google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday, July 8, 2013 Gail Grabowski and Bruce Venzke

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Jul 8, 2013

Monday, July 8, 2013 Gail Grabowski and Bruce Venzke

Theme: Anything for me? - The last word of the theme entries might be in the mail. Honest!

21A. Wild West showman : BUFFALO BILL. OK, definitely in the mail.

54A. Character written in kindergarten : BLOCK LETTER. Probably from Geico, et al.

3D. Ticket from a postponed ball game : RAIN CHECK. May not be in the mail.

35D. Game accessory with 24 numbered squares : BINGO CARD. E-cards are all right but you can't save them for years in the bottom of a drawer.

39A. Sack on a red-white-and-blue truck, which can hold the ends of 21- and 54-Across and 3- and 35-Down : MAIL BAG. Papa's Got a Brand New Bag(2:05)

Argyle here. The duo have given us a challenge for a Monday in a neat pinwheel around the unifier. Well done.


Across:

1. __ acid: antiseptic cleaner : BORIC. Multipurpose household item

6. Raindrop sound : [PLOP]

10. Hunter's quarry : PREY

14. Texas shrine : ALAMO

15. Civil rights icon Parks : ROSA

16. Mortgage adjustment, briefly : REFI. (refinance)

17. Figure of speech : IDIOM

18. Waikiki's whereabouts : OAHU

19. Aunt Bee's grandnephew : OPIE

20. Countdown kickoff : TEN. nine, eight, seven, ...

24. Makes small talk : CHATS

26. Did some pressing work? : IRONED

27. South Pacific island : TAHITI

29. Spotless : CLEAN

31. Sent packing : AXED

32. Egyptian portrayed by Liz : CLEO


34. Prize with six categories : NOBEL.

Physics ( decided by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences )
Chemistry ( decided by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences )
Physiology or Medicine (decided by the Karolinska Institute )
Literature ( decided by the Swedish Academy )
Peace (decided by a committee appointed by the Norwegian Storting )
Economics ( decided by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences )
Source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize

38. Dwarf wearing specs : DOC

41. Savings option, briefly : IRA

42. A parolee may wear a monitor on it : ANKLE

44. Vehicle on runners : SLED

45. Door opener : KNOB

46. Muse who inspires poets : ERATO

48. Barcelona buddies : AMIGOS


50. Phase : ASPECT

53. NFL replay aid : SLO-MO

57. Foldable sleeper : COT

60. Criticize severely : BASH

61. Good-sized home site : ACRE

62. Arcade pioneer : ATARI

64. Dust Bowl refugee : OKIE

65. Send, as packages : SHIP

66. Enticed : LURED

67. Asian holidays : TETs

68. Does better than : TOPS

69. Grasslike marsh plant : SEDGE

Down:

1. Angler's bucketful : BAIT. My angler was successful, his bucket was full of fish...for a while.

2. Shoppe adjective : OLDE

4. "If you ask me," in texts : IMO. (In My Opinion)

5. Battle : COMBAT

6. Univ. employees : PROFs

7. Waste time : LOAF

8. Dept. of Labor protection arm : OSHA

9. Talking parrot of film : PAULIE


10. Free, as legal work : PRO BONO

11. Fasten anew : REPIN

12. Use TurboTax, say : E-FILE

13. Triangular traffic sign : YIELD

22. New York city : UTICA

23. Malaysian ape : ORANG

25. Stayed out of sight : HID

27. "I did it!" : "TA-DA!"

28. Neural transmitter : AXON

29. Yo-Yo Ma's instrument : CELLO

30. Ear part : LOBE

33. Marketgoer's memo : LIST

36. Suffix with switch : EROO

37. "CSI" facilities : LABS

39. Pharmaceutical giant : MERCK

40. Allan-__: Robin Hood cohort : A-DALE. Allan-a-Dale (also spelled Allen-a-Dale, Alan-a-Dale, Allin-a-Dale, Allan A'Dayle etc.) is a figure in the Robin Hood legend. According to the stories, he was a wandering minstrel who became a member of Robin's band of outlaws, the "Merry Men."

43. Bloodsuckers : LEECHES

45. Actress Basinger : KIM. Hot.

47. "It's about time!" : "AT LAST!"

49. Fable conclusions : MORALS

50. Monk's superior : ABBOT

51. Quench : SLAKE

52. Assume to be true : POSIT

53. Staircase units : STEPS. Meh.

55. Canyon feedback : ECHO

56. Lose one's footing : TRIP

58. Calif. neighbor : OREG. (Oregon)

59. Ocean motion : TIDE

63. Wed. preceder : TUE.


Argyle

Note from C.C.:

Here are two more pictures of Lemonade's beautiful granddaughter Charlotte. Please click here for more. Oh, I just noticed she's wearing earrings. She's just so pretty!

 


 


55 comments:

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Gail and Bruce, for a swell Monday puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for the swell review.

This was quite an easy puzzle, even for a Monday. Zipped right through it.

Just had NOBEL the other day, re: dynamite.

Theme came easily. Very clever pattern.

UTICA, NY, reminds me of Utica Club beer. Not so hot. Not sure if it is still around. I have not worked in NY state for well over thirty years.

Remembered AXON all by myself. Amazing.

Great photos, Lemonade. Beautiful girl.

Off to mybday.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

(occeprk)

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Perfect Monday puzzle. Just challenging enough to get my neurons firing this morning, but not too taxing.

I think the only slowdown came when I went with AROO instead of EROO at 36D, which had me wondering which prize ended with BAL. But once I got the NO part of 34A, it was all good.

[potrom]

Barry G. said...

Off to mybday

If that means your off to your birthday, well HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Middletown Bomber said...

Nice and easy Monday eye opener. not a speed run but still all was good great puzzle from Gail and Bruce esp. after Gail's Sunday challenge yesterday Argyle with the brought it all home with the write-up well i'm off to start the week of hell with schlepping my son from camp to sporting activities every single night this week as well as a few activities of my own.

Abejo said...

No, Barry, that means I cannot type. Thank you, anyhow.

Abejo

(auchome)

thehondohurricane said...

Good morning everyone,

Not much to say about today's offering. Pretty much wrote in fills from 1A to 59A without interruption. Difficulty factor a lot less then recent Mondays.

Waikiki and its ocean breeze a comforting thought as we begin another week of H,H,&H.

[jetspa]

River Doc said...

Happy Monday everybody!

Woo-Hoo, a double dose of G-Squared puzzles the last couple of days! Unlike yesterday, Monday was a TA-DA moment for Da DOC…! Sure would like to believe that the crossing of these two answers was intentional….

I think AMINO for BORIC was the only do-over….

ECHOs of last week with E-FILE and NOBEL…. I sometimes wonder which answer is used most often in crossword puzzles… Any guesses…? Is it an “A” word…?

I usually do my best LOAFing after PLOPping on the couch, and RE-FIlling my beer, of course….

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Terrific puzzle, Gail and Bruce! Swell expo, Argyle! (Gail sure is prolific!)

This was the fastest in weeks! (I only try to beat the clock on Monday.)

Swell fotos, Lemon! What a sweetie!

Cheers!

PS: Enjoyed the singing yesterday. Thanks, CED!

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Wow, we got Grabowskied two days in a row. Today's, of course, was much, much easier. Never got the theme. Didn't need it.

CED, that daughter of yours can really belt 'em out. That's brave to sing a capella. If you miss a note or a beat, there's no way to hide it. She did well. You should be proud.

After Oh Brother Where Art Thou was released, cast members made a musical tour, including the Peasall sisters who did the singing for the little Wharvey girls. After their performance, John Hartford gave them a loaded compliment when he said, "Those little girls can flat sing!"

Time for that 3-mile march. DW starts her summer schedule today, so we have to start really early.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Nice snappy Monday project, no speed bumps, except for not knowing Allan-A-Dale.

Morning, Argyle, I had forgotten you were an early riser. When I'm awake at that hour, it's unplanned.

And so it begins: the trial at which I am to be an expert witness, in aviation, is still going ahead in Manhattan. I have to dash to the big city tomorrow. Kind of a grind, but the good news is that I have a ticket to see Wicked on Broadway while there. If there's time, I'll get back to Katz's Deli for another Reuben! Yummmmm!

LaLaLinda said...

Hi All ~~

Fast and fun ~ thanks, Gail and Bruce and thanks, Argyle. As others have said, this went quickly - only 1/2 mug of coffee for me. I didn't need the theme but I'm not sure I would have seen it without the unifier, especially with the two vertical theme answers.

Lemonade ~ Charlotte is such a beautiful little girl!

Enjoy the day, everyone ~~

Montana said...

Nice pictures, Lemonade!
CED, Wow from yesterday!

I could not believe how easy this puzzle was and then I reached the SW corner. My brain froze. I was ready to put it away and come back later, but I plugged away, letter by letter, and finished. It took me longer to fill in that corner than a typical Wed. Great start to the week, though.

I usually walk 1-2 miles every morning at home. I find myself huffing and puffing after a few blocks (uphill) here in Denver. Then my son reminds me I am a mile-high and my body needs to adjust, so I am starting at a slower pace for now.

Have a good day, all,
Montana

desper-otto said...

Montana, I know just how you feel. I, too, have trouble walking when I get high.

HeartRx said...

Good morning Argyle, C.C. et al.

Fun fast frolic today, so thanks Gail & Bruce! Argyle, my angler's bucket was full of fish at first, too. But I guess you need BAIT before you can catch them...

Dudley, good luck at the trial - are you an expert "Witness for the Prosecution"???

Lemony - Charlotte is just so darned cute - she needs to be in a Gerber ad!

Have a great start of the week, everyone!

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone. Good intro, Argyle.

Lemon, nice pictures of Charlotte.

Fun but easy puzzle this morning from Gail and Bruce. Interesting theme, but as usual, I didn't pay much attention to it until it was done. No strikethroughs, no lookups, no nits.

I think KNOB is related to the German 'Knopf' (button), L. German 'Knoop'. The 'K' is pronounced in German.

Nice shoutout to UTICA.

Have a great day.

CrossEyedDave said...

Heh-heh, good one desper-otto

Easy-peasy Monday, except I hesitated at the "X" in Axon because I could not think of a sent packing with an X until I had more perps.

My Mailbag experience.

Thanks for all the responses to Sara'a singing. The 1st thing she said to me afterwards was "I thought I was in trouble because i started the Anthem at too high a pitch!"

Proud? No! This was an unabashed plug... She is available for weddings, funerals, Broadway Plays, etc...

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Easy, breezy romp. Thanks Gail and Bruce for starting off the week so nicely, unlike Mother Nature's continued dose of Hondo's dreaded H, H, and H! Nice expo, Argyle.

Lemony, little Charlotte is just too precious for words. You must be so thrilled that the family is now so much closer to you. Enjoy!

Happy Monday.

Anonymous said...

Good morning everyone.

I do love Mondays; it's so great to be able to figure out the answers. My only mistake was misspelling LEECHES. I am a friend of an opera singer – Richard Leech, so I have no excuse.

Am back on chemo; an doing fine except I sleep a lot. No reason not to, so that's OK.

Lemon: Your granddaughter is so beautiful. Glad you send in the pics.

Cheers

Misty said...

I love Gail and Bruce Monday puzzles. This one was a lot of fun, so many thanks! And, Argyle, thanks for giving us a list of the NOBEL prizes. I wondered what they all were.

Charlotte is not only adorable but a very stylish dresser too.

Thanks to everyone who recommended "A Late Quartet" a couple of weeks ago. We watched it last night and actually liked it better than the plain "Quartet" with Maggie Smith. I also think Christopher Walken should have gotten an Oscar nomination for his acting in the film.

Have a great Monday, everybody!

Lucina said...

Good day, to all! Thanks, Argyle; you rock!

Gail and Bruce are a busy couple of constructors, aren't they?

Nothing to BASH in this puzzle. I swept through it like an eagle on its PREY. My pail, however, started with BASS but IDIOM exchanged it for BAIT.

It was fun so thank you GG and BV.

Thank you, Lemonade for sharing the photos of your very beautiful granddaughter. Yes, she should be in a commercial. Maybe CED's Sara could sing in it.

BINGO CARD reminds my of my dear mother who loved it, in fact she loved any kind of card game, gambling, etc.

Dudley, good luck on the witness chair!

Have a delightful Monday, everyone! Thankfully, we have A/C.



PK said...

Hi Y'all! Ah, Rich decided to re-Gail us today with Bruce's help! How'd we get so lucky? Fun puzzle!

Thanks, Argyle, for all you do.

I never find Gail easy--just not quite on her wave length. I wanted William Cody for Buffalo Bill at first.

The SW corner was tough for me too. I got ABBOT all right but had trouble with ASPECT for "phase" and the "P" in POSIT. Also unsure about the spelling of MERCK, didn't think of AT LAST. I wanted an animal or person for a child's story not BLOCK LETTERS. Perps & a CW educated guess at "P" got 'er done.

Does anyone feel like I do, that Egyptians don't quite get what democracy is all about?

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, Finished this one in record time. I like getting checks, letters and cards in the mail, but you can leave the bills in someone else's mailbox. If only that were true.

I finished early today, as my hubby had to get an early start.

Aspect and slake are not common Monday words, though each were easily written in with the perps.

Our weather has been almost picture perfect these past three days. After almost a week of hot, hot, weather we are welcoming our natural air conditioning coming over our hills from the coast. Fog was a welcome sight this morning.

Lemon, Charlotte is a real charmer.

Have a great day everyone.

lois said...

Good morning CC, Santa Baby, et al., Fun Run! Flew Across then Down and got most. Thank you for the very enjoyable write up too, Santa Baby. LOL at the 3 Amigos, one of my all time favs. The singing horses in that movie is another fav scene.

Loved seeing OKIE in here. Just need the other end of that for our VT HOKIE affiliation for balance.

Dudley: good luck! Hopefully your testimony will be over quickly. Have you ever seen Wicked?

Desper 8:32: LMAO! Good catch!

Lemon: beautiful baby girl. Can’t wait for my own!

CED: cute cartoon. What an amazing talent your Sara has! Congratulations!

Enjoy your Mon from TOPS to KNOBs. Life is a TRIP and I’m on a fast SLED it seems. I need to take a moment ( or TEN) to YIELD to temptation, PLOP a COT, smella ROSA, SLAKE a thirst, have some CHATS, watch the TIDE in SLO MO, and let the meat LOAF! Might as well now; one never knows what TUES will bring.. or OSHA either for that matter…BAIT and switch, CLEANed and IRONED, LURED and SHIPped…basically RAIN CHECKED and AXED. I want my cat scans and LABs reports to be given to me by my pets and not things from the DOC. I also want my bucket LIST to be things like TAHITI, OAHU and not things from MERCK. Al-A-MO reason to REFIne my fast STEPS and enjoy the little ANKLE biters.
Enjoy your day, AMIGOS!

PK said...

CED, enjoyed hearing Sara. Gutsy girl! Alas, I'm personally not planning any Broadway plays, weddings or funerals anytime soon, so I'm no help to her. But I will keep my fingers crossed that her talent is discovered.

Lemon: such a little cherub! Enjoy!

D-O: Too funny!

Lois: Rock on, girl!

The Edge said...

I know that most people like U2 as 10 down suggests but, of course, there are some who are not PRO BONO.

thehondohurricane said...


lemonade,

Never read argyles blog earlier and did not see the pix.

Lovely young lady for you to spoil. Doesn't look like she will have a problem becoming a beach person.

john28man said...

Montana,

It takes about six weeks to totally acclimate to elevations above 5000 ft. This is because your body has to start manufacturing more red blood cells. They go up about 20%. However, you can do most things on the second day unless you have breathing problems.

I also was not sure about MERCK but I had CNBC on and I looked up and saw it go by on the stock ticker. Does this make it not count?

Husker Gary said...

Ya gotta be nuts to play 36 holes in this humidity today! I’m nuts.

Musings
-I have a 9-hole RAIN CHECK in my billfold
-Fewer and fewer items in this house need to be IRONED
-Some of those Bounty mutineers went to TAHITI and got caught
-A local girl played a lead role in the high school musical with an ANKLE BRACELET plainly visible under her stockings. A court said she had to be allowed to perform.
-Every hill around here has an ACRE home site with a half million dollar house on it
-In some classes the PROF is listed but you never see him/her
-If OSHA had been around 40 years ago, I might have good hearing now
-You should be proud Dave; she got ‘er done even in that key!! That’s a good ear!
-The Egyptians do understand they don’t want to live under 10th century despotism. The internet and social media make people around the world want more.
-Montana, I remember jogging atop Pike’s Peak (14,000+ ft) when I was in shape. Yikes!
-What fabulous “coming of age” movie had the boys wind up being covered in LEECHES at one point?

Chickie said...

Sallie, Take care of yourself. Sleeping's good. It means you need it.

Montana, When we did 50 miler's with our Girl Scouts, we were often high up in the mountains. We always spent the first two days acclimating as we didn't want anyone to get altitude sickness. Headaches and nausea aren't fun.

River Doc said...

HG - The African Queen...?

River Doc said...

Oh, my bad. You said THE boys. I thought you meant Charlie Allnut's "boys."

Husker Gary said...

-No Doc. This was a 1988 movie starring Wil Wheaton who is on Big Bang a lot now (coming of age film). The movie also had a fabulous title song sung by Ben E. King.
-However, I do remember the LEECH scene from African Queen.

Pookie said...

Husker: Stand by Me.
Lemonade: Can we all take turns "holding" Charlotte???
What a beautiful little girl!
Hi C.C. thanks for the shout-out.
Had a little trouble in the SW today, but it all worked out.
Laughed at the Re-"Gailed us" comment.

Husker Gary said...

-Right Pas, LEECH Scene (2:40). Do you Big Bang fans recognize Wil Wheaton?
-Fabulous Title Song

K-Dub said...

The movie was "Stand By Me"? Based on a Stephen King story from his compilation Different Seasons. Four stories for four seasons. Shawshank Redemption was in the same book. I remember readin it in the early 80s on a trip to Houghton, UP.

Bill G. said...

That was a very pleasant Monday puzzle. Thanks Gail, Bruce and Argyle.

BTW, am I the only person who doesn't think that raindrop make a 'plop' sound?

Gary, that would be Stand By Me as I recall. (I see that Pas beat me to it while I was typing away.) Also, there's a good math puzzle with the setting from that same movie as the scene on the railroad trestle with the train coming. If anybody is interested, ask me and I'll hunt it up.

Bill G. said...

In an e-mail, Gary asked for the "Stand by Me" train puzzle. Here goes.

In "Stand by Me", Gordie has made a bad decision. He chose to walk across a railroad bridge rather than go around the longer but safer way. When he has walked exactly two-thirds of the way across the bridge, he sees a train approaching at exactly 45 miles per hour. He has a big dilemma. If he runs straight ahead, he will get to the end of the bridge quicker, but the train will get there sooner too. If he runs backward to the beginning of the bridge, he has farther to run, but the train will take longer to get there. It turns out that if Gordie runs straight ahead as fast as he can, he will get to the end of the bridge just as the train gets there, almost turning him to Jello before he jumps off. It also turns out that if he runs backward, he will get to the other (beginning) end of the bridge just as the train almost turns him to Jello as he jumps off. With all of this information, can you figure out Gordie’s maximum running speed?

desper-otto said...

Start huntin', Bill.

Husker, I agree he doesn't look much like the Wesley Crusher of yesteryear. Did you catch him when he played a serial murderer on Criminal Minds?

Pookie said...

I forgot how scary and icky (leeches) that movie was. UGH.
My mom said they had leeches in the swimming places in IOWA.
I'm freaking out by seeing an ant or two since it's been so hot.
Yes, Bill, I just watched the train trestle scene. We want a quiz. We want a quiz!
My nephew was acquainted with Corey Feldman somehow. Anyway, for my nephew's birthday, he asked Corey and other friends to his house, and he asked me to make pizzas for all. Yikes, 5 large pizzas. They all liked the pizza. He owes me for THAT one, LOL

Marge said...

Hi everyone,
This was a NICE Monday puzzle. Thank you Gail and Bruce.

Lemon- your granddaughter is beautiful. They grow up so fast you just have to hug her a lot.

I usually work across and down.
Before I got to Buffalo Bill I had two eff's so knew it had to be him.

Our daughter and family are comimg up tp Wisconson the last week in July. They will be staying at a resort up at Wisconsin Dells. That means Logan will be here and I can show him off to our friends. He's 3 1/2 years old now. Time flies.

We have had some hot days lately. The humidity is supposed to go down in a couple days. It will be more comfortble.

Have a good evening all!
Marge

Lucina said...

BillG:
Here in the desert, on the rare times we do have rain, it's a fast, driving rain with large drops that do in fact, PLOP. I have been in Charlotte, NC and witnessed the rain there which is quite different, soft, slow and gentle.

No, I don't recognize Wil Wheaton. Which one is he, please?

Dudley said...

Abejo 5:45 AM - I don't know whether Utica Club beer still exisits, but I do remember it was re-branded as the embarrassing "Billy Beer" for Jimmy Carter's goofy brother back in the day.

Marti 8:48 - Y'know, I wondered whether there might be evil forces secretly arrayed against me before this silly trial, but frankly I suspect the defense doesn't have the money to play that rough.

Misty 11:18 - So glad you enjoyed The Late Quartet! It was good to see Christopher Walken in a nicer role, too. He's usually cast as a meanie.

Lucina 11:24 - Thanks! I've never done this before, it seems interesting.

Lois 11:36 - Nope, never seen Wicked. I've heard great things about it, such as it's the best musical EVER.

And finally Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher: never mind the kid, let's recall his beautiful mother, Dr. Beverly Crusher! (Gates McFadden, yum)

Husker Gary said...

Luciana, Here is Wil Wheaton with Sheldon and Amy. He has been in many other TBBT episodes, always playing himself.

Bill G. said...

Hey, I posted the "Stand by Me" train trestle puzzle, previewed it, posted it, checked to see that it showed up at the bottom and then had some lunch. Now it disappeared. Magic forces at work!

If anybody cares, for lunch I had poppy seed bagels, cream cheese, sliced tomatoes and lox with Kosher dill pickles on the side. No, I didn't go to a deli. It was all from the local supermarket and consumed at our kitchen table. Surprisingly good.

Now for the puzzle. It takes VERY little math; mostly just a clever approach and logical thinking.

In "Stand by Me", Gordie has made a bad decision. He chose to walk across a railroad bridge rather than go around the longer but safer way. When he has walked exactly two-thirds of the way across the bridge, he sees a train approaching at exactly 45 miles per hour. He has a big dilemma. If he runs straight ahead, he will get to the end of the bridge quicker, but the train will get there sooner too. If he runs backward to the beginning of the bridge, he has farther to run, but the train will take longer to get there. It turns out that if Gordie runs straight ahead as fast as he can, he will get to the end of the bridge just as the train gets there, almost turning him to Jello before he jumps off. It also turns out that if he runs backward, he will get to the other (beginning) end of the bridge just as the train gets there and almost turns him to Jello as he jumps off. With all of this information, can you figure out Gordie’s maximum running speed?

Argyle said...

Bill G.
I don't know what you did to anger the filter gods.

CrossEyedDave said...

Lol!

I just found 2 versions of the train scene I was going to post, but the 1st was severely cropped, & the 2nd was stretched top to bottom. I think I will wait for yr clip Bill G!

HG! LMAO!

Except you should have said "spoiler alert!" Because I have seen the TBBT card game show, & was amazed to see the Bowling game show with Wil Wheaton. But I have never seen the later episodes... (When did they become friends?)

That was hilarious!

CrossEyedDave said...

Dang it! You are making me use up all of my posts!

But I forgot to say,

I read 4 seasons by Richard Bachman,,,(aka Stephen King.)

Ack! Now I cannot confirm it was there.

But in reading Stand By Me,,, before the movie,,,

All I remember is....

WoooonncK1, Wooacnnk!

(damnm I wish I could remember how he spelled out the train whistle...)

Lemonade714 said...

Thank you all for sharing in my joy with Charlotte. She already has personality as well.

JD said...

Good evening Argyle, C.C., and all,

Another goodie from Gail and Bruce.Also enjoyed your write up, Argyle. Did everyone "get" posit? Perped all but the P, which I wagged. Also had to perp merck , EVERY letter!

Liked today's cluing for Nobel much bettah.

Bill, I agree. We just don't get rain plops here in CA.♫•*¨*•.❤.•*¨*•♫♪•.¸¸.•´♫♪plop,plop, fizz,fizz..oh what a relief it is.

Lemon, Charlotte is precious. It will be fun to watch her grow.

ARBAON said...

LM714: Beautiful little girl! Would love to see her grinning. Their little teeth are always so cute.

Bill G. said...

JD, yes I got POSIT and MERCK. I don't know why certain things lurk in my brain behind a curtain. They pop out when I see the clue and a certain number of spaces for the answer including maybe a crossing letter or two. Then, zowie! Out they come without my having much conscious control over any of the process.

It's amazing how much tension the director managed to get into this scene. "Stand by Me" train trestle link.

Puzzle hint: Imagine Gordie is on the trestle two-thirds of the way along. He hears the train and can run the remain one-third of the way just as the train gets to the beginning of the bridge. However, if he turned around and ran back, he would also cover the same distance going back when the train got to the previous end of the trestle. So if Gordie kept running, he and the train would get to the other end of the trestle together. How far would Gordie have to run compared to how far the train would have to travel? (Draw a diagram.) The train's speed is 45 mph. So...?

Anonymous said...

@Bill
Do you need to know how far the train is from the bridge? I'm coming up with approximately 28 mph, but I am making certain assumptions about that distance.

Bill G. said...

Hey, check out today's Roswell Google Doodle!

No assumptions are required for the "Stand by Me" train puzzle. It's hard to explain so let's draw a simple diagram. Draw a straight line for the bridge with A at the left, B at the right and G at a point approx. two-thirds of the way from A to B (closer to B). Also, draw point C at a point one-third of the way from A to B (closer to A). Gordie is at G. He can run one-third of the length of the bridge to B exactly when the train gets there. So he could also run the same distance in the other direction (to point C) when the train got to B. Then, he would be able to run to A (one-third of the bridge's length) at the same time that the train would travel across the entire bridge. So the train is going three times faster. Therefore, Gordie is running at 15 mph.

Yellowrocks said...

Here the first few drops of rain descend slowly and individually going PLOP, PLOP, almost like the slow drip of a leaky faucet. Last night the rain soon rattled against the windows like the rat a tat tat of machine gun fire along the with the sound of rushing water like a water falls. This morning there were downed branches, closed roads and power outages.
It was not the slow romantic rain we enjoyed walking in as college sweethearts.

Anonymous said...

Darn it Bill G., I was just catching up and started the train pzl and got 15 (1/3, 1/3, 1/3) and you posted the answer later. Oh, well.

Rain PLOP'd in the garden and the pool today. Nice 1.5, but now very humid. At 79 deg. I'm sweaty. BTW, what is the third H? Hot, Humid, H?.

What everyone else said re: pics & Sara's singing....

Cheers,

-T