google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, Oct19th, 2013, Doug Peterson & Brad Wilber

Advertisements

Oct 19, 2013

Saturday, Oct19th, 2013, Doug Peterson & Brad Wilber

Theme: DP&BW

Words: 72 (missing Q,X,Z)

Blocks: 30

This one from our flip-flopping Saturday Duo was 50/50 for me.  I smoked through the top half, but then faltered in the bottom. Ended up taking my usual solve time. Two grid spanners:

17A. Irish folk song that was a Grammy-winning vehicle for Metallica :  WHISKEY IN THE JAR - Nailed it - a music link must....the 'official' video is more to the point, but it won't pass the "breakfast test"

but then....

53A. Woolf pack? : BLOOMSBURY GROUP - a complete unknown; learning moment

Six 10's:

1A. Italian for "little ribbons" : FETTUCCINE

12D. Asian aluminum exporter : TAJIKISTAN - Crossword constructors gotta love places with these names - map

15A. High anxiety? : ACROPHOBIA - nailed it; I know my "fear of heights" $2 word

25D. Late 1990s Nasdaq phenomenon : DOT COM BOOM - anyone here fall into this bust?

57A. Iron Man and Captain America, e.g. : TITLE ROLES - I wanted "-- HEROES", or something like that

59A. One who goes out regularly : STEADY DATE - I'm accepting applications today

And four 8's:

6D. Subcompact that debuted in 1975 : CHEVETTE - My buddy Jeff owned one in high school, and he used to like to say he had a " 'Vette "


26A. Neurologist's concern : MIGRAINE

41A. Goldbricks : GOOF OFFS - I tried GOOSE (E)GGS, but it had only one "E"; definition

35D. Seemed to own the runway, say : SASHAYED


ONWARD~!

ACROSS:

11. Site of the Delicate Arch : UTAH - not featured in Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade, tho


16. Cold caller's reward : SALE

19. Montréal label : NOM

20. Anxious times for some : EVES - Like kids at Christmas

21. One of the halogens : IODINE - I had "SODIUM" (BZZZT~!), which is the other half of the "salt" equation; alkali metals + halogen gas = salt; periodic chart

22. Pressure source : PEER - "everybody's doing it; you're nobody if you don't~!"

23. Criticize : KNOCK

24. Make some concessions : ADAPT

29. "Get real!" : C'MON

30. Old autocrat : TSAR

32. Problematic lighting? : ARSON - firebug crime

34. Cranky : PECKISH

36. Be a burden to : TRY - "You're peckishness is TRYing my patience~!"

37. Come about : OCCUR

39. Cave-dwelling princess in Donald Duck comics : OONA

40. Mariner's org. : NASA - Dang it~! Fooled me again - not sports related; Husker got it, I'm sure

43. Rise to the top : SHINE

45. Unifying idea : MOTIF

46. Great Lakes catch : CHUB - I had SOLE, then CRAB, then CRUB....which doesn't sound any less appetizing than the actual answer

47. "Epitaph for a Spy" novelist : AMBLER - Eric, and the Wiki

49. "The Godfather" Oscar nominee : CAAN - I tried PUZO; I was 'right' - list of awards

50. Union busters of the 19th cen. : CSA - the Union of the North, and the Confederate States of America

56. Venting venue : BLOG - No one vents on OUR blog....

58. __ Martin: cognac brand : RÉMY - another potable NEVER over ice

DOWN:

1. Play the sycophant to, with "over" : FAWN

2. Agree by repeating : ECHO - like sycophants - "oh, yes, yes, sir~!"

3. Barber shop request : TRIM

4. Set-__: rows : TOS - a Set-to is a fight; a rOW, not rOE

5. Homeowner's concern : UPKEEP - Now that I am working as a driver 7am to 6, 7, 8, 9pm, my UPKEEP is a lot harder

7. Not as forthcoming : COYER

8. Winged University of Miami mascot : IBIS



9. Writer who said "What I cannot love, I overlook" : NIN - Anais

10. Busy with courses : EATING - Those courses

11. With 33-Across, Saturn or Mercury site : USED CAR and 33A. See 11-Down : LOT

13. Freed from radio music : ALAN - Perhaps could have used a "?", since this is a proper name here; Alan Freed - his Wiki

14. Present : HERE

18. Shout of triumph : HOORAH - DAH~!!!  I had hooraY, and that just messed me up

22. One-star write-up : PAN

23. Heineken distributor in Japan : KIRIN

24. Standard Oil offshoot : AMOCO

26. Sharks whose teeth were used in Maori jewelry : MAKOs

27. Old tongue that gave us "rotten" and "egg" : NORSE

28. Gaelic music star : ENYA

29. Thick-soled shoe : CLOG

31. Speak derisively : SCOFF

34. For now : PRO TEM - Latin, pro tempore

38. Focus of an annual festival in New Mexico : UFOLOGY - Once I put the "U" and New Mexico together, this became an 'educated' WAG - Roswell; a "great place to crash~!"

40. Penpoint : NIB

42. Ones for the record book : FIRSTS

44. Strongly motivated : HUNGRY

46. "Cheers" role : CARLA - Coach, Cliff, Diane and Woody fit, too

47. 48-Down, e.g. : ABBReviation

48. M.'s counterpart : MademoiseLLE

49. Clever : CUTE - this stymied me for a long time

50. It gets flat over time : COLA - or SODA....

51. Steak-and-kidney-pudding ingredient : SUET - Eww

52. Abbey nook : APSE - or NAVE....

54. Was taken in : BIT - I had "FIT", like clothing taken in; this is like the people taken in, or 'bit', but the DOT COM BOOM

55. Fly __ : ROD

Splynter



Note from C.C.:

I hope our readers in Southern California will take part in this year's  Crossword LA to be held next Saturday Oct 26. Our own Steve will be there competing. Do say hello to today's co-constructor Doug Peterson, who will be volunteering at the event. Look, I found this nice photo of Brad & Doug & Tyler Hinman.




55 comments:

OwenKL said...

I haven't thought of a way to limerickise this themeless yet, so here's an old effort of mine.

ODE TO CROSSWORD PUZZLES
Owen Lorion, 5/11/98

Oh, grid of lines, squares black and white,
You can ofttimes be my delight
As I wrack my brain at your odious challenge,
Then try for the crosswords, an olious melange.
My spelling was poor -- you helped to improve it.
My hubris was great -- you helped to reprove it.
I once thought I had a wide vocabulary,
But often you send me to thumb my dictionary.
Proper names are the worst, of people and places;
I'm forgetful of maps, I'm forgetful of faces.
And then there's those words, archaic, obscure,
That I'm learning to use with aplomb so demure.
But my favorite task, that makes puzzles a dream,
Is to guess at the thesis, to determine a theme.
Some puzzles don't have this. Fie on them, fie!
I want puzzles with riddles, like ice cream on pie.
I want puns, I want wordplay, and what is more
I want to wish cruciverbalists my thanks galore!

Oona

Kirin

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

This one took way longer than I expected and defeated me in the end. My Waterloo was in the NE where TAJIKISTAN and EATING met HOORAH and KNOCK. I had a devil of a time figuring out the spelling of FETTUCCINE and in the end went with FETTUCCINI, which made EATING impossible to get. And, of course, I was convinced that HOORAH was HURRAH, which made KNOCK a no-show. Finally had to turn on the red-letter help to see the error of my ways...

[westioe]

Nature Lover said...

Some of the Boy Scout leaders do not respect UTAH's beautiful monuments like the ones Splynter portrayed.

desper-otto said...

Good morning, except it's not.

Southern California was the bane of my existence today. I had BLOOMSBURY and REMY, but AMBLER and BLOG refused to appear.

35d was a nice shoutout to Lucina. I wonder if she managed to SASHAY through this one.

I first had KIRIN beer on Guam back in the 60's. At first I didn't like it, but I developed a taste for it. It tastes much different from our domestic beers.

Splynter, yes I managed to secure a bit of a capital loss in the DOT COM bust. With a limit of $3k per year, I'm still slowly working it down. I think next year it'll finally disappear.

PECKISH means cranky? I always thought it meant hungry. "Yes, I'll have a bite. I'm feeling a bit peckish this morning." I guess I'm feeling PECKISH about my DNF!

angry ben said...

I have the LA Times (and a couple other puzzles) downloaded to my printer via a couple apps. I started, as usual, with the across, and quickly switched to the down clues. They seemed familiar. Wow. They printed yesterdays down clues instead of todays. Saturdays puzzle is difficult enough for me (not a real hardcore puzzler), but this made me laugh. I'm just going to leave this one blank and have a laugh now and then.
The answer grid is always printed at the bottom of the page. I wish that they would NOT print that day's answers, and if they really feel like they need to do that, I would like the answer grid to be tilted 90 degrees. Because it's too easy to read upside down.

Avg Joe said...

Just short of brutal...sadistic at a minimum. HTG thrice to finish, and even then had one blank. Could NOT let go of futtuccini. Had Acrophobia, but erased the final A since it could've been a C. Had WhiskeyIn_h____, so that google cleared up the gift/here conundrum for 14D, but didn't provide a path for 10D. Googled for Ambler and Remy, which cleared up the entire bottom and corrected soda to cola eventually.

A serious defeat, but an enjoyable challenge.

Lemonade714 said...

PThanks Splynter, DP and BW. I enjoyed this one, and slogged through though BLOOMSBURY was a complete unknown. TAJIKISTAN was also and I had a struggle with wonderful clue for the simple CSA thinking only about labor onions...ah well it is gorgeous here so I must .

Rojo said...

Ack, my second DNF in as many months! I got killed by BLOOMSBURY GROUP I had SHORT STORY GROUP for the longest time, and then BLOOM STORY GROUP (guessing, wrongly I assume, that BLOOM was some character's name in a bunch of Virginia Woolf stories) at the very end. All of which left "Was taken in" as TIT and "clever" as COTE, which I knew wasn't right but couldn't get my brain to latch on to the solution. Ah well. Had a rough time all across the rest of the puzzle too, my first couple pass-throughs only resulted in C'MON and CSA's I almost gave up ten minutes in, but then a couple things started to click into place.

Husker Gary said...

Two bad cells and I had to look up AMBLER and REMY to unlock the SW but loved the agony. The fill was rife with learning and trickery. The venting place was not a ROOF, BOND was not M.’s counterpart, it was the BOOM not the BUST, no SKIING courses for us and I had no chance with Japanese beer crossing OONA.

Musings
-I hung on to Thomas Wolfe as I was obviously “afraid of Virginia Woolfe” ;-)
-Joann’s ACROPHOBIA kicked in on walking across this span
-Warren Buffet never BIT on the dotcom BOOM
-I used to sell landscape and cold calls are high anxiety
-My 50th high school reunion is next year and I’ll see some of those sources of PEER Pressure
-It took a while for me to ADAPT to subbing
-“I’m TRYING!” “Yes you are!”
-Yeah, Splynter, I got it after I saw it wasn’t any ALER stuff but I thought NASA would figure in Mercury and Saturn cluing of 11 down US _ _ _ _ _
-Taking roll in middle school elicits annoying ways of saying HERE
-World’s largest CLOG dance at their Tulip Festival
-What song contains the lyric “She would a-wait and a-wait and a-wait and a-wait for her STEADY DATE?”

Husker Gary said...

-Owen and Lemon, I hope you were able to get the link to P, P & M singing It’s Raining to open last night. I wore out my vinyl recordings of their lovely music and remembered instantly their urging of the LADYBUG to fly home to her burning house lest her children burn (what lovely imaging). I stayed up for an extra hour last night listening to more of their harmonies on YouTube.
-Owen redux, I had to go back and read that fabulous math imerick. What a joy to see such linguistic expertise on display even when it is inspired by ennui. I have been subbing for 7 of the last 10 school days and sometimes shirk my participation here. I’ll be back later after I go look up the definition of “Retired” again. BTW, kids where I sub are so good, it’s like stealing $135/day.
-Not one to post captcha codes, but this one is shepube ;-)

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was a DNF due to Tajikstan/ arson crossing. I had Whisky in the Bar and argon (?) so didn't get the TADA. Everything else was correct but certainly needed perps in many areas. Thought of Lucina at sashayed and Tin at Remy Martin.

Thanks, Doug and Brad, for a Saturday stumper and thanks to Bachelor #1, our Saturday 'Splainer, Splynter.

Overheard on one of the "Talking Heads" programs, from a viewer of the show: "Half of the country is mad as Hell and the other half is crazy as Hell."

Have a great day.

Husker Gary said...

Once again with Owen's encouragement

Ladybug, ladybug do not your duty spurn
It’s known your house is engaged in a burn
If you do not hie
To your home on the fly
Your kids will be done to a turn

HeartRx said...

Good morning all.

S., you make me laugh every Saturday when I come here to lick my wounds. And I often nod my head while reading you because I did the same things. Like “sodium” instead of IODINE (oops!) And calling my Chevette a “’Vette.”

I had HOORA* but held off on the y or h until I could be sure. The I had UFO*O*Y and goofed by putting in “body.” (Wasn’t there a purported cover up that they had found an alien body at Roswell??) Perps eventually fixed it, but that really slowed me down in the SW.

I also thought of Lucina at SASHAY, Tin at REMY and HG at NASA…(great minds think alike, I guess, LOL!)

OwenKL, much as I enjoy your limericks, I think your talent for Odes is over the top!

Have a great day everyone!

HeartRx said...

HG, I am singing that line over and over in my head right now, but just cannot come up with the title...

Unknown said...

Was going along fairly smooth until the SW corner robbed me of all my brain cells. Nothing was fitting until I figured out dotcomBOOM, then letters starting to work. Toughy.

Yellowrocks said...

Wow! What a challenge, but I eventually won. After a long while I had only 9 words so I went out and scrubbed the green gunk off the siding. That stirred my blood up and revived my brain. I was HUNGRY for a week of 7 wins. Not counting my first attempt, my second attempt took my usual Sat. time.
A cold caller's reward on the phone is never a sale from me, more likely a slam.
I think the more common meaning of PECKISH is hungry, but it also means cranky. Babies and toddlers get cranky when they are hungry. (Peckish in both senses.)
When Lucina sashays through a puzzle, I think it means she owns the puzzle. Lucina, I like when you say that.
I needed perps for so many things I should have known.
I learned to like KIRIN in Japan. It is great with sushi and sashimi.
There are very many homeowners' concerns, including green siding.
The silver chub is becoming rare in the Great Lakes. This lake chub, found only in the area near the Great Lakes, is now on the endangered list. The creek chub and river chub are much more common and are found in the eastern 2/3 of the U.S. When I was a kid we used to catch them in PA, but not with a fly ROD.

Misty said...

More dreaded than a Silkie, truly, even though I got BLOOMSBURY and REMY (bet Tin got that one too). GOLDBRICKS is GOOF-OFFS? Give me a break! Well, Husker being "afraid of Virginia Woolf" gave me a laugh, anyhow, and the poems and Splynter's expo were a bit of a comfort. And the hope that Lucina SASHAYED through this toughie. And after seeing the cute photo of the constructors I feel too abashed to VENT on the BLOG any more than this.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Bumppo said...

18A Why do they keep misspelling "hurrah" and "hurray" in this puzzle? At least they could give us a "var." in the clue when they spell it "hoorah" or "hooray."

And isn't this funny: Both "hurrah" and "hoorah" above have the squiggly red "spell-check" lines beneath them, but neither "hurray" nor "hooray" does.

Irish Miss said...

HG @ 10:10 - My curiosity overcame my acrophobia, so I clicked on your link. Morbid curiosity led to watching a video of the bridge, the train, the aerial tram, and the sky-coaster. If Joann crossed that bridge, she's a brave soul. Just watching the video made me dizzy and weak in the knees!

Ol' Man Keith said...

Tough one, but it was exciting to rise to the top--to SHINE--with just a little help.

Funny: My start was just the opposite of Splynter's. After SUET (my first fill) I nailed BLOOMSBURY GROUP almost immediately, but had a hard time with WHISKEY IN THE JAR. I remembered the Irish song when it finally came through, but I was stuck for a while with "THIS BOY IN" as my starting point for 17A. Aargh. It wasn't until I sought help to get TAJIKISTAN that the "J" emerged to lead me to "JAR," and thus the right song gelled.

I loved the ABBR and MLLE pairing. I was a bit put off by PECKISH because I only knew the "hungry" definition. But I was happy to learn the word can also mean cranky. I suppose many who are hungry are also cranky--as well as "Strongly motivated," no?

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. Awesome puzzle today. Loved it, even though I came this close to not finishing it. The only spy novelist I could think of with a 6-letter name was Ludlum. Overconfidence that it was right almost did me in. I did finally have to look it up.

Hands up for misspelling FETTUCCINE and for entering SODA before changing it to COLA.

Wanted MOOCHERS for Goldbricks.

Bought Cisco Systems stock for $60 during the dot-com boom; still making up for it. Being allowed to write down only $3000 per year in losses seems highly unfair to me, especially since all gains must be reported in the year they were, um, gained. The Fed tax laws are rigged.

Enough venting :) Best wishes to you all.

Avg Joe said...

Just for S's&G's, I looked in the pantry at the fettuccine box. Sure enough, that's the way it's spelled. Who knew??

I started out with the answer dot com bomb. Fixed it before I was done. As for losses, I finally ran out of declarable losses against ordinary income last year. However, the losses in my SEP-IRA were much larger, and those can't be written off. If I could sell my experience for what it's cost me, I'd be a wealthy man.

Bill G. said...

Gary, when you ask questions like that one about the song, it's like an ear worm going through my brain over and over. Where's the off switch?

I just saw Scarlett Johansson on last night's Jimmy Fallon show. It may have been an old one, I don't care. She is in my top ten of attractive women along with Sofia Vergara, a young Shirley MacLaine, Sophia Loren, ...? Dang, I keep adding to my list and forgetting everybody who was on it. Actually, it's not a top ten; more like a top 50.

Anonymous T said...

G'Afternoon all:

Not my personal best for a Sat, but I'm OK with it. Superheros at 57a fit, so it must be right (bzzt) and Parking LOT fit too (bzzzt) - worst part of that was I kept trying to think of a word for SALE that started with an A. The only section I could get was the SF area, TSAR & REMY. I don't know how you guys get this stuff. Hat's off...

Owen - another great poem. Put these in a book and collect royalties...

HG - I would not walk that span. Just looking at it made my knees knock.

Nature Lover - I Boy Scouts we were taught "Take only pictures, leave only footprints." That was horrible.

Jayce - being the contrarian, I figured the real money-makers would be UPS & FedEx shipping 50lb bags of dog food from Pets.com :-).

Busy afternoon scheduled. Youngest gets a birthday / halloween sleepover party (birthday is in Sept, but that never gives her time to know her classmates). The house is spooky, there will be a murder mystery, and "brain spaghetti" for dinner. I'm going to make gross-eyed deviled eggs for the appetizer. An pimiento olive cut in 1/2 will be the iris. Still trying to figure out how to make them look blood-shot. Ideas Lucina?

Cheers, -T

miss Beckley said...

HG and Irish Miss, I walked across the Gorge Bridge when I was twelve. Car traffic was still allowed. My acrophobia and agoraphobia has gotten worse with age, but I had it then. So walking across was a personal challenge for me. I froze when I realized you could see the Arkansas river in between the wood slats. ( The space was only about an inch wide.) Friends tried to come to my rescue, including brother and sister, but my only recourse, "DON'T TOUCH ME!!" Made it across, I think I got back by crouching on the floorboard of a back seat with my head covered by a sweat shirt.

I've done the Royal Gorge about five times since, but it was on a raft, doing the rapids of the Arkansas.

Economical pundit ?? said...

Jayce, the $ 3000 net loss limit for capital loss deduction has been there for 42 years !! It has never been adjusted upwards for inflation - be it as it may. It certainly appears be very meager I these times.

Taxes are not based on equity . Hence it is strictly a political process of getting the most feathers from a goose with the least amount of hissing - those are Benjamin Franklins words.

Sheesh, and Oh Well.

miss Beckley said...

Anon T, why not use really thin trickles of catsup for blood veins? It shouldn't affect the flavor much, and at that age, I don't think they'd care.

Avg Joe said...

I'm calling time on the lyrics quiz:

Steady Date

And yes, I had to look it up. The phrase was locked into my head, complete with accurate instrumentation, but the title would NOT come to me (along with all the rest of the lyrics)..

61Rampy said...

DNF on the puzz, thanks to BLOOMBURG.
Answer to HG: I'm probably wrong, buy I am thinkin "SQUEEZEBOX" by the Who.

61Rampy said...

Yup, I was wrong!

Anonymous T said...

miss Beckley - Brilliant! I was thinking food-coloring, but I didn't think it would show well (just bleed into the yellow). And, catsup goes with eggs! Thanks. -T

Splynter said...

Hi again~!

Anon-T, those 50lb boxes with bags of dog food make me "peckish" - and I DON'T mean hungry.... Now there's familyhood.com, which ships everything your household could use in one BIG box - but the liquids (like soap) always end up leaking, and then the whole thing is a mess....

Oh - I forgot to say it's National Stockings Day (at least it is in Europe), so here's my token link~!

Splynter

Lucina said...

Hello, everyone! I'm just popping in to wish you all a good day.

It's been a very busy one for me. When the weather is this nice it's great for planting, cleaning the patio and all kinds of outdoor things.

In between tasks I'm working on the puzzle which is a bear but it's almost done and might give me a MIGRAINE and make me feel PECKISH but gives me something to think about while working. Later.

Bill G. said...

AVG Joe and HG, I think Marti and I knew the answer to the lyrics quiz...

Splynter, good link. What is there about a nice leg encased in a black nylon stocking that is so fetching?

When we were young, many kids brought lunches to school with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I never heard of an allergy problem. Now it's commonplace and many schools don't serve peanut butter and jelly and may not even let kids bring them to school in a lunch packed by their mother. Why the big difference?

Anonymous T said...

Bill G:

Re peanut allergies. I donno either, but have been curious about it. We have a kid coming over tonight that I have to make a gluten-free pasta dish before. I didn't hear of any of this until ~8 years ago. In my ute, a kid with an allergy was pretty much allergic to everything. C, -T

Husker Gary said...

-I’m glad all of you had some fun with the STEADY DATE song by the DC Five Over and Over. An earworm a’ day keeps tedium away. Personally, I liked Glad All Over better.
-As far as the Royal Gorge Bridge, my girls also prompted Joann to look down through the planks to the Arkansas (Ar kan’ sus) River 1000’ below. She, uh, declined and a return trip is not in the offing.
-I violated my “buy in town” rule today by buying this treadmill in Omaha today. It is three times the machine with setup and delivery included for the same money. We will quit the Y as no one I know goes there any more and there is no one up there but college coeds. Oh well.
-Great College FB on today. The SEC now seems to realize that Missouri is now a member

Al said...

DNF for me. I'm looking forward to the tournament.

Frightened miss en haut
Body signals high alert
Aliens welcomed

HeartRx said...

Go, Rebels!! (DH asked me to post that...)

HeartRx said...

Avg Joe @ 2:32, THANK YOU!! Those lyrics to "Steady Date" have been an ear worm for me all day, so it is so good to remember the whole song...

HeartRx said...

HG @ 6:02, I spent a fortune on a Nordic Trak treadmill with built-in TV, but I figure that I will recoup my gym fees in about, oh, 75+ years....

Bill G. said...

This is the second-funniest dog video I've ever seen. Dog who hates to get up in the morning.

Lucina said...

Well, late as it is, I'm posting my lament. No, SASHAYED is not the word I would use for this brilliant puzzle. Thanks, Doug and Brad.

Though I got the better part of it, I had the same slips as some of you, SODA/COLA, PUZO/CAAN, EUREKA/HURRAH/HOORAH.

Also I had to go to Google for the Irish song and for AMBLER as well as TAJIKISTAN.

However, my misspelling of FETTICCINE with an I at the end, did me in and so EATING and KNOCK were unfulfilled. Ah, well, I learned a few things which puzzles have always enabled me to do.

YR, desper-otto and others:
Thank you for the shout out. Yes, if I say SASHAY that means it gave me no problems and I finished it. That was not the case today but I had other accomplishments. My patio looks colorful and will supply me with herbs.

AnonT:
I'm sorry I didn't see your question but luckily miss beckley supplied you with a good suggestion.

Lucina said...

OwenKL:
I hereby declare you the Poet Laureate of The L.A. Times Crossword Corner!

Husker Gary said...

Thanks for the info Marti. We spend $50/month to belong to our Y and it is mostly for the treadmills. We will get our cost back pretty quickly and will use the treadmill much more often if we don’t have to leave the house. Midland University here in town includes a membership here in the soon-to-be biggest Y in the world and it is crowded with kids who ignore 67 year old men but it’d be nice to see a familiar face once in a while.

Maverick said...

I must've been on the same wavelength as Splynter. Had HOORAY. No clue what it meant to be PECKISY. And I also bit on FIT which didn't help me in the SW corner. Never heard of AMBLER or the BLOOMSBURYGROUP so I never figured out the UFOmumble (UFOSYFY?), the reachable MLLE ABBR combo, or even the basic BLOG. #FAIL.

Anonymous T said...

Lucina: No worries. Miss Beckley - the catchup applied with an art brush worked great - thanks!

Of course, there were two kids with egg allergies?!?

The kids are still having a hoot. DW wrote a script of a murder mystery and each kid has their part as they worked through the who-donnit The kids are so cute writing all the clues in the little note-book she gave them. It was pretty good with all the twists & turns. Did I mention she has a PhD in Lit?

I was chief cook & bottle washer and got to play Igor (we all know how it is pronounced) when bringing fresh dry ice for the punch, er, witche's brew.

Oh, and yes, I kept moving my 'ump - only my eldest noticed. I am so proud :-)

Now to throw the rest of the dry ice in the pool!

Cheers, -T

PK said...

Hi Y'all! If anyone is still around... This was a hard one made more difficult because halfway through I lost it. I wish I could figure out what I am doing that makes a puzzle vanish. Well, Doug & Brad kept me engrossed.

Thanks, Splynter. I needed your expo to understand CSA. Duh!

Delicate arch: I tried "foot". I toured The Arches in UTAH several years ago. Gorgeous! The tour director's wife & I got in trouble with the others on the bus because we went up further on foot and got back late. It was worth a little razzing.

I always forget the ___stan countries are in Asia.

Wanted LeCarre for the spy author, but decided it had too many letters.

I was out in the lovely fall weather cleaning my porch today, something I have wanted to do all summer.

PK said...

My best friends were among several heirs to a prosperous working farm managed by a brother. The non-farming siblings insisted on selling the farmat auction, thinking the brother would buy it. He couldn't get financing so lost his livelihood.

My friends invested their share in dot.coms and ended up with 10 cents on the dollar. Later when I asked what her brother was doing, she said, "Drinking." I later heard he had died.

My friends both kept their day jobs until they were well past retirement age. Then both were diagnosed with liver cancer and have since died. Very sad situation to me.

They thought I should sell my farms and invest in dot.coms too. They gave me some good natured hard times when I didn't. Being right didn't give me any pleasure in the end.

Manac said...

Evening all,
It was a gorgeous Fall day for a trip over to Keene. What I thought was going to be a small town festival turned out to be an Guinness world record attempt for the most lit pumpkins at the same time. They beat it by over 400 pumpkins. Over 100,000 people estimated attended. That's a lot for us hicks. Never got to the puzzle. Might try it now.
Only problem was I had to stop at an auto parts store to fix a Noise in the car.

Irish Miss said...

Hey, Steve, how about those Fightin' Irish!

Irish Miss said...

RIP, Tin, Hondo, And JazB. Go Cards!

Anonymous T said...

IM - Really hoping RIP is someone I don't know on this blog and not a comment on Tin, Hondo, & JazB...

It's gonna be the Cards & Bo Sox. The only AL team I can root for is the hometown 'Stros... Go Cards!

The party kids have almost turned in. Now to hush the giggling... At least I have the OTM* podcast to soothe the nerves. Cheers, -T

*WNYC's On The Media.

Lucina said...

AnonT:
Your party sounds like a hoot! What a great and creative idea. Ii sounds like so much fun.

Anonymous T said...

I know this is 6, but Lucina I have to give DW credit for 99% of it. I'm just dumb-labor (at decoration time), cook, and come up with GOOFball ideas for giggles. If not for DW, these things would never happen.

Now I just need to stay up & make sure these gutter-snipes don't come down for their iPhones (house policy - all phones charge downstairs at night). Cheers, -T

Bill G. said...

AnonT, I think you're a brave fellow... How many? Ages?

I was hoping it would be the Dodgers against the Tigers. The best laid plans oft...

I'm struggling with tomorrow's puzzle but I will triumph and beat it to its knees!