google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, September 4, 2013 Victor Barocas

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Sep 4, 2013

Wednesday, September 4, 2013 Victor Barocas

Theme: Sultans of Swing

17A Legend with an ax: PAUL BUNYAN. I had JOHN at first (confusing my ax-men and my medieval preachers) and obviously this meant the NW corner took a little longer than it should.

23A Legend with a clarinet: BENNY GOODMAN.  The "King of Swing"

36A Legend with a vine: TARZAN OF THE APES: Burrough's tale first appeared in All-Story Magazine in 1912 before being published two years later in book form.



46A Legend with a bat: MICKEY MANTLE. Yankees Hall of Fame center fielder.

57A Legend with a bathrobe: HUGH HEFNER. I'll spare you the visual.

and the hint

65A Important word for 17-, 23-, 36-, 46- and 57-Across: SWING

Happy Wednesday everyone! Steve here with a really nice construction job from Victor Barocas. Five long theme entries, one a grid-spanner and an additional hint with the final Across entry. Some smooth fill tying together those theme entries. A really good job!

(Bonus points if you can name the British rock band associated with the theme title).

Let's look at the rest:

Across:

1 Saw point: TOOTH. Nice play on words in the clue here.

6 Etching fluid: ACID

10 Touches affectionately: PATS

14 Prenatal exam, for short: AMNIO. Amniocentesis, for long.

15 Body part that smells: NOSE. All kinds of possibilities here, but thankfully not one of the "ewww" ones.

16 Jump in a skater’s short program: AXEL. Could it not be a jump in the long program too?

19 Actress Hayworth: RITA

20 Dinner pair?: ENS

21 Like cough syrup: ORAL

22 Indigenous New Zealander: MAORI. You most definitely do not want to mess with these guys.



26 Alcove: RECESS

29 Not at all well-done: RARE. Food! In "how do you like it cooked" terms, there's one more "rarer" designation which the French call "bleu". The meat is briefly seared on each side and that's it.

30 “Let’s Get __”: Marvin Gaye hit: IT ON

31 Udder parts: TEATS.

33 Jamaican genre: SKA. This musical style boomed in the UK in the late 70's. Check out the aptly-named Madness in this goofy music video.

40 Animal on Michigan’s state flag: ELK

41 Coffee shop cupful: LATTE

42 Fishing tool: LURE

43 “Your Majesty”: SIRE

44 It includes a bit of France: IBERIA. A very petit peu indeed - French Cerdagne comprises 210 square miles out of Iberia's total of more than a quarter-million.

51 Betting every last chip: ALL-IN 





52 Hat-borne parasites: LICE. That's why you never buy a hat at a yard sale. Eeew. They're pretty horrific magnified, so I'll spare you that.

53 Toward the rudder: AFT

56 Charlatan, e.g.: LIAR

60 Sour: TART

61 Actor Morales: ESAI. I have a mental block with this actor - I always have to get it through the crosses.

62 Dutch pianist Egon who taught Victor Borge: PETRI. Talented chap, didn't he invent the dish for growing gross things in the biology lab?

63 Lime beverages: ADES

64 Holiday song: NOEL

Down:

1 Packer’s need: TAPE. Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers might think they need a wide receiver and a running back more than tape. Oh! Mover's tape! Forget what I just said.

2 Arab League member: OMAN

3 Burden: ONUS

4 Up to, briefly: 'TIL. Briefly, and poetically.

5 Bindle carriers: HOBOES

6 Former U.N. chief: ANNAN. Thank you, crosses.

7 How some flirt: COYLY.

8 Life-cabaret link: IS A. Liza Minnelli singing this classic in the movie

9 Place to relax: DEN. Not if it's a lion's den it's not.

10 Where to see floats: PARADE

11 Self-evident truth: AXIOM

12 Flashy tank swimmer: TETRA. Looks more like a neon "eat me" sign to any self-respecting predator.



13 Like many characters in Shakespeare’s dramas: SLAIN

18 Catering hall dispensers: URNS

22 Dashing inventor?: MORSE. I loved this - great clue.

23 1885 Motorwagen maker: BENZ. Note the German reference in the clue.

24 Reduce to small pieces: GRATE. I had GR so needed to wait for crosses to determine GRATE/GRIND

25 Inauguration Day pledge: OATH. The other type of oath is when the President-elect drops the Bible on his toe.

26 Customary observance: RITE

27 Reference list abbr.: ET AL. This is interesting in that the unabbreviated form can be one of three different ones depending on the gender of the items in the list: Et alii for masculine, Et aliae for feminine and Et alia for neuter. Those languages with noun genders really do cause lots of trouble (especially for 11-year old schoolboys like me learning Latin).

28 Bulletin board material: CORK

31 Icon on a pole: TOTEM

32 Immature newt: EFT. I never remember this one either. They are cute-looking though.



33 Goad: SPUR

34 “Felicity” star Russell: KERI

35 Like the Flying Dutchman: ASEA. Because "Ghost ship doomed to sail the seven seas for all eternity" doesn't fit.

37 “In space no one can hear you scream” film: ALIEN. If you magnify one of our head-scratching friends from 52A you get something pretty similar to this chap.



38 Not, quaintly: NARY. I've used this to mean "not even"; I didn't realize it actually meant "not".

39 On the safer side: ALEE. A sailboat should pass a sizeable object (like an island, a reef, a much bigger boat) on the lee side - there's no risk of being blown onto the danger.

43 Bypasses: SKIRTS

44 Chickenpox symptom: ITCH

45 Expletive replacements: BLEEPS. Tom Hanks sidestepped the bleep machine recently on Good Morning America and woke up the audience with a F-bomb. Ooops.

46 Sicily neighbor: MALTA

47 Epic that ends with Hector’s funeral: ILIAD. Homer's 8th Century BC Trojan War bestseller. Scribes managed to turn out three copies a year or something close to that.

48 County on the River Shannon: CLARE. Ireland's longest river reaches the Atlantic Ocean at Carrigaholt in Co. Clare.



49 Pond plants: ALGAE

50 Zero, to Nero: NIHIL

53 Prefix with war or hero: ANTI-. I'm not sure I've ever heard the term "anti-hero" before. Now I have.

54 Forest floor flora: FERN

55 High school math class: TRIG. Trigonometry for Farmers: Swine and Coswine.

57 Feathery layer: HEN. Lay-er. Another nice clue - had me head-scratching (no, not 52A!) for a moment. We had the plural in yesterday's puzzle.

58 Club for GIs: U.S.O. United Service Organizations. A non-profit, not a government agency.

59 “... but __ are chosen”: FEW. Or a bad day at the ice-cream cake factory - "Many are cold, but few are frozen"

I think I'd better call it a day after that! Have a great one!

Steve

59 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Sultans of Swing

River Doc said...

Happy Wednesday everybody!

Another day later in the week, another couple of minutes or so added to the time it takes to get the Ta-Da….

Favorite clue = a 4-way tie (!) between Body part that smells, Legend with a bathrobe, Forest floor flora, and Feathery layer….

Wasn’t that 60’s TV show Playboy after Dark supposed to be set in Hef’s DEN…?

Growing up, we had a friend we nicknamed Hef – I won’t embarrass him by revealing why….

Contrary to what the puzzle constructor would have you believe, the “Packer’s need” is to sign former 49er quarterback Scott Tolzien so he can clue them in on the Niner’s playbook for this week’s season opening contest….

“Let’s Get IT ON” is also the catch phrase of Mills Layne, the boxing referee. He refereed "The Bite Fight" in which Mike Tyson twice bit Evander Holyfield’s ear….

Steve – Dire Straits (The Sultans of Swing)?

I’m ALL IN…. see y’all tomorrow!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Great theme today. Blew threw most of the puzzle with the greatest of ease, except for two spots. PETRI was a complete unknown but was fortunately gettable via the perps. A real outlier for a Wednesday puzzle, I thought.

I then struggled a bit in the SW corner. Neither MALTA not CLARE came to me immediately, and I didn't connect charlatan with LIAR at first. Tried MILAN for awhile, but finally abandoned it. Once I went with MALTA, the corner fell quickly.

[gypesten]

Anonymous said...

Dire Straits.

TTP said...

Doha,
The vid you linked wasn't available: "The uploader has not made this video available in your country." Was there questionable content ? :>)

Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

No problems today, NARY a one. As usual, I had no clue as to the theme until the reveal.

With both LATTE and ANNAN in the puzzle, is that a mini-coffee theme?

I remember the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan flicks of my ute. There was nothing better than a Saturday afternoon Tarzan/Jungle Jim fest, complete with a cliffhanger serial. Admission 15 cents, popcorn cost a dime.

HeartRx said...

Good morning Steve, C.C. et al.

Wonderful puzzle today, but you really ramped up the enjoyment with your write-up, Steve. You had me chuckling all the way through!

My fav clue today was "Body part that smells" for NOSE. Eeewwww...I was all over the place with that one!

TTP - I couldn't open Doha Doc's link, either. So thanks for re-linking the Dire Straits song.

Shanah tovah for those who will be observing the RITE of Rosh Hashanah!

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Zoomed right through, pausing only in the SW corner where I mixed up Malta and Yalta. I seem to have trouble keeping them straight. Loved the theme today, thanks Victor!

Morning Steve, you made good use of Sultans of Swing! I see that the answer, Dire Straits, is known. For the longest time I thought they were an American band, but then the Internet got invented and I could read up on such things.

Finishing up yesterday's Moog thing: at the very bottom of Bob Moog's Wiki page, I noticed a quote in which the man said his father's grandfather came from Marburg, Germany. Fair enough.

DLR said...

I REALLY enjoyed this puzzle.

As I worked my way down to dixie, I was wondering what all these long entries had in common. Then HUGH HEFNER exposed himself and I was thoroughly flabbergasted.

Like Steve, my last letter was the W in SWING. As I looked back over the theme entries, especially Mr. Playboy, I pondered the connection. Then, SCHWIIINNG!, it hit me! What a fun aha moment.

For equal time, the American rock band who definitely liked to SWING.

River Doc said...

Well, I just don't get it. The Dire Straits link still works on my end. However, I will say that I get that "video not available in your country" pop-up quite a lot here....

And "questionable" is, of course, in the eye of the beholder....

Lemonade714 said...

For a Wednesday this went very quickly for me, with the long fill making the rest easier. Victor another of our Minnesota creators is becoming a reliable regular.

I too did not know PETRI, liked all the dipthongs, thought NIHIL might be hard for a Wednesday, liked CORK just above CLARE and Steve's write up was great.

L'shana tovah, May you all be inscribed in the book of life for a very sweet year.

TTP said...

Doha, yes, I would think you would get more of that over there than we would here.

How did I like this puzzle and review ? Well done, Victor. Well done, Steve.
Marvin Gaye - Lets get it on and bonus Your Precious Love (w/ Tammi Terrell)

Steve, ditto on the mental block with ESAI Morales, except mine is a bit more frayed. I always think of the actress from Happy Days, Erin Morales and want to enter Erin. Eventually perps tell me it's ESAI, and then I remember her name is Moran, not Morales.

See all y'all later n'at.

thehondohurricane said...

Good day to all,

No beating around the bush........ a Wednesday DNF. My Felicity star was Teri Russell, not KERI. Never bothered to look at 33A, Sta. Doubt it would have looked out of place.

Like Steve, I rely on perps to fill in ESAI, but 50D Zero, to Nero was a ????????? so Esau/Nihul looked OK. So two bloopers equal one more failed effort.

I had another thought for 15A NOSE too and the last two letters also ended in SE.

AMNIO arrived at via 100% perps. Would never have solved it on its own . Can't say why, but NARY GRATES on me.

I wonder what Mick's stats would have been without the injuries? I suspect today's players would never gotten close to his records with or without the drugs.

Thanks Victor, overall. an enjoyable failure. Steve, nice, informative write-up.



HeartRx said...

Here's another appropriate SWINGing song for today.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Liked Victor's puzzle. SWINGing theme with good examples. New learning about a petit peu of France extending south of the Pyrenees into IBERIA. I would have guessed it was on the Biscay side (Nazarre?), but the parcel is actually part of cultural Catalonia.
Incurred a Natick at SKA and KERI. Can't say I've heard of either. Sigh. Other than that most of it rolled right out and was enjoyable.

Enjoy your hump day.

Anonymous T said...

G'Morning All!

I was sailing throught the puzzle with a RARE as a HEN's TOOTH Wed run until I hit the SW corner. Things went TEATS-up for me. I'd be a LIAR if I said this wasn't a DNF. The ONUS was on Steve to help me out with his write up. Mr. Barocas' puzzle was still a hoot with the SWINGERs!

Doha beat me to the bonus answer. I would try a link to Money for Nothin' from their Brothers in Arms album, but I just tried and had to re-type all this.

Have a wonderful day!

Cheers, -T
[hensuity]

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This is our third treat of the week: CC's on Monday, Jerome's yesterday, and today's from Victor. All clever themes, great cluing and, best of all FUN solves.

Great job, Victor: fav clues were for fern, Morse, and hen. Humorous write-up, Steve, as always. How is the outlook for The Fighting Irish this year?

We have a beautiful day here: sunny, no humidity, and high 70's.

Where is our darling Mari? I hope on vacation and not I'll.

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

Irish Miss said...

That darn auto correct: ill not I'll.!

CrossEyedDave said...

Hmm, Egon Petri,,,must investigate further, as his protege, Victor Borge is a favorite of mine.

Anyway, the puzzle! It was a fun challenge, & kept me busy, but in the end left me with one personal Natick at 50D & 61A. I knew it had to be a vowel, but which one? (so i crammed E,I, & U into the same space...)

What did Tom Hanks say?

The story of "swing."

Follow up to The story of swing.

Note, the follow up to the story of swing is in no way (nary?) a reference to todays superbly crafted puzzle. (although I still dislike anti-hero...)

JD said...

Good morning all,

Thanks for a great puzzle, Victor, and amusing write up, Steve. Fun theme; I had trouble thinking of the unifier. I looked at similar letters, but after filling the downs petri and swing appeared. A-ha!Fun.

The only Petri I know is that cute little character in the 1st Land Before Time.

Have a beautiful day.

Tinbeni said...

Steve: Thank you for a wonderful, funny write-up & links.

This was a FUN Wednesday but I thought HUGH HEFNER was known for wearing pajamas more than a bathrobe.

Only needed 'EVERY-SINGLE-PERP' to get KERI, CLARE, NIHIL and PETRI ...

Hondo: I agree with your comment re: MICKEY MANTLE and what "he could have been" had he not had his many injuries.
Hmmm, I'm wondering when they are going to "add" beer to the List of PED's (Performance Enhancing Drugs).
... afterall, Marijuana is on the PED list. lol !!!

Fave clue today was "Like many characters in Shakespear's dramas, SLAIN. Yup, "that's the ticket!"

A "toast" to ALL at Sunset!
Cheers!!!

Misty said...

Victor, a brilliant puzzle! All those long, complicated names including a grid spanner, and then a reveal that perfectly fit every one of them! Amazing! And I agree with Irish Miss that this has been an extraordinary puzzle week so far!

My only small nit: Dinner pair=ENS? Give me a break! I would not have understood that without Steve's help in a million years. On the other hand, loved the picture of that cute little ENT. And, Lemonade, thanks for pointing out the clever connection between CORK and CLARE. (Since I'm a scholar of James Joyce, I've spent a fair amount of time in Ireland).

Did anyone else have that MAORI picture remind them of Miley Cyrus the other night?

Anyway, great way to start a Wednesday. Have a good one, everybody!

Anonymous T said...

CED - I work w/ software. Swing 1 is actually in a cube at one client's office. Swing follow-up is truley funny.

I saw Borge one night on PBS and ended up staying up another hour. Musical & comidic timing on the NOSE.

Cheers, -T

Lucina said...

Greetings, friends! Steve, I enjoyed your funny commentary. It's icing on the cake.

The cake being another really fine puzzle to top Monday's and Tuesday's tiers. Good stuff!

Victor Barocas (I wonder of Barocas is Spanish?)thank you for today's fun.

Like many of you I zipped through this quickly and really liked the cluing for NOSE and MORSE as well as all the theme clues.

Two years of Latin gave me NIHIL.

Thank you, all for the wonderful music links today.

Have a delightful Wednesday, everyone!

Tinbeni said...

CED @11:00
Your 'link' Follow up to "The story of swing" ... all I get is a 'white page' ...
tears ...

Steve said...

Bonus points all around for Dire Straits! This is the original video from 1978 - the final guitar solo was edited out for brevity.

Ol' Man Keith said...

A very enjoyable Weds pzl--with neat integration of the theme answers.

The appearance of the key word, "Swing," makes for a familiar format, but I like that Mr. Barocas managed to save it until the very end, an elegant touch. Of course, this is a variation on those pzls that repeat the same clue to elicit different answers, only here the one clue is content with a single statement-- showing up only as the final answer (65A).

Kf

PS. There was a time when "Dinner pair" would have thrown me. But I am SO used to that old gag (gag pair?) now that it was my first fill (fill pair?).

Pookie said...

THIS is

SWING

Lemonade714 said...

The way he used 6 different definitions of SWING is what makes this a truly awesome Wednesday effort, and he gave me my second mini shout out of the week (ADES).
See you all next year.

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, Another fast puzzle for me, though I had one misspelling. I had Line for a fishing tool instead of Lure and didn't go back to check the downs in that East area. I just went merrily on my way to finishing up. That will teach me to go back and check my work!!

I don't do the puzzle on the computer so no TaDa for me when I finish the paper and pencil version.

Nihil and Petri were unknowns, but the perps took care of those. Doha Doc had my favorites, too, though Dashing inventor?/Morse was also a close second.

Have a great day, everyone.

Tinbeni said...

The Jewish New Year, is celebrated in 2013 from sundown on Sept. 4 to nightfall on Sept. 6.
The Hebrew date for Rosh Hashanah is 1 Tishrei 5774.

Lemon: Does that mean you won't be doing your write-up Friday?

Either way ... Happy New Year!

thehondohurricane said...


pas de chat @1:46PM

Thanks for the great link.

them wuz the days when musak was entertaining!

Husker Gary said...

Musings-
-A very nice humpday offering. The theme smacked me upside the head as I did not get it unaided.
-I was always amazed how TARZAN and fam were well groomed and made up as they lived in the jungle! Did Avon make tree calls?
-MICKEY lived in an era when the misdeeds of sports stars and politicians were hush-hush, but man, could he play.
-RITA HAYWORTH definitely elicited some “hubba hubba’s”
-Did that MAORI help choreograph Miley Cyrus’s pathetic dance last week? (Me too Misty)
-Some LATTES hide the flavor of the coffee. I don’t want a milk shake
-Going ALL IN with a full house against four of a kind is as unlucky as you can get
-Packers in our Hormel town need hogs
-The ONUS is on Obama to convince the country we need to start up militarily with another Mideast country
-Seeing the Rose PARADE floats was a check off my bucket list
-A SLAIN character doth utter naught
-An Australian politician raised a ruckus when he took his OATH on the Koran. What’s the difference?
-Before he was exposed as a PED offender, Sammy Sosa got caught with CORK in his bat
-Is A & M jerk Johnny Manziel an ANTI-HERO of today?

Argyle said...

...and on the lighter side.


Researchers for the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority found
over 200 dead crows near greater Boston recently, and there
was concern that they may have died from Avian Flu. A bird
pathologist examined the remains of all the crows, and, to
everyone's relief, confirmed the problem was definitely NOT
Avian Flu. The cause of death appeared to be vehicular impacts.

However, during the detailed analysis it was noted that varying
colors of paints appeared on the bird's beaks and claws. By
analyzing these paint residues it was determined that 98% of the
crows had been killed by impact with trucks, while only 2% were
killed by an impact with a car.

MTA then hired an ornithological behaviorist to determine if
there was a cause for the disproportionate percentages of truck kills versus car kills.

The ornithological behaviorist very quickly concluded the cause:
when crows eat road kill, they always have a look-out crow in a
nearby tree to warn of impending danger. They discovered that
while all the lookout crows could shout "Cah", not a single one
could shout "Truck!"

Irish Miss said...

Husker @ 2:50 - Wasn't Manziel's punishment" a joke!

Argyle @ 3:18 - Thanks for the chuckle of the day! And bravo for having the patience to type that missive!

Bill G. said...

CED, as usual, I enjoyed your links, all except the last one; the follow up to swing. All I get is a black page with one white pixel in the middle. That's happened before. I wonder what's going on?

Hot weather again but the humidity has dropped off.

HG, right you are. I'm in favor of staying out of those middle East countries. But then, do we ignore a dictator's use of chemical weapons? Geez, what a mess!

Especially for Marti. Animal Tracks.

CrossEyedDave said...

Tinbeni @12:11pm

Thanks for pointing out I used the wrong source for "follow up." (it can only be seen using Google Chrome.)

See if this smaller version works for you:

Follow up to The story of swing.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

Terrific well executed theme today.

I don't know why anybody has a problem with antihero.

But I hate the self-referential "dinner pair." Yuck!

Mickey Mantle said if he knew he body would last as long as it did, he would have taken better care of it. He traveled in a hard drinking, hard living crowd.

Kudos to Benny Goodman for breaking the color barrier. Very tough at the time Lionel Hampton and Teddy Wilson were superlative musicians.

Swingin'

Cool regards!
JzB

Tinbeni said...

CED @3:47
Now that 'link' worked (and was well worth the wait).
Tooooooooo funny!

(Don't know why the first time it didn't show up ... I use Google Chrome) **it happens!

Chickie said...

Argyle, I chuckled all through lunch about your crow story. Right to the last line, I thought it was a true study!!!

Lucina said...

Argyle:
LOL! Very funny crow story.

Re: characters SLAIN in Shakespeare plays. I have not counted but I believe Hamlet must have set the record for most characters SLAIN. Spoiler alert: all of them die by the last act.

OH, maybe Keith knows.

Irish Miss said...

Bill G. - Thanks for Animal Tracks, especially #11 Puffy Pups, my beloved Bichons! Also enjoyed the Pandas and the Polar Bear.

Happy New Year to Hatoolah and Lemonade.

Anonymous T said...

Argyle - pass me a paper-towel please... I just spit Coke all over my iPad... :-) Cheers, -T

desper-otto said...

Argyle, did you sister send you that? Cah!!!

HeartRx said...

Bill G., I loved the "Animal Tracks" as always. So sad about the elephant that stepped on the land mine, but it's amazing that she could adapt to an artificial limb!

Argyle, funny!

Argyle said...

That was a fwd from my sister's friend. Another good source.

creature said...

Misty,I ,too,agree with Irish Miss that this has been an extraordinary puzzle week, so far. {actually, its never bad, but I guess we all have favorite styles]

And yes, Mari is "Darling"

Bravo, Argyle!

Blog especially lively today!
Still missing some of the "now" regulars.

Bill G, yeah, Animal Tracks.

creature said...

Oh goodness! Yeah to Steve! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Hi all; this is my first post. I'm a crossword LOVER, so glad I found you.

Auntie Mary

Argyle said...

You've found us on a good day, Auntie Mary. Welcome.

Montana said...

I solved this like a Monday puzzle.
No complaints at all, and no problem spots either.

Have a good night,

Montana

Anonymous T said...

Auntie Mary - Like Argyle said you did find us on a good day (Fridays can get a bit TART). I found the blog a while back and I love the group here. Not only do they share the love of word play, but the diverse backgrounds ensures you will learn something new everyday, read a good joke, or both. As an added bonus, Bill G. will give us a math puzzle every now and again. Welcome.

In the spirit of Bill G.:
Imagine 1,000,000 lights with a pull-chain in a (obviously) very long hallway. Each person going down the hall pulls the chain based on their order in line. I.e. the first guy turns them all on, the second person turns ever-other one off, the third guy pulls every third chain (thus toggling its on/off state), the 10,000th guy pulls every 10,000th chain. After 1,000,000 people go down the hall, which lights still glow?*

Cheers -T
*Why, Yes - I did steal this from Car Talk.

JD said...

Argyle @ 3:18 LOL!!

Bill, saw photographer with his beautiful bug shots 1st time I went to Animal Tracks. After reading the comments, I went back and looked at the last 4 weeks of great photos. Thanks!

Bill G. said...

AnonT, I think I've got the answer but I don't want to be a square and post it yet. I'll see if I can e-mail it to you.

I'm glad you guys like Animal Track. Those photos always bring me pleasure.

Misty said...

Creature, it's always nice to hear from you!

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Swell puzzle, Victor! Great review, Steve, as usual!

No problems. This was as fast as Tuesday. Got PETRI and NIHIL from perps.

Was sick all night and morning. Cooked salmon that I ate was evidently too old. Am having yogurt for dinner.

That lightbulb problem is a rewording of the famous number theory jail-cell problem. We have seen it before. The squares have it!

Cheers!

Anonymous T said...

Cookies to Bill G. & Fermatprime!

I suppose I should leave the puzzling to Bill G. :-)

Cheers, -T

Bill G. said...

Not at all. I appreciated and enjoyed it. Most of these puzzles don't take any knowledge of math beyond eighth grade. The one you posed could probably be solved readily with some trial and error and pattern recognition.

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks, the next morning. Thank you, Victor, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for the great review.

Well, I was gone most of Wednesday. Did the puzzle in the paper on the run. Got home at 11:00 PM, and promptly went to bed. So, here I am.

Enjoyed this puzzle very much. Got through it easily with only one inkblot. Had NCO instead of USO for 58D for a short while.

Liked the theme. Answers were all quite easy. Must have been my frame of mind.

NIHIL came to mind for 50D. Always remember that from latin class way back when.

Not a fan of LATTEs. Never was. Now, I have quit coffee altogether. I am a tea man (Earl Grey, of course).

I'm going to run because I have today's puzzle to do now.

See you later today.

Abejo

(ningedsc)