google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday, October 31, 2013 Gerry Wildenberg

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Oct 31, 2013

Thursday, October 31, 2013 Gerry Wildenberg

Theme: "Marooned"

20A. 1954 Luis Buñuel film : ROBINSON CRUSOE. The 1997 remake starred Pierce Brosnan.


35A. 1974 Lina Wertmüller film : SWEPT AWAY. The 2002 remake starred Madonna.


54A. 1963 Peter Brook film : LORD OF THE FLIES. The 1990 remake starred Balthazar Getty.




And the unifier:

13D. With 44-Down, setting for 20-, 35- and 54-Across : DESERT. 44. See 13-Down : ISLAND.

Three movies from three different decades are the stars of this show, with all three taking place on a DESERT ISLAND. Evidently there were quite a few to choose from. It seemed a little difficult, but I didn't need to send out an SOS, and finished in my typical Thursday time.

Across:

1. Works by future doctors : THESES. Nailed it.

7. One of two N.T. books : COR.inthians.

10. Mellowed, perhaps : AGED. I must be very mellowed by now.

14. 24/7 Rollerball maker : PENTEL.

15. Address for a PFC : APO. Army Post Office, but also used by the Air Force.

16. Traffic controller : CONE. Until it gets run over by an out-of-control driver.

17. African adventure : SAFARI. (Safari, sa goodie…)

18. Buttinskies : MEDDLERS.

22. Eur.'s ocean : ATL.antic

23. Diva quality : EGO.

24. Smallish cells : AAs. Oh, batteries. I was thinking of platelets. (I guess it was the immunohematologist in me…)

25. "__ Love": Natalie Cole hit : OUR. Here's the lovely song. 5:25

26. Lamarr of Hollywood : HEDY. Not just a pretty face, she invented a signal technology that led to the modern cell phone.

28. Harrison colleague : STARR. George Harrison and Ringo Starr of the Beatles.  I was thinking of this Harrison for a while.

30. Sluglike "Star Wars" alien : HUTT. Jabba the.

31. Map corner item, maybe : INSET.


33. Cross-referencing words : SEE NOTE.

38. Rat Pack leader : SINATRA. "Ol' Blue Eyes"

40. Pizza order : SLICE.

44. Start for sphere : IONO. Wanted "atmo" at first. It didn't work out well for me...

45. Moved, as a trireme : OARED.

48. Aussie flock : EMUS.

49. Benchmark: Abbr. : STD. Standard.

50. "For shame!" : TUT. Tsk, tsk.  Another misstep.

51. Portuguese royal : REI.

53. PGA money winner, e.g. : PRO.

58. Unwanted import from the East? : ASIAN FLU.

59. Words that may precede weeping? : READ 'EM. (and weep…)

61. Word with blue or bean : NAVY.

62. Neurologist's test, briefly : EEGElectroencephalogram.

63. Temper : ANNEAL. "Hissy fit" wouldn't work.

64. Covers the gray, say : DYES. Who, moi??

65. Tokyo, long ago : EDO.

66. They raise dough : YEASTS.


Down:

1. Festoons with certain tissue, for short : TPs. (Toilet Papers.) Auburn fans have it down to a science.

2. Give courage to : HEARTEN.

3. Swathes : ENFOLDS.

4. Attempt : STAB. Take a stab at the answer.

5. Spine-tingling : EERIE.

6. Baby carriers : SLINGS.

7. Hunter's garb, for short : CAMO.uflage.

8. Clearing : OPEN AREA.

9. A.L. Rookie of the Year after Tommie Agee : ROD CAREW. Oh, OK. If you say so. (Who knew CAREW?)



10. Rights protection gp. : ACLUAmerican Civil Liberties Union.

11. Has a date : GOES OUT.

12. On the way : EN ROUTE. The Cardinals were EN ROUTE for a verrrrrry long time on Tuesday.

19. TV's Oz and Gupta : DRs. I knew Dr. Mehmet Cengiz Öz, but didn't remember Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

21. Barstool topper : SOT. Haha, funny clue!

22. Yellowfin tuna : AHI.

27. Like no-nonsense questions : YES/NO.

29. "When You Wish Upon __" : A STAR. Original soundtrack. 2:13

30. Big name in games : HOYLE.

32. Bygone Delta rival : TWA. Trans World Airlines. Merged with American in 2001.

34. "Illmatic" rapper : NAS. Oh, I just can't link it...

36. Cajun crawfish dish :  ÉTOUFFÉE. Yummm.


37. Went on and on : PRATTLED. I hope I am not PRATTLing too much?

38. In a manner of speaking : SO TO SAY.

39. Ready to go forward : IN DRIVE.

41. Blocks : IMPEDES.

42. Attack with profanity : CURSE AT.

43. That, in Tabasco : ESO. I never know whether to put an "O" or an "a" on the end. Perps tell me which way to go, usually.

46. Before, to a bard : ERE.

47. Offset, as costs : DEFRAY.

50. It may be gross : TON.
Gross tonnage is calculated by measuring a ship's volume (from keel to funnel, to the outside of the hull framing) and applying a mathematical formula. Bill G.?
52. "The L Word" producer Chaiken : ILENE. Never saw the show.

55. Woody Allen's "Radio __" : DAYS. With Mia Farrow. Never saw it.

56. Science fiction prize : HUGO.

57. Collector's suffix : IANA. Meh.

60. D.C. United's org. : MLSMajor League Soccer.

That's it from me for this week. See you next time!

Marti



80 comments:

OwenKL said...

When marooned on a far, barren strand,
With naught but palm trees and sand,
The instinct at first
Is to sit there and curse,
Then plan how to DESERT from the ISLAND.

The affair was a total surprise
A banty rooster and songbird half his size.
But the worst was not yet,
Now the neighbor's upset
'Cause the ROBIN'S SON CREW SO at sunrise!

The remake was a bomb, so they say,
It should never have seen light of day.
Mismatched couple alone
Stranded so far from home --
Now they wish it were all SWEPT AWAY!

Whatever new clothing one buys
Has zippers, rarely buttons or ties.
Thank Gideon Sundback,
He developed the zip track.
He should be known as the LORD OF THE FLIES!

[Not a bad run today. I'd never heard of étouffée before, but perps gave it easily. I zipped through most of it, but still had a DNF because of two squares, REI/ILENE and READ 'EM/MLS. I don't know Portugese, so tried cognates Latin REX, Spanish REY, English REG, but I had that E so forgot about the French ROI. And "The L Word" being Lesbian, I should have guessed an ordinary female name instead of assuming some incomprehensible foreign name to go with Chaiken.]

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

I got the theme early on, which helped immensely (especially down south where I really, really wanted ATMO instead of IONO but knew it couldn't be right because of ISLAND).

Still, there were small battles to be fought throughout. I resisted very letter of SLING, since I'm just not familiar with its use in carrying babies (as opposed to broken arms). REI/ILENE was a nasty cross, but with a little perp help it became easy to guess. ROD CAREW was just barely recognizable that I could guess him after getting the first 5 or 6 letters via the perps. And, of course, I had no idea how to spell ETOUFEE and wasn't even sure it was really a word...

Yay, SOX!!!

[Lettersp]

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Marti and friends. Today's theme reminded me of a cartoon that I saw yesterday, hence, my new avatar.

I thought today's puzzle was a tad easier than the usual Thursday fare. I knew all the movies, but never saw either the originals or the re-makes. I did read the book, though.

The only Luis Bunuel movie I ever was The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoise.

I wanted Storks for the Baby Carriers.

I had to give a talk recently at a seminar for retirees. Everyone was wearing CAMO (although some was pink Camo and I don't know where that would blend in to the surroundings). It's a big fashion statement in my state.

Yea Red Sox! I wish I still lived near Fenway Park.

QOD: Don’t taunt the alligator until after you’ve crossed the creek. ~ Dan Rather (Oct. 31, 1931)

[hildbc]

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Great Thurs. offering, Gerry! Swell write-up, Marti!

I saw the old version of Robinson Crusoe.

Went to rheumatologist yesterday. Had to wait a very long time. Caused pain to worsen considerably.

Cheers!

George Barany said...

Fun theme! Fyi, Rod Carew is a member of the Hall of Fame who started his career with the Twins. For a long time, us members of the Tribe (not the Indians) claimed him as one of our own, as per a famous Adam Sandler song, but the matter has been analyzed thoroughly, see: http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=204 However, as long as we're still on the subject of sports, allow me to recommend to you the latest creation from Brent Hartzell and myself, found at http://tinyurl.com/collegefootballpuz, or skip the puzzle entirely and go straight to the "more reading" Much local pride involved, and we hope that some of you like it!

Hahtoolah said...

George: the Adam Sandler was the first thing that popped into my head, too, when Rod Carew's name revealed itself. (BTW: looking forward to the first Thanksgivuhak since 1888.)

George Barany said...

@Hahtoolah, here's a link to the Sandler song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDV_reO930A, complete with animation. When I still lived in New York and was a student at The Rockefeller University, I knew one of the purchasing agents who was Rod's cousin. But we digress ... (Before I forget, one last chance to revisit http://tinyurl.com/fallclassic2013puz and congratulations to 24-Across and the MVP, one-time Twin David Ortiz).

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

I managed to find several ways to screw up this fine puzzle. Hand up for ATMO. I was trying to remember a Harrison college. D'Oh! And I immediately penned in JABA -- oops, HUTT. For some unknown reason ROD CAREW and ANNEAL both immediately popped into my mind.

CONE reminds me, I've been meaning to ask this. What is the purpose of those "Guard Rail Damage Ahead" signs? You're not supposed to run into 'em, anyway.

It rained most of yesterday and today is going to be a twopeat. My woodlot is awash, looking more like a lake than a forest. Hard to believe we're still behind (considerably behind) in annual rainfall.

Lemonade714 said...

I enjoyed this effort very much, and will take my time wading through the link intensive write up of the divine miss m.

Lots of nice long fill MEDDLED PRATTLED ROD CAREW (a Minnesota favorite) EN ROUTE and the require IN DRIVE..

I hope all your costumes have no malfunctions and all the candy goes down smoothly.

Owen your Lord of the Flies pun poem is your best yet

HeartRx said...

Here are George Barany's links:
Rod Carew

College Football Puzzle link

Sandler song

Fall Classic Puzzle

HeartRx said...

Lemony, there are only two links for songs - the rest are just visual flashes to cement some of the clues/answers (in my mind, anyway!!)

And I agree with you about the Lord of the Flies poem.

OwenKL, you outdo yourself every day!

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Gerry Wildenberg, for a tough Thursday puzzle, but a good one nonetheless. Thank you Marti, for the fine review.

I bounced all over this puzzle trying to get a foothold. I never really got a solid section started, just kept filling in a word here and there until it was done.

Caught the theme after ROBINSON CRUSOE, then DESERT, and then ISLAND. I was not familiar with the other movies so they filled in slowly. Once I had a bunch of letters I wagged them. That helped finish the puzzle.

ASIAN FLU was easy. I hope I do not catch it.

I do not wear CAMO when I hunt. I wear lots of bright orange. Do not want to get shot.

Took a while to get HOYLE, but once I did I banged myself in the head, Duh! Should have been a piece of cake.

Took me a long time to get READ EM (and weep). That whole corner was my last to fill in.

ETOUFFEE was a piece of cake (if you believe that I have some land to sell you in Florida).

This puzzle seemed more like a Friday level to me.

Great poem, OwenKL.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

(tummide)

Husker Gary said...

Ain’t it amazing how much we know after we think we don’t? What a wonderful puzzle Gerry. All right, I had to get SAFARI to confidently start and knew none of the films as clued but still…

Musings
-THESES? Oh yeah those dusty things over there nobody reads
-Note to self: CRUSOE only has 2 syllables. The Italian tenor has 3. And Marti’s vocation has 8!
-The Cardinals got SWEPT AWAY by inept hitting last night
-Check out the second picture for our CONES
-1964 time capsule TV show with Swingin’ SAFARI theme and Jayne Mansfield
-I avoided MEDDLING last week and found out it was so right!
-The correct way to eat a SLICE?
-I got my FLU shot for the first time last week. We’ll see…
-Brutus’ reflection before taking a STAB at Caesar: Between the acting of a dreadful thing and the first motion, all the interim is like a phantasma or a hideous dream. How’m I doin’ Keith?
-CC knew Carew!
-YES/NO questions drive politicians to talking points
-We’ve got 200 bags ready for trick or treater’s tonight!

Yellowrocks said...

At first I thought we had a Halloween theme: When the neighbor kid TPS or ENFOLDS the trees with tissue they look EERIE.
This was not difficult because my unknowns, ILENE, NAS, and ETOUFFEE, were doable with WAGs and PERPs.
I enjoyed ROBINSON CRUSOE and LORD OF THE FLIES as novels more than as movies. I almost always prefer the book.
I had ISLAND early on so IONO didn't fool me.
I see no nits about OARED which can be a verb according to the dictionary.
I liked the -IANA suffix, Victoriana, Shakespeariana. It is more common without the I,I believe, as in Americana.
Fun puzzle, Gerry. Great links, Marti. Thank you.

Second try. Darn, auto correct!

Anonymous T said...

G'Morning All:

I started the puzzle when the paper dropped and got about 1/2. After an hour nap and taking the kids to school, I was able to finish all but SE w/ 2 Googles. ANNEAL needs to be looked up (something like tempered glass?). Fun puzzle Gerry and wonderful writeup Marti - Thanks!

I hadn't heard of ETOUFFEE until moving to Hahtoolah's state. Here's a recipe we can't steal - Emeril. Use gator, shrimp, or anything else you find in the waters off of the ISLAND.

Hahtoolah - Love the avitar! To overcome poor spelling, I came up wiht the rule - if you like something, use two letters - i.e. Dessert > DESERT; Supper > Super, etc.

D-O: While not CONES, I don't get the orange protest signs that say "End Construction." Solidarity, Man! :-)

Cheers, -T

kazie said...

HTC (Had To Cheat) for the film and sports names except ROBINSON CRUSOE which was revealed by perps. My DF reaction was that the L Word might be labia, but the Chaiken website doesn't really say what it is.

I found this more challenging than a normal Thursday, but for film buffs and sports fans, and those whose brains haven't gone fuzzy (I couldn't even think what a Rollerball or Pentel when it appeared was), it was probably a good puzzle.

Argyle said...

My nit is they were on deserted islands, not desert islands. And Crusoe had to deal with neighboring cannibals.

Anonymous said...

Never liked the term DESERT ISLAND. Always seemed a misnomer to me.

Deserted island too, although to a lesser extent. I suppose there are islands that were once inhabited and then later deserted.

Uninhabited island seems more appropriate to me.

I mean was this a Desert Island?

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Well, first, what the heck is a trireme? I actually googled something before posting. It's an ancient (Greek) galley (ship) with three banks of oars. Wooha!

Hard puzzle with obscure clues, but eventually doable. Good workout, Gerry. Great Expo and links, Marti. I especially liked knowing about Hedy.

I thought Jaba's last name only had one "T" so I resisted typing it in for a while.

Not Jambalya? When that didn't work I backed in, had FFEE and figured CoFFEE which didn't have enough letters.

I tried IrENE before ILENE, despite the fact that it said, "The 'L' Word". Well, who knew it was a clue for the name? Groan! The IANA/ANNEAL cross was a natick.

I kept typing in words and getting mostly red letters sprinkled with a few surprise black letters. Every rightly filled square helps.

Why is it a DESERT ISLAND and not a tropic ISLAND?

No desert here. It's still raining for the second day. The earthworms that crawled on my porch to get dry, sure did that. 25 dead ones to be scraped off today.

desper-otto said...

By definition, a desert island is a "remote, uninhabited tropical island." I notice that CRUSOE is pronounced with three syllables in the Anon's 9:07 link.

Today's Google graphic is fun.

Yellowrocks said...

Desert Island and Deserted Island are both in the language. You will find many reference to desert island on the Internet, and some for deserted island. IMO books and movies tend to use Desert Island. Some definitions say there are no inhabitants on desert islands, others say there are very few. The latter would allow Robinson Crusoe with his cannibals to be said to live on a desert island. Many references say a desert island is tropical. A deserted island would not necessarily be tropical.

Anonymous T said...

Still Can't Sleep said.. :-)

I meant to link this earlier for giggles:
Headly Lamarr in Blazing Saddles. Mel Brooks was sued for that running joke and settled with HEDY according to the great Wiki.

Cheers, -T

Anonymous said...

Thanks DO and YR for the explanations (that I had already Googled and read).

I didn't say it was wrong. I just don't like the term.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I had some trouble spots but eventually finished w/o help. Had atmo before iono and tsk before tut. Had heard of étouffée but wasn't sure of the spelling.

All in all, Gerry, a challenging and fun Thursday offering and a teriffic expo, as usual, Marti.

Re the Red Sox, I'll defer to my furry friend, Thumper.

Happy Halloween! Watch out for the Gremlins.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

Had a tough time with this really well-constructed puzzle. Saw the theme and that helped a lot.

Stumbled at READ 'EM. Couldn't get the EM [and she's my youngest granddaghter.]

Not knowing MLS, though it's obvious in retrospect, was my downfall.

ATMO? Ah, no, IONO.

HOYLE was inexplicably opaque for the longest time.

First rate long fill.

"They raise dough' is my fav clue.

Trying to visualize a flock of EMUs.

Cool Regards!
JzB

Jazzbumpa said...

Now for my complaint, and it's really to big to be considered a nit.

Sorry to get all brittle materials geeky on you, but equating temper and ANNEAL is simply incorrect. I can speak to this from over 40 years of specifically relevant professional experience.

I hadn't seen this mistake in quite a while, and was hoping it had been banished from the X-Word lexicon. Sadly, no.

Tempering and annealing are both thermal processes, and both involve controlled cooling of a material heated to or above its softening point. To ANNEAL you cool slowly and uniformly, allowing the finished article to be free of stresses that might result from differential cooling.

Uncontrolled cooling allows random stresses to be locked into the finished article, and this make it weaker.

To temper, you cool it as rapidly as you can without causing the article to shatter or deform. This locks in compressive stress at the surface, and tensile stress internally.

Brittle materials ALWAYS break in tension, so the compressive force must be overcome before you can break the object.

Tempered items are many times stronger than annealed items.

ANNEAL =/= temper.

Q.E.D.
JzB

Yellowrocks said...

Although temper and anneal are not the same thermal processes, in a different sense they are synonyms. The clue gave no context.
TEMPERED by the school of hard knocks, he could stand up to all that the winds of fate brought him.
ANNEALED by the school of hard knocks, he could stand up to all that the winds of fate brought him.

CanadianEh! said...

Lots of learning moments today. SE corner was the last to fall mostly due to READEM. (Sometimes I wish we were told if answer is more than 1 word)

Hand up for ATMO but I actually tried HEMI initially.

Portuguese now (at least REI is close to the French ROI). Didn't someone mention a day or two ago that they hoped we didn't have to know Portuguese now for CWs!

Loved THEY RAISE DOUGH. Didn't know NAS. Wanted OVA for smallish cells.

At least with EEG we have no debate (as with ECG versus EKG)!

Like YR, I was seeing some Halloween clues (TPS, EERIE).

SAFARI was easy after my wonderful spring trip to Kenya.

CanadianEh! said...

Actually, now I see that it said wordS that may precede weeping indicating 2 words.

Misty said...

What a relief! I was afraid that I was going to have a solid DNF week, but today I finished with a TADA! Many thanks, Gerry! And I loved the theme! I like all three film makers, and although I haven't seen all three movies (I loved SWEPT AWAY) it was fun to revisit them like this.

I got HUGO but am trying to figure out why a Science fiction prize would be named after Victor HUGO. Or is it a different HUGO?

My favorite clue was YEASTS. My bread baking days are over, but I remember those YEASTy doughs fondly.

Marti, I always love your expo, and your fun limericks, Owen.

Have a great Thursday, everybody!

Lemonade714 said...

Not Victor, it was named after Hugo Gernsback who founded the sci-fi magazine “Amazing Stories”

Lemonade714 said...

For your edification, the HUGO

HeartRx said...

Ok, I'll bite on the desert vs. deserted issue.

In order for an island to be deserted, it would have to have had a population at one time who left the island for another place, thereby deserting it. The island could then be considered "deserted."

The term "desert" implies a place that is desolate, sparsely populated or uninhabited. I think that is the correct term for this theme.

Misty said...

Lemonade, many thanks for explaining the origin of the HUGO and for the the HUGO GERNSBACK link! What an amazing fellow! Why have I never heard of him before? This is why I love this blog--I learn new things here all the time!

A question: every time someone invites me to join them on Google, my blue name (and Corner Profile) disappears. I click on the Google Account but it doesn't let me sign in. How do I get my blue-ness back?

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Struggled a bit in the South today, mostly since I couldn't guess at the lower two film titles until lots more perps filled in.

Even as a kid, I thought it was odd that the Gilligan's Island theme song called the place an "uncharted desert isle". It looked too lush to be a desert. The closing theme song had the "Robinson Caruso" pronunciation, and that didn't seem right either. Glad I'm not the only one.

What JzB said. I was thrown off by temper as a clue for Anneal, because in metallurgy they are kind of opposite. Relatedly: some optical glass behaves similarly, in that it needs to be annealed to ease internal stresses that might cause trouble in the polishing phase. This is particularly important in the making of massive primary mirrors in reflective telescopes. I was once responsible for the huge 50" glass blanks in such a project.

Hi Marti, could you hear the crowd at Fenway from your place? :-)

Ol' Man Keith said...

My faith in crossword answers is usually upheld. One of the constant pleasures of solving puzzles is discovering what was nigh impossible to see just a short moment ago.

For me today this occurred at 59A-- "Words that may precede weeping" --my last fill today. Even when I had reached REA-EM I still could not see where it was heading. I even started to doubt, fearing that one or more of the letters so far was (Gad!)... wrong!

But that final D made ALL the difference, and I was treated to my "Aha!" moment.

Congratulations, Wildenberg.

GarlicGal said...

OwenKL, "Ode to Hump Day" was inspired! I'm glad I thought to check back to yesterday's posts. Trammel? Good word to know.

Happy Halloween.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Good for you, Husker G!

It is one of my favorite soliloquies. Brutus is an underrated role, as he often pales next to flashy Antony and hot tempered Cassius. But Shakespeare expresses some of his most nuanced political and personal thoughts through Brutus. He follows your quotation with an analogy that reminds me of Plato:
"The genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council, and the state of man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
The nature of an insurrection."

Lucina said...

Greetings to one and all and happy Halloween.

No tricks today but what a great treat from Gerry Wildenberg and reviewed by our inimitable Marti. Thank you both!

THESES gave me a jump start and I was off to the races to find that DESERT ISLAND though didn't realize that's what was wanted until the they appeared.

I didn't see the movies, but the titles were certainly familiar; now ETOUFFEE was totally unfamiliar and unknown but the crosses confirmed it.

And the SE threw me into a spin; my guess was ILENE Chaiken but I researched it to make sure of that although I put the D.C. united into the NLS (whatever that might be)then some hard thinking led me finally to READ 'EM. I almost wept!

JZB:
Thank you for that well defined and detailed difference between temper and ANNEAL. Between you and Dudley, it now makes sense to me.

I readily inserted ANNEAL because like Yellowrocks, I interpreted it in the metaphorical sense as referring to emotion.

I knew ROD CAREW! He was one of my late DF's favorite athletes.

Well, I've PRATTLED long enough.

I hope you are thoroughly enjoying this beautiful Thursday!

CrossEyedDave said...

Another red letter day!

48A Aussie flock had me stymied, I could only think of sheep. Like Jzb, it is hard for me to imagine rounding up Emus

This puzzle makes me want to watch Gilligan...

It's always good to have perspective...

1D reminded me that there is a way to get the TP really high up into the tree...

Ol' Man Keith said...

Husker Gary,

Quoting Brutus reminds me of a thought that struck me while watching the recent BBC “Hollow Crown” series. As the four “Henry” plays unfolded -—from RICHARD II through HENRY V-- I was again impressed by how deeply Shakespeare delved into the minds of past English kings, and not just the kings, but their political rivals, their heirs, generals, etc. He put thoughts and words into the mouths of grand historical figures, but treated them as intimately as his fictional Romeos and Hamlets, etc.

KINGS SPEECH
The thought came to me as a question. How many scribblers can write so authoritatively at such a high social and historical rank? Nowadays when writers try to give voice to a president, they usually fall short-- or spoof him. With Shakespeare, it is not just that he expresses kings convincingly. We know those kings could only WISH they had spoken so WELL.

Bill G. said...

I liked the puzzle but sure got stuck in the lower-right corner. I wasn't sure how to spell ETOUFFEE or IMPEDES. I wasn't sure about CURSE AT and ANNEL plus I didn't know ILENE. So that corner was rough for me.

I've been trying Almond Butter instead of Peanut Butter. I like it but some brands are better than others.

I'm not a fan of TPing or egging. The results are pretty unpleasant for the homeowner, not funny at all. The TP is hard to get off if it's high up and almost impossible if it rains and it gets wet. Dried-up egg is really hard to remove. Not funny.

Tinbeni said...

With TP'S, STAB and EERIE in the NW corner I was expecting a Halloween theme.
(Glad I wasn't disappointed ...)

Congrats to the Boston Red Sox on their 8th World Series Championship.
(Hmmm, Only need 19 MORE to tie the New York Yankee's 27 !!!)

BTW, this SOT has changed his Avatar also ... that's my second "toast" of the day.
Cheers !!!

Argyle said...

Pshaw! A desert island should be an oasis.

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, A doable puzzle today, but no runaway. Hands up for Atmo and Tsk. I also thought that a big name in games should be Itari, but Hoyle finally emerged.

I didn't know Swept Away, but it came with the perps. In Drive for going forward was my favorite clue today.

I wagged Ilene. I had all but the first e and that put in Read 'em. I was looking for something you would say before you cried, not a common saying. Duh!

Great write up, as usual, Marty.

Have a great day, everyone.

Avg Joe said...

This was a poser for me, but still fun. Did not know the theme answers as clued, and hadn't seen any of the movies, so that was a challenge. But am completely familiar with the books for #1 and 3, so they came with a few perps. Swept away was almost entirely perps.

Liked the clue for Read em, which gave me MLS. Good thing too, since the only MLS I'm familiar with involves Multiple Listing Service. Further west I had Sinatra, EEG, Edo and (blank)flu, so Etouffee had solid grounding. Learned that one from reading "The Joy" (but have yet to make it). Wasn't sure if 51A was Rey or Rei, so I had a lot of trouble with Ilene. That "I" was my last fill and still thought it sounded like the name of a one-legged female water-skier.

Yellowrocks said...

HeartRx @ 12:14. Yes! I agree about deserted. I was thinking that, too.

JzB, I penned in ANNEAL quickly and briefly thought about it serving two connotations. You put me straight with your cogent description of temper and anneal. Very interesting. The clue only fits the metaphorical.

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. Lots of eraser crumbs on my table today. Good puzzle, though. Had many of the same difficulties as you folks did. At least I knew etouffee; just happened to have some at a local restaurant a couple of months ago. It will probably never be served at Chez Jayce, but our own weird (no roux!) shrimp gumbo is on the menu a few times a year, especially this cold time of year. Currently learning how to make taro dumplings (Chinese 芋頭角 Wu Gok), for which I am using the recipe I found on the Edibly Asian site. Best wishes to you all.

HeartRx said...

Keith Fowler @ 1:16. Well said! Have ever thought of applying for the job of presidential speech writer??

YR @ 2:44, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it...until someone can come up with a reasonably convincing argument otherwise. (^0^)

Jazzbumpa said...

Yellowrocks -

Regarding your earlier post, it's true that both tempering and annealing strengthen an item relative to something made in an out-of-control process. I think that is the source of the confusion.

Cheers!
Jzb

Lucina said...

Marti and YR:
I went back to reread the 12:14 comment and immediately started laughing because while that is the technical definition and appropriate for the theme,it occurred to me that we humans probably should not be inhabiting the desert.

As inhospitable and arid as deserts are, they should be best left to snakes, spiders and other critters. Yet here we are, living by the thousands in cities and towns made possible through creatively ingenious use of resources. But, I digress.

Keith:
As always, your eloquence impresses.

Husker Gary said...

-Keith, I wasn’t about to plunge a knife into anyone as Brutus was, however the quote I mentioned clearly reflects the time between when I contemplated my big first big roller coaster ride and the first motion of the car was “like a hideous dream”. I, uh, was 50 and it was fun.
-A variation of the Bard’s Richard III for Cardinal fans; “A hit, a hit, my kingdom for a hit!”
-I appreciate your desire for spoken/written grandeur but, once again, according to William, “Action is eloquence”
-Halloween vandalism of my ute was much worse than today. Wait a minute, that doesn’t fit the “kids are going to hell in a hand basket” line of thought in some circles. Not here.
-Left over from yesterday (forgot to post)
I really disliked this guy named Bobby
For whom studying Tonto was a hobby
I called him a fool
And he said that ain’t cool
You dirty son of a Kemo Sabe

HeartRx said...

Dudley @ 12:31, is THAT what that noise was???? (I thought we were having an earthquake!)

As you probably know, I am not a big baseball fan, but it was nice to see the "home team" win. But I probably would have been equally happy if the Cardinals had won…happy that it is now over, and we can concentrate on FOOTBALL!!

HG @ 4:14, you are getting dangerously close to putting OwenKL out of a job…LOL!!

PK said...

Ah, the competitive drive extends to art here. Who ever thought we would have a limerick duel? Too funny guys! Keep 'em coming. You're both honing your craft. You're fired up, but I'm not sure how to work in ANNEAL with your rapier wits.

Yay, the sun is out after 3 wet gloomy days. My son said he had 4.60 inches. He took me to an impromtu lunch at the elegant Dairy Queen today.

windhover said...

A case of what George Carlin called vuja de:
the feeling that none of this s--- ever happened before, but I did reference Lord of the Flies (by mentioning the authors name).
And JzB:
Before I was a farmer/philosopher I was a toolmaker, and you are right about temper/anneal. (Over)simply stated: tempering = hardness, annealing = softness, relatively speaking.

HeartRx said...

Windhover, I read your 4:47 information. Thank you so much for putting it so succinctly. So, I must say that I guess I like "tempering" much better than "annealing"...

windhover said...

Hearti-
Both are part of a process, one leads directly to the other, and fortunately, neither is permanent.
PK - From what I read, that's approximately 1" below average.

Bill G. said...

In the competition between cats and dogs, this video seems to show a clear winner. Cats vs dogs

willow said...

Bonjour, le gang! DH & I are back from 6 weeks in Europe,visiting relatives & eating OUR way through six countries, many ISLANDs & the Principality of Monaco. We saw OARED TRIEMEs @ the Museum of Ancient Ships, Mainz, Germany. My Hungarian s-i-l taught me to make pizza. It was the 1st time I'd cooked w. yeast, & tasted like the SLICEs we ate in Rome. Home now, I bought some yeast & made more - fun to do & turned out great! What happiness those YEASTS brought! Maybe I should open a pizza HUTT & try to defray the cost of my trip! I'd have to sell a TON! :-)
Willow

Yellowrocks said...

Lucina @ 4:03, my first reaction to your post was."Ask the Bedouins who have lived in the desert for thousands of years." I've read many historical novels about the nomadic Bedouin life style.Fascinating. However, since WW I and, more especially, since WW II many Bedouins have given up the nomadic desert life, although some do still practice it.

Spitzboov said...

Results of unequal pay.

Happy Halloween

Montana said...

If I can manage passwords on my iPad, you will be able to read this post. I am in Casper, WY tonight on my way to Greenwood Village (Denver), CO. I drove 478 miles today. Lots and lots of cattle semis out there.
DNF every day this week, but only one letter yesterday.
I did today's puzzle so early this morning, I don't remember if I had any comments to make.

Have a good weekend.

Montana

Manac said...

Spitz,
Both links...Priceless :)

Husker Gary said...

-I really enjoyed the links too Spitz. I wonder if the left monkey would have gotten upset if he had to give 5 rocks to get a grape and the right monkey had to only hand over 1 rock or got a grape for just sitting there.
-My goodness, Montana. Nothing is across the street out there is it?
-I’ll repeat this tomorrow but we just turned out the lights after we had 225 trick-or-treaters. Wow! BTW, none of them got a cucumber.
-Marti, I hope you have a sufficiency of tempering at your house tonight ;-)
-Good night from a calorie depleted little house on the prairie.

PK said...

Windy: Ho, ho! Nothing below average about this guy, I'm here to tell you!

Monkeys aren't stupid. The tester is lucky the monkey didn't grab his hand when he got close to receive a rock and bite him.

Manac said...

Well, Nicole informed us all is well after last night's win. Appears there were some troubles around campus and in town. Don't know why, this is Red Sox Nation and they won. Just takes a couple of Idiots to start something I guess. Just happy she and her roomies were smart enough to stay in their dorm during the ruckus.

windhover said...

PK - You knew I was kidding. :)
A line like that was just too good to pass up. If Dennis was here he would've beat me to it.
Your rain has arrived in the Bluegrass, along with some stiff winds. Yes, pun intended.

Vidwan827 said...

Thank you D-Otto for alerting about the witches google doodle today. Not only is it cute for Halloween, if you 'add' any two of the four ingredients - the skull, bottle, bone and whatever, into the pot er, cauldron, you get one of four different animated sequence(s). Really cute.

Thank you Bill. G. For the Cat vs. Dog competition about occupying the bed .... Really loved it. There is something intimidating about another pet animal, (who has equal rights in the household -), like the cat, occupying the bed. You can't just be nasty to her like a stranger, and growl or snarl - so you have be gentle and use some tact....

JazzB. Your point on annealing versus tempering is well noted. But as I learnt a long time ago, .... And as YellowRocks pointed out, crosswordese uses a different and convoluted logic .... Which is valid only for the XWord puzzle. Here, correct scientific knowledge may just be a. liability.

For an average crossword solver who's not a metallurgist, tempering and annealing are just two heat treatment processes .... And hence 'similar' enough to be synonymous.

Have a nice day, all. And happy Halloween , which is now increasingly being banned in certain schools and communities, ... Because of a variety of reasons....

Lemonade714 said...

Hi Vidwan, good to see you.

Bill G. said...

Spitz, I enjoyed the videos. I wonder if the monkey video will give some CEOs pause? Probably not...

Anonymous T said...

Bill G. The Ted Talk video was cool and dog v. cat was funny.

JazzB & Dudley - thanks for the technical delta for the two processes. Like Vid said, it will be an x-word liability, but I'd rather know and then suspend disbelief.

Halloween is almost over and no TP in the trees! DW threw a wonderful murder-mystery for the older kids (since they don't trick-or-treat). Extra dry-ice in the pool for giggles again (this time all the kids recited Poe's Raven as it bubbled - these are some smart / nerdy 14 yr-olds :-))

We had less than normal vistiors tonight, so I took youngest up the block again and reverse-trick-or-treated. They'd throw candy in her bag and I threw candy in their bowls! Most were amused - youngest not so much.

Yes, the Card's lost, sigh... Only 5 more months 'till opening day!

Cheers, -T

Dudley said...

Well that was different! I just tried opening Cruciverb to get Friday's puzzle, and got a message that a site component was "marked as crashed and should be repaired". I suspect that's not a good thing.

PK said...

Windy, Lets hope that's not the only thing in bluegrass country that's stiff. I mean like a stiff drink, you know.

OwenKL said...

Vidwan: Re the Google doodle, there are 4 ingredients, and each pair gives a different interactive sequences. That's 6 combinations, not just 4, so you've missed a couple.

PK said...

Those dogs look so annoyed and embarrassed when they have to lie down with a cat.

for some reason, I can no longer pull up the google doodle.

Bill G. said...

PH, I'm pretty sure the Google Doodle goes back to normal at 12 midnight eastern time.

Lucina said...

YR:
You might be surprised at how often I think about and meditate on the Bedouins and all those desert denizens who survived in the world's deserts for those thousands of years. On especially hot days in the middle of the summer I wonder how they did it with only primitive resources and their wits. It provides me with endless moments of gratitude, astonishment and respect for the human species.

I think, too, of our own more immediate antecedents who by sheer and grim determination carved out an existence in these harsh lands where we now enjoy the comforts of A/C, available water and other modern day amenities.

Desert living often leads me to these thoughts and engenders deep gratitude to those who preceded us.

Anonymous T said...

Lucina:

I once read where the Nomads' clothing was loosly wrapped to provide air-flow and wisk away perspiration. (I'd always wonder how they could dress in all that garb and not be hot in the DESERT). Donno if it's true, just that I recall reading it.

People can be strong if they have to be or weak when spoiled. I'm sure Keith can provide a quote from the Bard as the human condition has never really changed. Put me back in IL and I will moan about the cold the 1st few winters... Cheers, -T

aka thelma said...

Anon T.... have you ever lived in the desert ? :)

Trust Lucina.... she words it much better than I would... but if you were here in 120º weather and gave it any thought you would also thank whoever made it possible for you to live in comfort.. I often wonder what in the world made then settle here... or any desert...

I have a bit of trouble looking around me here and thinking about it being desert ... except of course for the heat... but the sidewalks and curbs and paved streets and grass and trees and swimming pools all had to be put here by someone.... it is still desert...

The deserrt I moved here from is open and barren and hot and dusty and rock solid earth.... more population will either improve it or ruin it... but it stilll remains that it is all desert land... so we thank whoever before us made it what it is today...

Tough puzzle today.... but pat me on the back, I finished it... :) not a usual for thursday.... thanks to Gary W and to Marti....

thelma

Yellowrocks said...

Vidwwam @ 9:45 Thanks for the shout out, but those are not my thoughts exactly. IMO anneal and temper used in the way I pointed out are not convoluted crosswordese. I frequently come across them in my reading. They are merely another legitimate sense of the words. That’s why some words have 14 or more definitions in my dictionary. I am often taken aback when posters insist that there is only one proper meaning or use of a word.
Take WORK, for instance. In physics work is defined (in calculus terms) as the integral of the force over a distance of displacement. I am sure that even scientists use other definitions of work in daily life. When I am sitting and pondering a difficult project I am doing hard work, but not in a scientific sense.