British Hercule Poirot in the Caribbean. Great show.
Cheers!
YR: Am happy for Alan! Good to hear that your stress has been reduced!
Whoops! That's Death in Paradise! See
imdb.
Fermatprime, the first time we saw Murder in Paradise we thought it was really lame, but after watching it for a few episodes (there was nothing else worth watching at the time) we grew to like it a little bit. We still think it is silly, but heck, maybe that's what British comedy is intended to be.
Wow, Yellowrocks, what a bureaucratic nightmare. I sure hope you can get things sorted out in a beneficial way.
Okay, desper-otto, I'll ask: how do you know that?
DW and I used to frequent a local restaurant call The Pot au Feu, but unfortunately, like so many restaurants do, it died and went defunct. The same thing happened to another favorite spot, called The Wild Hare, where we used to enjoy entrees that included, guess what, rabbit, as well as bison and kangaroo. Both places died because the landlords demanded higher and higher rents that the businesses simply could not pay. What a shame.
I really like Death in Paradise! In fact some Thursdays I look forward to Thursdays because of that and New Tricks as well. British understatement is addictive.
Yellowrocks:
I'm happy for you and your son. I admire your persistance.
Lucina:
Boiled Okra is slimy. I ate it only once. Fried or deep fried is not so bad. It is used in some stews, jambalaya, etc.
Bill G.:
Enjoyed the Leno clip. Outstanding!
Abejo
(handhey)
D-Otto 9:41 - thanks for the heads-up. I've never seen NCIS so I didn't know I was missing a present-day Marina. I'll see it if it's on Netflix.
CED - yes, I remember Majel Barrett as Nurse Chapel, as well as the voice of the ship's computer in later series.
Okra, like a lot of foods, is an acquired taste. Love it. Hate it. You choose. Just don't act like you have all the answers.
More good news, I hope: Parent advocate groups all over NJ are pressing the state legislators to allow our offspring to remain in the sheltered workshops. It seems we may get the powers that be to give us at least a two year reprieve. Hallelujah! Then we will have to fight some more.
New subject: Medicaid is a federal program. In some states additional Medicaid is administered by the county public assistance agencies. We are with the county program. Our county is so overwhelmed that it is several years behind in catching up with its paperwork, I think Medicaid at all levels is on a wobbly footing. More and more doctors are refusing MEDICARE patients because their already low fees are being cut again by the government. MEDICAID fees are even lower. Of the GPs who do accept Medicare, a very large number do not accept Medicaid. It is even more difficult to find a specialist (orthopedics, heart, internal medicine, cancer, ophthalmology, etc,) who accepts Medicaid. That leaves over crowded inferior clinics with months long waiting times for appointments. Into this mess will come those people who were not insured before, but who will now also have Medicaid, a disaster in the making. The system cannot absorb them. Although I like some parts of Obamacare I believe that this is the least well thought out section.
Lucinda, Spitz calling OKRA slimy makes it sound gross. It's very good in soup because it will thicken the soup. In Kansas, we like our OKRA fried in cornmeal. Walmart sells fried OKRA in their deli that you can pop in your mouth as a snack. Some salad bars here have pickled OKRA available. Give it a try, I bet you'll like it.
YR, I love the way you make the whole day so special for Alan on his birthday. You deserve a great,great Mother's Day. I'm afraid since no one with medical training was consulted on the particulars of Obamacare we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. Hope it works out for the better for Alan.. Again, I'm thankful he has you on his side.
One of my daughter's favorite expletive is "What the Crap!" I hated hearing this because my Dad used "crap" frequently and we were always taught that was cussing. Well, she is 26 yrs old and this has now become a joke in the family. We have even thought of changing our GPS(DIRECTION FINDER)voice from "recalculating" to her voice saying, "What the Crap!"
One has to know how to cook okra. I do not
Fried Okra-
1 lb fresh okra
2eggs
1 cup cornmeal
1 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp pepper( may like a dash or two hot pepper sauce)
oil/part bacon grease for frying
Dredge okra in egg and then cornmeal and spices. Fry till golden or floats. Drain on paper towel.
oops- slice the okra pods
Mari, Irish Miss et al., I just started watching Chicago Fire a couple of episodes ago and I like it pretty well so far. I have become a big fan of Monica Raymund. She is really attractive; hot in a Fire sort of way.
Yellowrocks, I was impressed as usual by your posts today. Best of luck for you and your son. I hope all that stuff works out well for all of you.
Blue Iris, I think crap is a great cuss word. It's strong and humorous so it doesn't often give offense. I have even been known to say, "Holy Crap!"
I've watched that Leno clip a few more times. It still makes me smile. I'll bet those two are going to show up on a couple of talk shows. Who knows? This may be some sort of a stepping stone for them. They are certainly an appealing couple.
Thanks, everybody, for the information on OKRA. I may try the recipe but I don't recall ever seeing it in the store. I'll have to be more observant.
BillG:
That clip from the Jay Leno show was great! The couple sound professional.
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