google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, Feb 15th, 2014, Brad Wilber

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Feb 15, 2014

Saturday, Feb 15th, 2014, Brad Wilber

Theme: None

Words: 70  (missing Q,X,Z)

Blocks: 33

  Either I am getting very comfortable with Saturday puzzles, or this one comes in at about a Friday, maybe even earlier level.  Brad is flying solo this week, as did his partner "DP" two weeks ago, and has what I would call a 'get out of jail free' offering today. A not-so-intimidating grid, with non-chunky corners and two grid-spanners;

17. Norwegian offerings : PLEASURE CRUISES - sort of a mini-theme going, with 31a and 45a, too - I won't go near any type of cruise like this


56. Fails to intervene : SITS ON ONE'S HANDS

ONWARD, wandor, norwad, wordan, donwar, rondaw, etc.

ACROSS:

1. "A Different World" actress : LISA BONET - spin-off from "The Cosby Show", she was once married to Lenny Kravitz and has changed her name - some interesting ones, here

10. More than ready to do : UP FOR

15. Halley's field : ASTRONOMY - as in Halley's comet - a gimme here; you too, Husker?

16. Veronese white : SOAVE - drew a blank until I had S--VE, then the light bulb came on

19. Most like a beachcomber : TANNEST - any one else think "HOMELESS" ?

20. "__ Mutual Friend": Dickens' last completed novel : OUR

21. Royal letters : HRH - His/Her Royal Highness(ness) - as in 35a.

22. Texting gasp : OMG - Oh, My, Gawd~!

23. Profile listing : HOBBY

25. "Yes!" : "I DO" - I did, but I stopped

26. St. Peter's Basilica attraction : PIETA - Michelangelo's marble statue

29. Many roomies : SIBS - Siblings; my brother and I shared a room for 12 years

30. Match : BOUT

31. The first one open on Majorca in 1950 : CLUB MED - I think the clue should be openED; I recall the TV commercials

33. Lake Geneva river : RHONE

35. Princess with a Wookieepedia entry : LEIA - Star Wars

36. "I Lost It at the Movies" author : KAEL - Pauline, never heard of her

37. Narrow vents : SLITS

39. Teaching method based on set theory : NEW MATH

42. Gent : CHAP

43. Moselle tributary : SAAR

45. "The Love Boat" bartender : ISAAC - click for Earworm~!

47. Hit the __ : HAY

48. "Precisely!" : "BINGO~!"

49. Lucy of "Elementary" : LIU - I liked her in the Mel Gibson movie "Payback"

50. Time to look forward : EVE

51. Trot : JOG

52. Aids : SUCCORS

59. Spud : TATER

60. Europe's tallest ferris wheel : LONDON EYE


61. Underhanded type : SNEAK

62. Mississippi has four : AREA CODES - nice bit of ambiguity

DOWN:

1. Telecommuter's tool : LAPTOP

2. Like about 1.5 billion people : ISLAMIC

3. His was the first number retired by the Mets : STENGEL - Casey; I am a Mets fan, but maybe C.C. has more to offer (C.C.: #37. Retired by the Yankees as well.)


4. Ireland's __ Islands : ARAN


5. Audio giant : BOSE - ah, not SONY - had the "O" first

6. Cross to bear : ONUS

7. View from The Hague : NORTH SEA


8. Graph- ending : EME - Grapheme, the smallest semantically distinguishing unit in a written language

9. Cooperstown charter member : TY COBB - Not a baseball guy; I went with "C. Young" to start - can you tell I had the "Y" first~?!?

10. There's a lot of interest in it : USURY - I have one credit card that is 19.99% - getting close to my definition of usury

11. Food cooked in an imu : POI - Hawaiian cooking - more here

12. Method : FASHION

13. Accruing fines, maybe : OVERDUE

14. Did a double take? : RE-SHOT - as in photography

18. Chafes : RUBS RAW

24. Kin of -ish : OID - Roundish object = spheroid

27. Spring bloom : TULIP

28. Distract the security guard, say : ABET

30. Pampas weapons : BOLAS

32. Assignment : MISSION - "Your mission, should you choose to accept it...."

34. Half: Pref. : HEMI - Like Dodge advertises, their "HEMI" engine just means the cylinder shape is half round at the top

36. Fuel that built the Rockefeller fortune : KEROSENE - Learned this from watching "The Men Who Built America" from History channel

37. Adjective for "Pygmalion" or "Major Barbara" : SHAVIAN - of, pertaining to, or characteristic of George Bernard Shaw or his works: Shavian humor.

38. Shower paraphernalia : LAYETTE - Baby shower, that is; an outfit of clothing or bedding

39. Hound : NAG - ah, not DOG - the verb, not the noun

40. Like owls : TALONED

41. Lock-changing tool? : HAIR DYE - nice

42. See 57-Down : CHESTS, 57. With 42-Down, spots for sailors' gear : SEA

44. Luanda's land : ANGOLA

46. Triggers a bleep, maybe : CUSSES - @$#%X~!!!

48. Icelandic singer : BJORK - I had -J-RK to start, and it worked~!

53. Org. that rejects bad eggs : USDA - literally

54. Van. alternative : CHOColate - I saw the "." after Van(illa) and so I wondered if it might be referring to Van(couver), which happens to be in the same area as....

55. Recent Yankee star named for Jackie Robinson : CANO - Robinson Cano is now with the Seattle Mariners, 10yrs, $240mil.  Yeah.

58. Scand. kingdom : NORway - not q u i t e ...a duplication of the name in 17a.

Splynter

Note from C.C.:


Happy Birthday to dear Skip (Hondo on the blog), who is a huge fan of UConn women's Basketball. He's also an expert on vintage sports cards & attends shows often on weekends. Besides Marti, Dudley & Montana, Hondo also met Irish Miss in person.

Left to Right: Marti, Dudley, Hondo & Montana

74 comments:

OwenKL said...

Retiring? Don't SIT ON YOUR HANDS.
Get out and explore foreign lands.
One can go as one chooses,
Take long PLEASURE CRUISES;
Or on LONDON EYE, your horizon expands!

In ASTRONOMY you must speak the lingo.
The need for NEW MATH in non-zero.
But most folk won't use algebra
To trace comet parabola --
Mixing letters and numbers? That's BINGO!

OwenKL said...

Lots of needs for perps, and lots of write-overs, but I finished with a ta-da on the first try.
5d. SONY -> BOSE
7d. MOUNT ??A -> NORTH SEA
10a. EAGER -> UP FOR
16a. BLANC -> SOAVE
22a. OMG -> WTF -> OMG
52a. HELPERS -> SUCCORS
62a. LETTER ESS -> AREA CODES

Is there anyone who doesn't consistently have difficulty with proper names you've never heard of? I think saying "there were no people or places or titles I'd never heard of" would be more remarkable than "I didn't know so-and-so or such-and-such."

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

I had a very hard time getting started with this one. Lots of white space after my first pass through the grid and a rising sense of despair as a result.

I did finally manage to get through, but only after I finally accepted that SHAVIAN and LAYETTE were real words and that CANO (a) was somebody's name and (b) had something to do with Jackie Robinson.

And yes, the poor grammar in the clue for CLUB MED threw me for a long time.

Morse snow coming this afternoon. Wheee.

Barry G. said...

Make that "more" snow, not "morse"...

TTP said...

Good morning all. Thank you Brad and thank you Splynter.

I too thought this an easy Saturday puzzle. In fact, my time was about 10 minutes less than yesterday. I was on a roll early, filling in straight down, then to the southeast and straight back up north. The V in SOAVE was my last fill.

Easy perps made the unknowns easy. I wasn't quite sure of RHiNE or RHONE, and had no idea on KAE-, but perp BOLAS took care of that short lived problem. Had no idea what an imu was, but a three letter food cooked in one was an easy guess of POI.

Saarbrücken is on the SAAR river, WNW of where I was stationed in Karlsruhe. Luxembourg, France and Germany all come together just WNW of Saarbrücken. I love the area of northeast France and southwest Germany. Brings back a lot of memories.

Speaking of bridges, I cracked my temp last night. My dentist told me he'll fit me in today.

Guten Tag alle !

TTP said...



Shoot !

HAPPY BIRTHDATY HONDO ! Bet you didn't hesitate with TY COBB either.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Nice offering from Brad Wilber. Only caused one write-over -- GRAPHite to GRAPHEME. ASTRONOMY showed me the error of the former. Finished with 12 minutes still on the clock.

I was on your wavelength this morning, Splynter, with thoughts of Mission Impossible and memories from The Men Who Built America.

I have a nit with the cluing for 2D, but I see the blog has a different clue. In the Barnacle it was "Faith of more than 1.5 billion people." That'd be ISLAM, not ISLAMIC.

I'm not a great fan of credit cards. I will no longer use my Citi Mastercard after they charged me a $10.50 cash advance fee for a $20 charitable donation in December. But, I just signed up for a new BofA branded card that promises 3% cash back on gasoline purchases.

Happy birthday, Hondo!

HeartRx said...

Good morning all!

Happy, happy birthday dear Skip. I hope we can all get together again soon!
¸¸¸.•*¨*♫♥♫¸¸¸.•*¨*♫♥♫¸¸¸.•*¨*♫♥♫¸¸¸.•*¨*♫♥♫

As always, I rely on Splynter to unravel all the tricky ones for me. This time, my word of the day was SHAVIAN, and I’m sure a lot of others also had fits in the SW because of it. To make matters worse, I had adITS instead of SLITS at first, so aHAV*** was not getting me anywhere. I finally saw LAYETTE, which opened up that whole corner.

I ended up solving bottom to top today because I couldn’t remember LISA BONET and I had itE instead of EME for “graph-“ ending. ACK!!

So, what was so difficult about ASTRONOMY?? I thought sure it had to be something more obscure, like astrophysics (umm, to long), asteroidy (is there such a word??) or even astrology (nope – wrong “science”.)

Ah well, it all worked out in the end. Off to put a final coat of Helmsman on the new stairs. They are looking good!

LaLaLinda said...

Hi Everyone ~~

As I was working, I kept waiting to run into the usual Saturday trouble, but that didn't happen. I agree with Splynter ~ Mr. Wilber gave us a break today. An enjoyable puzzle!

~ My two unknowns were filled by perps: KAEL and SHAVIAN.

~ For 12D - Method, I started with System, but when it didn't fit was able to get FASHION.

~ I hesitated at 41D - Lock-changing tool. I had HAIR-D... and wanted 'Dryer' which seems more of a tool than DYE.

~ My one real trouble spot was 14D - Did a double take. I had filled in HRE for Royal letters, thinking Holy Roman Empire and 'Reseot' had me stumped. I then saw the light and filled in my last two entries.

~ Thanks for a wonderful write-up, Splynter. Once again you said it before I could: Letter ESS before AREA CODES and "Your mission should you choose to accept it..." ... :-)

~ Happy Birthday to my fellow Nutmegger ~ Hondo. I hope you don't have to spend it shoveling the new stuff ~ enjoy your day!

Al Cyone said...

I saw those long strings of empty squares and thought: DNF. But I hopped all over the place and, little by little, words appeared. It was as if someone else was doing the work. A Zombie solve? Or maybe more like that moving thing-a-ma-jig on a Ouija board. But when the last letter was entered and there was no "TaDa!", my conscious mind had to regain control. Changing CURSES to CUSSES did the trick.

[12:18]

For a moment I thought Barry G. was expecting some sort of secret message ("morse snow"). The 16" message I got the other day was loud and clear.

TTP said...

Just sitting around waiting for the dentist's office to call. Still too early.

SHAVIANS ? Never saw it :>) Perps took care of that word. SLITS CHAP and HAY made getting CHESTS and LAYETTE easy.

I guess doing 4 to 5 puzzles every day is improving my solving skill. Even getting better at goofy and gimmicky Friday puzzles, even though I generally don't care for them.

Desper-otto, I like the convenience of credit cards, as well as some of the added benefits such as miles, cash back, double warranty, etc. And I still perceive them as safer than debit cards. I haven't had a fee like that imposed on my Citi Mastercard, but if they did I would call them. And for me personally, I'd rather deal with Citi and Chase than with AMEX and BofA.

Guess I'll go do another puzzle.

Anonymous said...

"Shower paraphernalia : LAYETTE"

This is biased against heterosexual men.

desper-otto said...

TTP, I did call 'em. That said that according to their rules they're allowed to charge that fee, and it would stand. I told them that if that was the situation, I wouldn't be using their card in the future. They were fine with that. Pity. It's my oldest credit card and has a huge credit limit. I use my Chase card for most everyday things, but I'll be using that BofA card when I buy gasoline.

buckeye bob said...

Thank you for the puzzle Brad. Thank you for the excellent review, Splynter.

I must be the contrarian today. I had a hard time with this puzzle. But I still think it was a good Saturday-level challenge for me.

WBS. After the first pass, I was looking at a sea of white. I slowly worked my way through and filled most of it in. But I still had trouble in the East.

Is there such a thing as a double Natick? If so, I managed to have it at RUBS--- / G-EL / DA-MATH. RUBS OUT? Nope. RUBS OFF? Nope. Hmm. I thought Rockefeller made his money in GASOLINE, and I had DOG for hound.

I finally turned on red letter help and saw the error of my ways. I changed SEMI to HEMI, GASOLINE to KEROSENE, DOG to NAG, and put in RUBS RAW. KAEL (who???), SAAR and NEW MATH appeared. Ta-da! Whew! A good mental workout.

Happy birthday, Hondo! I hope you have a great day!

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

This one was a squeaker for me. Lots of trial and error was involved, plus a few reasonable guesses that needed fixing, such as Bjorn for Bjork. The baseball references certainly needed perps; never heard of this Cano guy.

Aran Islands came easily, I visited recently. Bose should have been easy - they're right here in Mass. and I use their aviation stuff all the time - but I forgot.

Happy Birthday, Skip! I was kinda thinking that our next Corner gathering might take place here at my new nest, only not in the dead of winter...

Speaking of which, we're trying to liven up this winter day a tad. All our discussion about Glögg around Christmastime led to my following an online recipe which recommended bottling and aging the mixture. I saved a bunch for our usual Valentine's gathering, slated for tonight. It smells heavenly when warmed. I won't be serving it in a glass bowl, however!

Yellowrocks said...

This was about usual for a Saturday for me, maybe a little faster. It was the SE that slowed me down. CANO and KAEL were all perps. ISAAC, BJORK, and EYE were perps and wags.
I knew SHAVIAN and LAYETTE. Shavian from Shaw seems so odd that it sticks in my memory. My MIL gave me so much clothing for my second baby that I donated a new complete layette containing all the necessary clothing for a newborn to overseas relief.
NEW MATH was a bust. Most elementary teachers and parents did not really understand it, and even if they did, it was a cumbersome approach.
A mother asked her daughter what she learned in Sunday School. She said she learned a new song about a cross eyed bear named Gladly.
Gladly, the cross eyed bear.(Gladly, the cross I'd bear)

BTW I loved CED's little foxes yesterday and Jazz's love poem.

Avg Joe said...

I had a lot of trouble too. Certainly Saturday level for me. Lots of wags and erasures, such as Mel Ott for Ty Cobb and Erin for Aran. Ultimately got it nearly done and had the unknowns like Kael and Shavian filled by perps. But could not figure out that N in Cano. Resorted to Goog and realized that was a self-inflicted wound cuz I'd filled in ANGOrA instead of ANGOLA. Had the L been there, I could have guessed London. Oh well, it was an enjoyable challenge.

Happy Birthday Skip. I hope you can take it easy instead of scooping snow.

Lemonade714 said...

Happy birthday Skip and many more. WMS, all the trouble Splynter had was easily dealt with by being older. Casey Stengel was the most successful manager of the Yankees wining almost every year, not so with Mets. He was very quote worthy and when they had Casey and To go the sports writers loved it.

Pauline Kael was an icon in film criticism.

Going for a beach walk, enjoy all

Husker Gary said...

If SHAVIAN is a word, I’ve conquered Brad’s wonderful puzzle!

Musings
-Recent PLEASURE CRUISES seem to be offering fun on the water along with the norovirus
-Bill Cosby fired LISA BONET
-“Papa, are you UP FOR (insert activity)?” The answer is always yes!
-Yeah, Splynter, HALLEY was my first fill. His name is mispronounced because of these guys
-After vandalism the PIETA is now displayed behind bullet proof glass
-None of those peeps in the CLUB MED ad look like me or anyone I know
-The most famous crossing of the RHONE?
-Princess LEIA costume with a SLIT
-I taught NEW MATH in 1968 and it was horrible!! The intersection of set of arcane math drivel and the set of useful math skills was the null set!
-Of the once hapless Mets, Casey once said, “Can’t anyone here play this game?”
-Payday loan companies can charge USURIOUS 400+% interest rates.
-OMG, it is a word. Gimme a 100%
-HBD, Hondo! Your Giants will be tied for first on opening day ;-)

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

It's snowing, again. Sigh.

Anyway, on the bright side, this was a fun, challenging Saturday offering. Had some bumps, like bolos before bolas, and Africa before Angola, but otherwise, everything fell into place.

Thanks, Brad, and thanks to Splynter for 'splaining it all.

Happy Birthday, Skip. Hope you have a great day.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Happy Birthday Hondo. Hope your day is special.

Agree with Splynter; mostly easier than usual for a Saturday. Got the grid spanners easily after the requisite amount of perps were gotten. Found the NW and W easier than the NE.
NORTH SEA and RHÔNE were gimmes and SAAR was a WAG; seemed about right drainage wise.
@62a, esses wouldn't fit so I went with AREA CODES.
Liked the misdirection for LAYETTE and the cluing for RESHOT.

Have a great day.

CrossEyedDave said...

The problem with Saturday puzzles is they are making it too easy to cheat...

Shavian? (it looks greek to me...)

Hondo, I am glad I now know your real name, because Google refused to give anything but Honda cakes!

HBD Skip

Barry G. said...

I missed another birthday? I really have to start paying better attention to the write up...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HONDO!!!

Goddard said...

I don't know if this qualifies as ASTRONOMY, but coincidentally I received this in an e-mail this morning.

You may have seen the world's most famous photograph, "Earthrise." It's been on the cover of TIME and on stamps. But did you know it almost didn't happen? This occurred 45 years ago, Christmas Eve, 1968. You have to see the untold story of this iconic shot!

NASA youtube video

p.s. Don't forget to click on "show more" under video to read more information.

VirginiaSycamore said...

I did some cheats to finish this one.

Surprisingly, I knew the baseball references, KAEL, ISAAC, and SHAVIAN. I didn't think I was that old, but maybe I am.

I was also able to guess NEWMATH once the math part was obvious. I think I was taught it from 6th through 7th grade. I don't remember sets a lot, but I do remember really liking set theory so maybe I was.

Tom Leher wrote and performed a song that explains it all called, New Math. The following You Tube was the best version I could find, with a lip sync and the numbers behind the singer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfCJgC2zezw
[I have never gotten my laptop to do the HTML thing. Sorry]

Dudley said...

CED - Wow! I just read your Shaw Alphabet link. I had no idea such a thing existed, and I find it downright fascinating.

To me, the gold standard to which a planet full of people ought to aspire is having a common language, using a sensible alphabet, free from irregular verbs and pointless noun gender distinctions. Such a language would ideally have equal ease of interpretation whether spoken or read. The downside is that we might eventually forget how to read Shakespeare.

Dudley said...

Goddard - Wow! Double Wow even!

I was just a kid when all that was unfolding, and I don't think I saw the whole Apollo experience with the correct level of awe, not then. Now it's a different sensation.

So, America could once afford to do grand space adventures, and outperform our worthy Russian counterparts in the space race. Now we can't even fix our bridges. What's the matter with us?

Avg Joe said...

I know it was a rhetorical question, Dudley, but I'd suggest: I Me Mine is the problem.

And yes, Goddard. Wow!!

JJM said...

Barry,
You live in Boston and I know you're a Red Sox Fan…. and you don't know who Robinson Cano is??

Unknown said...

Good morning. Living in Hawaii I have an objection to 11D. Poi is NOT cooked in an imu. In fact it's not cooked at all. Pig (pua'a) is roasted in the imu. Not the first time I have seen this erroneous answer, I just thought some else would have commented before.

Abejo said...

Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Brad Wilber, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Splynter, for a fine review.

This was a fun puzzle. Certainly tough in spots.

Got most of the Downs in the NW corner. This helped with LISA BONET. ASTRONOMY was easy.

Once I had PLEASURE, CRUISES was easy.

Learning moment for CLUB MED. Interesting.

Tried ESSES as a part of 62A. After ANGOLA, NOR, KEROSENE, and USDA. AREA CODES became obvious.

SHAVIAN is a new word for me. Perped it.

Remembered BOLAS.

Not sure what NEW MATH actually is. But I have heard the term.

Happy Birthday, Hondo. And, many more.

Still in PA, leaving in the morning.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

(22825268 49)

Lucina said...

Hello, weekenders! Wonderful write up, Splynter. Thank you.

Happy birthday, Hondo!!

WEES. You all have pointed out the PLEASURE of this puzzle. I also CRUISEd through it and enjoyed the cleverness of RESHOT.

Teachers in the 60s had to attend many workshops to learn NEW MATH but it remained a mystery to me.

I couldn't tell you how many baby showers I've been to and given LAYETTEs for tiny tots.

My ASSISTS changed to SUCCORS and it was done! However, I spelled SHAVIAN as SHAVeAN. Drat!

Many of the charitable contributions I make are through my Citi Mastercard and have never been charged extra for them. I wonder what that's all about?

Have a fantastic Saturday, everyone!

desper-otto said...

Great video, Goddard.

I think winter may be over here in the southland. Sunny and 70 at the moment, and we'll be in the 70's every day for the next week. Might even hit 80 on Wednesday. Now that's more my style!

Al Cyone said...

Dudley@10:57: English is the de facto common language of the planet and the upside is that everyone will be able to read Shakespeare. The other upside, of course, is that I don't have to learn another language.

Misty said...

I almost, almost, almost got this one and feel silly that it was the cross of RUBS RAW and NEW MATH that messed me up. Okay, I'm not good at math, although I've done a brilliant job getting our taxes in perfect order for our HR Block appointment. (Well, we'll see how brilliant it actually was).

But, Brad, the puzzle was still a total delight. I loved so many of the clues and misdirections. Looked for something like LOOFAH rather than LAYETTE for shower stuff, and of course put DOG for HOUND. The cleverest clue of all: There's a lot of interest in it for USURY.

Can't believe I got so many of the names: both STENGEL and TY COBB and I'm usually hopeless at sports. Remember the film criticism of Pauline KAEL fondly. And I know my Irish: got both SHAVIAN and the ARAN isles.

So thanks, again, Brad, and Splynter, for the great expo.

Happy birthday, Hondo. Hope you have a wonderful celebration planned.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

CrossEyedDave said...

VirginiaSycamore@10:54's link deserves a link:

New math

Bill G. Help!

Daughter #1 is trying to furnish a new apartment, & has a floor plan diagram where a 21 foot wall is scaled down to 4 inches. She is trying to find an easy way to draw a 4 foot desk to scale on the diagram to see how it fits.

Is there an easy way to just multiply 4 feet by a percentage that will give the correct size to draw on the diagram?

Note, this is not a puzzle... (I can't figure the dang thing out!)

Husker Gary said...

-Dave, your ratio is 63 : 1 (21’ x 12” = 252” and then 252”/ 4” = 63). Therefore, your 4’ dimension (48”) will be drawn with a length of 48/63 = .762” or approximately .75” or approximately 3/4 “. You could multiply every inch dimension by .0159 (1.59%) and get the equivalent dimension in inches. Inches to inches just like apples to apples.

Biil G stand in ;-)

desper-otto said...

CED, that desk should be .7619 inches wide -- a long 3/4 of an inch.

Spitzboov said...

CED @ 1227 - What HG said.

Yellowrocks said...

Youse guys beat me to it before I could reach my computer. X= size of desk in drawing.
I tried 21:4::4:X, so 21x =16 and x =0.7619

Montana said...

I missed the Corner yesterday, so first let me wish Marti a belated but very Happy Birthday!

Today, best wishes for a great Birthday to Hondo!

I had to resort to some red letter, alphabet runs to solve this puzzle, so a definite DNF.
Thanks, Splynter, for the expo. I always learn something on Saturdays.
NEW MATH started just after I got out of elementary school and was out-of-fad by the time I taught math. So, I missed it. I researched it a bit during a summer class and understood it, but wondered why in the world, try to teach kids math in that manner?
I was part of a group of teachers who wrote a set of high school math texts. It was very hands-on, so lots of science in the method. I was part of the group to make sure the science was correct. (Lots of math teachers do not have a GOOD background in science.) That was back in the early 90s. Last year was the first year I no longer earned royalties for my work.

It is up to 32° so water is dripping off some roofs as the snow melts. We have lots of ice and snow. It is supposed to get above freezing for the next week. Nice!

Have a good weekend,

Montana

Anonymous said...

GRAPHEME was annoying for me. I wanted it to be graph-ene, the single atom thick layer of graphite that acts as a superconductor. I know grapheme, too, but it's not in my field. That led to "cosmogeny" at first FOR Halley's field, but I knew that was probably wrong.

I don't know baseball, but at least I could recall something about TY COBB being pilloried for his racism a few years ago. That helped.

EAGER->ULTRA->UPFOR
TUBER->TATER

FASHION for method took me far too long to get.

I kept thinking Van. was short for Vancouver, uggh. Perps revealed CHOC (where's that? Ohhh)

I couldn't remember LISA BONET and the need to JOG my memory slowed me down considerably, must be al that NEW MATH they filled my head with when I was in school.

Yellowrocks said...

Happy birthday, Skip. I hope you have a fabulous day.

Does anyone communicate with Blue Iris? She asked about booking a river cruise with her Hoverround power chair. She needs to know that some of the shore excursions are more strenuous than others and some involve stairs. You have to pick and choose. She does answer her email.

Montana said...

Dudley, great to read about your new abode. I am planning a trip back to New Canaan. My son wanted me to fly there a week ago--glad I didn't.
I know I am not a NEener, but would love to attend another gathering. Is there public transportation between New Canaan (or Stamford) and your town? I think my son still won't let me drive their 3rd car out of town.

No date set yet, except it needs to be before May.

Montana

CrossEyedDave said...

Thanks guys, & especially HG for the 0.0159 conversion factor.

Right after I posted I went upstairs & told Daughter#1, "your problems are over, I asked the Blog Crew!" And she said, "I got it, Mom just came home & I asked her..."

(What would we do without Moms...)

When she was in Elementary School, I helped her with her long division the way I was taught in Australia, (Her Teacher asked me to stop...)

Oh well, at least they still need me around to dispose of bugs...

Dudley said...

Montana - so it's April, then. a pretty time around here. Let's see what we can pull together. That same Amtrak line goes up to Springfield, which is near. (The station is a dump but I hear they're planning to spruce it up.) HINT to Spitz and Argyle: why not carpool and pick up Irish Miss on the way? Barry G - fire up the Dodge and hit the Pike! Marti - you're already on the docket anyhow! :-) Skip, road trip! LaLaLinda, how about you?

Dudley said...

Correction: Chrysler.

Lucina said...

What fun! It sounds like the New England contingent of the Blog is planning to party.

thehondohurricane said...

Good day to all,

Spent the early hours of daylight de-icing the driveway so wife's maid service could arrive safely. Now I'm watching the early stages of another 4" to 6" of the white stuff falling. Enough already.

As far as the puzzle goes, it was a DNF. South East corner primary culprit. No problems with STENGEL, TY COBB, or CANO and PLEASURE CRUISES aptly fit how we feel about Norwegian Cruise Lines. Never had a bad experience with them.

Not much else to add to whatever has already been mentioned. Got to get spruced up... seems like we are having visitors for some unexplained reason.

Finally, thanks to all you wonderful folks for your best wishes today. They are warmly appreciated.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Whoop-di-DOO!

The first Saturday puzzle I've completed without a single look-up or cheat. Splynter may be right that it was easier than usual, OR we're both getting a lot sharper.
It did not feel easy to me. I was just more patient than usual this morning, waiting until the very bottom to find anywhere to get a toehold, re-writing SUCCORS several times, while resisting the urge to look up LISA BONET.
I agree with Splynter about avoiding some of those cruise ships. I have enjoyed several cruises, but won't go near those things that look like stacked hotel rooms, the ones that sacrifice the beauty of slim keeled ships for the fat, germ-ridden crowding of umpteen decks of land lubbers.
What I haven't done but look forward to someday is to ship out on one of these clipper cruises. But I fear my wife would be struck with kinetosis (mal de mer) at the very sight of one.

John A. said...

was unfamiliar with the word 'SUCCORS'...no implication of plurality in the clue, so i filled 'CURSES' instead of 'CUSSES'...other than that, nailed it!...hope everybody is well!

john28man said...

I thought it was easier than the average Saturday since I omly needed a couple of RED LETTERS to finish.

PK said...

Hi Y'all, Agreed this was faster than many Saturdays. Thanks, Brad! Thanks, Splynter.

Unknowns: LISA BONET, SOAVE, CANO, SHAVIAN, EME, KAEL. My spell check doesn't like SHAVIAN either. It is redlined.

I did know LONDON EYE, ARAN & ISAAC.

Happy Birthday, Hondo!

CanadianEh! Your champion skater got robbed. How can someone who fell down three times get gold? I thought Chan was overall better.

We're celebrating in our family. My AF son is back home with his family as of an hour ago. I'm not sure the land of sands where he was is more hazardous than the US right now, but we feel better about him being home. I won't see him for awhile though.

Bill G. said...

Happy birthday Hondo!

CED, Gary: You guys asked for my input, so here 'tis. I agree. Four feet to three-fourths of an inch is close enough for practical purposes. And you can take all new dimensions in feet, multiply them by 0.19 and you will have the approximate drawing dimensions in inches in decimal form. So a 9-foot entry would be approximately 1.71 inches or about 1 and 23/32 inches. (The previous 0.0519 multiplier changes inches to inches. Both ways work equally well.)

Or, to make it even simpler, take the real-life dimensions in feet, double them and add a decimal point. So 12 feet becomes 2.4 inches. That's a little less accurate but maybe close enough for your daughter's drawing.

New math hit soon after I started teaching. I liked it OK and enjoyed explaining sets, intersection, union, etc. The big problems came when teachers weak in math skills struggled to drag their students through these new math concepts and neglected to teach multiplication tables, fractions, measurement, etc.

Lucina said...

BillG:
Even with the NEW MATH I never stopped teaching fractions, multiplication tables or measurement. Now, of course, it's a different story altogether with no rote learning allowed. That eliminates the times tables.

posterboy said...

60A The London Eye is not a ferris wheel but a cantilevered observation wheel. otherwise a great puzzle.

creature said...

Happy Birthday, Hondo! It sounds as if you're in for some festivities

OwenKL said...

I think more snow makes Barry morose.

John A: SUCCORS is a verb, so no plural involved.

CED: That SHAVIAN alphabet was fascinating. I'd never heard of it before, though I knew he was an advocate for spelling reform, and also for shaving, which is why things related to him are called Shavian. Alphabets fascinate me, such as the Deseret. I wonder how dictionaries can be organized in languages like Chinese.

Which brings me to my soapbox. I believe every schoolchild should learn Braille and sign language (ASL) in primary school, right along with the alphabet. I understand that many no longer teach cursive, so Braille could take its place. The biggest problem is that there are nowhere near enough teachers, but if the educational establishment was able to push through NEW MATH, they should be able to do the same for Braille and ASL.

Bill G. said...

Lucina, our daughter teaches second grade locally and our grandson is in third grade. They still teach addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. That kind of rote learning is still necessary, I think.

Avg Joe said...

Here's a math problem for all that might care and an inquiry for anybody that knows HVAC issues. With the recent usurious (see what I did there) price increases for propane, we're likely to change out our propane furnace for an electric unit. I've done quite a bit of research, but still see a few ambiguities that I'd like to resolve. In case you haven't heard, propane has recently gone from around $1.60 per gallon to around $3.70 after a quick spike to $5.25 that lasted a couple of days. That's sorta like gas jumping up to $9 overnight. I'm not happy.

As I've been told, there are 91,500 btus in a gallon of propane. We have a 90% efficient furnace (we also have an air to air heat pump). I've also been told that there are 3,413 btus in a kwh of electricity and that an electric furnace is 100% efficient in comparison to alternatives. We always use over 1,000 kwh during peak heating months and the terminal rate for power is .0647 pr kwh once over 1,000 hours.

Given the above, I've reached a conclusion as to what the break even point is in terms of cost per gallon for propane vs switching to electric forced air resistance heating as our "backup" unit. I'd like to have you math geeks check my solution, and I'd like anyone that is fluent in HVAC matters confirm or deny the factors I'm using.

There will not be a quiz at the end of the class:- thanks in advance for any assistance

Anonymous said...

AJ, let me throw a monkey into the wrench. Have you considered geothermal technology. It has become very popular in my area. There are several videos on youtube, as I'm sure you know. Also, I've been told not to react to this year's wildly fluctuating propane prices as it has been an unusual market year. If your existing equipment is due for an upgrade then by all means do so, otherwise hold out another year or so before making such a major change.

Spitzboov said...

AVG Joe - Just a quick mental juggle seems to indicate the nominal cross-over point is ~ $2/ gal. However -

Our electric bill has an energy component and a distribution component. Not clear whether your number considers that.

Depending on the remaining life of your propane system, don't forget to include the capitalization costs for a new electric heating system.

Hard to forecast the future price of propane. It did more than double this year but there were antecedent contributing conditions. Consider that the supply network will sort itself out and that future winters will not be as severe. NG has hardly moved, and more oil is constantly being developed in the mid US.
From WIKI:
Propane is produced as a by-product of two other processes, natural gas processing and petroleum refining. I think the long term prognosis for propane is good; the supply system needs to sort itself out.

Yellowrocks said...

I meant Blue Iris does NOT regularly answer her email. I have not heard from her.


My older son came today bearing valentine gifts. He helped me with things I have a hard time doing for myself and took us out to dinner. We had a very nice day. He and DIL are on the outs so she didn't come and convinced my grandson not to come either. I miss him.

Bill G. said...

YR, that's too bad. It's a shame when your DIL uses tension with your son to mess up your relationship with your grandson. Doesn't seem fair...

BTW, if you guys enjoy listening to Pandora while on your computer (I do), you might try creating an "Ink Spots" station. I also added in The Mills Brothers. I'm enjoying it immensely as I'm typing.

CanadianEh! said...

Lovely cruise around the world today. Did anyone besides me notice the large number of places mentioned in the puzzle?? Ireland, Hague, Majorca, St. Peter's (Vatican), Verona, Norway, London, Angola, and even references to Hawaii and South America (with poi and pampas).

I knew SHAVIAN from our Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake. They do other plays as well (Some of Shaw's works can be ponderous). Cabaret is coming this summer. We saw Guys and Dolls last summer.

We were on the Riesenrad in Vienna (ferris wheel in The Third Man) but it is only half the height of the London Eye.

Thanks PK for your support of Patrick Chan. We were disappointed that he did not skate as well as he can. He also fell or wobbled his landings several times. Great pressure at the Olympics. But still a silver medal is an accomplishment!!

Anonymous said...

Yr@7:13 I'm so sorry to hear that. I am on the outs too with wife but I do not discourage the kids not to see their grandparents. Grandparents can be great at times like this.

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, Just a quick comment today to wish Marti a Very happy belated birthday and Skip many happy returns of the day.

Marti, I hope your day was extra special and Skip your day today is still there to enjoy.

I read the blog, but missed the pictures and comment after the CW entry. I'm with Barry--Slap my hands for missing two very important birthdays.

Have a great weekend everyone. The Sunday puzzle isn't published in our paper, so I'll be back on Monday.

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Have had problems sleeping (what's new), so finished working the puzzle before coming to the Corner.

Lo and behold, worked another Saturday w/o cheats!

Thanks Brad and Splynter!

(SHAVIAN, KAEL gimmes. I'm that old.)

Had never heard of the ferris wheel, or, whatever it is. CANO must have been in other puzzles?

A heartfelt albeit very late HBTY, Skip!

We university math profs got a kick out of the appellation "NEW MATH." (It is very, very old.)

Cheers!

(Four illegible captchas so far.)

JD said...

Lucina and Bill,it seems that kindergarteners are taught to count by 2's, 5's, and 10's...which leads them to an understanding of multiplication in 1st grade. They have more of an understanding of how math works and the variety of ways they can get an answer. Truman has to make up a word problem for HW every night. For years there was a gap in that learning and the kids did not know their X facts.

Happy belated b'day Marti and Skip!

Poi is mashed, not cooked.

Lucina said...

BillG@4:26
Well, that's comforting to know that math skills are still being taught.

BTW, did you hear Ellen Page's announcement today? Yesterday you mentioned that she was another woman whose face you liked.

I remember riding the riesenrad ferris wheel in Vienna many years ago and I agree with CanEH; it's much smaller than the London Eye but from a historical point, it's very much worth seeing and riding it.

Bill G. said...

Lucina, yep, teaching math has fads that come and go like all fads. The wise teachers pick and choose the good stuff from the current fad and add it to the best of the traditional teaching curriculum to continue to try to help their students understand and be successful at math. (I hope that makes sense.)

I remember that classic scene on the ferris wheel in The Third Man, one of my favorite movies. BTW, I think that movie has more memorable scenes than any other movie I can think of.

Yes, I saw Ellen Page in the news for the last couple of days and it made me recall what an appealing face she possesses. Great personality. Smart too I'll bet.

Argyle said...

Ralph Waite(The Waltons, NCIS) passed away. Does he make number three?

Bill G. said...

The Mensa site usually has the next day's LAT puzzle at 10 pm local time. As of now (10:24), they still have yesterday's Brad Wilber puzzle. I hope this is a minor glitch that will be fixed soon.

Ol' Man Keith said...

We had a great time on the LONDON EYE! - that cantilevered observation whatchamacallit.

If Geo. Washington Gale Ferris doesn't want to claim it (despite Wikipedia calling it for him), I fear he's the loser... BTW, the Singapore Flyer seems to be the new altitude champ.