google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday, August 19, 2013 Matt McKinley

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Aug 19, 2013

Monday, August 19, 2013 Matt McKinley

 
Theme: Pinaceae Pinus - Products of a pine tree.

20A. Long-eyed stitching tool : DARNING NEEDLE

33A. Dairy Queen order : ICE CREAM CONE

41A. Proverbial backbreaker : THE LAST STRAW. Link

56A. Maine's nickname, and a hint to the ends of 20-, 33- and 41-Across : PINE TREE STATE

Argyle here. Running late. Puzzle seemed conflicted. Some very easily clued entries, some clued with trickery and a few obscure entries for a Monday. Moving along to what appears to be Matt's debut puzzle.

Across:

1. 33-Across topper : SCOOP. 33. Dairy Queen order : ICE CREAM CONE

6. Points (at) : AIMS

10. Trucker on a radio : CBer

14. Former "Idol" judge Abdul : PAULA

15. Tie in chess : DRAW

16. Cosmo competitor : ELLE. (magazines)

17. Marx Brothers shenanigan : ANTIC

18. Topnotch : A ONE

19. Sugar bowl block : LUMP

23. Student's Web address ending : .EDU

24. One on the other side : FOE

25. Right on time : PROMPT. NOT Cruciverb.

28. Finally registered mentally : SANK IN

30. __ cheese dressing : BLEU

32. Dinghy mover : OAR

36. "The __ Baltimore": Lanford Wilson play : HOT_L. The E in the neon sign didn't work.

39. "__ Wiedersehen" : AUF. Too soon, can't say good bye yet.

40. Picnic spoilers : ANTS

46. Main element in pewter : TIN

47. Dance in a pit : MOSH

48. Soak up : ABSORB

52. Promotional theater display item : POSTER

54. Martini order : DRY

55. Theology subj. : REL.. (religion)

60. Army vehicle : JEEP

62. "I figured it out!" cries : A-HA's

63. Craze : MANIA

64. Gets older : AGES

65. Army status : RANK

66. Rags-to-riches author Horatio : ALGER

67. Murder mystery staple : BODY

68. Russian fighters : MIGs

69. British city on the River Aire : LEEDS

Down:

1. Black suit : SPADES

2. Ottawa's country : CANADA

3. Beat in a race : OUTRUN

4. "thirtysomething" actor Ken : OLIN

5. World's largest ocean : PACIFIC

6. "Time is money," e.g. : ADAGE

7. Golfer's selection : IRON

8. Lion's tresses : MANE

9. Popeye's kid : SWEE' PEA

10. Violin cousin : CELLO

11. Song title words before "You saw me standing alone" : "BLUE MOON"
 
 

12. Horror film street : ELM

13. Workout unit : REP

21. Nada : NONE

22. Beaten instrument : DRUM

26. Breathe after sprinting : PANT

27. Yves's "very" : TRÈS

29. Pass idly, as time : KILL

30. Hair neatener : BRUSH

31. Exited : LEFT

34. Sylvester and Garfield : CATS

35. Cornfield cries : CAWS

36. Internet address opening : HTTP

37. Cincinnati's home : OHIO

38. State-of-the-art 1970s bike : TEN SPEED

42. Church agreement : AMEN

43. Pitcher's problem : SORE ARM

44. Hard to find : RARE

45. Totally dreadful : ABYSMAL

49. Autumn color : ORANGE

50. Tightened, as shoelaces : RETIED

51. Dims with tears, as one's vision : BLEARS

53. A bit too happy at happy hour? : TIPSY

54. Office workplaces : DESKS

57. Spicy cuisine : THAI

58. Jingled : RANG

59. "A __ of Two Cities" : TALE

60. Fighter's punch : JAB

61. Self-regard : EGO

 

Argyle


61 comments:

River Doc said...

Happy Monday everybody!

“All’s well that ends well” would be an appropriate description of my puzzle solving experience today. Or, to cite A TALE of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….” The next two phrases of that quote are also pertinent: “it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness….”

No real BACK BREAKERS, but I did manage to mentally stray pretty far off Matt’s wavelength on several occasions before finally attaining the Ta-Da….

For example, I was thinking of a post-college season football play when I read “Sugar bowl block” (the small “B” in bowl convinced me to look elsewhere). I also kept picturing a funeral when I read “Black suit.” And that camel was close, but not to be found in THE LAST STRAW answer for 41A….

Finally, I ended up misreading “Exited.” My orbs kept adding an extra “C” and so I really wanted LALA instead of LEFT because I saw the clue as “ExCited”…. ExCept I don’t know what a Lala is, so….

On a brighter note, the filet I had on Friday night was dusted with BLEU cheese crumbs….

Back to the grind stone….AUF Wiedersehen from this POSTER….

PK said...

Hi y'all! This was a super speed run for me. Only two red letters showed up in the course of things: BLuRS before BLEARS & 4D. I left 1A for perps since it was a referral & didn't know Olin then AHA SCOOPS when I got my ICE CREAM CONE (I licked it!).

I'd like a dollar for every time I ever sang "Blue Moon" as a teenager although never with the great bass part in Argyle's link. Thanks, Santa. My granddaughter really liked it when she was around two. "Again, Gama!" when we had a full moon.

Would imported pine straw also import those nasty pine beetles that have killed a lodgepole pine and two blue spruces that I cherished? I didn't get pine straw from elsewhere or any kind of mulch, just wondering.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Seemed tough for a Monday. Or maybe I'm just not awake yet. Hand up for reading EXCITED rather than EXITED. I also saw MARINE'S instead of MAINE's.

So, as usual, I didn't get the theme. But I did manage to muddle through, even though I started badly with SWIRL rather than SCOOP. What's that saying? It's Monday, let the stress begin...

Husker Gary said...

Argyle’s summary took the words out of my mouth. The puzzle alternated between a Monday and a Thursday. Exhibit A – Black suit next to Ottawa’s country

Musings
-Back during the CB craze, Truckers stopped at the Old Home Fill-er Up and Keep On Truckin’ Café!
-PAULA knew eccentricity sells
-Last year the mind set for subbing finally SANK IN. My first job is today for this year
-TIN, I didn’t know you were in pewter
-That mystery BODY can be a corpus delecti or this
-Long IRONS have been replaced by hybrid clubs
-BLEARS? I suppose BLEARY can have a verb
-Gotta run to touch young lives and be PROMPT

Anonymous said...

Speed run in general with a few slowdowns for confirmation from perps for words like "blears".
I thought it ironic that 1 across was "scoop" for 33A Dairy Queen topper- as Dairy Queen is known for soft serve. I was trying to solve it before "ice cream cone", but cherry, sprinkle, and eventually syrup didn't work. Maybe Baskin Robbins or Coldstone topper would have been a more accurate clue.

kazie said...

Like Argyle, I thought the messages were mixed today. I didn't know of BLEARS as a verb, and have never noticed if BLEU was that French spelling for dressing before. I never use it. I suppose it wouldn't have been too good to have two BLUEs in the puzzle. I never even saw the clue for OAR--it filled itself.

So a nice mixed bag for a Monday.

HeartRx said...

Good morning C.C. et al.

"Monday, Monday, can't trust that day..." It did seem a bit schizophrenic. Starting at 1A with a cross-referential clue? "Black suit" going 1-Down?

And who in hell buys just the cone? Doesn't ICE CREAM CONE always mean that you get a cone with a scoop of ice cream in it? So what do you top it with? Jimmies? Sprinkles? Nuts? A cherry? No. Another SCOOP, I guess!

And since when do we get the French spelling of a word (I'm looking at you, BLEU) without a hint of foreign word in the clue?

mumble...grumble...mumble...hmmmph

Mari said...

Good morning everybody. Nice easy puzzle to start the week. I spelled BLEU as BLUE, but other than that I had no troubles.

Strange to not see Barry G at the top of the roster today, no?

Let's have a great week!

River Doc said...

Mari, I agree it's odd not to see Barry on the top of the heap. What say we all agree that whoever is first this week starts their post with a "Morning, all!" homage...?

desper-otto said...

C.C., from your bowling post this morning: Is Pete Weber related to Dick Weber? Why is it that I can remember old-time bowlers? Dick Weber, Don Carter, Andy Varipapa, etc. Oh, and of course, whispering Chris Schenkel doing the roll-by-roll.

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

Good Morning desper-otto and all. This is Boomer. Yes, Pete Weber is Dick Weber's son, as well as John Weber who is the PBA50 coordinator that is running the Treasure Island tournament. I was able to bowl a game against Dick Weber in 2000 at a tournament in Brooklyn Park, MN, and yesterday bowled a game on the same lanes as Pete. Andy Varipapa was a famous trick shot bowler in the 60's and 70s. His most famous saying is that any 12 strikes in a row should count as a 300 game. Many of my friends and I have bowled "Varipapa 300s". I believe an early TV commentator. Joe Smith carried the moniker of "Whispering Joe Smith" because TV did not have sound cancelling technology in the 60's, but of course Chris Schenkel was probably the most dominant bowling announcer on the Saturday ABC telecasts, first with Billy Welu, and later with Nelson Burton Jr. Those were the days.

Vidwan827 said...

Nice puzzle - good for a Monday. Really, really enjoyed it. Nice blog Argyle. Your good humor is refreshing.

Haven't eaten ice cream in along while ..... Maybe this week.

Had a tough time spelling ABYSMAL. .... Kept putting the Y after the S. That's absy .... Er, pitiable.

Was SweePea a boy or a girl ?



Have a great week, you all.

desper-otto said...

Thanks, Boomer, for the confirmation about Pete. In those olden B&W days, I remember seeing a few 300 games bowled. After rolling ten in a row, it's gotta take some real concentration not to blow it on the final two.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone. Argyle sure has a talent for summing up a puzzle in a nuanced way. Thank you.

Enjoyed today's offering. Original theme. No real unknowns - although MOSH pit isn't in my wheelhouse. No strikethroughs today. Good job, Matt.

DARNING NEEDLE reminds me of when I was a kid with a hole in my sock and my Mom would stop me with a twinkle in her eye, grab her sewing kit and say"……gau mit de hitte Nodel" (quickly with the hot needle). Still remember her darning stone which was egg-shaped.

If you like Gershwin, you might like this intro. Be patient with the Hebrew; the subtitles are adequate to its understanding.

Have a great day.

Don said...

Thought youns might like this comic strip:
http://www.mycomicspage.com/thegrizzwells/2013/08/19/

Ex-pittsburgh Don

PK said...

Forgot to thank Matt for a great puzzle earlier. I can't believe this was such an in-tune easy run for me and Marti calls it "a bit schizophrenic". I aspire to get as good at puzzles as she is.

Spitz, Really enjoyed the Astrith Baltsan "Rhapsody in Blue" (not BLEU.) Such a magnificent piece, always a favorite. I also enjoyed hearing about Gershwin as a squirmy antsy little genius. Do you think he would have produced his masterpieces if they'd put him on Ritalin to make him less annoying?

I've been mulling over that science piece of the other day that stated there is no suction. I think a man who never breast fed a baby might come up with that statement. I'm here to tell you when a hungry infant latches onto you, man, that's pure dee suction. No other word for it.

HG: Did you notice the price of that mystery paperback was 35 cents? Those days are gone forever. Of course, all you guys weren't looking at a price.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Argyle said all that needs to be said. Amen.

Had braid before brush and viola before cello. And I can never remember if it's I or E in Olin.

Thanks, Argyle, for your succinct expo and thanks, Matt, for your efforts.

Have a great Monday.

Anonymous said...

Sweepea was a boy.

Anonymous said...

Marc goofed. The first word should be swirl if the clue is to be Dairy Queen. They do not use 'scoops' and they put a swirl on the top as they turn off the soft ice cream dispenser. Perhaps Basking Robbins would have been the better clue.

Don said...

Try Again:

http://www.mycomicspage.com/thegrizzwells/2013/08/19/

Lemonade714 said...

I seldom finish any puzzle quickly any more, but this was very easy one for me. I see BLEY CHEESE on the bottles and in the restaurants they have BLEU CHEESEBURGERS, so I did not think the absence of French warning was unfair.

Swee'pea was/is a boy. His outfit is BLUE/bleu.

HOT_L was also a a TV SERIES .

Thanks for the cartoon, here is the LINK .

Zcarguy said...

Morning ,

Nice and easy Monday offering , the only speed bump was self inflicted , I wrote CATS in place of Caws.

My only question mark is the clue / answer at 50 down
Both are from the same root , am I wrong ?

Gershwin Admirer said...

Spitz ooh, thank you thank you for the wonderful George Gershwin piece and story. I also clicked on a few more youtube s on Gershwin. Now I must rad him on Wiki.

What a genius !!

Thank GOD , for youtube ... God bless Sergei Brin or should I say Bil Gates ... Or Chen, Hurley and Karim.

Anonymous said...

I had syrup before scoop and cube before lump.

Misty said...

Well, I got it, but it wasn't a speed run, so I agree with the folks who thought this had Monday to Thursday elements in it. But I thought the theme was fun--many thanks, Matt. And Argyle, thanks for explaining HOTL Baltimore to me. I've run across this in a number of puzzles, and never understood it.

We attended a fun block party at a neighbor's home on our street last evening. Couldn't believe the gorgeous view of the Pacific! Who knew? Gigantic neighbors' trees block our views of everything, sigh. But it was a great party.

Have a great week, everybody!

Lucina said...

Hello, Argyle, and all.

Nice, quick and easy Monday puzzle, thank you Matt McKinley.

Argyle, thank you for explaining HOTL which although fit and I knew was right, didn't understand. I thought possibly it was a contraction.

BLEU is the accepted spelling for the cheese and the salad dressing so it seems perfectly acceptable. I've never seen it as "blue" cheese.

Once upon a time I used to darn my stockings, in a past life long ago, and had DARNING NEEDLEs as well as a wooden egg.

I hope your Monday is anything but ABYSMAL, everyone!

Anonymous T said...

G'Morning all!

Fun Monday. Other than the WAG for the R in 51d, and 66a, my only real hangup was my own hand writing the "D" was closed too high up and pinsandNEEDLES is where my mind went.

Thanks Argyle for the writeup on Matts AONE pzl.

Cheers, -T

Husker Gary said...

My lunchtime is 11:38 – 1:08 and so I am home for Joann’s cooking. Ain’t gov’t work great?
-I agree with anon in that an ice scream SCOOP in a Dairy Queen would be about as useful as a screen door in a submarine.
-PK, my eyes BLEARED when I saw that delectable corpus delecti and I did not see the price ;-). My Superman comics were a dime and Mad Magazine was a quarter. Now they reside in a landfill.
-I had a teammate whose urine tested out as having too much sugar and you can guess what response in this puzzle became his nickname in perpetuity
-Spitz, what a fabulous link replete with the very interesting story. I hope that lovely pianist can get her throat cleared sometime soon ;-).

thehondohurricane said...


Howdy all,

I'm surprised about the cluing for 1A upsetting some folks. What you going to put the ice cream into? Or were you supposed to bring your own cone, or "mayhap" a paper cup? The whole thing made perfect sense to me.

I don't care what day of the week it is, this puzzle was pretty easy. My only ???? was MOSH. Never heard of it, Perps were solid, so I was happy. To our resident wordsmiths. I have my own Webster's if I'm interested in the definition, which I'm not.

Similarly, I didn't question BLEU either. I don't have a taste for the dressing, but it's the only way I have ever seen it spelled. Check it out in your local market.

Pitcher Ryan Dempster has more of a problem then a sore arm. He's a ass. He did something last night I did not think anyone could do....... make AROD a sympathetic figure. I actually cheered for Alex when he homered in the 6th.

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, What Argyle said about this being a mixed bag Monday puzzle. Mosh, blears, and Hot'l were the sticking points for me. I had put in Manic for Mania and Blecrs was really, really, not something I knew was right. Blurs was the only thing I could think of for Blears. The Aha came finally, when I went through the vowels to see if I could fix that one answer.

Doha said it best,"All's well that ends well."

It's been a long time since I've had a Dairy Queen ice cream cone. I liked the soft-serve best. Now the local Salad place has self serve soft-serve at their dessert bar. That satisfies my once in a Blue Moon craving.

I used to use a darning needle and the darning egg that my father turned for me on his wood lathe. Socks these days never quite wear all the way through what with the synthetic fibers used today. But, if you wear cotton socks.....

Have a great day, everyone.

Chickie said...

Pitchers aren't the only ones with sore arms. I did some serious sewing using long, long strands of yarn, and by the end of the exercise, I had bursitis in my arm. This was the result of the repetitive motion over the couple of weeks it took me to finish my project.

I'm getting better, now, but it has taken me longer to heal than
it did to do the damage in the first place. My age is showing.

Gary, lucky to have such a nice long lunch hour. Enjoy Joann's cooking.

Bill G. said...

That was a pleasant Monday puzzle. No muss, no fuss, no red letters. Referring to soft serve as ice cream doesn't seem right to me though I'm sure it is commonplace.

Hondo, I completely agree. That's one thing that doesn't seem right about the American League; the pitchers don't bat because of designated hitters. In the National League, you can bet he would have been plunked the next time he came up. Plus, the umpires issue warnings AFTER he hit someone so the opposing pitcher can't retaliate without getting thrown out along with the manager. I think he should have been ejected immediately. Doesn't feel fair.

Sugar lumps must be extinct by now. It reminds me of a story from my early years of teaching. (Forgive me if I've told it before.) A nice boy come up to me after class and said that he knew I liked puzzles and that he had one for me. I said, "Great! Go for it." He said, "Two guys go into a coffee shop. The sugar bowl had 11 lumps of sugar. They both put sugar in their coffee, they each took an odd number of lumps of sugar and when they were finished, they had used up all of the sugar. "How many lumps did each one take?"
I could see that the math didn't work out so after a few seconds, I gave up. He said, "One took one one lump and one took 10 lumps." I didn't want to embarrass him so I said something like, "Well, you said they each took an odd number and 10 isn't an odd number."
He grinned and responded, "Yes, 10 is a very odd number of lumps of sugar to put in one cup of coffee."
I loved kids like that.

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. BLEARS? Sheesh. Too bad the city in Britain isn't called LEEDY.

HOTL made me laugh, but only because it reminded me of that Ogden Nash verse entitled Ketchup: Shake and shake and shake that bottle, None'll come and then a lot'll.

Wasn't Motl Tzeitl's boyfriend?

Tweedle dee dum and fiddle dee dee, twiddle your thumb and waddle awee.

Enough silly humor for now, and best wishes to you all.

Mari said...

D-Otto: What a beautiful cat you have in your avatar!

Bill G. said...

Here are a couple of little puzzles for you, sort of medium hard I think:

Fractions and marriage
In a town, three-fifths of the women are married to two-thirds of the men. What fractional part of the town’s adults are married?


Trip to Santa Barbara
When Humphrey drove to Santa Barbara to visit his sister, he averaged 60 mph for the first half of the trip and 40 mph during the second half. He figured that at an overall average speed of 50 mph he should have reached his sister’s house by 1 pm. In fact, he arrived at 1:06 pm. How far was the drive?

Blue Iris said...

Alternate QOD-
I have some ICE CREAM
I"m going to eat it all
You don't have no ICE CREAM
You don't get none
Cause you are on Welfare
You can't afford it
His father is an alcoholic...

Eddie Murphy
(just before he drops the CONE)

MY favorite ICE CREAM is actually custard a Sheridan's. I always get a Grant's Grasshopper which cost as much and has as many calories as full lunch.

Blue Iris said...

PK and Marti, I finished this Monday in record! Maybe I identify with schizophrenia or at the very least mental dysfunction.

Jayce said...

Spitzboov, that clip on Gershwin was fascinating. Thanks for posting it.

Montana said...

Busy,busy today. I solved this puzzle skipping all over the place. Doha Doc said it best. Excited wasn't clear-took a while. HOTL??

My little town has a DQ, but there are no SCOOPS there.

Loved the Gershwin link. Thanks.

Montana

Avg Joe said...

Busy here too, but had to say Thanks Spitz for the Gershwin piece. Well worth the time to watch it!

PK said...

Jayce, your mood seems so much better, I am glad. Did you decide to retire or did things get better at work?

When they were in high school, my two girls worked at Dairy Queen as "Dairy Fairies", they called themselves. No SCOOP involved unless something hit the floor. I waited for perps, but at one point was trying to think of some word for a chocolate dip cone. They SCOOPed a lot of sweetness onto the fronts of their uniforms which caused frantic laundering when they had to work too often with only a couple of the required outfits.

I inherited my grandmother's wooden darning egg which I used often to darn my husband's favored black wool socks. I tried to reinforce the thin spots before they became holes. I still have the "egg", but I'm retired from frugality such as darning.

Bill G. admirer said...

Bill G. - now, that's no bilge ... Lol

Fractions
If x are the man adults and y are the woe-man adults,

And. 25 caveats - no polygamy, no polyandry, no same sex unions etc., etc.

Total pops. Of adults. =. x + y. =. T

Married. Adults. =. 3/5 of y plus. 2/3 of x. =. M

Unmarried adults =. 2/5 of y. Plus 1/3 of x. =. U

Fraction of unmarried, living in sin, etc =. U /. T

Also since one man is entitled to marry only one woe-man, hence

3y / 5 =. 2x / 3

Solving, for the fraction, U / T. gives the fraction of. 7 / 19 or 36.842%

Since there are 10% more women, ( x = 0.9 y ). in this imagined world, this would make it even more a man's world.

Anonymous said...

The second one, is easier, I had 120 miles. You can also get it by trial and error, or re-iteration.

So, did you go to Santa Barbara to meet Barbara, when you were dating , growing up ?

Blue Iris said...

Spitz, I wish I had the lady @9:35 as my music appreciation teacher. I normally have no ear for music. Very interesting to know the origins of Gershwin. Love it!

I wonder how many boy's creativity was squelched by all the Ritalin handed out from the nurse's office.
I remember at the height of it's popularity I was handing out 63 meds at lunchtime.

Anonymous T said...

I can't recall if it was HG or Bill G. who posted the Si sphere the other day, but SIL just got her AP Physics prep book (she's a HS teacher) and it recommends the video. Crazy MANIA... Cheers, -T

AnonTTT said...

AnonT - it was me /. It was I / Moi it was ..

.( Another). Anon, on the Si sphere, and the kilogram definition. And the solid N2. Also the puzzle girl reference. (We Anon's have to stick together ... ). BTW, dId you locate Angela Olson Halsted .... She did a XWord with Michael Sharp, who is Rex Parker.

Argyle said...

L.A. Crossword Confidential scroll down to her Twitter site.

Anonymous T said...

Oh, another Anon who won't go Smurf. Well, thanks for the video - I'd never seen that youtube channel (and almost ODed on them - DTs?) and then showed SIL who also never seen them. Correction however, it is an AP Chem book, not Phys.

I found AOH - thanks!

Bill G. - I'll work out the math later and 2x check Admirer's math if I have time. New project bubbling up, so I need to ABSORB info tonight on a specialized topic.

Cheers, -T

Bill G. said...

Good puzzle thinking! Barbara didn't come from Santa Barbara but Long Island. I met her at Cornell.

Greek dancing is so joyous! This reminds me of Zorba the Greek. Did you see it? A Greek dance.

Excelsior!

m said...

Argyle, the LA Confidential link brought back memories of a sad day. But how lucky I was to find your blog, C.C.! You've been so wonderfully supportive of all of us for so long, and have definitely created another warm online community for us. Many thanks!

Misty said...

Sorry. That m was me, Misty. Door bell rang, confusion, well, you know.

Jayce said...

Hi Mari, no, I have not won the lottery :)

Jayce said...

PK. thanks for asking. I have, as they say, moved on. Hard as it was to resist responding to him and slamming him back, point for logical point, I forced myself not to. My wife, bless her heart, says I am a better man for not stooping to his level. Although relations are strained, and I shall ever remain on guard toward him, there is much work to do and missions to accomplish, so I'm hanging in there. Hell, work has been hardly more than a hobby for me for the last 3 years anyway, so I can allow myself to take whatever enjoyment I can in doing the work that I, deep down, enjoy doing.

Manac said...

Jayce, Just my two cents but your wife is right. You are the better man.
Nothing good could come out of it.
As long as you enjoy what you are doing its not work.
As for today's puzzle... I went through this quicker than......
well something through a goose.
Who was that masked man that once said its in your wheelhouse or it isn't?

Bill G. said...

I just finished watching the last episode of Foyle's War, "All Clear" and I really enjoyed it, all of it. I'm a big fan of that era though I had not seen it through the eyes of British characters. It makes a difference. I was very fond of the stories and the characters though I think D.C.S. Foyle might have been a hard person to work with or live with. He seemed very detached. However, I liked him in spite of it. I think I'll go back and catch up with some of the earlier episodes that I never saw.

~ Bill

PK said...

Jayce, good for you! He'll probably never forgive you for being the better man, but your own personal satisfaction is worth a lot. Hang in there!

Anonymous T said...

Bill G - Just coming up for air...

Traveling problem:

d/60-d/40-d/50 = .1 (.1h=6minutes).

Anon BillG Admirer got 120 right. I haven't played with the population yet, but I'll take his/her word.

Jayce - Good choice! Hold your head high. I've been told, fight battles you can win only if there's an upside (and not just moral superiority). Hard for me, a tech guy, to hold my mouth, but there it is.

D-O : Are you as upset with the changes in H-Chron's Star section as I? The cryptoquip is a ceasar cypher (boring), Heloise got moved, and Lio & For Better or For Worse are gone! This means my horoscope is going to be all messed up :-)

Anyone hear about Dick Van Dyke being in a burning car? Someone saved him and he is fine from what I heard. But wow!

Cheers, -T

-T

Anonymous T said...

Oops typo. Should be d/60+d/40-d/50=.1 -T

Bill G. said...

AnonT, yes I heard about Dick VD. His Jaguar burned to a crisp on a freeway about 45 minutes NW of here. Apparently he's fine.

Anonymous T said...

Bill G - I found it on CNN. I was expecting a scandalous tale around it, but, yeah, the Jag just went boom. I love DVD. My favorite was him on Wait-Wait Don't Tell Me on NPR where he actually sang the DVD show theme lyrics Link . Cheers, -T

Abejo said...

Good Tuesday morning, folks. Thank you, Matt, for a fine Monday puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for the fine review.

I did this on Tuesday, not having enough time yesterday.

Bill G.: In Iran they still use sugar lumps. They pour hot tea into a small tea cup. Put a couple lumps of sugar in their mouths and then drink the tea through the sugar in their mouths. The tea quickly melts the sugar as they drink it.

Puzzle was easy. Had to print it from Mensa. Cruciverb did not have it.

Thank you, Argyle, for explaining HOT L. Makes sense.

ABYSMAL was quite a word for Monday. Liked it, however.

Never heard of MOSH.

Theme was good.

Off to my Tuesday.

Abejo

(srksho)