google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, November 6th 2013 Gareth Bain

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Nov 6, 2013

Wednesday, November 6th 2013 Gareth Bain

Theme: Record Numbers! The theme entries all start with the name of a classic music label

18A. Madonna : VIRGIN MARY. Richard Branson's first money-maker. 'Tubular Bells' launched his business on the Virgin label. If you've never heard Mike Oldfield's seminal album I really encourage you to listen - here's the first three minutes.

23A. Ivy League professional school : COLUMBIA LAW. Just don't go to their website. Confusing as heck. After an hour or so, we get it. Sousa marches and One Direction. Mmmmm K.

37A. Fruity dessert with sweetened crumbs : APPLE BROWN BETTY. Wow.

52A. "The Lord of the Rings" genre : EPIC FANTASY. Wow squared!

Wow! Steve here with an amazing Wednesday problem - maybe I'm getting old or out of practice but Gareth really made me work at this one! What did you all think?

Across:

1. Lies as a whole? : PACK. First What?. (A pack of lies).

5. King who raged to Edgar on the heath : LEAR. Thanks! One I know :)





9. Turbaned Punjabis : SIKHS.  Spelling challenge.

14. Matty or Felipe of baseball : ALOU

15. Puffs additive : ALOE. Crosses. All the way!

16. Pistons great Thomas : ISIAH

17. Hog product : LARD. Tail? Squeak? Trotter? Butt? Darn - my old Dad said "The only part of the pig you can't eat is the squeak".

20. Leave open-mouthed : AMAZE

22. Gets under control : TAMES

26. PC brain : CPU. The Central Processing Unit of a Personal Computer. It all seems so normal now but 15 years ago here was the Pentium Chip from Intel - an amazing leap in technology.



29. Skier's challenge : ESS

30. Tuna holder : CAN

31. Sci-fi hybrid : CYBORG

33. Running or jumping : GERUND. Oh - let me remember this! It ends in 'ing! It's a  noun! I'm done after this. Please don't ask me about the gerundive.

36. Mideast flier : EL AL

42. Wrath, in a hymn : IRAE. "Dies irae".

43. Writes to, nowadays : EMAILS

44. Green stuff : DO-RE-MI. Officially clue-less here. Hoping Rich will help out? Or C.C.? (C.C.: Just slang for money. )

47. Transfer __ : RNA. Maybe I'm Jet-lagged, but crosses all the way/ No idea, sorry.

48. Orchestra site : PIT

51. Say more : ADD

56. Liszt or Schubert : FRANZ

57. Plaque honoree : DONOR

63. Avatar of Vishnu: RAMA

64. Congo critter with striped legs: OKAPI

65. Golden St. campus: UCLA

66. Grace ender: AMEN

67. Concise: TERSE

68. Use FedEx, say: SHIP

69. Male deer: HART

(Sorry for missing a few fill earlier)

Down:

1. Versailles attraction : PALACE. Versailles is the Palace - looking for "Garden" or "Jardin" first - amazing



2. Los __: Manhattan Project site : ALAMOS

3. Pink shades : CORALS

4. Invasive vine : KUDZU. Crosses - Thanks! I hope I don't have any? Doesn't seem as pretty as the Palace de Versailles :)



5. WC : LAV

6. Actor Roth : ELI

7. Arterial trunk : AORTA

8. Kingly : REGAL

9. Like the village blacksmith's hands : SINEWY. Hmmmmm.

10. Philosophies : ISMS. Hmmmmmmmm

11. Rio automaker : KIA

12. Laugh syllable : HAR. I had HAA and AHA and .... HAH! Didn't help.

13. Shunning the spotlight, maybe : SHY

19. Computer that may use Snow Leopard : iMAC

21. Toastmaster : EMCEE

24. Caustic comeback : BARB

25. Accustom (to) : INURE

26. Firearms pioneer : COLT

27. Backside : PRAT

28. Hard to look at : UGLY

32. Nectar collectors : BEES

33. High spirits : GLEE

34. Pierre, e.g. : NOM

35. Friend of Snow White : DWARF

37. Verdi opera with pyramids : AIDA

38. Nudge : PROD

39. Tex's bud : PARD

40. NPR correspondent Totenberg : NINA

41. Short on taste : BLAND

45. "__ Melodies": Warner Bros. shorts : MERRIE

46. Tablet debut of 2010 : iPAD

48. Land on an isthmus : PANAMA

49. Chemical relative : ISOMER

50. Oppressive ruler : TYRANT

53. River near Karachi : INDUS. Wow!

54. Austerlitz native : CZECH. Wow! Wednesday?

55. Holy ark contents : TORAH

56. Dandies : FOPS

58. Decompose : ROT

59. __ out a living : EKE

60. One may be hired : CAR

61. Onetime ring king : ALI

62. Track circuit : LAP

That's me done! I spent a lot of Wednesday on this one - thanks for the workout, Gareth!

Steve


57 comments:

  1. What's the election about? It's about money. It's about long green. It's about bucks, scratch, do-re-mi, dinero, hard currency, soft dollars. It's about moolah, boodle, cabbage, lettuce and greenbacks. It's about a fistful of dollars. It's about a pile of dead presidents. It's about the mother's milk of politics, and the root of all evil, and the sinews of war. It's about the legal tender, the bottom line, cash on the barrel head. It's about money, money, money, money, money.

    http://articles.latimes.com/1996-11-03/news/mn-60967_1_long-green

    Didn't know that one either-guessed right on DOREMI, GERUND. Got PACK from the down clues.

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  2. Morning, all!

    Got VIRGIN MARY and APPLE BROWN BETTY and thought the theme had to do with women's names. Oops...

    Pretty smooth overall today, though. A few minor write overs, such as SIVA for RAMA and PROW for PRAT, and I needed perp help to decide between stuff like INURE/ENURE, REGAL/ROYAL, etc. Nothing bad, though. Needed a lot of perps to get CZECH and INDUS, but the perps were there when and where I needed them.

    [gnizeRa]

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  3. (Nothing funny today. Just a bland history lesson.)

    The oldest recorder is COLUMBIA,
    Since 1888, does that numb ya?
    That's so far in the past,
    The century before last!
    I'm AMAZEd they're still peddling euphonia!

    Branson started out with a VIRGIN,
    Then entrepreneurship came urgin',
    He added airplanes,
    And then British trains,
    Soon a space-liner will be his new version!

    'Twas the Beatles who grew the first APPLE.
    Their musical sound was a sample.
    The style then was mod,
    Both at home and abroad.
    The Boomer teen market was ample!

    No such flair marks the history of EPIC.
    It was spun for the jazz fan esthetic
    COLUMBIA was in charge,
    EPIC's range still grew large.
    It prospered, so it's all copacetic.

    I dream of a real RECORD DEAL.
    I write lyrics for songs that I feel.
    But I can't display them,
    No one else will play them,
    And me, I sing like a trained seal.
    (A poorly trained one at that!)

    [Not much problem today. Had POKE before PROD, HIGH FANTASY before EPIC (I'm a sci-fi nerd, and "high" is a specific type, to differentiate the medieval quest from "urban fantasy", modern werewolves and such; steampunk; and other variations. "Epic" is just movie poster hype.) Finished up with no ta-da, so went back over it and found DO-RE-ME without having to turn on the red.)

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  4. Last Wednesday, Blogger GarlicGal said "I thought for sure Owen would open with "ODE TO Hump Day"...maybe next week?" I accommodated her, but so late in the day that most of you probably never saw it, so here is a reprise. No limericks, this ode is a proper sonnet!

    Ode to Hump Day
    (for GarlicGal, 10/30/2013.)

    The day we have been waiting for is come,
    It is midweek, and the hours flow by.
    Time has marched slow, to beat of the drum
    But now, past the median, time may fly.
    From this day, the end of toil can be seen
    It's the apex of the week roller coaster.
    Deadlines loom: as we fall, we may scream;
    To the weekend we progress, getting closer.
    In temporal terms, this is the day of hump;
    Wednesday, the center, fulcrum of the week.
    Monday, to this day, fain we would jump.
    Friday, from all workdays, respite we seek.
    This is the day we begin loosening our trammel,
    This is the hump day, the Day of the Camel!

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  5. For a puzzle with so many short fill, I agree this was a real challenge. INDUS almost did me in.

    ISOMER and IMAC also were not easy. Thanks GB and Steve.

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  6. Good morning, folks. Thank you, Gareth Bain, for a very good, albeit difficult, puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for a fine review.

    Well, this puzzle seemed more like a Thursday or Friday to me. But, I persevered, and got it done. Got up extra early this morning and used the IPad. Newspaper not here yet.

    Got ALOU easy enough, then ALOE, then SIKHS and ISIAH. AORTA appeared, and that's about it for the North, until I came back later.

    GERUND was a six-perper.

    Got the APPLE, but the BROWN BETTY was tough.

    DO RE MI was easy once I thought about it. We have had that before.

    RNA again.

    Tried BUCK instead of HART. That made PANAMA come slowly. Eventually got that corner. ISOMER was not easy.

    SINEWY took me a while, but it made sense once I had it. That one was pretty good.

    KUDZU, of course. Common household word.

    Liked TORAH. Very good.

    Theme appeared. Had most of them by the time I got RECORD DEAL.

    Off to my day. Lots to do. Heading for San Jose, CA, and then Los Gatos tomorrow.

    See you tomorrow from either Illinois, or California.

    Abejo

    (hodleig)

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  7. Thank you Gareth and Steve for a nice start of a Wednesday.
    I don't remember solving a puzzle with such useful perps. Every clue that stumped me, and there were quite a few today, had several perps that gave away the answer.

    It is a lovely Wednesday when one can solve the crossword.

    Have a good day,
    Montana

    My Captcha is even correct = Notsour

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  8. Usually I read the analysis first, but overslept today, so posted first, looked later. So this is getting added on as a PS.

    The Village Blacksmith

    Under a spreading chestnut-tree
    The village smithy stands;
    The smith, a mighty man is he,
    With large and SINEWY hands;
    And the muscles of his brawny arms
    Are strong as iron bands.

    ~~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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  9. Good Morning, Steve and friends. For the most part, I thought this was fairly easy for a Wednesday, but still, I had a few misdirections and a few clues that I just went Huh? The perps, however, saved the day.

    I out-smarted myself by thinking that the Versailles attraction was the Palais instead of the English word PALACE.

    I also confidently wrote in Loo instead of LAV for the WC.

    HAR as a Laughing Syllable was just mean. Everyone knows the "correct" answer is HAH!

    Tuna container = CAN was my favorite clue.

    KUDZU is ubiquitous in Mississippi.

    Samuel COLT was a New Englander.

    QOD: Even in a time of fiscal austerity, education is more than just an expense. ~ Arne Duncan (Nov. 6, 1964)

    [dhatum]

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  10. Good morning!

    I have to differ with Steve and Lemonade. I didn't find anything difficult or arcane in this puzzle. Steve, Is there another spelling for SIKH? I only know that one. Now, ISIAH on the other hand…(but we've seen it before).

    I recognized "Snow Leopard" only because I now own a fruit-based machine. I'm not sure which "beast" is at the heart of mine, though. I'm still trying to figure out when to use [Control] and when to use [Command] -- does that mean I've got command and control issues?

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  11. Good morning Steve, C.C. et al.

    Thanks for all the info on the record labels, Steve. I think the only ones I really was sure of were VIRGIN and COLUMBIA. I do remember Mike Olfield's Tubular Bells. How could I ever forget the music that was on the soundtrack of "The Exorcist"? 3:12 Scared the h*** out of me when I saw it!

    The rest of the puzzle seemed fairly easy, about right for a Wednesday. Pause to think about the clue, and then check a couple perps to be sure your mind is on the right track. Today mine was, so I didn't run into any problems.

    Happy hump day everyone!

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  12. A serious workout for a Wednesday and a fun writeup Steve.

    I had no idea that Tubular Bells launched Virgin, but I helped. That's one of two LPs that I flat wore out from overuse. The other was Dark Side of the Moon.

    I believe it was Argyle, but someone linked Harpo Marx a while back. It deserves an encore today with the entry of Franz Lizst

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  13. Wow!

    I LOVED this puzzle!

    Perfect difficulty level for a Wednesday. A couple of unknowns that the perps aided in solving. A couple of chuckles long the way with DO-RE-MI, PARD, TUNA and of course HAR. A constructor self-shout out with OKAPI and COLT. All leading up to the aha moment with the reveal that I paused before I read to see if I could figure out for myself(I couldn't). So, I came here to read the overflowing accolades. Hey! Where is the love?

    Did anyone notice all the possible shadowy sub-themes within the theme:
    VIRGIN MARY: ISIAH, TORAH, AMEN (bible) or VIRGIN and EL AL(airline)
    COLUMBIA: PANAMA, CZECH republic(country) or COLUMBIA, NINA and SHIP (explorer vehicle)
    APPLE: iMAC and iPAD(mirrored btw) and iSOMER
    EPIC: well, here I got nuthin'

    And Rich's personal theme of the week: RNA

    And what about LEAR, REGAL and PALACE?

    For me, this puzzle did AMAZE. One of my favorites in recent memory.

    P.S. Black Betty

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  14. Greetings!

    Nice puzzle, Gareth! Fun expo, Steve!

    Only 2 minutes longer than Tuesday. No problems. Had to change a few of the words mentioned above.

    Desper: look under About this Mac under the Apple. 10.6.8 is Snow Leopard, but hasn't been on new machines for a few years. 10.7x is Lion, 10.8, is Mountain Lion. (Really new one is Maverick, 10.9.) I still use Snow Leopard as I have Quicken, Illustrator and Photoshop (old versions). When in doubt, use the command key.

    I have never seen KUDZU. Have lived in L. A. all my life. There is an obnoxious vine that has pale green pods that I cannot identify, with ovoid leaves, though.

    Cheers!

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  15. I thought the theme was all about women who hadn't had sex. Felt interesting.

    Having an immaculate conception takes all the fun out of it. Freud was right . That's what man has been obsessed about, since the beginning of time. My advise is to just go and get it over with. Then you can concentrate of bigger and better things.

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  16. I thought a male deer was a STAG and that a backside was REAR. I also thought "lies as a whole" had something to do with golf so I settled on PARS. Then I thought it might be political so I changed it to PACS. I also had LOO for a while instead of LAV, POKE instead of PROD and SEND instead of SHIP. I ended up getting VIRGIN, COLUMBIA, APPLE and EPIC so I knew the unifier was RECORD DEAL.

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  17. I tried SWEATY and STRONG and got SINEWY from the perps. I wanted SARC for BARB.

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  18. Good morning everybody. We were on a role for a little while. First Marti and then CC, but Gareth broke the streak.

    I had a few hangups here, such as GERUND, and NOM. I'm not used to the terms LAV, PRAT, and FOPS, but they make sense.

    Otherwise it was nice smooth fill. I hope you all have a great day!

    (Some Apple Brown Betty sounds pretty good right about now!)

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  19. Abejo @ 6:14 am: "A Six Perper" - I love it!

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  20. Good morning everyone.

    Nice challenge - but no searches needed. Had 'Loo' before LAV. Liked the clue for GERUND, and liked seeing ISOMER. Had forgotten that DOREMI could mean money.
    AUSTERLITZ - in Moravia; site of one of Napoleon's many victories. Also a small community in ENY at the Mass. line.
    ISOMER: CH₃-CHOH-CH₃ is an isomer of CHOH-CH₂-CH₃. Isopropyl and Propyl alcohol.

    “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain

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  21. Good Morning:

    A bit crunchy in spots but highly doable. Nice job, Gareth, and neat expo, Steve.

    Lucina, just to keep you informed, the casino gambling amendment was passed by a substantial margin. It allows for 7 casinos to be developed, one of which will probably be in my immediate area.

    We have a beautiful, sunny day, in the 50's. Not bad for November.

    The city of Albany elected its first female Mayor. (The present Mayor is stepping down after serving for 20 years.)

    Manac, you would love a catalogue I received yesterday:"In The Company of Dogs.". It's filled with dog toys, and all sorts of dog-related items. My favorite is a pillow, inscribed as follows: How To Handle Sress Like A Dog: If you can't eat it or play with it, Then pee on it and walk away!

    Have a great day.

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  22. Fermat, mine says 10.8.5, so I guess that's Mountain Lion, though it doesn't say so. I'm running Quicken in a Windows7 virtual machine that Marti suggested.

    Houston voters said no to saving the Astrodome.

    Irish Miss, love the pillow quote.

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  23. Not fun. Hate Gareth puzzles. Pretentious garbage.
    Hope my paper starts running different and enjoyable puzzles.
    JMO

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  24. Hi gang -

    It AMAZES me how constructors keep coming up with themes. Again, needed the reveal to suss it.

    I'm pretty unhappy with the clues for GERUND and NOM, but otherwise a fine puzzle. On the crunchy side for Wednesday.

    The K-H sequence makes SIKH hard to spell.

    The old English root of GLEE specifically meant the joy of singing. Hence our GLEE clubs to this day.

    From the 10th Century Exeter Book:
    LongaĂ° Ă¾onne Ă¾y læs Ă¾e him con leoĂ¾a worn,
    oĂ¾Ă¾e mid hondum con hearpan gretan;
    hafaĂ¾ him his gliwes giefe, Ă¾e him god sealde.

    The letters edth, "Ă°" and thorn, "Ă¾" are both pronounced like modern "th," either voiced or unvoiced.

    "Ă¾y læs Ă¾e" is the root of our word "lest." Looks to me like "the less that" rather than "for fear that" as it is often rendered.

    More or less:
    Longing is less troublesome to him who knows many songs,
    Or can touch the harp with his hands;
    He has his gleeful gift that God gave him.

    Cool regards
    JzB [occasionally gliwes]

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  25. A Wednesday delight, Gareth--many thanks! And thanks for the always great expo, Steve. I actually sped through this one except for the middle attic. Had LOO instead of LAV and ROYAL instead of REGAL, which messed things up for a while. Don't know my RECORD labels, so I was lucky that all the themes just fell into place anyway.

    Ah, "King Lear"--my favorite Shakespeare play next to "Hamlet."

    The clue for GERUND was really clever, I thought.

    Owen, so glad you posted the Longfellow poem. I wasn't sure SINEWY hands made sense until I read it.

    And, Irish Miss, our boy dog Dusty must have read that pillow message somewhere down the line.

    Have a great middle of the week, everybody!

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  26. Greetings, my friends!
    Thank you Steve and Gareth. I love a puzzling challenge.

    SIKHS started me off and HAR reminded me of Splynter. And since I regularly check the across/downs it really helped today as I tripped on the same fill some of you did: REAR/PRAT, STAG/HART, VEDA/RAMA, SEND/SHIP,DOLLAR/DOREMI. One of my aunts used that term all the time.

    Otherwise nothing was really foreign, exotic or unknown, just cleverly clued. Kudos, Gareth (and probably Rich, too).

    LARD, of course is what we use to make tamales and it's nearly that time.

    I was thinking of making APPLE BROWN BETTY for tonight. Apples are plentiful and tasty right now.

    IrishMiss:
    Thank you for the update. That's very interesting about casinos outside of Reservations. I wonder if other states permit that. Ours doesn't.

    JazzB:
    You really impress me with your knowledge. Middle English, wow!

    Have yourselves a joyous Wednesday, everyone!

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  27. Hi Y'all! I always like a Gareth puzzle! Thanks, Steve, for making sense of some of it.

    DO RE ME? Boo hiss
    a total cognitive miss.

    I've heard of PRAT falls in show biz, but never just PRAT. Is that a Brit usage, Steve? "I pulled me knickers over me PRAT"?

    GLEE was about a 5th or 6th word try. The light dawned after I gave up and moved on down the grid.

    Don't even know where to find NPR so don't know NINA. I rarely listen to any radio unless on road trips of 30 mins. or more in rural areas.

    INDUS & Czech: perp and WAG.

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  28. PK@11:45(and others)

    DO RE MI has been slang for money, moolah and cash for a long, long time.

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  29. What happened to 58 thru 69 across???

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  30. I finished this in RECORD time for a Wednesday and enjoyed the trip.

    Musings
    -VIRGIN record founder Richard Branson has built this spaceport (not airport) in New Mexico and will start taking passengers into space next year. It is near LOS ALAMOS.
    -My MIL’s APPLE pie with LARD in the crust is beyond delicious
    -We love EMAIL around here. You can digest the incoming information and thoughtfully consider the reply
    -Hudson’s 5th grade spelling words contained SINEWY
    - The Great One doing HAR HAR HARDY HAR HAR
    -KIDS!
    -I’m back. I am helping my dear friend by showing her how to dissect chicken wings and it is going great!
    -Finish later

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  31. Hello everybody. I agree with so much of what most of you said today. Perps were a definite necessity to solve this sucker. Hand up for LOO before LAV, Filling in only the H at 12D until perps showed whether it was to be HAH, HEH, HEE, HAW, or HAR. Entered NET for tuna holder until EMCEE forced me to change it to CAN. Only from the perps coujld I tell if a male deer was a BUCK or STAG; turns out it was neither one of those. And so it went.

    Well, at least I knew FRANZ right off the bat, or at least was more than 90% confident about that answer.

    Happy hump day and best wishes to you all.

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  32. Steve: Nice write-up. Like you, Gareth put me through a work-out.

    iSOMER ... is that a new fangle APPLE product?

    Nothing to 'drink' in the grid. tears ...
    A "toast" to all at Sunset.
    Cheers!!!

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  33. I am a rank amateur when it comes to the harder puzzles, nut it only took less than 5 minutes to solve this one. The only on I never heard of was applebrownbetty.

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  34. I thought this was a not too hard one for a Wednesday. in fact, I only wrote over five letters.

    I had all the problems that have been mentioned but some luck here and there helped to a rather quick finish.

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  35. Wees!

    Definitely a chewy puzzle, not so much inkblots as learning moments. I was surprised when I finally finished it!

    PK, you beat me to it! Pratfall was just one of my learning moments... (I was looking for a ships backside...)



    I don't really care for this "Theme Link", but I am sure it will go over big with all the teachers on the Blog. (Sorry, couldn't find a funny record deal. maybe I should have looked under "Cheech & Chong.") (Dave's not home man,,,)

    The best way to get rid of Kudzu is to eat it! but unfortunately to this Northerner it looks too much like giant poison ivy. The (funny) guy in this video says you can distinguish it by its hairy stems, but in addition to "leaves of three, let it be," I also learned "only a dope climbs a hairy rope!" (a reference to stay away from old growth poison ivy...)

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  36. Hola Everyone, I'm with Steve. This was a hard puzzle for me. Not all of it, but parts were not doable. I misspelled Kudzu-Kudso, so that led to other errors in that corner. I put in Loo for Lav and Royal for Regal-more errors which made that area hard to finish. The bottom half of this puzzle was the easiest for me, but I had a big DNF today.

    I spent a long 15 hour day at the election polls yesterday, so I'm blaming my DNF on a tired body and brain. We had a light turnout for the election--most of our neighborhood are Vote by Mail voters, so that was one reason, but also only one item on the ballot in our area didn't make for a very interesting ballot.

    I did take yesterday's puzzle with me to work during the down times at the polls. It was great to work a C.C. puzzle with no problems. We just replanted our herb garden and I enjoyed the Herb Garden theme.

    Have a great day everyone.

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  37. Um, Argyle?

    Am I in the Spam folder???

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  38. Jay Black 12:20: Good eye. No one else seems to have noticed these clues were left off. I've wanted to try my hand at this, but none of these really need any explaination. Still, the missing items --
    Across:

    58. Prize for an aspiring musical artist, perhaps from the first word of the answer to a starred clue : RECORD DEAL. This was a theme entry, the reveal, so it should have been at the top of the page.

    63. Avatar of Vishnu : RAMA

    64. Congo critter with striped legs : OKAPI

    65. Golden St. campus : UCLA. University of California at Los Angeles.

    66. Grace ender : AMEN

    67. Concise : TERSE

    68. Use FedEx, say : SHIP

    69. Male deer : HART

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  39. That "oldest puzzle constructor" is written up in
    the AARP Bulletin. She`s slender and well-groomed... probably being slender and constructing puzzles has had a lot to do with her longevity.

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  40. Evening all,
    This was a just right puzzle for Wed.
    No real holdups. Wasn't sure of Prat
    but it fit.

    Irish Miss, Loved that pillow quote :)
    Thanks for the chuckle.

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  41. Good evening everyone. It's been a fun 3 days of easy puzzles with a few glitches that perps straightened out. Tomorrow, I'm sure, will be another story.

    OwenKL, you continue to write wonderful poems. Thank you!

    Irish Miss, Love the saying on the pillow! Procedures are changing at the shelter where I volunteer and there's plenty of stress and tension. How dare we change things! Maybe we need to think like the dogs.

    I enjoy all the comments and links. This is an enjoyable part of my day.

    Pat

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  42. Marti - Reading about Trafalgar, I found that one of the French ships-of-the-line in the battle was named Duguay-Trouin. Then learned there have been 10 ships with that name all named after René Duguay-Trouin.
    Any relation?

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  43. Spitz, "DuGuay" was the name of my late husband. We have a lot of genealogy from his Irish mother's (Rynn) side, but not a lot from his French father's (DuGuay) side. It would be interesting to find out more about that…but I am sure there must be some connection there!! Thanks for the tip!

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  44. Speaking of the DO-RE-MI:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46mO7jx3JEw

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  45. Hey wrestler, did you you see jeopardy tonight? Uncanny. RamJam indeed!

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  46. The Animal Tracks slide show from this week. Animal Tracks

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  47. G'Eve All:

    Missing DW already. After ballet, no time to build dinner, so Chik-fil-A to the rescue.

    Steve - thanks for the write up. GB's puzzle slapped me around esp. at 32 & 39 down. DNF. I also realized TYRANg isn't a word (left over from stag).

    Fav - PACK of lies. Genesis' In the Air Tonight had that line it. Earworm all day. CYBORG was fun too (I was thinking of Sci-Fi/Fantasy as the "hybrid." V8 whack!

    NINA Totenberg is one of my favorite reporters. On ATC she had the Supreme Court prayer case coverage today.

    Other V8 moment - Manhattan Project == ghetto? Doh!. Stop HAR---ing at me :-)

    I don't know what APPLE BROWN BETTY is, but I must have heard of it. With APPLE---WNBET-Y I just filled it in. (I wanted some kind of coffee cake or cobler)

    IM - Loved the dog pillow.

    PK - Karma got me. After teasing MIL about spills, I SLOBed my (white!) shirt today at the office with beefy noodles.

    HG - Is Branson's spaceport outside of Edwards Air Base? I saw a spaceport out there, but it looked more like a junk yard than the shinny building on the website.

    TIn - with a flask of vodka, you could have a bloody MARY!

    Like D-O said, the Dome is Doomed. D-O, do you care?

    Also nixed at the polls: the RECORD DEAL of a $69m HS football stadium in Katy.

    Cheers!

    -T

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  48. AnonT, what goes around comes around -- whatever that means. I used to rag my mom about things I am now doing. I bet she sits up in the hereafter and laughs her fool head off.

    I think that Apple Brown Betty is the same as Apple Crisp except the crisp is on the bottom or layered instead of on top. Does anyone else know? Been too long since I baked.

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  49. Late night (again), shout out to why I love this blog. It's one thing to experience the ta-da thrill of finishing the puzzles, BUT then to be able to come and learn about the constructors/contributors with each one's special touch and awesome links, and further to read all your comments, just makes my day. (I know 'get a life', right?) I'm retired raising a pre-teen and this is a wonderful way to spend my 'me time'.

    Today's favs: Avg Joe link to Franz (Harpo), QOD-Hahtoolah, Barry G for always getting up early, Owen's gift for limericks, and everyone else...for being such a diverse and knowledgeable group providing learning, humor and helping remember fond memories (think 5 Easy Pieces last week or Tubular Bells or Cheech/Chong It's me DAVE!).

    Finally, BIG thanks to CC for starting and to all who take their time and effort to make this a great way to conclude my days.

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  50. Thanks Argyle - I'll have to find a good recipe for BROWNBETTY and try it for Thanksgiving.

    BTW, have you been feeling OK? You do yeoman's work around here, but I've noticed anon-snarks posts hanging around (and you sixed CED). I hope you're well. C, -T

    [rbout-fop] - dyslexic fashionable CYBORG?

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  51. I didn't 6 him, I retrieved him.

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  52. kjinck - you were posting while I was it seems. Welcome. I too love reading WBS, Owen's efforts (Owen - book or music, it doesn't matter - the talent is there*), and WEES after playing the x-word. All the regulars' comments makes my "me" time nice too. Now, go come join us on the "Blue" side :-)

    C, -T
    *Owen - sing like seal? Have you heard today's pop music? Or Crash Test Dummies?

    [hatedrao 7] - there's your band's name :-)

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  53. Late again.... as always... maybe I should change my name to Late..

    Enjoyed the puzzle even tho I didn't finishing it.... many of the same problems as others had... and then I just ran out of time... thank you Mr Bain and Steve...

    D otto... I had to chuckle at your post 6:25 am... not sure what a fruit based machine is :) but my mac is a snow leopard... 10.6.8 - purchased spring of 2010.... and I still cuss it out daily... so I do hope you have better control and command of the new machine than I have of mine... :)

    Anon -T... did you know that Art Bell is off the air already.. ?? read an article in the pahrump valley times tonite about it.... just in case you care... :)

    I met him once briefly a few years back....

    Hope you all had a good day and a better evening..

    thelma

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  54. aka thelma - I did notice Bell's re-runs, but he does that when ill. I asked the oracle that is the google and sure'nuff... Crud. Thanks for the heads up. -T

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  55. Anon -T, you can google the paper and might get a better idea from the article... pahrump valley times and that is a .com... :) just a small town newspaper... but I believe Bell lives in town... he used to anyway...

    thelma

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