17. *Sweet melons : CAN'TALOUPES.
24. *Ramshackle community : SHAN'TYTOWN.
31. *The Prairie State : I'LLINOIS.
40. *Horror film shapeshifter : WE'REWOLF.
47. *Chinese restaurant staple : WON'TONSOUP.
56. Beginning of labor, and, in another sense, the beginning of each answer to a starred clue : CONTRACTION.
I don't think I have ever seen this gimmick before. Until I saw the reveal, I didn't have a clue.
Across:
1. Towering : BIG.
4. Give quite the earful : SHOUT AT. Some tricky little phrases in the puzzle that made me check more than a few perps.
11. Woody Allen asset : WIT.
14. Soul, in Somme : AME.
15. City that was the source of the marble for Michelangelo's "David" : CARRARA.
16. Squeeze (out) : EKE.
19. Taylor of fashion : ANN. Classic styles. Kind of boring, IMHO.
20. Behind : AFTER.
21. CD return : INT.erest
22. Princess provoker : PEA. From the classic fairy tale, "The Princess and the Pea."
23. Agile deer : ROES. Deer doesn't need an "s" for the plural. Frustrating to C.C.
28. Forest mom : DOE. Doe adds an "s" for the plural. Go figure.
29. Kublai __ : KHAN.
30. Hand or foot : UNIT.
33. Some words in baby books? : FIRSTS.
35. Kitten cry : MEWL. Beware of mewling kittens…they will steal their way into your heart and end up taking over the household.
36. Warm-water shark : MAKO.
37. Smooth moves : SEGUES. Not to be confused with Segways, which are also pretty smooth:
44. "Rag Mop" singing brothers : AMES. Oldie but goodie.
45. Burden : ONUS.
46. Go (for) : VIE.
51. Broad bean : FAVA.
52. Brief writer: Abbr. : ATT.orney
53. Pal of Piglet : ROO.
54. One with a muzzle, maybe : BITER. If I see a dog with a muzzle, I steer clear!
55. Movement-sensing game console : WII. My WII Tai Chi instructor is a hard taskmaster.
60. Clark's "Mogambo" co-star : AVA. Clark Gable and Ava Gardner.
61. Like some elephants : ASIATIC. As opposed to African elephants.
62. Musician Sean Taro __ Lennon : ONO. How many ways to clue ONO?
63. Intense hunger : YEN.
64. Sand dollar habitats : SEABEDS.
65. Web : NET.
Down:
1. Company that now owns Dewar's, Bombay Sapphire and Grey Goose : BACARDI.
2. "Stupid me!" : I'M A FOOL. A gratuitous CONTRACTION.
3. Well-mannered : GENTEEL.
4. Swordplay memento : SCAR.
5. "2001" computer : HAL. "2001: A Space Odyssey."
6. Galeón cargo : ORO. Spanish ship seeking gold.
7. Braz. neighbor : URU.guay
8. Easy putt : TAP IN. I bet Husker Gary has had plenty of those.
9. "__ you ready yet?" : AREN'T. Another gratuitous CONTRACTION. I think I would have tried to avoid this type of entry, given the theme.
10. Lip-smacking : TASTY.
11. Some Clue cards : WEAPONS.
12. "My suspicions are confirmed!" : I KNEW IT! Another tough little phrase to parse.
13. Building group : TENANTS.
18. Your, to Pierre : TES. The others are: votre, vos, ton and ta (adjectives or pronouns) and à vous and à toi (pronouns).
24. Broadway attractions : SHOWS.
25. It comes down hard : HAIL. Haha, cute clue.
26. "Jeopardy!" monitor display: Abbr. : ANS.wer
27. "One L" author : TUROW.
29. Often-torn trouser part : KNEE.
32. "__ down to the seas again": Masefield : I MUST. From "Sea Fever." Complete poem, here.
33. At a great height : FAR UP.
34. Turner and others : IKES.
36. Remote button : MENU.
37. Figured out how : SAW A WAY. See what I mean about the tough little phrases?
38. Producing intense feeling : EMOTIVE.
39. Blue-flowering plant used in herbal medicine : GENTIAN. My mother used to drink Moxie, which contained gentian root. Blecch!!
40. Try to persuade : WOO.
41. Show of hands? : OVATION. Fun clue.
42. Potential dupe : LIVE ONE. In this case, "dupe" refers to a patsy.
43. Biblical words of comfort : FEAR NOT.
48. SeaWorld swimmers : ORCAS.
49. Lariat loop : NOOSE.
50. Colleague of Elena and Antonin : SONIA. Elena Kagan, Antonin Scalia and Sonia Sotomayor. Supreme Court Justices.
51. Hale and hearty : FIT.
54. Secretly keeps in the email loop, briefly : BCCs. Blind Carbon Copies, on an email. Whenever I send an email to a large group, I always put their addresses in the BCC field. That way, the names are less likely to be grabbed by internet bots.
57. Computer key : TAB.
58. Short shortcut? : RTE. Route.
59. Samaritan's offering : AID. I quickly saw that "alms" wouldn't fit. (Very perceptive of me, don't you think??)
See you next week!
Marti
I'LL confide Mr. Data's infraction:
ReplyDeleteHe cannot compound a CONTRACTION.
He WON'T, for he CAN'T;
His brain says he SHAN'T.
If we hear one, WE'RE due a retraction!
In ILLINOIS there's a weird Chinese SHANTYTOWN
Where you'll find WON TON SOUP that's the best around.
But it has some strange isotopes,
So dessert must be CANTALOUPES
Else you'll turn to a WEREWOLF come sundown!
I did it, but needed red letters to finish it off. I couldn't remember the shark, and didn't know Scott TUROW at all. For "One L author" I really wanted my idol, Ogden Nash ("The one-L lama, he's a priest...").
ReplyDeleteBut my main problem was the SW, where I started with EMOTING and GINSING, and wondered what YGG was. Yearning Great Gobs, maybe?
As you might guess from my limerick, I'm also a major Science Fiction Fan.
Hello Puzzlers -
ReplyDeleteHand up for wanting Ogden Nash for One-L, until I recalled that law school thing from past puzzles. I was prepared to fuss that the Ames Brothers song was technically Ragg Mopp, but the record label seen in Marti's link says otherwise.
It seems like we had that "blue flowering medicinal plant" clue quite recently, but I'll be darned if I can recall filling in Gentian. Anybody?
Morning, Marti! FYI, it may snow a bit today. :-) Hand up for putting blechh with Moxie. Mind you, I haven't tried the stuff in 40 years, but then, why bother?
This puzzle was a struggle however only missed one letter (the "s" at the end of Roes and tes) In the end, I just freed up my mind and let many fills pop into my head. A couple of WAGs sure helped as well. Snowing now in CT.
ReplyDeleteAt first the appearance of relatively long answers gave me pause but eventually things moved along pretty smoothly. Except that the NW corner remained completely blank and threatened to stay that way. Then, somehow, the words began to drop (in that mysterious way known to all crossword puzzle solvers). I got DOE and ROES (or maybe I had ROE and DOES first). I had wisely abandoned AREAR which made room for AFTER. And, despite being "sure" I had no idea who owned those liquor brands, BACARDI was familiar enough to add to the mix.
ReplyDeleteBlizzard-like conditions (though not an actual blizzard) are forecast for the beautiful mid-Hudson Valley. Then, on Sunday, temps in the 40s. Go figure.
[9:07]
Morning, all!
ReplyDeleteFun puzzle with a clever theme. I was floundering a bit until I got to the theme reveal, after which I was able to make quick work of the remaining theme answers.
Biggest stumbling block was CARRARA, which I simply didn't know and which looked totally implausible. Fortunately, most of the perps were solid and TAP IN was a correct guess.
Lots of snow and bitter cold heading my way today and tomorrow...
Good Morning, Marti and friends. This wasn't one of my favorite puzzles, but it was interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe photo of David could also apply to 1-Across. I had the fortune of seeing David in the Accademia Gallery when only my husband and I were in the exhibit hall. It was truly spectacular and literally took my breath away.
I wanted Lima instead of Fava Bean, which i associate with Silence of the Lambs.
QOD: People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. ~ Isaac Asimov (Jan. 2, 1920 ~ Apr. 6, 1992)
Sometimes I get letters and other times i get numbers. Any consistency? [56534525]
Hi Y'all! Engrossing but almost none of the words came on the first try. Getting CONTRACTION helped with WEREWOLF & WONTON SOUP. Pulling some of the phrases out of my brain was almost as hard as giving birth. Thanks, Jeffrey.
ReplyDeleteTUROW was a gimmee, but don't know why. I've never read him.
CANTALOUPES? Has there always been a "U" in there? I typed the word without one the other day and wondered why spellcheck kept red-lining me. It just don't look right to me.
Thank you, Marti! I didn't realize the CC line was a BLIND carbon copy. Live and learn. I have pulled email addresses for people I know from some top lines in emails I received and used them.
Never saw a FAVA bean. Didn't know they were broad. Hand up for "lima". ONO another clue for it! Forgot HAL. I "went" before MUST down to the sea.
Muzzle: I tried "horse" and "rifle" first. "Behaved" before GENTEEL. "Toi" before perping TES.
We had a very GENTEEL snow fall during the night of about an inch or so. Strange thing is we seem to have all our snows the night before trash pickup. I haven't participated for several weeks because my can ends up in the street if there is wind. Good thing I don't generate much trash. I would run it down this morning, but I fear slickness greatly.
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteI really liked this one -- lots of fun stuff in it. Hand up for thinking of Silence of the Lambs when FAVA showed up. I thought there was an E in CARRARA, like Tia Carrere. (Today's her birthday, BTW).
That Masefield poem is quoted in StarTrek V. McCoy wrongly attributes it to Herman Melville. Spock corrects him.
I think of a YEN as a mild urge as opposed to an "intense hunger." You?
PK, in email there's a CC, which all recipients can see, and a BCC (blind) which doesn't appear at all. That's why it was clued as "secretly."
Dudley, I think you might be right about the snow. But it's the cold that get's me. TIme to put on a second pair of long johns!!
ReplyDeleteOwen - like Dudley, I also briefly toyed with Ogden for the "One L" author, too!!
d-otto, I had the same thought about "yen."
I have always liked this poem. My mother frequently read poems to my five sibs and me.
ReplyDeleteSEA FEVER by John Masefield
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.
I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.
Notice that “trick “ in the last line here , means taking one’s turn at a specific task. When we worked the reception desk in our dorm, the RA called our shifts “tricks.”
Good morning everybody. Mark me up for a DNF. I had most of my boxes filled, but they were filled with the wrong letters. I had WEARWOLF instead of WEREWOLF, and BOXER for BITER. My FAVA beans were LIMA beans, and I didn't know AME or TES. In fact, I know very little French.
ReplyDeleteIt was a good Thursday level puzzle though - I just didn't have my Thursday thinking cap on. I never did catch the CONTRACTION theme until Marti explained it.
On to work, I hope you all have a great day. Stay safe in the snow and cold.
Greetings!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jeff and Marti!
(Third time tying this.)
Cheers!
Marti: Wonderful write-up & links. Esp.enjoyed the "Sea Fever" poem both you and YR posted.
ReplyDelete1-d, BACARDI, with a "SHOUT-out" to Irish Miss and her Dewar's.
Hmmm, a Scotch mentioned in the clue ... Yeah! That was my fave today. (Go figure!)
CAN'T believe all my WAGS were correct. AME, TES, SEGUES, TUROW and FAVA.
GENTIAN (all perps) was a "learning moment" ... always a plus!
I MUST be doing something right ...
A "toast" to all at Sunset.
Cheers!!!
Fun puzzle. I saw the contractions right away, but until I got to the reveal I didn't realize that CONTRACTION, in itself, was the key.
ReplyDeleteD/O I agree with you that YEN is much milder than HUNGER and especially INTENSE HUNGER.
I had many of the same first thoughts as others. I rejected most of them before filing them in. (arear/after, boxer/biter, lima/fava, mute/menu) I like a puzzle that has multiple possible answers.
I enjoy reading Scott Turow, as well as Tom Clancy and John Grisham. As you see by the poem above, I am also into seagoing stores about the Royal Navy and/or pirates. Having eclectic reading tastes sure helps with solving x-words.
The ortho doc is so backed up with appointments, he can't see me until tomorrow afternoon. I have a somewhat larger range of motion today and the pain has backed down a notch or two.
Sorry, Marti, I missed your blue "here" button to link the poem. I should have posted my comments without relinking the poem.
ReplyDeleteYR: Your version is the one I knew, "I must GO down to the seas again," which is why I had a hard time with it in the puzzle, where GO wasn't in either the clue or the answer. But the version Marti linked to agreed with the puzzle, with the GO elided. (I also recalled it as sea, singular, but yours and Marti's agree on seas, so guess I can't seize on that as an error.)
ReplyDeleteHand up for LIMA, and started spelling CANTAULOPES first -- knew there was a U, but not sure where.
Thank you for the puzzle, Jeffrey. Thank you for the excellent review, Marti.
ReplyDeleteThis was a relatively easy Thursday puzzle for me. It took just a little longer than Wednesday. I also don’t recall seeing this theme before.
Hand up for LIMA before FAVA. Had MEOW before MEWL. I had NEBRASKA before ILLINOIS, but the perps didn’t work, so I changed it. Then I remembered ILLINOIS as the Prairie State from Jeopardy! recently.
SEGUES and GENTIAN were the last to fall. The perps helped me get SEGUES, which gave me GENTIAN. I have never heard of it. I have zero knowledge of herbal medicine.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteFound this a challenge but highly doable with some helpful perps. Knew Carrara right off the bat, for some reason. Only write-overs were pole before fava and limb before unit. As Tin pointed out, I do drink Dewar's but had no idea it was owned by Bacardi.
Thanks, Jeffrey W. for a clever theme and a fun solve and thanks, Marti, for a great write up.
YR, sorry to hear of your fall; I hope your discomfort is short-lived.
It is snowing like mad and is bitter cold. Last I heard, we're going to get about 12 inches.
Stay warm and safe everyone. BTW, the new season of Elementary starts tonight.
Nice easy pace to the fill today.
ReplyDelete@Dudley-- I think the recent clue was a "yellow flowering medicinal plant" for senna. "Gentian" was a gimme for me, as gentian violet is what was prescribed for a baby's mouth thrush if the nystatin didn't work. Felt for the moms, as the baby would have this purple mouth and then get everything else purple that s/he would gum. Now the back up is diflucan-- so no more purple mouthed babies!!
I noticed the slight difference between the two versions of the poem also. YR’s version agrees with the one in One Hundred and One Famous Poems. But who knows which one is the original version?
ReplyDeleteOne Hundred and One Famous Poems is a book we had in our house where I grew up. It belonged to my mother. It has many poems I found and enjoyed as a boy. Later, I ordered a copy for myself, and plan to pass it on to my poetry-loving daughter.
Good morning everyone. Nice intro, Marti; Thanks.
ReplyDeleteFairly tough for me, today. Got the top half without a whole lot of flap, but the bottom was a bear. Finally WAGged GENTIAN and NOOSE finally drove me to SEA BEDS, after having tried beaches and strands. Didn't know Asian elephants should be termed ASIATIC.Also was torn between lima and FAVA. Finally got it all sorted out and got to appreciate Jeffrey's gimmick.
32d - Wanted a main verb with I MUST but that's poetry, I guess.
Did you know it is a Navy tradition to write the 1st mid-watch log of the New Year in verse form? Here is part of one from a destroyer in 1944:
FIRST WATCH OF 1944
Hours 0000 to 0400
Steaming as before on true course 054
Checking 061 on a mission of war
Nine knots (88 rpm) is the speed of advance
Patrol thirty degrees, as though in a trance
Got plenty of steam, four boilers in parallel.
Enough stuff at the guns to give the Nips hell
Torpedoes are ready, five at each mount
Personnel stationed to make each fish count
It is degrading business, have amphibs in tow
LST's 459, 457, 465, 206, 26, all in a row
Anti-submarine screen 54 natural order of ships
BUSH (CDD48), BACHE, MULLANY, as in any other trips (and etc)
Have a good day.
"Proper prior planning prevents pitifully poor performance"
Well I learned how to spell CANTALOUPES but like ENNA yesterday, ROES cost me one bad cell. Clever theme and tough but fair cluing more than made up for that.
ReplyDeleteMusings
-“The Killer” doing a song with SHANTY in the title
-Fine book/movie The Agony and the Ecstasy chronicles Michelangelo’s labors in CARRARA
-Carol Burnett telling how how she met Lucille Ball while doing Once Upon a Mattress (Princess and the PEA) (3:14)
-Hedda and Louella blasted Frank Sinatra when he left his wife Nancy for AVA
-Tina Fey uses makeup, camera angles and lighting to hide her SCAR
-Marti, how far out can I be before you give me a TAP-IN (Aw, pick it up Gary)? ;-)
-Clue accusation here: It was Tin in the lounge with a corkscrew (he’d never have an ice pick)
-Penalizing helmet to helmet contact in FB these days has put KNEES in jeopardy
-Could there be more different IKES than Turner and Eisenhower?
-The Huskers SAW A WAY out of 3rd and long at the 1” line on this historic play yesterday. It’s as long a play as there can be from scrimmage!
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Jeffrey Wechsler, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Marti, for the fine review.
ReplyDeleteI am still full from my great dinner last night. Pork and sauerkraut. With mashed potatoes and applesauce.
Got going fairly easily. Needed a few perps and a wag for CARRARA.
ILLINOIS was easy.
Eventually got I MUST for 32D, but after seeing Yellowrocks poem I think they left the GO out of the clue.
I also had LIMA for 51A. That whole area was not working. Had OPINION for 41D Eventually erased it all and started again in that area. OVATION is what fixed it. Then BITER appeared.
Had FELIX (Frankfurter) for 50D. Upon thinking a little, I believe he is retired or dead now. Once I got NOOSE and CONTRACTION, SONIA became obvious.
Not a big Chinese food person, so WON TON SOUP was slow in coming.
I do get a lot of TAP INs. That's after three or four putts ahead of that. Oh well.
Off to shovel snow again. It is still snowing, but I like to keep ahead of it.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
(52633422 35)
Bill G, it was ironic yesterday that you mentioned “Chamber Of Commerce weather in Pasadena for the parade and game”. The President and CEO of The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce is my old high school friend Gary Toebben. Gary graduated from our small Arlington Nebraska High School 6 miles from where I am sitting, dated my sister and now lives just a few blocks from where The Rose Parade begins. He sang high tenor and I sang bass in our quartet. If you’re ever around the Chamber Bldg…
ReplyDeleteGood morning LATCCers,
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed Jeffrey's offering today.
Thanks for the write-up Marti.
This definitely had me "scratching my head" in some places, not so much others.
GENTIAN - complete unknown (never used herbal medicines)
CANTALOUPES - got it without thinking (Pecos isn't far from here and they produce some of the best melons in the country.)
Time to start Christmas shopping... only 363 days left. hehe
Good morning all. Still snowing in Chicago.
ReplyDeleteZoomed fairly quickly through the top half and southwest, but then couldn't get completed in the southeast. That was around 7:00 AM.
I had ORCAS and NOOSE, BCCS, lima, opt, Teds, ONO and NET as my toeholds. Nothing was making sense. Put it down shoveled the driveway.
It was after a 3 hour break that I decided to try IKES. I don't know how many puzzles I've done where I wanted either IKE or IKES, and the real answer ended up being TED or TEDS. More than a few. In order, MAKO, MENU, ONUS, FAR UP, FIRSTS, SOUP, WOO and WERE WOLF then all fell. There was an answer that was TUROW ? All perps for me.
Removed 'go for' answer opt when I realized FEAR NOT, but lima was still there, so 43D 'show of hands' became OpinION, which seemed to be a real stretch. Then got stuck again.
At that point, I changed the game from Master to Regular and pin lit up. Took it out and then finally thought of FAVA and then got FIT, then CONTRACTION and it was all downhill from there.
All in all, a very tough puzzle for me. Thank you Jeffrey Wechsler and thank you Marti for explaining the theme. After getting CONTRACTION, I was so intent on finishing that I didn't even consider looking back at the starred clues.
This puzzle took some help. Finally had to turn on the red letters to finish and SW corner was the last to fall. Wanted EMOTING.
ReplyDeleteHad TED before IKE Turner. Didn't know either MAKO shark or TUROW which made that cross difficult to perp.
Agree with d-o about yen. That was my nit for the day. I wasn't sure whether I liked OVATION clue or not.
Reminders of my earlier days of compounding gentian violet solution. Purple stains all over! Much happier with nystatin suspension for thrush.
I haven't heard Sea Fever for a long time but I got the clue. Thanks for the link Marti & YR (glad you are feeling some better YR).
DH was happy that our Toronto Maple Leafs won the Winter Classic yesterday (even if it was in shoot-outs!). The cold and snow reminded me of old-fashioned pond hockey.
Cold and snowy here today also.
Anon 9:12 - thanks! That was interesting about Gentian Violet, too.
ReplyDeleteGreetings, puzzlers! Great commentary, Marti, as always and a fine offering by Jeffrey Wechsler. Thank you, both.
ReplyDeleteI had fun with this but unable to start at 1A, I slithered across to CARRARA which as HG mentioned the quarrying of which was painfully described in The Agony and The Ecstasy. It was hard labor.
Then being an admirer of Woody Allen, WIT slid in and so the NE filled quickly. And so it went but with many write overs already mentioned, MUTE/MENU, LIMA/FAVA, WAY UP/FAR UP, etc.
FAVA reminds me of Spain in the Biscay Bay area where they serve a fabulous FAVA bean soup.
And I can't omit my favorite, WONTON SOUP. Often I have a YEN for it.
Finally I tackled the NW and SAW A WAY to finish with BACARDI but had to replace UNDER with AFTER. I like the word GENTEEL. It describes many of you here on the Corner, Misty, Mari, Hahtoolah, AnonT and many others of you.
BillG:
From last night. Thank you, my friend but I have to add that you are a fine wordsmith yourself.
AnonT:
I had no idea about your "guilt" trip but I'm so glad you are here and add much to the general banter.
Finally, being electronically deficient I didn't know about BCCS so CCCS seemed adequate though CITER did not.
Have a very special Thursday, everyone!
Marti and JW back for another Thursday go, how nice. CARRARA was not in my brain, nor was GENTIAN and I could not agree more about the awful medicinal (which apparently it is) taste of MOXIE. I have tried in the last few years ( my children were curious) and it is still awful. The puzzle was fair and it all filed, as Scott Turow is one of the myriad of attorney/authors and perhaps he did more to promote that hateful phrase than anyone. Can you imagine walking around as a OneM?
ReplyDeleteThe snow continuing in Chicago does not bode well for Boston...we are 14 degrees above normal here in So.Fla. and my my upstairs neighbors who visit infrequently are here for a month with their three children. I enjoy the change in atmosphere. Now if I could only get them to agree to small pets....
ReplyDeleteAbejo, like you, we PA Dutch ate pork and sauerkraut on January 1 for wealth and luck in the new year.
ReplyDeleteThe Japanese eat long toshikosi soba noodles on New Year's Day for luck and long life. They try to slurp down at least one long noodle without breaking or chewing it for even better luck. Today I will serve Japanese ton katsu, a kind of thin breaded pork cutlet with American mashed potatoes. The pork is a nod to my German ancestry.
Abejo, Owen, Buckeye Bob, I think that the omission of GO, "I must GO down to the seas," is a typo, as Abejo said, because nearly all versions have it.
I believe "go down to the seas," means go sailing.
Buckeye Bob, One Hundred and One Favorite Poems is the same book my mom read to us. This is the genesis of my love of poetry. My sister has mom's copy. I am glad to know I can buy another one.
Spitz, I liked the Navy poem.
I've used gentian violet on some stubborn lesions. It is very effective, but the purple is a pain. When I was a camp counselor the camp nurse used it for an outbreak of ringworm. Everyone was a purple monster. The kids loved it.
I've a conundrum...
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that we continue to use cc or bcc (other than to honor our Mistress of the Blog)?
I can't remember the last time I used or even saw a piece of carbon paper.
Guess this is one of those things to make you go hmmm!
Hi gang -
ReplyDeleteSlow going, but I made it through. Simple fill like BIG and WIT seemed too straight-forward, so I was reluctant to enter them.
Theme was totally opaque without the unifier.
Don't care much for the French.
"Smooth moves" for SEGUE is a strain.
We had Abejo's dinner last night. It was excellent.
Yep - FAVA beans always make me want a nice Chianti.
How badly must a soup behave to be considered WANTON?
Chinese take out is delivered in WON TON trucks.
Red Wings SAW A WAY to lose yesterday. Arrgghh - the shootout - we hates it forever! [An EMOTIVE moment]
If you saw the game, you know how it was snowing here. It has just now stopped, after about 24 hours.
A day late for rabbit, rabbit, so DOES & ROES everyone.
Cool regards!
JzB
Good morning Marti, C.C., and all,
ReplyDeleteI am so jealous of all of you who can figure out the theme while puzzling.After reading your great write up, Marti, I finally got it.My light bulb is outdated.
I had no problem with many of the longer fills, but simple ones like big, unit, pea, and tes needed a beginning letter for me to guess.
Had no knowledge of gentian violet- interesting info.Not familiar with Turow either.Fun puzzle- all came together with a few holes, as is usual on a Thurs/Fri for me.
Buckeye Bob,we had the same book of poetry growing up. Nightly,my grandfather recited many of those poems at the dinner table, until my sisters and I had them memorized. My favorites are both by Eugene Field: The Duel and Little Boy Blue.
We are still without rain.Folsam Lake is so low that an old Gold Rush mining town has been exposed.
Well, this was a Thursday toughie for me, and I feared it would be a DNF. But with Marti's P & P (patience and perseverance) it all eventually fell into place. It helped that I figured out the theme once I got CONTRACTION (not something I want to remember) and it felt great to get the whole thing in the end. So thank you, Jeff, and you too, as always, Marti!
ReplyDeleteYellowrocks, I'm always a bit nervous about links (my computer reacts weirdly to some of them) so loved your posting the poem. I too hope you'll be okay after your unfortunate fall.
Tinbeni, I knew you'd love BACARDI. I got it even though my husband and I stopped drinking hard liquor (and none at all for him anymore) after his stroke.
Am with you on YEN, Desper-otto.
And thank you for the lovely compliment, Lucina.
Have a great Thursday, everybody!
My copy of Modern British Poetry, 1958 edition that was one of my college texts, includes Masefield's Sea Fever. There is no "go."
ReplyDeleteRazz, I had to fill out "application" certificates for the five CD's I opened at PenFed. They were two-part on carbonless carbon paper. Archaic! Now I suppose somebody at PenFed will have to transcribe those into a computer.
JzB, "We hates it forever!" -- you sound like Gollum.
Isn't it surprising that several of us think of a YEN as a mild thing. Where did we go wrong? Merriam Webster says, "Definition of YEN: a strong desire or propensity [a yen for the sea]; also : urge, craving [a yen for ice cream]"
ReplyDeleteRazz, believe it or not, I drove through Pecos a couple of weeks ago. There was a bad accident on I-10 west of Ft. Stockton. The next morning it still wasn't cleaned up, and I was detoured north through Pecos to I-20. You're right when you say, "It's not the end of the earth, but you can see it from here."
More about Gentian: I got so interested in the stuff, and so had a rummage around Wikipedia and WebMD to learn more. Apparently, gentian root does have medicinal qualities, and is still useful in today's medicine.
ReplyDeleteGentian Violet is useful too, but it has no connection with the gentian plant; one source suggested the name comes from the similarity to the color of the gentian flower. It was developed as a dye, and afterwards found to have some helpful antibacterial properties, among others.
There seems to be considerable overlap in the sorts of disorders these unrelated compounds will treat. Both find use as a topical antiseptic, for example.
Now, if this appears as a crossword answer again, will I remember it? Probably not. Memory like a sieve, you know...
Happy Second Day of 2014 (and 8th Day o' Christmas) to all!
ReplyDeleteThis seemed a perfect puzzle for a Thursday - tough but yielding in many places to first intuitions. I enjoyed the theme & didn't see it coming.
"Rag Mop" took me back, setting the tune off in my head the moment I saw the words. I had quite forgotten it was the Ames Brothers who recorded it-- my dad's favorite group.
My main recollection of the Ameses was of Ed Ames as Mingo on the Dan'l Boone TV series, but especially when he appeared on the Carson show and gave Johnny a lesson in tomahawk throwing, scoring a clear, ahem, Ball’s Eye!
Dudley, what's like a sieve?
ReplyDeleteYR: Today no RA would dare call a female dorm resident's turns "tricks". Could be considered not politically correct or downright libelous.
ReplyDeleteD-O: Okay, I have an IMAC. What do I punch or type in to get a blind CC? I certainly need more schooling on this thing.
My English Lit. book uses " I must GO down to the sea."
ReplyDeleteI think I have found the reason for the discrepancy.
In The Collected Poems of John Masefield (1923)the author changed the opening line to the text now more commonly anthologized: "I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky". The first lines of the second and third stanzas retained the form "I must down to the seas again [...]".[2]
"Cargoes"
So the addition of GO is 90 years old. However, in my Lit. book, all the stanzas say GO.
BTW, my LIT books and foreign Language dictionaries are almost the only ones of my college books that are still germane today. Even so, the everyday speech in foreign languages is changing, just as spoken English has changed since I was a student. Much of the Japanese spoken by young people in Japan today does not match my training. This kind of change drives the purists and language police in Japan, the USA and other countries crazy. Life and language move on.
Dudley, interesting info. I didn't know that Gentian was a separate drug used for GI problems. I knew Gentian Violet was used for skin and membrane problems.
PK, after you've started writing a new email message choose "view" from the menu at the top of the screen and click on "BCC Address Field" or you can just press [Alt]+[Command]+B. That'll put the additional address line into your message. Then just put anybody's email address on that line. They'll get a copy of the email and the "actual" addressees and CC's won't know that. I can't believe that I, the fruit-ignorant one, is providing instruction on using an Apple. Unheard of! Absurd!
ReplyDeleteD-O: Thanks! I had this come up two days ago. My solution was very time-consuming.
ReplyDeleteHG, I’ll give you a TAP IN if the distance is no longer than the length of the head of your putter…
ReplyDeleteHow very interesting to learn of GENTIAN as an herbal remedy. I only knew the name from poetry. Thank you all for your collective wisdom.
ReplyDeleteQuestion - Is Gentian violet related to "tincture of violet"? I had a doc prescribe it for an infection (1974?) and I remember applying it topically and it being really, really purple. Boy, there's something I haven't thought about in 30+ years.
ReplyDeleteAw, Marti, I’d give you anything closer than the length of your putter grip. I still wanna play a round with you (or around with you ;-)) Whatever!
ReplyDeleteThe "only" medicinal herb I knew of, that started with the letter 'G' was ... Ganja.
ReplyDeleteI'd move to Colorado ... but I'm not keen on their beaches.
(Plus that 'frozen white-stuff' would probably kill me).
Razz: (love your avatar) do you still "type" on your computer? "dial" a phone?
ReplyDeleteJzB: your puns WON TONs of laughs from me! Shooting your mouth off like that make it a WON TON pun fun gun, son! (Stephan Pastis is going to get me over that one.)
d-o: Modern British Poetry, 1958 edition is given as the source for the Marti's link. Apparently, Masefield's first published version elided, but he later revised (corrected?) it to add the "go". (And some versions have sea instead of seas.)
Me, too, for YEN being only a mild desire. Maybe its strength is dependent on our exchange rate with Japan?
Jayce 2:35 - Heh heh!
ReplyDeleteGarlic Gal - Apparently the two are the same, if some web resources are to be believed. It's amazing to me that it was formulated at least as early as 1861, according to Wikipedia. The same page tells that the topical uses were noticed about 1890. Amazing!
Alas, 0 for 4 this week :(
ReplyDeleteSouth was a mess. Didn't help that I put Contractual for 56A thinking labor force. Don't know where my mind is lately.
Below zero and snowing here now. I have to go out and at least clear the end of the driveway now. Just trying to get up the motivation or find an excuse not to.
Procrastination - Good or Evil???
Might just be that sieve thing!
ReplyDeleteOur cleaning lady from Guatemala didn't have a ride home. So, rather than her choosing to walk to the bus stop, I gave her a ride home. She gave me four Christmas tamales. I'm really looking forward to them.
ReplyDeleteRats! The small flat-screen TV in the kitchen decided to give up the video part of its responsibility and just provide sound only. So Barbara and our son are off to Target to pick up a replacement.
Having driven the winding mountains of Colorado, I cannot even imagine what people there are thinking in making weed legal. Maybe the weed smokers will be content to stay on the plains. Or maybe they'll just be happier during their trips to the bottom of canyons when they miss the curves. Our state where this is not legal has been having a fine time arresting illegal substance movers as they pass through. One city had to get a bigger building to store all the impounded vehicles.
ReplyDeleteStay safe all you easterners in the big storm areas.
Manac, I'd say procrastination is the smartest thing you can do in such conditions. Why move something that is probably going to blow back where it was before?
Small world! At least 3 of us have been exposed to the same poetry book growing up.
ReplyDeleteYR --
It has been many years since I ordered my copy through a bookstore, maybe 30 or 40. Ack! But it appears it is still available.
I see it is also available online at many sources, Amazon, eBay, and others.
The copy I have is:
One Hundred and One Famous Poems, With a Prose Supplement, Roy J. Cook, editor. Contemporary Books, Chicago, copyright 1958.
There are leather, hardback, paperback, and electronic versions available.
JD --
I like many of them, but I think my favorite is Longfellow's Paul Revere's Ride.
PK, I very been living in Co. For the last seven years now, and I,love the cheap weed .... Just like Tinbeni I loves pinch in the afternoons. Different strokes for different folks... That's all.
ReplyDeleteAnd most of us are just growing our own inventory...so we don't have to lug it. In from other states , thank you very much.
I never knew farming could be soo interesting or so profitable. Wow, those Mitty bitty seeds grow up to be so big, and so voluptuous.i
Why, I do believe, theirs a golden fairy at our front door.
Excuse me, you all.uo
Pi's wife bitching about her old man:
ReplyDeleteHe's irrational and just keeps going on and on. But at least he doesn't keep repeating himself...
Buckeye Bob, I have had my copy for many years also.Our family copy was softbound and falling apart. Mine is the same as yours. Is your bound in a maroon leather? I can hear my grandfather reciting Paul Revere's Ride...Listen my children...
ReplyDeleteToday's kids are into Shel Silverstein. Our family copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends is a bit tattered too.
PK, I hear what you're saying, but my wife leaves for work very early in the AM and if its blocked she aint gonna make it. Irony is the GD snow plow truck just drove by as I wrote this!
ReplyDeleteHmmm.. Back out into the cold or pillow talk in the morning???
A conversation that includes Shel Silverstein and Colorado's new laws, with Tin's herbal reference tossed in, is just ripe for exploitation.
ReplyDeleteI Got Stoned and I missed it
Freakers Ball
And to end on a lighter note: Sarah Sylvia Cynthia Stout
I love reading Shel Silverstein poems with my grandson. Avg Joe linked one of my favorites about messy Sarah. Here is Jordan's and my other favorite:
ReplyDeleteSICK
'I cannot go to school today, '
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
'I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteen chicken pox
And there's one more-that's seventeen,
And don't you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut-my eyes are blue-
It might be instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I'm sure that my left leg is broke-
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button's caving in,
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My 'pendix pains each time it rains.
My nose is cold, my toes are numb.
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There is a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is-what?
What's that? What's that you say?
You say today is...Saturday?
G'bye, I'm going out to play! '
Waaaay too long.
ReplyDeleteManac, I'd opt for "to heck with the shoveling" and having pillow talk in the morning. That way you know your wife is safer than on the icy snowy whatever streets. Probably won't be a lot of business done up your way tomorrow anyway, will there? Or are they just showing the worst spots on TV?
ReplyDeleteWhat's the senior's battle-cry?!? B-A-C-A-R-D-I!
ReplyDeleteGood eve all.
Yep, BACARDI was part of my misspent Sr. year of HS. I should have been reading Masefield. When I read YR's post (sorry, Marti, I haven't played with links yet) I knew I heard that before. Ah, thanks. D-O, it was StarTrek.
DNF for me. Hand up on OpiNION, LamEONE, and BaNER (if you muzzle me, am I not Banned? Doh - there's the second 'n' I needed.
But it was the SW that I couldn't unlock 37a, 44a and 39a would not show itself. Oh, well. I did get Jeffrey's them early on (with only ORCAS, SONYA, and BCCS in place!) It was a fun puzzle, so no complaints. Thanks Marti for clearing up my southern un-comfort.
Wasn't it just two days ago with Xanadu that I linked Rush's song finishing Kublai KHAN? I think I would have missed that today otherwise.
Razz - 1) I love the avitars. 2) It's a UI (user interface) metaphor, like file, folder, desktop, in-box, etc. These make explaining the functionality easier (and scopes the design).
Lucina - it was a nice prodding. I was joking.
101 poem book folks - I think I will get that. I'm not much for literature (I prefer non-fiction), but I should round myself out after missing so much my Sr. year :-)
Spitz - I knew you'd know the 7P's (and clean up the 5th one :-))
TASTY was my fav, just 'cuz I like food. HAL was a close second. I won't complain about the cold when DW opened the pod-bay door (garage door) tonight since you guys are getting hammered the next few days.
Colorado Calpunia - Dave's not here man...
Cheers, -T
And one for Lolita
ReplyDeleteI probably have 101 Poems. I've got an entire section of my bookshelves devoted to poetry. But it's been YEARS since I last looked at one. Any time I want a poem now, it's easier and faster to just google for it. In fact, I've only used 3 reference books of any sort within the last year or more: The Penguin Rhyming Dictionary, The Puzzle Maker's Handbook, and a Latin phrase book, Amo, Amas, Amat and More.
ReplyDeleteAt 3am, I could not sleep. I am traveling, & there is nowhere to buy a paper. So i did the Friday puzzle on DW's iPad mini (not an easy accomplishment using games.latimes.com format).
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing is finished, but I just could not find the crossings mentioned in the theme, & lemon's on California time...
So, I am waiting for the dawn, or the answer to dawn on me,
CED, 4:34am EST