Theme: "Lip Service" - X is removed from each theme entry.
23A. Intuition of some "Star Wars" villains? : THE SITH SENSE. The Sixth Sense.
34A. Weaknesses of a prof's helper? : TA LIABILITIES. Tax liabilities.
59A. Holiday elves who can't get along? : ARCTIC FOES. Must be Santa's fault! Arctic foxes.
81A. Coughing and sneezing? : STATE OF FLU. State of flux.
98A. Fashion collaboration of actor James and a one-named rock-'n'-roller? : MASON-DION LINE. Mason–Dixon line. James Mason & Dion.
22D. "Stop adding milk and sugar to these brews!"? : DON'T MESS WITH TEAS. Exactly how I drink tea. Only tea. Don't Mess with Texas.
32D. Dutch South Africans in need of exercise? : HEAVYWEIGHT BOERS. Heavyweight boxers.
115A. Unexpected affection, and an alternate title for this puzzle : STOLEN KISSES
Another
grid with theme entry intersection. Lovely. Seldom can I make this
approach work, so I'm always in awe when others make it happen.
Also
loved the fact that the constructor stole all the kisses away. You can
find 25 letters in this grid. Just no X. Tough love!
Across:
1. Sphere of influence : AMBIT. Not an easy start for me.
6. Making waves? : ROWING. great clue.
12. Inbox clogger : SPAM
16. Solstice mo. : DEC
19. Video game princess : ZELDA. And 80. "Super Mario" brother : LUIGI. And 10D. 19- and 80-Across letters : NES.
20. One making bread : EARNER
21. Wiry-coated terrier : AIREDALE
25. Bullied : HECTORED
26. Airport pickup concern, briefly : ETA
27. Good things to keep about you : WITS. Keep your wits about you.
28. Bob or weave : COIF
30. Actress Campbell : NEVE. Loved "Party of Five".
31. Lint roller target, maybe : CAT HAIR
39. Stage direction : ENTER
41. Back : REAR
42. Purell target : GERM
43. Showy display : ECLAT. There is a booth at the flea market yesterday with "Free Tattoo" sign on. I'm going to explore more next week.
46. Church official : DEACON
48. Penniless one : HAVE NOT
52. Surrendered : WAIVED. Look what's in his hands? Ready to surrender! Dudley, maybe Dave or Gary can teach you how to upload pictures. Or you can just open a blogger account.
 |
| CrossEyedDave |
54. Hibachi residue : ASH
55. Help-wanted ad periods : AFTs
57. Not all : SOME
58. Daytime __ : EMMY
63. Mane character in Narnia : ASLAN
64. Gush : SPEW
65. Posthumous 2009 George Harrison album : LET IT ROLL. No idea. Wiki said "The track list was selected by George's widow, Olivia Harrison, with some assistance from close friends and family."
66. To the sky : UPWARD
67. British heiress __ Khan : JEMIMA. Lots of tabloid coverage when she dated Hugh Grant, who's now dating a Chinese.
69. Stud spot : EAR
70. Find on the dial : TUNE IN
72. Ten-armed species : SQUIDs
74. Goalie's protective wear : NECK GUARD. For Splynter. Did you listen to our advice and give up the Home Depot girl?
77. See 85-Across : TRUE. And 85. With 77-Across, "Amen!" : TOO
82. Flashy promotion : HYPE
83. Hardly hard up : RICH
84. Wisecrack : JEST
86. Call for : ENTAIL
88. Cowboy hat : STETSON
90. Doyle's narrator : WATSON
93. Wee : EENSY
94. Tug or tub : BOAT
95. Roof rim : EAVE
96. Led Zeppelin's "Whole __ Love" : LOTTA
103. Much-kneaded treatment? : MASSAGE. Nice clue also.
107. Up to it : ABLE
108. Little cut : NICK
109. Like eyes "you can't hide," in an Eagles song : LYIN
111. Time chunk : ERA
112. "Ghastly grim and ancient" poem title critter : THE RAVEN
120. Jersey output : COW'S MILK. Jersey cows. Like HEN'S EGG I saw in a grid sometime ago, COW'S MILK strikes me as redundant, as I connect milk with cows, and eggs with hens. GOAT MILK/GOAT'S MILK is fine.
121. Fancy : ORNATE
122. Verbatim line : QUOTE
123. MD office posting : HRS
124. Skip over : PASS. Good advice to some grumpy anons. Skip over! We like our tomato & pizza & mundane talks.
125. Monster's nickname : NESSIE
126. Flower part : SEPAL
Down:
1. Montezuma subject : AZTEC
2. Maestro Zubin : MEHTA. He's an Indian Parsi. Freddie Mercury is another one. Vidwan said Parsis are very talented or some other adjective.
3. Pasture cry : BLEAT
4. Dog tags, say : IDs
5. __ chi ch'uan : TAI
6. Put back to work : RE-HIRED
7. Brewer's kiln : OAST
8. Pull with effort : WREST
9. Country stopover : INN
11. Like Keats's urn : GRECIAN
12. Indian title : SAHIB
13. Battles with thrown weapons : PIE FIGHTS
14. Orbit bit : ARC
15. 49-Down, as a rookie : MET. And 49. Holder of numerous pitching records who never won a Cy Young Award : NOLAN RYAN. You all nailed this, right? At least, TTP did. I asked on the blog a few months ago how many Cy Young Awards Nolan Ryan won.
16. "Is this too big a chance?" : DARE I
17. French student : ELEVE
18. Hands over : CEDES
24. Noodlehead : TWIT
29. Boathouse item : OAR
33. Get in the game : ANTE
35. Pritzker Prize winner : ARCHITECT. Their Nobel. The Pritzker family owns the Hyatt hotels.
36. Name of 13 popes : LEO
37. Green expanses : LEAs
38. Journalist Kupcinet : IRV
40. Chemical experiment substances : REACTANTS
43. Pasture moms : EWES
44. Tent site : CAMP
45. Gimlet ingredient : LIME JUICE. I like lemon, but not lime.
47. European wine region : ASTI
50. General Bradley : OMAR
51. Lean : TEND. I don't get how these two are equivalents.
53. Some surrealist works : DALIs
55. IM pioneer : AOL
56. Was embarrassed : FELT A FOOL
60. Sleep lab letters : REM. Rapid Eye Movement.
61. Coot relative : CRAKE. Learning moment for me.
62. Overlooked : FORGOTTEN
63. O'Neill's "The Hairy __" : APE
66. Inordinate : UNDUE
68. Early 16th-century date : MDI. 1501.
71. High-tech address : URL
72. Some 35mm cameras : SLRs
73. Pack it in : QUIT
75. Scarf down : EAT
76. Crop circle makers, supposedly : UFOs
78. "Breaking __ Hard to Do" : UP IS. I used to think Neil Sedaka has Japanese roots because of his surname.
79. Long and slimy : EELY
81. Guards : SENTINELS
84. Fonda's "The Grapes of Wrath" role : JOAD
87. Acrobats' gear : NETS
89. Lamont, to Fred Sanford : SON. Sanford and Son.
90. Continues strolling : WALKS ON
91. Prefix with fauna : AVI
92. One who is honored and hopeful : NOMINEE
95. Cause of an env. bulge : ENC. Mine is mainly because of baseball cards inside.
97. Do miserably, in slang : TANK
98. Stick in a box : MATCH. D'oh moment.
99. Not fancy at all : ABHOR
100. Gobs : SLEWS
101. Porcine patter : OINKS. This meaning of "patter" is new to me. I thought it's just a made-up word (one who pats).
102. Those girls, in Oaxaca : ELLAs
104. Memorable moralist : AESOP
105. Actress Scacchi : GRETA. Never heard of her. Italian-Australian.
106. Gallery item : EASEL
110. "Tintin in Tibet" creature : YETI. Onager guess.
113. "MTV Unplugged" lack : AMP
114. Through : VIA
116. Uno e due : TRE
117. Clip-__: ties : ONs
118. High nos. for rocket scientists? : IQs
119. Try to take to the cleaners? : SUE
C.C.
48 comments:
Happy Sunday everybody!
Well, I only had an hour for lunch and this one took me right up to the last minute to get the Ta-Da. Had all squares filled, then had to go over the answers one-by-one to see where I messed up. Wouldn’t you know it - it was the last word, SEPAL….
At first I thought the theme had to do with some kind if lisp (SITH SENSE). The unifer eventually steered me in the right direction….
Unknowns solved by perps: CRAKE, ASLAN, JEMIMA, IRV, AMBIT, AVI, and the aforementioned SEPAL….
Nice misdirection / V8 moments for: ABHOR, COIF, PIE FIGHTS…. Speaking of which, some of the funniest moments in this famous pie fight scene don’t show you the pie being thrown, just the aftermath….
Isn’t OMAR also a famous tent maker…? Nice CAMP site tent, CED!
WAY too familiar with the lint roller being used to pick up CAT HAIR….
LET IT ROLL is also the name of a pretty good album (and title song) by Little Feat….
Learned a new nickname for snarky anons today – HECTOR....
And finally, speaking of X’s, LYIN’ Eyes is the ex’s theme song…. No HYPE, merely TOO TRUE!
Morning, all!
Fun Sunday puzzle today. Took me awhile to figure out what was going on with the theme, even after getting the theme reveal, but it was definitely worth it.
Most of the puzzle went smoothly, but I got hung up a bit on CRAKE and JEMIMA, neither of which I knew. When I didn't get the *TADA* at the end, I figured it had to be CRAKE's fault, but all the perps were rock solid. After going through the puzzle again carefully, I finally noticed I had JEMIME crossing REACTENTS. Oops. I wanted REAGENTS originally, and when I finally switched it to REACTANTS I didn't change the E to an A.
[Edustif]
Greetings!
Happy belated Bday, mb!
Great puzzle, Paul! Swell expo, CC!
No cheats. Even got the TADA without having to proofread for typos!
Cute theme. But as Barry said, took awhile to figure out. Needed second clue to make sense of it. Have never heard of a CRAKE!
Have a nice Sunday!
Good Morning, C.C., and friends. Interesting Sunday puzzle. Some of the theme clues and answers seemed a bit obscure to me.
My favorite clue, for obvious reasons, was Lint Roller Target = CAT HAIR.
I also liked One Making Bread = EARNER. I am making the other type of Bread today.
C.C.: Lean and TEND came similar if you think, I am leaning towards getting vanilla ice cream; and I tend to go for the vanilla ice cream.
Battles with Thrown Weapons = PIR FIGHTS just didn't do it for me.
QOD: I don’t have a fear of flying; I have a fear of crashing. ~ Billy Bob Thornton (Aug. 4, 1955)
[illstifm]
Good morning C.C. et al.
Thanks so much for posting the pictures of CED and my Saturday hero, "Steve"!!!
I got the theme at THE SITH SENSE (loved that movie, BTW.) But that didn't make it easier to get all the others. I didn't know FOxES were that abundant in the ARCTIC, and was looking for something like "polar opposites."
More hockey today, continuing from yesterday's mini theme with NECK GUARDS. Huh? I know about shin guards and face guards and mouth guards, but had no clue about those.
It took me way longer than usual to finish this one, but finally figured out the ARCHITECT's prize and CRAKE to finish up. No lookups needed.
Have a lovely day, everyone!
Good morning!
C.C., I really chuckled at that, "or some other adjective..." remark. I have the same take on LEAN and Tend that Hahtoolah explained. But I still don't understand what NES has to do with ZELDA or LUIGI. Are those games written by somebody whose initials are NES?
My PIE FIGHTS began life as PUNIC WARS. Didn't last. I did get NOLAN RYAN, but totally forgot that you asked about that, C.C. I do remember GRETA Scacchi from a not-very-memorable Harrison Ford mystery drama. I've forgotten the title, but GRETA was memorable.
NES - Nintendo Entertainment System
This was quite a bit like yesterday's Silkie. Not very easy to get started, and just a slow plod all the way through, but got er done eventually. Hand up for Crake being an unknown, but the perps were solid so it stayed.
Doha Doc, "Let it Roll" by da Feat was my first thought too. In case you weren't aware, lead vocals in that reincarnation of Little Feat were by Craig Fuller of Pure Prairie League fame (Think "Amy"). I haven't followed them since that album, but it was pretty good.
I really enjoy the intricate challenge of this theme coupled with making it a anagram minus the x was awesome.
Thanks C.C. and Paul.
Can you enjoy a puzzle where you have never heard of 1 Across? Yup! AMBIT supplanted ORBIT because of perps (hey, I even knew MEHTA) but it took MASON DION LINE to get the theme. Fun! …TEA(X)S my fav.
Musings
-I’ve had friends and relatives who made edible SPAM here in this Hormel town
-My commute required headlights to and from work around the DEC solstice
-Stopping bullying in school is almost impossible
-Kipling admired you “If you can keep your head (WITS) when all about you are losing theirs…”
-My school bus driver friends work Mrns and AFTS
-The second A in ASLAN cost me a “got ‘er done” last week
-We had an early TV without a discrete (click, click…) tuner and you had to carefully turn the dial to TUNE IN
-HYPE is all STETSON and no cattle, right Otto?
-We called cars like these BOATS
-You can be GAME but not ABLE or vice versa
-We are staying at a KC Holiday INN with this view on Thursday to watch the red hot Royals play the Red Sox
-We had a EWE BLEATING in the LEA today
-All of us teachers have had a lesson plan TANK
-What fabulous Neil Simon play contains conflict over whether to say “ENTER” or “Come in”?
Hi Y'all! Another hard one! This kept me saying, "Hunh?" So much didn't quite make sense to me when I got black letters: AMBIT, HECTORED, ECLAT, AVI, CRAKE, NES, etc. Kept me engrossed though, Paul.
Hand up for thinking some kind of lisp when I got SITH. Didn't finally catch onto the theme until MASON DION LINE appeared among the last fills. I'm still kind of iffy about the connection between "Lip Service" and STOLEN KISSES. Meh!
Thank you, C.C., for your help parsing TA(X) LIABILITIES. I wondered who TALI was who had ABILITIES. Duh! No idea where to put the "X".
22D I've read about sugar & cream in TEAS but never knew anyone who used it. The brew I tried to keep them from MESSing with was "beer". Having lived there a short while, DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS is familiar.
Rain has been falling here since about 4 a.m. Puddles everywhere. Very gloomy.
HG: As you know, one of the big problems with wiping out bullying in the schools is that bullies are often bullied at home and take the same behavior to school. Parents who bully never recognize the destructiveness in themselves as a problem. Too sad!
Then we have a few teachers who bully. We once had a bully of a mom who campaigned to get a bully teacher out of the system. That was a real farce. The teacher stayed another 15 years. She and her teacher husband were social friends of the principal.
Addendum to my landscape pix of yesterday
-I always think of the “disaffected youth” lyrics from Pleasant Valley Sunday when I mow the lawn. The Monkees, et al were glad to take the money from the kids of people whose parents lived in status symbol land.
-Abejo, I found that weed and pulled it ;-)
-Joann loved the comments on all her plantings and we’d love to see other yards from our entourage such as the bananas on Keith’s south wall and Marti’s fabulous backyard she sent me off the blog
-Like CC, I love the stories and pix of mundane activities like those of Dave and Splynter today. Wait a minute; Dave and Splynter are definitely not mundane. Did we go see the Home Depot girl about a new mower yesterday? NYET!
Argyle, thanx for the Nintendo info. News to me.
Husker, I was going to link Randy Newman's song, but the only youtube link for it is soundless and only 4 seconds long??? BTW, I think you'd enjoy the game more if you were to go to that ballpark rather than watching the game from the hotel. :) I did enjoy your garden pics yesterday.
Good Morning:
I'm a little grumpy today due to:
1. I couldn't get the puzzle on Cruciverb and have no idea why because I could get every other puzzle-just no LA Times.
2. I downloaded from the Mensa site and discovered there was no title. In addition, several of the Down clues were missing. These lapses caused much confusion.
3. The squares are small and the numbers are so tiny I think my eyesight will never recover from the squinting I had to do.
That said, I finished w/o help. Kudos to Mr. Hunsberger for a very cleverly crafted challenge and to CC for a very nice write-up.
HG - The Neil Simon play is The Sunshine Boys. I never saw the play, but the movie with Walter Mattheau (sp?) and Geroge Burns was hilarious.
Nice pictures of CED and Splynter enjoying some leisure time.
Happy Sunday.
Hello, C.C. and all.
Wow, C.C., am I glad you explained the theme! I was stuck on lisping and actually sashayed right along rather quickly until I hit the Naticks of ARCHITECT/LET IT ROLL/NECK GUARD.
ARCHITECT because I read Pulitzer and didn't realize it was Pritzker until reading your blog! Drat!
So even though it was a DNF for me I thoroughly enjoyed this gem from Mr. Paul Nunsberger.
Later!
Have a fantastic Sunday, everyone!
Has the LA Times changed their site and eliminated the ability to download puzzles? Two days in a row--no page there. Where else can we go to get the puzzles in PUZ format?
Hi there~!
"Steve" checking in - C.C. and HG, I have been back to HD, and that's a NYET~! for me, too
I was fooled into thinking this was a lisp theme, especially with SITH to start....and a pangram-X~? Sounds like algebra to me - Great puzzle
Throat guard and neck guard - two pieces of equipment I do not use - we play with a Mylec ball, so there's little chance of taking a shot to that area - on the toes, that's a different story....
Had an unofficial 40th B-day for my brother yesterday, and a belated Happy B-day to Melissa Bee~!
SPLYNTER
CC & DO -
LEAN toward and TEND toward
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Paul Hunsberger, for a swell puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for a swell review.
Well, I tried Cruciverb and no cigar, just as Irish Miss reported. Tried Chicago Trib site and could not get the puzzle. Went to the Mensa.net site and was able to print it. as Irish Miss said 3 of the Down Clues were missing: part of 84, all of 87 and 89. Went back to the site and read them and wrote them down. Theme was also missing.
After all that I got started.
Puzzle was good. Picked up on the theme with MASONDION LINE and STOLEN KISSES.
Had STAGE OF FLU for a while. Fixed that to STATE OF FLU.
Had BAR for 69A. Changed that to EAR after ARCHITECT appeared.
Had TALI ABILITIES for 34A. Got it right but did not know it.
Had SWAMI for 12D. Fixed that to SAHIB. That corner was my tough area.
AMBIT was easy. Five perps and away we go!
Lots to do. See you tomorrow.
Great photos of CED and Splynter.
Abejo
(typoki)
Can somebody help me out? If you're getting your Sunday Xword in the LA Times, WHERE do you find it?
I have long assumed that the Sunday puzzle published in the "Arts & Books" section was a separate entity from the daily pzls. And it IS. That pzl, posted on page E12, is by Merl Reagle, not Paul Hunsberger.
The Times' Index on page 2 only lists the Reagle Xword. So WHERE does everybody else find the Hunsberger? Section and page, please?!
Keith, most of us don't read the LA Times. The syndicated LA Times crossword is published by many different newspapers around the country. I get my copy from the Houston Chronicle. You can find the puzzle online at the Chicago Tribune website, at Cruciverb and also at the Mensa website. For some unknown reason, the LA Times doesn't carry its own Sunday puzzle.
I did this puzzle in small pieces throughout the day because I was involved in other things. It seemed about average for a Sunday. There were no unknowns. I needed four perps for CRAKE, but when I got it I remembered seeing it before, a V-8 can moment. I finished the puzzle sitting beside the road waiting for a tow from AAA because my alternator quit.
BTW early this AM I printed my puzzle from the Mensa site, complete with a title and all the clues.
I liked the theme, STOLEN KISSES. I thought lip service meaning kisses, was cute. In XOXO, hugs and kisses, x stands for kisses, which Paul stole from each theme answer.
What an adorable arctic fox picture. The arctic fox is a small white breed of fox native to the arctic regions.
PIE FIGHTS held me up a bit, but I found it clever. Bob or weave = COIF, also clever.
I wanted reagents, too, but it was too short.
We have PATTER calls in square dancing. When we are new we learn the names of the steps. The caller choreographs these steps in all kinds of unique and ingenious ways and calls them out as we dance. You have to be on your toes to react immediately to each unexpected step as called. These are called PATTER calls. A set, called a tip, consists of a PATTER call and a singer. In the singer the caller calls the steps to the music of a favorite song, repeating the same sequence of steps four times. One of our favorite calls is Yellowrock.
Blue Iris,
Nope. Deng was actually purged during Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Nixon visited China in 1972. Deng rose to power after he outwitted Mao's successor Hua. Then he started the "Open Door" policy. He was the person who made the decision to crack down those Tiananmen Square protests.
Keith,
What D-Otto said. Click here for the ads-free Mensa site.
I have a question for our Ann Arbor readers. What puzzle does your paper carry on Sundays?
Thank you, desper-o & CC!
Curiouser and curiouser...
I will try the Mensa site.
I got the puzzle from the Chicago Trib site at 1:30 a.m. with no problems.
Yr: Sorry to hear of your alternator trouble. Been there, done that years ago. Never fun or cheap.
I'm ba-aack - and a winner - thanks to C.C. Burnikel for leading me to the Mensa posting.
It's the first time I worked a xword on line, and it will take me some getting used to. I appreciate the extra that Mensa throws in: the easy search to line up clues with fills, and even the red letters when I entered a wrong letter. I'm nopt so sure about the latter. I didn't request it but I guess they supply it to all who, like me, register as a "regular" level of player.
The main problem--and one that may keep me from trying more Sunday pzls this way-- is that I can't carry the pzl around with me as I go through my morning routine. Even if I were to switch to my laptop, I wouldn't feel free to lug it into the bathroom or set it up on the sink while I shower.
It really is weird that the LA Times doesn't carry its own Sunday xword but opts for a weekly "Puzzler."
QUESTION: How do others rate the difficulty of the Sunday xword? I found this not all that hard, maybe equal to a Wednesday or Thursday puzzle. What do YOU say?
Hello everybody. Neato puzzle today. Stumbled over the same areas many of you did. I worked this puzzle, the NYT puzzle, and the Merle Reagle puzzle; I'm all worn out. So I'll say no more and wish you all well.
Keith, I find the Sunday puzzles generally to be less difficult than Friday and Saturday puzzles. It's just that they're big that makes them time-consuming to solve. Personally, I like that on Sundays.
I couldn't solve today's Merle Reagle puzzle on line because it required a numerical digit to be entered in one of the squares, but the puzzle software disallows typing numerical digits. I finally clicked on "Solve Puzzle" and sure enough a "1" appeared in that space. I am less than gruntled.
Oh, the Jumble was fun today, too. I almost always like the Jumble, not only for the word play but also for the drawings.
Howdy. They weather is pleasant and cool but grayish as is typical for this time of year. They talk about June gloom but it often lasts until August. Then we run the risk of high pressure, Santa Ana winds and hot/dry conditions conducive to brush fires. I prefer the gloom.
Keith, the LA Times always runs the Merl Reagle puzzle instead. The reason is not obvious to me. I'm guessing that Rich could explain the history if he would stop by. (I would enjoy it if he would drop in from time to time but he never/hardly ever seems to.) Maybe CC knows?
Keith, in the Master Level, you get no red-letter help. I always start out that way until I run into trouble, always on Saturday. Also, you can save the online puzzle and then start up again from your saved version. Ask if you need clarification.
I liked the puzzle but found the theme unsatisfying. Like Splynter, I thought it might have something to do with lisping from the title and when SITH showed up. Leaving out Xs seems like an OK idea except that the title mislead me. I liked the 'Stolen Kisses' hint OK but not the title, "Lip Service."
I was surprised to learn I wasn't sure how to spell SENTINELS. It must be my CRS acting up again.
I continue to be pissed off at the TimeWarner and CBS conflict. CBS has even gone so far as blocking their online content from TimeWarner customers.
Keith:
What Jayce said about the Sunday puzzles. Generally, they are of medium difficulty but the fun lies in the volume of fill. I love that and I love to look for puns, word play and the like.
If it were as difficult as Friday and Saturday, I doubt too many solvers would take that much time for it.
Funny thing about stolen kisses,
Sometimes they work,,,
& sometimes they dont...
Hope everyone is good today.
Failed in the SW.
Didn't get AFTS Afternoons I guess.
Probably won't remember ASLAN the next time either.
BillG. You probably have had cable a long time. We never got it. Don't want holes drilled in our 100 year old house.
Wasted expense, as far as we see it.
You live in Manhattan Beach. Get a converter box and an antenna.
You can pull in all the networks, UHF from your location.
Then thumb your nose at Time-Warner.
We have an antenna by which we receive all the TV channels we care to. Works great. Now if only I could find a DVR to receive and record programs just like our old VHS recorder used to do.
As you may recall from a few days ago, I was trying to teach Jordan to get on a bicycle by himself. Today, he would start with his right leg over the bike with the pedal on the other side up. Then he would push down and get going by himself. (I was paying him a quarter for every effort.) Then the next step was to use his left leg to stand on the left pedal while gently coasting down a slope. He was planning to go only for a few feet but the bike kept rolling with him feeling comfortably in control. After a couple more successful rolls, I pointed out to him that it would be a piece of cake to just throw his leg over, just the reverse of getting off. He did it! We were both very pleased with his success. The trick was to get him feeling comfortable trying little things that I knew he could do.
Bill G how wonderful for Jordan and you! Congratulations. We each learn in our own way. Soon Jordan will be confidently zooming everywhere.
And now Jordan has a pocket full of quarters. He might not be learning to ride, but he's learning how to shake down Grampa.
Bill G.... my suggestion with your cable co- for what it is worth - is for you and all the people you know that have the same service is to put as much pressure on them as possible... call every day... threaten to close your account and go elsewhere... anything you can think of.... just call and pressure....
Directv did this a year or so ago..... it didn't last long...
Good luck :)
thelma
BillG:
You are such a great grandfather. I am sure Jordan will have those memories all his life.
I have so many good memories of my grandmothers from growing up, even my great grandparents. It's a very special relationship.
Aside from Anon's snarkiness or weak attempt at humor, it did bother me a little bit to be paying Jordan for something like this. However, he needed an incentive to overcome his trepidation about getting on a bike and I was happy to have found something that did the job. I knew he could do it but he wasn't convinced.
Damn TimeWarner/CBS!
Thanks Thelma. It's worth a try. However, from what little I know about the situation, I'm thinking maybe CBS bears more of the blame.
I just came across Elvis singing "In the Garden." What is there about old hymns that tugs at my heart? How Great Thou Art, Peace in the Valley, Amazing Grace, etc.
Bill G... I have no doubt that you are right about CBS....:) my thought tho.... if there was enough pressure put on Time Warner and CBS, if a person could even get to CBS, they might want to settle sooner ... they either stand to lose viewers or customers and I don't think they really want to do that... and of course I could be all washed up.... :) :)
Take good care of that grandson of yours... it is a great age... I like your tactics... think I will start putting quarters away around here for when it might be necessary... :)
thelma
I can't comment on the pzl - Sundays are too packed...
Comcast and the Astros had this fight earlier this year... Both lost as far as I'm concerned....
Bill G. Did someone mention you're in NYC? There's a streaming service called Aereo that the courts said can re-broadcast NYC signals over the internet. Google Aereo and maybe that can fill the CBS gap while the "big boys" fight it out.
-T
Thelma, thanks for your input. Lucina, also thanks.
Anon T, no, I'm in the Los Angeles area.
Bill G... Sorry I got your location wrong (only off by a coast); Aereo hasn't gone that far west yet...
-T
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