google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, May 23, 2013 Doug Peterson

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May 22, 2013

Wednesday, May 23, 2013 Doug Peterson

Theme: Mental Wealth - each of the theme entries begins and ends with MI-ND as the unifier explains

 17A *Tiny time unit: MILLISECOND When I was younger it bothered me that there weren't a million milliseconds in a second. Now I've got better things to worry about.
 
 24A *Compromising position: MIDDLE GROUND I was nicely misdirected here - I wasn't thinking "a position of compromise" but something a little racier.

 39A *Prop for an emcee: MICROPHONE STAND A prop in the sense of something to lean on?
 
 51A *Loitered: MILLED AROUND Plenty of that going on at the conference/expo I'm at today.

 63A Mood, and a literal feature of the answer to each starred clue: FRAME OF MIND Ahh - the answers are "framed" by MI-ND. I'm in New Orleans this week, and in the "Big Easy" frame of mind.

Happy Wednesday everyone - Steve here with Doug Peterson's latest offering, a solo outing this time. Purists might quibble about one single-word and three two-word theme entries, but I'm fine with it. Let's see what else we've got.

Across:

1 Short sermon: HOMILY

7 Barrier along a bank: DIKE

11 Breakfast meat: HAM. Food!

14 Easy-entry baby outfit: ONESIE

15 “Happy Days” actress Moran : ERIN There's been some unflattering photos of Erin in recent years, but let's stick with the happier days


16 Skater Midori: ITO Famous for having jumped completely out of the rink at the 1991 World Championships and carried on still smiling.

19 “Brave __ World”: NEW. Aldous Huxley's best known opus.

20 Blues legend James: ETTA

21 Words with instant and hour: IN AN

22 Four Tops tune, e.g.: OLDIE. Crosses helped me out here.

27 “Sesame Street” music teacher since the show’s inception: BOB Crosses helped me out here too! Can I call a repeated blog comment a blecho?
 
30 Negative replies: NOS

31 Start a bridge hand: DEAL. Don't you shuffle before you deal?

32 Standoffish: ALOOF

34 Grifter’s game: CON

35 It’s all in your head: IDEA Sometimes it feels like all I've got in my head are dim, distant recesses and voices.

43 “Times of Your Life” singer Paul: ANKA

44 Popular Calif. destination: LAX. I'm not sure I'd call Los Angeles International Airport a popular destination for me - I'm in and out of that place far too often - I'll be back there on Thursday.

45 Buzzy instrument: KAZOO. Annoying instrument might be better!

46 Clump of dirt: CLOD. I like this word.

48 Tiki bar accessory: LEI

50 Capital of Saskatchewan?: ESS Because Canadian Dollar doesn't fit. Capital letter.

56 Coastal recess: INLET

57 Show willingness to compromise: BEND

58 Director Kazan: ELIA

62 Steeped brew: TEA

66 Turntable letters: R.P.M. I wonder how long it will be before we need the "archaic" convention for this?

67 Musical syllables: LA LA

68 “The Wrestler” star Mickey: ROURKE

69 Seventh Greek letter: ETA. ETTA, ELIA and ETA. Not quite a mini-theme, but I'll call these a grouping.

70 Bark excitedly: YELP

71 Orderly arrangements: ARRAYS

Down

1 Spot for an office: HOME. My office is at home so I didn't hesitate with this one.

2 Handling the job: ON IT

3 Hot sandwich: MELT Food! I've been moderating my diet since January, Currently I can only eat a melt vicariously though pictures.





4 Muhammad Ali’s faith: ISLAM

5 XXVI doubled: LII It amazes me how the Romans managed to do math - did they invent the abacus or was that the Greeks?

6 Unequivocal agreement: YES I DO. I had YES SIR at first which slowed things up a little.

7 Transferrable image: DECAL

8 Like a 7-Down, perhaps: IRONED ON Nice run-on!

9 Many holiday guests: KIN I was thinking along the "houseful" lines at first.

10 “Bewitched” mother: ENDORA. Crosses all the way for me with this one. I had not even a vague, dim-and-distant idea here.

11 Many a Mumbai man: HINDU. And there are many Mumbai men - the first time I stepped outside the airport there I couldn't believe the bedlam.

12 Picked up pizza, say: ATE IN Took me quite a while to see this

13 Tended the turf: MOWED

18 Phases out: ENDS

23 Nabokov title girl: LOLITA

25 A gumshoe often pays for it: INFO

26 Trait transmitter: GENE

27 The Crimson Tide: BAMA. I think this a great example of clue/answer symmetry - in this case both are nicknames.

28 Swedish actress Lena: OLIN Who is she? I need to bone up on my actors and actresses, they've caused me nothing but trouble today.


29 Strong lager: BOCK Ah - now we're back in my comfort zone. Originally German, now many varieties brewed around the world Prost!

33 Mythical source of wisdom: ORACLE. With a shameless plug for my employer, check out this clip of the Oracle Team USA America's Cup catamaran in San Francisco Bay - I've been playing this on a loop all day at the Oracle booth at the conference.

34 Longtime Aniston co-star: COX Jennifer's friend Courtney. Also Bruce Springsteen's friend in the Dancing in the Dark video.

36 Throw for a loop: DAZE

37 Grandson of Eve: ENOS Officially clueless. Me that is, not him.

38 Kerfuffles: ADOS. "Kerfuffle" is one of my favorite words.

40 Walk heavily: PLOD

41 Really enjoyed oneself: HAD A BALL

42 Shallot covering: SKIN I overlooked the blindingly obvious here and was trying to remember what the Lady of Shallott was covered with in Tennyson's ballad. When I dug up "robed in snowy white" from the inner memory recesses I was stumped. Then the penny dropped.

47 Threw: LET FLY

48 Unique: LONE

49 Writer Welty: EUDORA. ENDORA/EUDORA

51 British bishop’s topper: MITRE I didn't know these were unique to bishops from my homeland. That's one big hat though.


52 Hardly handy: INEPT

53 Peruvian grazer: LLAMA Twinned with BAMA. Lots of these today.

54 Update to reflect new roads, say: REMAP. It's a lot easier nowadays with satellites. It took 50 years to produce the first complete maps of the UK - they pretty much had to go right back again and start over.

55 Voice an objection: DEMUR

59 Pre-euro currency: LIRA. I need to wait now to see if this is LIRA or LIRE.

60 Dark and murky: INKY

61 Sugary drinks: ADES

64 “Norma __” : RAE. JEA - oops, not enough room for Marilyn.

65 On behalf of: FOR

That about wraps it up for today. Time to go and find something to eat - of course, that's not exactly difficult in NOLA!

Steve

62 comments:

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Overall, a very smooth and easy Wednesday solve, although I almost turfed it on the crossing of BOB and BOCK before I got OLIN. I'm not familiar with BOCK, but once I had BO_ it was pretty easy to guess BOB.

[untrypn]

thehondohurricane said...

Hi Everyone,

Fast finish today with only hold up in the NW. HOMILY & ONESIE avoided me for a while, but they eventually came around. Fun puzzle, just a nice Hump Day offering.

Busy day..Chiro in a few minutes. Lots of stuff going on with the house and landscaping. What the Hell, it's only $

See you tomorrow.

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Doug Peterson, for a great puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for an excellent review.

This was an easy puzzle today, at least for me. Zipped through it.

Kind of worked my way across and down.

Loved 29D, BOCK. One of my favorite beers. Shiner Bock (Shiner, TX) is made year around. Not the best in the west, but OK.

Theme answers came much easier than the theme. Took me a while to figure that out.

62A TEA. Easy. I drink many cups of Earl Grey each day. I even carry it with me in case a restaurant does not offer it, which they usually do not.

Needed perps and a wag for ROURKE. Same for EUDORA.

DECAL and IRONED ON parallel is clever.

Lena OLIN was easy to remember. Crosswordese.

Enjoyed the link to Midori ITO. She did fine recovering.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

(bedrymen)



River Doc said...

Steve, do you know Norbert Bajurin? He is the Commodore of the Golden Gate Yacht Club, the club that is sponsoring Oracle's entry in the America's Cup, and a friend of mine since grade school....

Abejo said...

Barry G: I was with my sister from Melrose over the weekend. We had a great time in Tennessee.

Abejo

(oiosts)

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

The puzzle was easier than yesterday's. Plus, we got some rain overnight. What's not to like.

I thought BOCK beer was the dregs from the bottom of the brewing vessel. The brewers would clean them out on an annual basis, and then make a big fuss over it to make it "special."

Steve, I hope you had your tongue in your ear with that abacus comment. I think the MITRE clue related to the British spelling.

I watched a TV show this week about construction of the new Mumbai airport. The host said that twenty million people crammed into a geographically small city results in the greatest human density on the planet. When I was last there it was still called Bombay.

My animal cam should arrive today so I can find out who's been trashing my hummingbird feeders night after night. I suspect coons, but I can't figure out how they're reaching the feeders.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Straightforward solve, didn't spot the theme until the end.

Morning Steve, your mention of Erin Moran sent me off to Google. I see what you mean - looks like she landed on the wrong side of the tracks. Too bad, she was so cute in the day.

Some big busted-up pieces of sedimentary rock coming out of the ground in my back yard. Gotta love dynamite!

Cheers All

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Reporting from under a blanket on this cool, gray, windy Wednesday with all winter clothes downstairs.
-Has all the MIDDLE GROUND in D.C. been plowed under?
-Fr. Jim’s last HOMILY was anything but short or interesting
-The great flood of 2011 ruined many a DIKE around here
-Redford and Newman pulled the big CON in The Sting
-Sask. Capital? Their cash registers are set up to take either Canuck or American dollars
-My 21st century science kids were fascinated to watch/hear this demo at any RPM (0:25)
-What are the “these” was being referenced here “…even Solomon in all his glory was not ARRAYED like one of these”
-I’m ON IT like white on rice, like stink on a monkey, like…
-Many people thought Ali converted to ISLAM in 1964 to get out of the draft
-It took these DECALS to really set off my models I’m using in my NASA presentation to 200 fifth graders today
-I MOWED yesterday and will again in 2 days as our grass is rockin’ and rollin’
-Opposite of Steve - Filled in ENDORA instantly, BOCK took perps
-A prom night KERFUFFLE has worked itself out and it’s now all good with granddaughter and friends

Vidwan827 said...

Thank you Doug Peterson, for a challenging but fun puzzle. I got it done, but barely - by the skin of my teeth. I had 'Dyke' for a barrier along a bank - so 'Ironed On' was the last to fall. Dyke of course, could be a barrier .... along an altar ? Real sorry and sincere apologies, no offense or insult intended. lol ;-)

So, Steve, the 'foodie' king - really enjoyed your commentary. Not enough foodie references, for me though. I cooked a slab of corned beef, for the first time in my life. After eight hours of pressure boiling, I found it still rather stringy and much too fatty. Delectable dishes are best enjoyed in thin and very small quantities - like at Arby's.

Since you're already in New Orleans, why not call up Hahtoolah, and give her a howdy for all of us at the blog - and tell her that we really miss her here. She can still post her QOD's .... even anonymously.

I used to watch 'Bewitched', because it was my wife's fav show. Somehow, I kept thinking of Aunt Agatha, rather than 'Endora' - but that was P. G. Wodehouse and Bertie Wooster.

When I was small, I too used to think "milli' was one-millionth rather than a thousandth, until I learnt about millimeter.

I had 'Wazoo' before 'Kazoo', so I could not understand how a shallot had a 'swin'. Why do shallots cost 4 times as much as onions ?

Have a nice day, you all - and Steve watch your diet in New Orleans.

Mari said...

Steve - You don't remember Endora?

Mari said...

Good morning everybody. We've got a gloomy, rainy Wednesday in Chicago. Good thing I MOWED last night.

I enjoyed the puzzle today, not too easy / not too hard. Now that I look back at it there seems to be a lot of names today: BOB, ANKA, ELIE, ROURKE, ITO, ERIN, ENDORA, LOLITA, ETTA, EUDORA, and of course, good ole BOB.

When I was very small my gramma reminded me of Endora. She had bright red hair, dressed "stylish", and was always poking her nose into somebody elses business ;)

Steve, you may want to put your diet on hiatus while in NOLA.

Husker Gary said...

Last Night
-Nice digs Bill G! Could I have the presidential suite? I’ll bring some primo Nebraska beef for the BBQ. Glad to hear Barbara is on the mend. Puzzle - If Barbara can do 10 reps/min on her range of motion machine at 65°, how many reps can she do if she sets it for 85° ;-)?
-Manac, good luck to Nicole today with her game today. I’m sure the coach will see what a quality person she is both athletically and personally
-Spitz, zero “g” makes for interesting phenomena!
-Mari/Vidwan, anybody who thinks their criminal or tax records are untouchable is sadly mistaken. Some creeps at the IRS have certainly reinforced that recently.
-Gotta go get my presentation ready to go!

Anonymous said...

A sort of clecho with Endor(a) and oracle. One of the oracles that Saul consulted in the bible was the Witch of Endor (big mistake).

Mari said...

TTP: It looks like there's a place called Barone's not far from my home. Do you know if your Barone's is part of a chain? I'll have to check it out.

Alfie's is an eat-in burger place. The menu's not real big, but the food is very good.

On another note, I was glad to see the death count in OK went down from what was originally reported.

kazie said...

Nice Wednesday level with a few pauses and a theme easy to get. I scratched my head for a while having HOMILE/HOMILY wondering about EESIDO for 6D, but eventually it resolved itself.

Glad to hear Barbara's improving.

Abejo,
As one tea drinker to another, does it bug you that there's no loose tea to be found at reasonable prices anywhere here now? We've been keeping our supplies up by bringing it from Germany. But other than paying through the nose in yuppie places, it's not to be found here.

TTP said...

Good morning all !

I did not mind the theme. Thought it was a good one. None the less, I made a mess on the right side of the puzzle.

Finally turned on red-letter help and found the two errors that were holding me up. The first was by dint of starting my bridge hand with lead instead of DEAL. The second error was having sole instead of LONE for the unique clue.

Who is Lena Olin ? I now know no kin of Ken. Or would it be, "I know now no kin of Ken ?"

Knew not Courtney Cox in Dancing in the Dark. Clarence Clemmons' sax style is sweet.

Husker Gary. Me too. Every third day and today is that day, but it ain't gonna happen. Raindrops keep fallin on my lawn, but that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red, cryin's not for me, 'cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin', because I'm free, nothin's worryin' me...

Thank you Doug and Steve ! (and BJ)

Dennis said...

I was online looking for info on where to send stuff for the OK survivors and came across this story/video. This one's a must-see with a wonderful ending.

Qli said...

Had fun with this one, but had to come here to understand the theme. Thanks, Steve, for your comments and links.

I like a good BOCK myself. Also got a kick out of the crossing of PLOD and CLOD for some reason.

Thanks, Mari for the good ENDORA links. Wasn't she a character? I used to think it would be fun to be like Samantha, but as I age, I'm thinking Endora had more fun! Can't you just see her crewing on a racing catamaran?

I'm curious to see what that critter cam shows, D-O. Maybe you can post some incriminating video of who is raiding that feeder?

Dennis said...

Uh....and here's the link: Rescue

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

The top half went quickly; but the bottom was a little crunchier. I was thinking 'yessir' but it conflicted with my sense of what 24a should be - MI something. When MIDDLE GROUND loomed, YES I DO filled in. Wanted an 's' ending at 67a, but REMAP made it LA LA, my favorite fill today. Liked how CLOD & PLOD crossed.
Good puzzle, Doug; good comments, Steve.
Agree with D-O about Brit spelling for MITRE.

HG @ 0803 - Re: zero gravity - that's what I was thinking. In this case surface tension completely dominated over other (lack of) forces.

Have a great day.

HeartRx said...

Good morning Steve, C.C. et al.

I kind of saw the theme by the time I got to MICROPHONE STAND, but couldn't think of what kind of reveal would clue "MI-ND." I was thinking it might be a "split personality" or something. But FRAME OF MIND works for me!

As Mari said, there were a lot of names, but they were all pretty familiar to me and easily guessed once I had a couple perps under my belt. Everything else was really smooth, and just enough challenge to be interesting for a nice Hump Day puzzle!

We had some really wild storms here last night. When I switched on the Weather Channel, they were zoomed into my town, with lots of red and orange on top of us. I hate when that happens! Fortunately, no damage - just a couple limbs down. I certainly can't complain after seeing all the footage from OK.

Sfingi said...

Had a huge thunder/lightening/rain/wind storm yesterday in Upstate NY. There go the lilacs.

This was definitely a man's puzzle.
Did not get ERIN, ENDORA, COX, ITO, and had to Google, though I did get ETTA, RAE and WELTY. Never heard of Lena OLIN. Did get all the guys (BOB and ROURKE) plus BOCK and sports!

I used to love Bishop Sheen, but recently heard him and he was more boring than I remembered.

desper-otto said...

If you're looking for a way to help the folks in Moore, Oklahoma, there are twelve links near the center of this CNN page under Working to Help Moore.

Anonymous said...

Umm....great video Dennis. I guess BillG is right to worry if anyone ever reads the previous days' posts.

CrossEyedDave said...

My goodness,,, I did the puzzle, & even grokked the theme before Daughter#2 had to get on the train & steal my newspaper. I got so excited thinking about looking for "links within mind" that I only made it half way thru Steve's write up before I just had to post!

My 1st choice was looking for Sesame Streets Bob. I remember him from the Christmas Special & wanted to do that wonderful link. But the 1st link I saw was kind of mind bending, & I thought, "Who am I to pass this up?"

But then, I had a deeper thought, & realized what audience I was playing to...

(must go back & read the rest of Steve's write up...)

TTP said...

Mari,

Smooth move cutting your lawn last evening. I was going to, and should have, but a trip to Kohl's was on the schedule. Now may not be able to mow until Friday, which hoses up the extra long weekend.

I just searched Barone's and found 4 in the area (Glen Ellyn, Countryside, Brookfield and Downers Grove. I've only been to the one in Glen Ellyn. I wonder if Barone's is a small chain ? They all have the same logo with a crown on the B and the same font and script style. Must be. In my search I found this recent Patch article on teh one in Glen Ellyn Barone's of Glen Ellyn

Maybe Barone's is like Ray's pizza in NYC ?

Dennis, touching story.

Sfingi, I have a row of bridal wreath spirea about 140' long that has just started turning white. It's beautiful in full bloom. Looks like 10' snowballs rolled together in a line and is such a contrast to the dark greens on the lawn and in the trees. Unfortunately, the heavy rains causes that pure white to turn quickly into an antique white that fades fast into a icky creamish-brown. Once again, I will have to wait for the next year.

Steve said...

Doha Doc - I don't know Norbert, but I'm sure he's on better than first name terms with my boss Larry Ellison!

Desper-otto - I think you made my day with the Tongue/Ear comment :)

Husker Gary - great decal link!

Vidwan - I've given up trying to corn my own beef, much the same results as yours. I have two go-to places - Katz's Deli on the lower east side in New York and Langer's in downtown Los Angeles.

Mari - I never saw the show! I don't believe it ever made it across the pond.

C.C. set me straight with the MITRE/MITER spelling - sometimes I completely miss the "English" alternate spelling - this one didn't look strange to me.

Diet is mostly intact in NOLA but it's been a little tough to pass up the beignets, jambalaya and fried oysters! I need to come back when I'm skinny and make up for lost time!

All y'all have a great day!

Dennis Conner said...

Steve, that was an impressive video showing the Oracle catamaran. It encouraged me to search and find more information. I found this article very informative.

Michael B said...

Thank you Mr. Peterson, and Steve, now I get the theme.
Only failure BOB 27A.
Was out of High School when the show started, and perps did not help.
BAMA? Sorry, only sports MLB, NASCAR, NBA, in that order.
BOCK? Sorry again, abstinent for over a quarter century, no knowledge of this.
ENDORA came instantly, worked on the movie.
Good Day to all

Sfingi said...

@TTP - Thanx for the comment. Last week was so beautiful between the lilacs and the fruit trees, so we went for several rides. We always now the weather will change, here. I have one baby spirea that's only begun to bloom last year. Oh well.

Irish Miss said...

Hi Everyone:

Finished the puzzle earlier but got sidetracked before I could post. Enjoyed this fine offering from Mr. P. but found it a tad chewy, even for a Wednesday. Perps and wags allowed a finish w/o help. Didn't get the theme until the reveal. Nice, clear expo, Steve-if you see Emeril, say "hey" for me!

We also had bad storms last night but no damage, as far as I know. Looks like we could get more today, judging by the heat and humidity. I had to put my a/c on yesterday.

Bill G. - glad to hear Barbara is coming along. If you do buy that " house", you have to have a fancier party than a barbecue! (-;

Have a good day.

Lucina said...

Hello, Steve, C.C. and all.

Wherever did you find that photo of Bishop Sheen? He was quite the celebrity in his day.

Thank you, Doug Peterson, for this enjoyable sashay today. Amazingly I knew all the names including EUDORA Welty whose writings impressed me greatly in college
American lit class.

It was a fun fill with no time to be LAX and had a pause only at KAZOO; I had YAZOO and WAZOO before SKIN turned the light on for me.

BOCK is one of those words I know only because of crosswords.

Steve, you should see the movie, CHOCOLAT to watch Lena OLIN in action.

Loved the cluing for IDEA, it's all in your head.

Have a terrific Wednesday, everyone!

Lucina said...

I really envy you who have beautiful flowers blooming at this time of the year, but definitely not the weather.

Our temps are now hovering between the high 90s and 100s and it's too dry for other than desert plants which do have some lovely blooms.

John V said...

Hello from thunderous Albany. Just wanted to say I really liked this one, cool theme, perfect Wednesday.

Misty said...

Well, not a speed run, but once I got the reveal, the remaining long theme answers fell quickly into place. A lot of fun, thanks, Doug. It helped to be an old-timer, what with references to "Happy Days" and "Bewitched." Lucina, thanks for confirming that the MITRE belonged to Bishop Fulton Sheen (was that his name?) in Steve's photo. My goodness, I haven't thought about him in decades, but my family used to watch him on TV.

Desper-ott, an animal cam? What will they think of next. Good luck catching the little culprit.

My outdated e-mail server messed up this morning which is giving me the jitters on what would otherwise have been a nice day. Hope I get help to get it fixed.

Have a great Wednesday, everybody!

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Great fun puzzle, Doug! I caught on to the theme of the puzzle after staring at it for a while after I was done. I thought we had a pangram but we are missing J-Q-V.

Great expo, Steve, always nice to get your unique perspectives. Interesting about the Oracle catamaran. I saw the video of one breaking up recently. Was that a clip here or on the news?

I thought the capital of Sask. was going to be "Loonies" which is the slang for one of their coins.

Did anyone else see the finale of "Dancing with the Stars" last two nights. Kelly Pickler's dance was so beautiful & moving, I wept both times it showed. I kept thinking of all her mother missed by abandoning that little girl and how strong a woman Kelly has become through adversity. After that dance, the mirror ball trophy had to be hers!

PK said...

I appreciate the good wishes for my family in OKC. My DIL lives under "the hand of God" she says, in that she has escaped some near tragedies. Their neighborhood burned in OKC and their house was saved several years ago when my son was overseas. They've also had tornados on all sides of them in years past. Scares me!

BillG: I'd come to the barbeque, but I'm afraid if the Feds see the rumor you are buying that house on a former teacher's pay, they will be hauling you in for back taxes or money laundering! LOL!

On a more real note: Barbara is lucky to have you.
My Mom spent 30 days in a rehab facility doing the therapy because her retirement home couldn't make it available there. The new knee relieved her of constant pain, so was worth it. Best wishes for Barbara's recovery.

CrossEyedDave said...

Msg to Doug Peterson,,,

My favorite thing about this puzzle was, when I started, NW, & did not get any answers, I thought "Oh Crap!" Manac is gonna bust my chops for not getting a Wednesday puzzle! But, as I continued, little by little, the answers were revealed to me. Not all,,, just enough to make me go across & down again,, & again. And in the end... I wound up back in that impossible NW corner again, with "just' enough" info to suss out the final answer. & when it was over, I looked at the theme that did not help me at all,,, looked at it twice, then three times,,, & finally it came into my mind...

Excellent puzzle! Just right, Bravo!

Pookie said...

My comments just disappeared.
Something about conflicting edits?
Will copy this time if it goes away again. Sheesh!
CC congrats on the golf puzzle.
CED what about the fawn?
BillG, if you and Barbara can afford that house, I guess you have enough dough to FLY all of us in for the CC BBQ!

CrossEyedDave said...

Pas de chat,

Mama deer came in the night, ate my one & only hot house grown, pre-season tomato plant, & shit on my lawn. (I am still trying to get the crap out of my lawn tractor wheel treads.) But I am sure baby deer is ok to do it all over again...

Gordon said...

Speaking of YELP, has anyone been following the drama surrounding the restaurant, Amy's Baking Company, located in Scottsdale, AZ?

The trouble started with a poor review posted by a customer on Yelp. The owners responded to the critical review with vigorous anger. The kerfuffle came to a head on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares.

Bill G. said...

I very nice puzzle. I enjoyed the theme but I didn't figure it out until the end.

Pas, Irish Miss, PK, et al., I would have the party catered but there is no money left for food.

D-O, I think you are exactly right about bock beer. It's not super strong in terms of alcohol but darker for sure; more like Guinness. It used to be made once a year but now it's not so special. There used to be a Mexican brewery that similarly, made a dark Christmas beer.

Some of you like dogs, some like cats, some both. Here's a cute video with both. A cat and a not-so-brave dog. (You can turn it off after the 0.45 mark.)

Lucina said...

Amy's has been on the news, in the newspaper and on and on, ad nauseam locally. Now not only is their business receiving bad press but their personal problems have been revealed.

I have eaten there in the past and the only objectionable thing was a long wait for service as Samy was the only waiter that day. The food, however, was good.

maregrant said...

Monday was harder than Tues. or today for me!!!

HeartRx said...

Spitzboov, from last night. I loved the clip of Chris Hadfield wringing out the washcloth! He is a major sensation, and has brought much attention to the ISS. He generated heightened interest among students, and made a really cool video based on Bowie's "Space Oddity." I had linked it earlier, but for some reason my post was lost - maybe it will work this time...

PK said...

Marti, I found the Chris Hatfield video very touching.
I'm going to make sure my AF Major son has seen it. He went to space camp two summers in jr. high and knew everything there was to know about the space program.

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. Good puzzle today; thank you, Doug Peterson. Excellent writeup; thank you, Steve. Interesting commentary here; thank you, everybody. Gotta go; best wishes, everybody.

Anonymous said...

I am so happy my Kindle has allowed me to keep up with the blog and all of you. I am learning to type and edit and to Google. I had much necessary email correspondence so I had to learn.I prefer a laptop, though. Maybe next week I will get one.
Our Episcopal bishops in the U.S. wear mitres,spelled -re, not -er.
I enjoyed all the comments and the links.
Yellow rocks.

Jayce said...

Yellowrocks, I'm glad your Kindle has been useful to you in staying abreast of this blog. Mine (the original Kindle Fire) is really sluggish when browsing the internet, but it definitely is better than nothing.

Unknown said...

Hi, y'all! This one was fairly easy, but as usual, I did not get the theme.. Thanks, Steve, for the great blogging today.
While in NOLA, one of my favorite places, check out Aunt Sallie's pralines. Just don 't call the 'prayleans'! The food is so good everywhere that it is hard to get a bad meal. Not that anyone would want a bad meal! I love NOLA! Cafe De Mond is the best. Never wait outside in line with the tourists, just prance on inside and grab a table.
Nite all

fermatprime said...

Hi, all!

Fun puzzle, Doug! Swell expo, Steve, as usual!

No problems. No swim today, so slept in for a looong time.

YR: Buy a MacBook!

Cheers!

fermatprime said...

Bill: If you do not make the BBQ too early, I will try my darnedest to come!

Bill G. said...

This care-giving stuff is a lot more work than I had ever imagined. Hats off to nurses!

Jennifer Aniston was on Ellen today. I wonder if she needs any care giving?

Abejo said...

Kazie:

I buy my Earl Grey in bulk (loose tea) at Teavana. Yes, it is not cheap, but it is cheaper than buying tea bags at 50 per box.

I buy it 2 pounds at a time, at about $50.00. It lasts me quite awhile. I have no problem with the price because I love it and it does last a while.

If you drink an equivalent amount of coffee, which I used to, it costs you just as much.

If you know where I can get a better deal, let me know.

Best Regards,

Abejo

(howithat)

Manac said...

Bill, So glad to hear that everything is going well with Barbara. She has a great caregiver.

But a recent photo of Jennifer Aniston makes me wonder if she would get the same attention ;~)

61Rampy said...

BillG: While that swimming pool looks so inviting, and I would imagine it would be quite theraputic for Barbara, it sure is a long way from the house.
Maybe if you put up a $40mil down payment, you could reduce the monthly to less than $600,000?

Bill G. said...

Dang! I remember her as being prettier than that...

This was the winning question and answer in the National Geography Bee: In Ecuador, what is the highest peak farthest from the Earth's center? While this extinct volcano is not the highest mountain by elevation above sea level, its location along the equatorial bulge makes its summit the farthest point on the Earth's surface from the Earth's center.

Here are a couple of other geography questions I found interesting. Can you answer these without resorting to an atlas? If not, go for the atlas.

a) How many miles is Los Angeles west of Reno, Nevada?
b) If you travel on a ship through the Panama Canal from east to west, what body of water will you end up in?

Midnight Straggler said...

Bill G. I kept thinking about the conundrums that you keep posing on us, and it is now well past midnight.

I have burnt a lot of midnight oil.

It is now the next day, and a late hour when all decent denizens of this planet, er, the USA, should be asleep.


the answers to your questions ia

a). Reno is probably west of LA

and

b) The western end is probably the Pacific Ocean.

I hope Barbara is doing better and will recover to full health soon. She has a wonderful caregiver in you.

Good night.

Bill G. said...

Midnight Straggler, yes we both should be asleep though I'm in the Pacific Time Zone. Where are you located? Thanks for the kind words.

Good job on Reno. You might enjoy checking out a map of the geography of Panama and the canal. The answer to the second question was counter-intuitive to me.

HeartRx said...

Bill G. Without looking at a map, I would say that LA is not west of Reno, NV at all. And if memory serves, the Panama Canal's Pacific entry is east of the Gulf of Mexico's entry. Now I will check that atlas.

HeartRx said...

Hah! I was right...except, it is not the Gulf of Mexico - it would be the Caribbean.

Spitzboov said...

BillG - I agree with HeartRx. Both good questions.