google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, July 24th, 2013 MaryEllen Uthlaut

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Jul 24, 2013

Wednesday, July 24th, 2013 MaryEllen Uthlaut

Theme: Clue! (or in my case, Blockhead!). Fun and Games!

17A *Vessel with heavy armor: BATTLESHIP

30A *Rodent catcher: MOUSETRAP

47A *Military campaign: OPERATION

24D *Professional pursuits: CAREERS

26D *Shakespeare play that inspired a Verdi opera: OTHELLO

and the reveal

64A What the answers to starred clues are: BOARD GAMES

Top of the morning to you. Steve here with MaryEllen's foray into the world of squabbling kids. I liked the theme, the longer downs and some nice fill, both across and down. While I was solving I got the feeling there were a lot of abbreviations in the 3- and 4-letter answers, but when I looked it all over at the end it didn't seem to be the case, so no complaints. I hit a couple of humps along the way, but that's what Wednesday's all about, right?




Let's take a look at everything else:

Across:

1 Small thicket: COPSE. I'd be hard-pressed to tell a copse from a thicket. If you told me a thicket was a small copse I wouldn't argue. Throw in a coppice and a spinney and it's woodland confusion.

6 Dry cleaner’s target: SPOT

10 Simple rhyme scheme: A-B-A-B

14 Like many who tweet: AVIAN. TEENS was my first thought here, but I resisted. I have a pair of sparrows nesting in the street sign outside my front door, those guys get up early and don't hold back with the vocals.

15 John’s love: YOKO. Their ballad popped up on my iPod yesterday.

16 “Compliments guaranteed” corn syrup: KARO

19 “Take __ from me!”: A TIP. Your server would say "thank you very much, 20% should do it".

20 Foxy: SLY

21 Without pretense: ARTLESS. I realized I didn't know the true definition of this word. I'd always thought of it as meaning "without class" or something along those lines. Learning moment.

23 Suffix with malt: OSE

24 Algonquian language: CREE

25 Bridge over the Arno, e.g.: PONTE The Ponte Vecchio is the best-known bridge in Florence, but there are plenty more.

27 61-Down prison: GULAG

34 Having a steeple: SPIRED. This is Salisbury Cathedral in England - a beautiful example of a medieval spire. It was built in the 1300's and is more than 400 feet tall - the tallest in the UK.


36 __ Cucamonga, California: RANCHO

37 Trident part: TINE. One of the three prongs. I wonder why the bident and the quatrodent never caught on?

38 Evoking the past: RETRO

40 Continental capital: EURO. "Capital" in the sense of "currency" here.


43 Ranking angel: SERAPH. I find it odd that there's a pecking order of angels. I get that Gabriel has got bragging rights being the Annunciator, but once you've got your wings shouldn't you all be on equal clouds?

45 Protruded: BULGED

50 Snow coasters: SLEDS

51 Versifier’s art: POESY. Thank you, crosses. New word for me today, I'll need to see it at least five more times before I finally can remember it.

52 Varied mixture: OLIO. I've seen this one five times, so now I remember it (and C.C. taught me the difference between this and OLEO when I first started out here!)

54 “The Fox and the Hound” fox: TOD. The old English "todde" means fox. I met someone called Todd Fox once, which seemed a little unfair.

55 Very hot and dry: SAHARAN. This took me a little while because I had a "C" where the "H" should be. See 57D for explanation of muddled thinking on my part.

59 Big bird: EMU

62 Megastar: IDOL

66 Ad writer’s award: CLIO. Check out the Wikipedia description of the 1991 ceremony "The Most Bizarre Event in Advertising History" if you'd like a chuckle today.

67 Actress Petty: LORI. Thank you,  crosses.

68 Military divisions: UNITS

69 Get rid of, in a way: SELL

70 Omar of “House”: EPPS. This is another "I've seen it five times so now I remember it" entry for me.

71 Peeling device: PARER. And a paring device is a peeler.

Down:

1 Fare dealers?: CABS. Nice.

2 Like Humpty Dumpty: OVAL

3 “No beast so fierce but knows some touch of __”: “King Richard III”: PITY. Two Bard references today.

4 Emulated Humpty Dumpty: SAT. Two eggman references also. I learned somewhere that Humpty Dumpty was a siege engine deployed to scale the walls of the defenders' castle during the English Civil War in the 1640's.

5 Swell: ENLARGE

6 Part of DOS: SYSTEM. The Disk Operating System is the foundation of Microsoft's fortunes. Bill Gates wrote MS-DOS which ran the IBM Personal Computer, and all PC-compatibles thereafter.

7 “Jem” sci-fi author Frederik: POHL. Thank you, crosses.

8 Migrant on the Mother Road: OKIE

9 First-rate: TOPS

10 APB letters: AKA. Because it was quicker than saying "All Points Bulletin - be on the lookout for Alphonse Capone, AKA Scarface Al". You just say "APB BOLO ....

11 Southern capital with a French name: BATON ROUGE. Red Stick. The red stick was a tree on the banks of the Mississippi festooned with dead animals marking the boundary between two tribal hunting grounds.

12 Record label owned by Sony: ARISTA

13 Crook carrier of rhyme: BO PEEP. Not a police car.

18 Present, Cockney-style: 'ERE. Orl present an' correct, sah!

22 Design detail, briefly: SPEC

27 Clock std.: GST. Greenwich Sidereal Time. You can stand astride the zero meridian line with one foot in each hemisphere at Greenwich (pronounced Grennitch) Observatory in London.


28 News org.: UPI United Press International.

29 Flax product used in paint: LINSEED OIL

31 Gardener’s brand: ORTHO

32 Old Mideast gp.: UAR. The short-lived United Arab Republic comprising Egypt and Syria.

33 Condescending one: SNOB

35 “Oh, fudge!”: DRAT

39 Prefix with center: EPI. We had a little earthquake yesterday morning in LA - a mild 2.5 with the epicenter close to the airport and my office.

41 Color in a Crayola eight-pack: RED

42 Has too much, for short: OD's

44 Light beams: RAYS. Weird stuff, light. In physics terms, it exhibits the behavior of both a wave and particle depending on how you observe it, and it seems to know that you're looking at it and changes its behavior just to mess with your head.

46 Consuming entirely: USING UP

47 Eye doctor’s science: OPTICS

48 Curly-haired dog: POODLE

49 Chuck of “The Delta Force”: NORRIS. "Death once had a near-Chuck Norris experience". One of the many Chuck Norris sayings.


53 Youngster: LAD

56 Not all thumbs: ABLE

57 Cager’s target: HOOP. I forgot the "cager" slang for a basketball player, and instead went off at a barking mad tangent and filled in the missing letter with "C". I decided that the cager was a person who needed to lock up a bunch of chickens, and therefore his target was the coop. Didn't exactly make SACARAN easy.

58 50-and-up group: AARP. This is no longer an abbreviation, it's the official name for the organization and therefore no cluing issue with cluing "group" rather than "gp."

59 Arabian chieftain: EMIR

60 Dole (out): METE

61 Cold War inits.: USSR. Our old friends the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and another clue-pair with GULAG. (Side question to our constructor experts - could you use "CCCP" as an answer to this clue, or is that cheating because the the letters are actually Cyrillic rather than Roman?)

63 Texter’s chuckle: LOL. Isn't laughing out loud more than a chuckle?

65 Gasteyer of “SNL”: ANA

I think that wraps it up. Have a great day and see you all next time.

Steve

62 comments:

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

I thought this was pretty easy overall, but I had some issues with the theme.

At first, I thought BATTLESHIP and BATON ROUGE must both be theme answers and that the theme had something to do with BAT (I obviously didn't notice the lack of a star next to the clue for BATON ROUGE). That idea was nixed when I finally got to the theme reveal and realized that BATON ROUGE wasn't a BOARD GAME (and its clue didn't have a star).

So the theme is BOARD GAMES. Easy enough. Except... I've never actually heard of CAREERS before. And BATTLESHIP isn't actually a BOARD GAME, is it? I'm not sure what you'd call it, but there's no board involved.

Anyway, just a bit of weirdness with the theme, as I said, but the rest of the puzzle was very straightforward.

[ptiocil]

River Doc said...

Happy Wednesday everybody!

Is it just me or did today’s puzzle seem more Monday-like? Maybe it’s because I spent an abnormally high amount of time as a kid playing BOARD GAMES….

In any case, the only unknown was POESY (would’ve preferred POSEY, the Giants’ catcher)….

And very few write-overs: DIRT for SPOT, TEENS for AVIAN (nice misdirection), and BRIAR for COPSE (shades of Monday, still don’t like the “e” variant)….

WBS about CAREERS….

Looking forward to Part II of this puzzle theme, as follows: Illegal aspiration = MONOPOLY, Crossword hint = CLUE, Dare = RISK, Grocery clerks = CHECKERS, Didn’t mean to = SORRY, and Get A ____ = LIFE

Finally, a few Chuck NORRIS factoids (limited to 11, because that’s what he scores out of 10):
- Chuck Norris does not "style" his hair. It lays perfectly in place out of sheer terror.
- Chuck Norris is the reason Waldo is hiding.
- Nobody Doesn’t like Sara Lee. Except Chuck Norris.
- When the Bogeyman goes to sleep, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
- Chuck Norris has already been to Mars; that’s why there are no signs of life there.
- Chuck Norris is what Willis was talking about.
- Chuck Norris has a grizzly bear rug in his den. The bear isn’t dead, it’s just afraid to move.
- Chuck Norris can divide by zero.
- Chuck Norris can split an atom. With his bare hands.
- Chuck Norris beats rock, paper, AND scissors.
- Chuck Norris owns the greatest poker face of all time. It helped him to win the 1983 World Series of Poker despite holding just a Joker, the 2 of Clubs, the 7 of Spades, a green number 4 card from Uno, and a Monopoly ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card.

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Steve and friends. This puzzle was easier than I originally feared. Once again, it was the NW west corner that was the last to fall because COPSE wasn't on the tip of my tongue.

Hand up for wanting the Tweeting Teens instead of AVIAN.

I am not familiar with the BOARD GAME of CAREERS.

I initially tried Nova instead of IDOL for the Megastar until I was LOL.

I loved seeing BATON ROUGE in the puzzle. The Red Stick is on the campus of Southern University.

QOD: Courage is the price that life extracts for granting peace. ~ Amelia Earhart (July 24, 1898 ~ July 2, 1937)

[tadstn]

Yellowrocks said...

I have enjoyed playing all these games as a mom and grandma. My favorite is CAREERS, which I still play from time to time with my sister.
According to Wiki, "Battleship. . . is known worldwide as a pencil and paper game which dates from World War I. It was published by various companies as a pad-and-pencil game in the 1930s, and was released as a plastic board game by Milton Bradley in 1967." In 1977 it was computerized.
It was confidence building to know 1A COPSE and 1D CABS straight off, a good omen for a straight forward Monday easy solve. POESY was no problem.
A few partials allowed me to "wag" POHL, TOD, and LORI.
The Fox and the Hound is a Disney movie I haven't seen. Wiki says Tod was ". . . adopted by Widow Tweed. Tweed names him Tod, since he reminds her of a toddler."

Missing LA said...

Can anyone tell me how to access the LA Times puzzle in Across Lite? I've always used the Cruciverb site, but it has not been working this week. If anyone can help, I would be most grateful. (I am solving on an iPad.)

Mari said...

Good morning everybody! Thanks for the entertaining write up, Steve.

I had to PERP: POHL, OSE, PONTE, GST, POESY, TOD and LORI, but I did finish the puzzle.

Based on the above comments, and my own experience, I checked to see if there was a BOARD GAME called CAREERS. It does exist.

Steve, Your comment about TINE (37A) reminded me of a Sheldon Cooper quote.: "I never eat in strange restaurants. One runs the risk of non-standard cutlery.... Three tines is not a fork. Three tines is a trident. Forks are for eating, tridents are for ruling the Seven Seas."

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Avg Joe said...

Another Goldilocks puzzle today. Didn't know of Careers and barely knew of Othello, but it didn't matter since it was all filled in.

Enjoyed the write up Steve. That Clio article is amazing.

Since there were 2 and almost 3 Eggman references (John was the Eggman, after all), today's Wizard of Id is worth a look.

desper-otto said...

A late Good Morning!

Here's another hand up for thinking this one was Monday-easy. Like YR, COPSE and CABS fell immediately, and it was a romp from there.

Steve, back in January we had "Soviet Letters" -- CCCP in a David Poole puzzle. But they weren't called "initials."

SAHARAN came quickly. I had DVR'd a 2-hour documentary on the desert from H2 which I finally got around to watching yesterday. I was amazed to learn that there were only eight Marines who went "to the shores of Tripoli."

Mari said...

Avg Joe: Funny "Wiz" comic. Reminds me of your avatar.

Irish Miss: I have been watching The Dome, but haven't convinced DH to try The Bridge yet. Maybe I'll just watch some Bridge via "On Demand".

I wonder how closely The Dome ties into the book.

The Killing has been amazing this season. I hope they keep up the good work!

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, MaryEllen Uthlaut, for a swell puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for the excellent review.

Could not get started in the NW. Started with SPOT, OKIE, SYSTEM, and TOPD in the top center.

NE corner was easy.

Had GMT for 27A for a while. Fixed that after SPIRED to GST.

RANCHO Cucamonga was easy. I lived there from 1980-1983. That city is made up of three former cities, Cucamonga, Etiwanda, and Alta Loma. We lived in the Alta Loma part. We used that as our address while there.

Theme was easy. Had most of them before I got BOARD GAMES.

Goofed on the CLIO. That SW corner was my buggaboo.

Not familiar with ARISTA. Perped it.

Doha Doc: Liked your Chuck Norris bits. Clever.

I also tried cruciverb last night and this morning. No cigar. That's three days in a row. Do I owe them money? Used the newspaper. Missing LA, I have never used Across Lite. Cannot help you, sorry. If you can get to a PC, just go to the Chicago Trib site and print the puzzle.

Off to my day. Wife and daughter got home last night, safe and sound.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

(ngbitiz3)

Vidwan said...

I'm an Arden Admirer of Mr. Bill B.

kazie said...

Enjoyed Steve's write up this morning--light and breezy as usual.

The puzzle was a maze of WAGS assisted by many perps. I got it all, but with a few missteps: DARN before DRAT, ESE before OSE, TYNE before TINE. Those British/American spellings are still tricky. Sometimes the less commonly seen ones still look wrong to me in American English

Thanks for the explanation of Baton Rouge. I always wondered about its origin.

Happy hump day to all camels!

River Doc said...

For those iPad users in cruciverb withdrawal, try games.chicagotribune.com It’s kind of a pain to keep opening and closing the keyboard to enter answers, but it can be done….

Yellowrocks said...

Doha Doc, I liked your Part II theme suggestions.
Mari, my decades old CAREERS board had money, fame, and happiness for the major sections.I see in your link that now there are four sections: ecology, sports, big business, and politics. Which version are you familiar with?
There are many new versions of Monopoly. I still much prefer the old game now called Monopoly Classic. I did like Monopoly Junior when I played with my grandson who was about seven years old at the time.

Montana said...

I am an iPad user except on Wed. & Sunday. Missing LA: I use Cruciverb with Across Lite and usually love it, but as you stated, it has been down for several days. (I see it is working now, but wasn't, earlier this morning.)
I Googled this morning and found one can use the LA site link on our Corner page on an iPad. One needs lots of patience, however, as there is an ad, then a blank white screen for a l-o-n-g time and then the puzzle appears.
On my iPad, the 'touch' feature seems to be very different. I wouldn't think a site could affect that and I didn't like it much, but did do the puzzle this morning.

I think the puzzle was a neat one. I was just so discouraged with the way the site/iPad weren't cooperating, that it was spoiled for me.

Enough complaining for the day,
Montana

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

This is at least the 2nd cw I remember doing that was constructed by MaryEllen. Easy enough today; no lookups needed. ARISTA was the only WAG. BATON ROUGE came easily enough. It is the home of a Fletcher class DD, and museum, one of only 4 left in the world.
EMU - one of your ratites. Extant ratites include the ostrich, emu, cassowary, rhea, and kiwi.
Nice range of fill; from BOPEEP to BATTLESHIP. Thanks MaryEllen for the entertainment.

I agree with D-Otto on CCCP. As long as the clue 'emanates' from within a Cyrillic letter using area, it should be ok. Just can't use letters that don't exist on a Western keyboard.

Have a great day.

JD said...

Good morning all,
No stars in our paper, but it was easy to see the games.I had a heck of a time with swell, definitely going for the other meaning.Even with all but ONE letter, My stubborn brain refused to see it.Since I didn't know gulag, I had a DNF.I also had ranks instead of units which made using up unreadable.Diva also had to be changed to idol.

It's hard to urge the boys to watch the old Disney classics, like The Fox and The Hound; they like the newer ones...to infinity and beyond!!!

Off to Gilroy Gardens today to celebrate Grady's 4th birthday.

Vidwan827 said...

Thank you MaryEllen for a challenging puzzle. Enjoyed it and got the theme, as well - although I hadn't heard of Careers.

Thank you Steve, my foodie friend, and delightful blog commentator ... Especially for Baton Rouge. (I had confidently entered New Orleans, at first ... ).

I have a board game called ACCQUIRE, by 3M Corp. About 30 years ago, I became so good at it -I won all the time - and nobody would play with me and I nearly lost some of my friends. I've never played it since. Same thing is happening with 'Balderdash'.

I had a calculus teacher named 'Mr. Seraphim' - he had Portugese ancestry. He was a very decent guy and a dedicated teacher, and I looked forward to his lectures every day.

Like Chuck Norris, I see I'm so strong and powerful that I have a blog entry, as above, even before I came to this blog today. Lol.

I thought of DOS - Dept. of the What ?? Security ? Seas ? Social sciences ?

Have a nice day, all.

Old Wives Tale said...

For all those with babies and toddlers out there.

At one time, Karo was the laxative, of choice, for babies and toddlers, with occasional constipation. Perhaps it's been replaced with more preferable alternatives by now.

Karo can also be used to make translucent taffy and peanut brittle.

Lucina said...

Hello, puzzler friends. How nice to see you, Steve, with your witty observations.

On first pass this seemed daunting but RETRO, ORTHO and SERAPH started me on the way and I have cousins who live in RANCHO Cucamonga so that set me off as well. I went to a wedding there about ten years ago.

From then it was a quick sashay and thanks to GULAG Archipelago we became familiar with those terms back in the 60s. Thank you, Mr. Alexander Solzenitchyn

POHL was a complete unknown but no problem since SPOT was SPOT on.

Learning moment: LINSEED OIL is from flax.

DRAT is my favorite expression on the blog.

I remember ANA Gasteyer because I like the announcer on SNL when he introduces the cast. His tremulous voice sounds almost in awe.

Well, you all have a great Wednesday! I get the first estimate for my roof today.

chin said...

Just a nit about 27A. GULAG is not a prison. It is an acronym for the Russian Chief Directorate for Camps (some would translate Glavnoe as Main but the traditional choice is Chief). GULAG refers to the organization which controlled a system of forced labor camps which were, of course, prisons.

Yellowrocks said...

GULAG is a word we took from the Russian and adapted. In English it can refer to the system or a single prison in the system, according to many dictionaries.

from dictionary.com
gu·lag
1. the system of forced-labor camps in the Soviet Union.
2. a Soviet forced-labor camp.
3. any prison or detention camp, especially for political prisoners.

English and many other languages make changes in the words they borrow. The Japanese borrowed the word "Arbeit" meaning work, labor, job in German. In Japanese it is called arubaito and means PART TIME job.

Anonymous said...

Ironically, the motto 'Arbeit macho Frei'. Which means 'work brings freedom' was the slogan in the German concentration camps, during WW II.

Just a coincidence to the above comment.

Tinbeni said...

Steve: Outstanding write-up ... even though the puzzle 'had-no-food' in it.
(No booze either, DRAT!)

Avg.Joe: Thanks for the Wizard of Id cartoon.

re: The Wiki article about the 1991 CLIO awards ... I take exception.
I did NOT stagger off the stage ... I was dancing. LOL

Cheers!

Lucina said...

What an interesting history about the CLIO awards. It's quite amazing, really that they still exist. Thanks for posting it, Steve.

DohaDoc:
LOL at the Chuck NORRIS factoids.

Missing LA said...

Thanks to @Abejo and @Montana for their suggestions/responses about Cruciverb, which is now working. I am primarily a NYT solver and go to the LAT Xword only when I have time. I was surprised at how much I missed it. Like so much in life, we may not realize what we have until it is gone!

It's just gorgeous here in the Twin Cities. Hope you are all having equally beautiful weather!

Just got a CNN news flash. Apparently, the new prince will be George Alexander Louis. Glad they kept it to three names, so his future bride will not trip over it when she says her vows!

PK said...

Hi Y'all! This went easier & faster than Mon. & Tues.
I filled mostly vertically and missed the clues for SAHARAN, OKIE & ANA somehow. Don't usually do that. Good one MaryEllen.

The one clue I had the most trouble with, DRAT it, was SPOT. I had S__T and was sure it had to be SUIT. DUH!

Steve, always enjoy your comments. Learning moment was what DOS stands for. Thanks! Oh, that Bill Gates! Such a mind must be a tremendous burden.

Never heard of CAREERS or OTHELLO as games. We were a one-board-game family growing up: MONOPOLY.

I knew a guy who looked just like Chuck Norris complete with mustache and muscles. Of course, he had a different name, which was hard to remember, and co-workers only called him Chuck when he was out of hearing distance -- just in case. You knew he wasn't the real guy only because he was about 5'5" with very short legs. Never ever saw him smile.

I need to ORTHO the weeds in my back yard.

Steve said...

@Mari - I love that quote, it's a keeper :)

john28man said...

I thought this was a typical Wednesday puzzle. I take a little exception to crossing two names with another one. A little unfair.

Misty said...

Late to the Corner because I had an early doctor's appointment this morning and didn't get to the puzzle until afterwards. Thank goodness it was pretty manageable--many thanks, Mary Ellen. Steve, enjoyed the hump photo for hump day.

Never played CAREERS or OTHELLO either--must have come after my time.

Almost put TEEN until AVIAN fell into place. We were riding in the car yesterday when I heard a TWEET that for a moment scared me that a bird had gotten into our vehicle. It turned out to be the ring tone of our caregiver in the back seat, which sounds like a TWEET when he tweets.

Have a great Wednesday, everybody!

Irish Miss said...

Good Afternoon:

Late to the dance due to appointments, errands, etc.

A nice Wednesday offering, Mary Ellen. Didn't catch the theme until the unifier. Only write-over was darn before drat. Nice expo, Steve.

Mari, I think you would like The Bridge; one of the lead characters is quite quirky.

I wish the rest of the summer could be just like today: temps in the 70's, sunny, blue skies, and zero humidity.
Just perfect.

Happy Wednesday.

Husker Gary said...

Every corner offered a “just right” challenge using very familiar BOARD GAMES as a theme . Fabulous! BATTLESHIP online? Just click in the left pane and the computer will alternate with you until there is a winner.

Musings
-Very funny Indian MONOPOLY on TBBT
-Without John and the LADS, YOKO is an obscure artist waiting tables and Richard Starkey is a lorry driver playing drums with a cover band on weekends. Getting somewhere by piggyback is one option.
-Young grandchildren are so ARTLESS which is part of their charm
-I was in awe of this SPIRED church in downtown Cologne. Allied bombers spared it during WWII
-My goodness: SWELL, ENLARGE, BULGED and PROTRUDED. Paging Dr. Freud
-Notes to me from CC, always contain OLIO on the subject line
-Mercy for an enemy in Bogart’s SAHARA (2:18)
-BATON ROUGE = Red Stick, Giuseppe Verdi = Joe Green
-I always taught Greenwich MEAN Time. Here is the current GMT
-Tribalism and sectarianism seems to supersede anything United in that part of the world

Husker Gary said...

All right, here’s some online OTHELLO (AKA Reversi) too. You are gold and click first and the computer plays blue. Don’t blame me if you don’t get anything done today ;-)

Avg Joe said...

A couple of afterthoughts.

There used to be a dive bar/diner in Lincoln on "O" St called the Greenwich....It was pronounced "Green Witch". Had the best fish and chips in town by far!! Real battered cod and greasy hand cut chips.

And for 14A I really wanted the answer "ego-maniacal", but it just would not fit.

Yellowrocks said...

I find it interesting that all these Board games in the puzzle were invented when my children were young. The boys were born in 1961 and 1963,
CAREERS 1955
MOUSE TRAP 1963 (You build a Rube Goldberg like mouse trap.)
OPERATION 1965
BATTLESHIP 1967 (The board game version. See my 7:08 AM post.)
OTHELLO 1971 (Current rules)It is said to be based somewhat on the ancient Japanese game of Go. Another forerunner was the game of REVERSI invented by two Englishmen in the 1800's.
We also played hearts, chess, Parcheesi, Chinese checkers, regular checkers, Risk, Monopoly, and other games with the boys. Playing family games was a tradition which started with my mother playing games with her brothers. Then in our generation we sibs played many board games and card games like Flinch, and Pinochle with mom. I passed it down to my boys. Then the tradition continued with my grandson. When I babysat after school we played games every day.

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, Much easier today than yesterday. I was on Ms. Uthlaut's wavelength, I guess. The perps filled in those few unknowns, such as Pohl, Pity, and Arista.

I chuckled out loud when Avian filled in for Like many with tweets. I though for sure it would be teens--not so.

Hands up for Poesy being a new word for me. I wasn't fooled, though, by Continental Capital/Euro. I think I finally have this type of clue in my head.

We who live in earthquake country hear epi fairly often as in "epicenter"!

Well, technically, the "board" in Battleship is a flat plastic piece with holes in it, so I guess you could call it a "board" game. I've never heard of Careers. I think there are many new games that have come out since my children and grandchildren were here playing our old standbys. An observation: I was surprised to see that Careers was published in 1955. I will have to look that one up.

Making pickles today. Our cucumbers are growing like gangbusters.

Chickie said...

Many moons ago, I refinished a couple of antique pieces of furniture with Linseed oil. It was sticky, hard to apply and took a long time to dry enough before I could apply a wax coat. Our newer products are so much easier to deal with, though probably not authentic when refinishing something old.

As some would tell me I shouldn't refinish anything that is old, but I can't even use some of the pieces that have come through our hands without doing something to make them presentable for our rooms.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Thanks, Steve! I always wondered why Red Stick was its name. It turned out that BATON ROUGE was my first fill of the day, and that meant that I completed the entire east side before filling anywhere else.
For a brief time I was held up in the west because I had foolishly written UPS for 28D. But the need for TINE straightened be out there.

All in all, this seemed a typical Weds Xword. Not too easy, but, well, easy-ish.

Lucina said...

Sigh. The first estimate on my roof: $6,895.09. I hope the next three are lower!

Bill G. said...

Thanks MaryEllen and Steve. It all came together into a nice square shape. I even got the words inside. :>)

Lucina, I hope so too. What kind of a roof is it?

Yesterday there was a link to Salisbury Cathedral. Barbara and I took a guided tour of the attic. Very interesting. Then we saw Stonehenge. At that time, you could walk right up to it and marvel at the size of the stones.

Another excellent slide show from NBC. Animal Tracks.

HeartRx said...

Wow, I thought I had posted early this morning, but it must have gotten lost. So to sum up: WBS!!

HG, I was also awed by the Cologne cathedral. Have you ever seen the one in Milan? I have been up on the rooftop of that one, and it is incredible to see all the gargoyles up close.

Lucina, I think you are lucky to get such a "low" estimate for your roof. Ours is made of slate, and is over 125 years old...the estimates we got, just to repair it were all over $8,000 !!!

Bill G., I always love your animal tracks links.

Montana said...

Yellowrocks, we played many board games too, when my children were growing up. They are all adults (37-41 yrs. old) now, but still enjoy playing games when they get together. The current favorite is called "Ticket to Ride." it is helpful to have a sense of where major cities in North America are. Since three daughters-in-law were not raised in US, we have purchased the Scandanavian version of the game to alleviate the US advantage. Great fun!

Montana

Montana said...

Husker, when I taught middle school math, we had enough Othello games for every 2 students. They were used during lock-down days or after Friday tests.

Montana

GarlicGal said...

JD, let me know the next time you and the boys go to Gilroy Gardens. Maybe I can sneak along! It's a perfect day to play in the water area and walk through "Bonfante Falls".

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks for cool offering, MaryEllen! Thanks also to Steve for an amusing dissection!

Had no troubles. Perps filled in ANA and TOD. Other than that, pretty easy for a Wednesday.

Friend Harv took my dog Charlotte (Charlie) to the vet early this morning. Previous visits were very expensive and did not do much good. When pain pills ran out, limp returned in force. She was x-rayed. Now it remains to determine whether is infection of bone or cancer. Egad. She is only 6 years old.

Was extremely disappointed by The Dome this week. What were they thinking?

Another roofer coming shortly to give me an estimate to fix leaks. Where roofs are joined from different additions has been a big problem. Last estimate was 3500 clams.

Cheers!

Lucina said...

Thanks, Bill. It's a flat foam roof which was supposed to have a lifetime guarantee but apparently the last resealing five years ago was an inferior product and between the sun and rain, the surface is blistered and leaking has ensued.

Husker Gary said...

Marti, we never got farther north than Florence in Italy and so did not see the cathedral in Milan. The thing about the Cologne Cathedral is not only that you can see its spires for miles, but also when you stand in front of the building you must be very close to it since tall buildings surround it and you are forced to look up at the spires which makes them even more awe inspiring.

Our guide told us that the church received ancillary damage during WWII but was not brought down. He said the reason for no direct hits was probably not so altruistic in that the Allies used the twin spires for aviation landmarks for their course deeper and deeper into the fatherland.

One story he told us was that US pilots dropped sacks of flour on the church just to show the residents that they could hit it if they wanted to.

Anonymous said...

lucina,

a foam roof should cost around $500 to seal.

Hahtoolah said...

Here is the Red Stick sculpture at Southern University in Baton Rouge.

JJM said...

Regardless of how easy the puzzle was today, or whether or not these are "boardgames", it sure brought back great memories of playing these games as a kid. As a child of the 60's, I loved these games. Two of my favorites were "Mousetrap" (I can still remember the commercial for it with the red plastic mousetrap sliding down the pole to capture the mouse) and"Battleship".

"You sunk my Battleship"

Anonymous said...

I really liked playing "Careers" growing up in the 60s. You had to negotiate through a series of career paths and accumulate a combination of money, fame, and happiness in your own personal formula to achieve your goal, no one knew the other persons formula until the end. It felt nostalgic to see it in the puzzle. I think they have a modern revamp, but you can still get the classic on some sites like Amazon.

CrossEyedDave said...

Sorry I'm late, (actually I am not sorry) because I did the puzzle today on the beach at Sandy Hook gateway National Recreational Area. The biggest challenge was that the wind kept blowing my beach umbrella inside out, while trying to hang on to the newspaper. The biggest mystery is why one daughter is sunburned even though I made sure plenty of SPF50 was applied, & the other daughter is still white as a dead fish?

Enjoyed the contributions to the Blog immensely today, (DohaDoc LOL) & spent hours playing battleship games online trying to find the one I had with my 1st Windows computer that showed the ships breaking in half & sinking.

The clue to 18D (ere) was tricky, yet refreshing!

44D lightbeams/rays sent me on a search for an experiment I once saw (must have been one of those PBS shows) where they showed how it was discovered that light was comprised of electric waves, & perpendicular magnetic waves at a 90 degree angle. They used some kind of polarizing screen that admitted one, or the other type of wave when turned 90 degrees... I can't find it, but these two are just as interesting.

CrossEyedDave said...

When I was about 8 years old, Mousetrap was a very popular game, I saved up my allowance for weeks to buy it, & even though the it was the last game in the store, & the shrink wrap was missing, I had to have it! & when I finally got it assembled, there was a piece missing & it would not work!

So... 40 years later... I secretly went to Toys R us & bought it, assembled it, rejoiced in catching that mouse, & carefully,, carefully packed it up, & hid it in the deepest, darkest recesses of my bedroom closet. About 5 years later I got the urge to see it work again, but of course, one of my 3 kids found it, lost 3 pieces, & rehid it back in the recesses of my closet. (no one will admit to it, but I found Monopoly money scattered all over the basement that came from the Monopoly game I hid with Mousetrap so that at least one game in the house had all the pieces. (expletive deleted!)

But luckily, due to the wonders of modern technology, I can now see Mousetrap in action whenever I want!

(hmm, it doesn't seem as much fun as I thought... maybe it was the bottle of Johnnie Walker Red in the upper right corner of the video. But I just don't remember drinking Johnie Walker Red when I was 8 years old,,, I always preferred the Black...)

CrossEyedDave said...

One more thing, HG@2:07 I thought that Cologne Cathedral was a miracle.

WWII Photos
Photo #1

photo #2

But then I read somewhere that the British saved it to use as a landmark for navigating to sites further east, & even dropped bags of flour on it to prove they could hit it!

I thought it was this WIKI site, but now I can't find it...

Anonymous T said...

G'Eve All!

Late, late, late.. Paying clients come first..

Where to start? Thanks Steve for the write-up and MaryEllen for a Wed that needed only two googles (7d & 24a - the wiki gave me a nice lesson).

I missed the * at 26d and didn't notice it before Steve said it. OTHELLO is a great kids' game and good intro to Go (though, I still prefer Chess).

24d wanted monopoly, but true professionals don't let greed go that far (looking at you Wall Street!)

@21a I changed SYSTEM to SYSROM to get AirLESS (one without Airs?), but switched back in time. Anyone recall setting DOS extended mem in the startup files? I won't go into Bill G. and DOS as this isn't the forum for an OS flame war :-)

14a - Please, please, please be vapid! Alas, just homage to the tomato steailing blue jays....

No one wanted eggy for 2d?

For 35d I had ***T. I was thinking Golly! (Airplane 1980)

Doha - construct that pzl!

I didn't want to over-post last night, so I didn't say thanks to GarlicGal for assuring me it was the CAPTCHA in the (oddword). Thanks!

Cheers,

-T

Anonymous T said...

Speaking of GAL, is that really the new prince's initials?

-T

Bill G. said...

Hey Anon T, I'm assuming that Bill G you were referring to is the richer one?

I had a really good lunch today. A Philly Cheese-Steak sandwich with grilled onions, red peppers and mushrooms. Yummy!

Lucina said...

anon@5:50
Yes, a simple reseal would be inexpensive but sadly, the last reseal was a poor job (unbeknown to me)and has blistered with the intensity of the sun and the water from the leaking rain has seeped into the foam and the boards. A major reconstruction is required.

But thank you.

Anonymous T said...

Bill G.

Since you didn't out-yourself (how would I know if you're not the founder of MS?), it would be the other Bill G. :-)

Cheers,

-T

Anonymous T said...

For the history of "Jive Talk" on Airplane, I found this clip on YouTube... .

Enjoy. -T

Anonymous said...

Bill G. (the Lesser)...

I really couldn't care less what you had for lunch (though I am surprised you didn't mention the wonderful bike ride you took to get there).

I'd much rather read your math teasers ;-)

Thanks!

-T

Anonymous T said...

The above is not me. I try to keep on-line light and civil.

Glad I was shamed into going "blue" now...

-T