google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 Ed Sessa

Gary's Blog Map

Feb 11, 2014

Tuesday, February 11, 2014 Ed Sessa

Theme: B A D - Normally there is only two ways to break a three-letter word but Ed found another.

57. Vince Gilligan TV drama, and a hint to something happening in 20-Across and 11- and 29-Down : BREAKING BAD. The series premiered in 2008 on the cable channel AMC, and closed 2013.

20. They swim with the fishes : SCUBA DIVERS

11. Bookmarked link, say : WEB ADDRESS

29. Start of a rhyme featuring a butcher and baker : RUB-A-DUB-DUB. This rhyme exists in many variations.

Argyle here(and in the puzzle). The most notable thing is the pinwheel layout of the answers. Bit odd to have a roach in the middle though.

Across:

1. Financial "soaking" : BATH

5. Open wound : GASH

9. Dots on maps : TOWNS

14. Queens stadium named for a tennis legend : ASHE

15. Eastern honorific : AGHA. Turkish, literally: lord.

16. Outmaneuver : ONE-UP

17. Munich mister : HERR

18. Track section : RAIL

19. In a gallant manner : NOBLY

23. Gore and Smith : ALs

24. Wrestling venue : ARENA

25. Scottish pirate : KIDD. The long version here. Wiki Or the short video. LINK

27. Checkpoint Charlie city : BERLIN

30. O'Brien of CNN : SOLEDAD



33. __ Dhabi : ABU

34. Chain store selling gates and crates : PETCO. Headquartered in San Diego.

37. Twilled suit fabric : SERGE

38. Gently tosses : LOBs

40. Nocturnal scurrier : ROACH. The Orkin Man isn't here yet.

42. Big intro? : MEGA

43. African antelope : ELAND

45. Company targeting 40-Acrosses : ORKIN

47. Transgression : SIN

48. Man Ray or Arp : DADAIST. Artwork from Man Ray.


50. Some 36-Down deals : LEASES

52. Fruit that's not cute : UGLI. Orange and tangerine hybrid.

53. With regard to : AS FOR

55. Priest's garment : ALB

62. Freeload : CADGE

64. Billy goat's bluff : CRAG. Bluff is a headland with a broad, steep face. You might find goats on the steep rugged rock.

65. Meditative practice : YOGA

66. Less likely to betray : TRUER

67. Where sheep sleep : COTE

68. Creditor's claim : LIEN

69. Wooden shoe : SABOT

70. Power dept. : ENERgy

71. Movie lioness : ELSA

Down:

1. Grumpy cries : BAHS

2. "Got __?": "Can we talk?" : A SEC

3. Informal street sign word : THRU

4. Like some folk remedies : HERBAL

5. One with growing concerns? : GARDENER. Gearing up; sharpening the tools.

6. "Here we go __!" : AGAIN

7. Hindu deity : SHIVA. “The Destroyer,” the third member of the Trimurti, along with Brahma the Creator and Vishnu the Preserver.

8. Of sound body : HALE

9. Oft-removed throat tissues : TONSILS

10. Artist Yoko : ONO

12. __ and void : NULL

13. 1974 CIA spoof : "SPYS"

21. "What __!": "I've been had!" : A RIP

22. MGM rival : RKO. The original RKO Pictures ceased production in 1957. MGM went through bankruptcy in 2010 but is still at it.

26. Judge : DEEM

27. Bundled, as cotton : BALED

28. African virus : EBOLA

30. Foot warmer : SOCK

31. Texas A&M athlete : AGGIE

32. Campus heads : DEANS

35. Tugboat blast : TOOT

36. Hybrid, perhaps : CAR

39. Setback : SNAG

41. Designer Tommy : HILFIGER

44. Toon with an upturned tie : DILBERT

46. Gas in glass tubing : NEON

49. "To __, With Love" : SIR 1967 Song(2:48)

51. 30-Down pattern : ARGYLE

53. Slugger known as Hammerin' Hank : AARON

54. Use a rink : SKATE

55. "Hamlet" fivesome : ACTS

56. Doctor Zhivago's love : LARA. Her theme. Video(5:47) Warning: Lots of snow.

58. Caesar's "Behold!" : "ECCE!"

59. Recipe instruction : BOIL

60. Years and years : AGES

61. Funny Carvey : DANA

63. Former automaker with a globe in its logo : GEO



Argyle


50 comments:

  1. Morning, all!

    I've heard of BREAKING BAD but have never actually seen it and had no idea it involved a character named Vince Gilligan. But that's all right, since I didn't need to know that in order to get the theme answers. I didn't get that BAD was broken up between words in each answer until I came here, so that was a nice extra after-the-fact bonus to the puzzle for me.

    The fill was smooth overall, but I hesitated at ARIP. I've finally had to accept that "I don't give A RIP" is a real phrase (at least within the world of crosswords), but now we have "What A RIP"? Can we just pick one obscure phrase and stick with it please?

    [And yes, I'm sure it's actually a very common phrase used everywhere except within my own personal earshot.]

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice puzzle and writeup. I must be the only chemist in the Universe to have never seen an episode of "Breaking Bad."

    If you're still up for another puzzle, my friends and I offer
    For Solvers Like You, which was written for a local institution but just might appeal to music lovers nationwide.

    And it's not too early (February 14 is just a few days away) to tackle the rather difficult, Sunday-sized All You Need is Love by my good friend Charles Deber.

    We hope you love these puzzles!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Greetings!

    Nice puzzle, Ed, but a bit tricky for me on Tuesday. Or maybe it's because I haven't gone to be yet. Got the TADA after finding a stupid spelling error! So took a bit longer than usual. Nice expo, Argyle. Interesting to see you in the puzzle!

    Time for beddy!

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  4. "What a rip" is a shorter version of "What a rip-off".

    ReplyDelete
  5. Shout out to ARGYLE !

    RIP Shirley Temple.

    ReplyDelete
  6. George Vincent "Vince" Gilligan, Jr. is an American writer, director, and producer. He is known for his television work, specifically being the creator of Breaking Bad, co-creator of The Lone Gunmen, and a writer and producer for The X-Files. Wikipedia

    ReplyDelete
  7. Good day folks,

    Bit of a tough go today, especially the Eastern side, but a success in the end.

    Nice to see a deserved shout out to ARGYLE.

    What A RIP is a common lingo in my neighborhood.

    SOLEDAD, ROACH, MEGA CRAG, and BREAKING BAD were today's tough solves. ROACH was favorite.

    Outmaneuver/ONE UP was cute. Wanted an E somewhere in NOBLY, but there weren't enough white squares!


    Hope you folks below the Mason Dixon line have a better time of it with the latest storm coming up the coast. We are supposed to get it Thursday. Don't mind snow, but sleet and rain added in make the shoveling too much for this old timer.


    ReplyDelete
  8. Good morning, group!

    My paper failed to arrive this morning, but thanks to Steve, I was able to get the LAT on my tablet.

    In Texas you don't have to worry about ROACHes in your house. They only come in when it's wet, to get dry. Or when it's dry, to find water.

    I'm familiar with Breaking Bad, but like Barry, I've never seen an episode. I'm still trying to get through 192 episodes of 24 on Netflix.

    Today's another taxing day...

    ReplyDelete
  9. I finished but didn't enjoy this puzzle. The theme was too vague for me. I didn't see it until it was pointed out here. Six of those fill in the blanks or finishing a sentence is six too many for me.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Good morning everybody. Good puzzle and write up today. I didn't catch the "BAD"s in the puzzle.

    I never heard of CADGE (freeload).

    Favorite clue: 64A: Billy goat's bluff: CRAG

    I'm a regular at PETCO.

    Have a great day!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I found this much more fun than yesterday's puzzle. I liked the theme. Breaking B-A-D between the hyphens was great.
    To Sir with Love was one of my favorite movies. Hubby wouldn't go, so I went with girlfriends.
    I always find it interesting that one person's obscurity is another person's commonplace. Like HH, What A RIP is common here.Give a rip is fairly common.
    My acquaintances these days no longer CADGE. But in my youth we used the word often, especially for cadging cigs and drinks.
    I liked Billy goat's gruff=CRAG.
    Six appointments today. TA TA. CIAO.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Good morning, all. Like most, it took Argyle's explication to see the BADs, but it went smoothly otherwise, with a couple of write-overs. I wanted the 64A Billy goat's bluff to be a [head] Butt, but AARON and SKATE quickly counteracted that. And I hadn't figured out the BAD, so tried URL and WWW before I got to WEBADDRESS. Though I recognized the term, it took the perps to get DADAIST and without grandchildren, the RUBADUBDUB had to be dredged from the depths!

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  13. It's about time ARGYLE got a shout out! It's been a while.

    I had my usual slow spots due to my cultural naïveté, which in turn is due to lack of interest in things like DILBERT, HILFIGER OR SOLEDAD. As usual, my background in German and French got me out of trouble here and there--BERLIN, HERR, SABOT. But on the whole a nice Tuesday level that I got out with no real problems. I would say bludge rather than CADGE though, due to my Aussie roots.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I know a lot of chemistry teachers and I don’t think any of them are cooking up batches of meth… CADGE, SABOT, CRAG, ECCE and COTE added just enough spice to Ed’s fine puzzle.

    Musings
    -Driving yesterday we passed through lotsa dying small towns the RAILroads build 10 miles apart over 100 years ago
    -Men play the “ONE UP” game in locker rooms and teacher lounges
    -Don’t ever call wrestling “rassling” in high school or college ARENAS
    -Was the painted chunk of concrete we bought a Checkpoint Charlie really from the BERLIN wall?
    -PETCO won’t sell you a kitty if you say you are going to declaw it
    -Questions to politicians can be LOBBED as well as baseballs
    -Your “SIN” is your business as long as no one is getting hurt and I don’t have to pay or watch
    -ELSA is a feline, ILSA got on the plane with Victor
    -Justin Timberlake played Omaha last night and the reviewer wrote “men were APING JT by wearing bow ties and fedoras” so I have now seen APE as a verb!
    -An article I just read advises GARDENERS to avoid compaction by not tilling or plowing
    -Dilbert’s witty comments hit home everyday if you’ve ever worked in a large company/school
    -To Sir With Love reinforces the idea that all kids really do want/need discipline and structure

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi Everyone ~~

    I enjoyed working this puzzle, although I didn't notice a theme until I got to the unifier. Even at that, I was thinking that BREAKING BAD would result in the word 'bad' being broken up, as in 27D - BA -LE-D. After seeing the theme answers I saw I had the wrong idea.

    Only a couple of hesitations: CADGE was an unknown and I don't think of a ROACH as necessarily being nocturnal.

    I smiled at 9D - Oft-removed throat tissue / TONSILS. Mine were literally "oft-removed." I had them out three times (all as an adult) ~ pieces had been left behind and kept getting infected. Plenty of ice cream.

    Thanks for the write-up, ARGYLE ~ loved your shout-out!

    ReplyDelete








  16. Argyle sweater-vests are popular here, this season.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Good morning everyone. Nice shoutout to ARGYLE. I'm guessing Ed know Argyle or knows of him thru this blog and included him intentionally.

    Pretty much straightforward solve today. New word for me, CADGE. When I used to freeload, I called it 'freeloading'. Favorite clue was for CRAG. Liked RUB-A-DUB-DUB, too, and the juxtaposition of ROACH and ORKIN.

    KIDD - RADM Isaac Kidd was the most senior officer killed in the Pearl Harbor attack - aboard his flagship, the USS Arizona. His son ADM Isaac Kidd went on to become a 4-star and served as CINCLANTFLT during the height of the Cold War years. (I once participated in a daily brief for him during a NATO exercise, ~1978.)

    Have a great day.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hello, friends! Good to see a shoutout to you, ARGYLE!

    I had fun with this though it filled quite quickly. Because of all the hoopla for BREAKING BAD I decided to watch an episode and it nearly made me sick. I still can't understand all the excitement behind it. I think it is based on a terrible premise.

    Thank you, Ed Sessa. Some clues I thought were very clever:

    one with growing concerns, GARDENER
    Billy Goat's bluff, CRAG
    fruit that's not cute, UGLI

    CADGE is a word I've seen only in books.

    My first dots on maps were ISLES but TONSILS and ONO disabused that idea.

    Have a terrific Tuesday, everyone! Haircutting for me.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Good Morning:

    I found today's offering easier than yesterday's. Breezed right through it and caught the theme after the unifier, although not the clever way bad was separated. I have never watched the show, either.

    Well done, Ed Sessa, and nicely explained, Argyle, and nice shout out, to boot.

    My beautiful Bichon Frise didn't fare well last night in the Non-sporting group at Westminster, but, in my eyes, she/he is still Number #1.

    Another cold, bright, sunshiny day. Enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hello Puzzlers -

    Easy enough solve today, though it took a while to see Roach and the nearby Petco and Orkin. I guess it's getting close to time to see what Breaking Bad is like, I've never seen a single minute of the program. First, however, I want to refresh my memory of Dr. Who.

    Morning, Argyle! I read the whole Wiki on Captain Kidd and was fascinated. Spitz: can we assume that the two Admiral Kidds were Captains at some point, and subjected to a certain amount of kidding? :-)

    ReplyDelete
  21. Hi Gang -

    Struggled through with a headache, so the theme and lots of other things were pretty opaque.

    Well done puzzle, but over my head today.

    Cool regards!
    JzB

    ReplyDelete
  22. For those who haven't seen Breaking Bad, you should strongly consider checking it out. It was brilliantly written and expertly acted. The show was hugely popular across the country. It involves some rather extreme themes, yes, but nonetheless is a well-executed drama. Good puzzle playing off of a popular social reference point.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Good morning all,

    Another fun romp... without groking the theme.I also have heard of Breaking Bad, but haven't seen it.

    Nice shout out to you, Argyle. Loved your warning "lots of snow" :)

    That def. of cadge was new to me too..think I use the word mooch.Cote also new. Had to WAG the m in deem/mega.

    To Sir With Love was a pretty powerful movie at the time, a personal favorite.

    a VERY foggy morning here

    ReplyDelete
  24. Dudley said " Can we assume that the two Admiral Kidds were Captains at some point, and subjected to a certain amount of kidding? :"

    Yes, they would have served as Captains first, and probably were exposed to the idea. ADM KIDD was an imposing figure and I, for one, would not have wanted to annoy him.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Good Morning, Argyle and friends. Fun puzzle. Although I never watched Breaking Bad, I had heard of the show, so when the reveal appeared, it helped me with located the WEB ADDRESS.

    Interesting fact about the USS KIDD, which is now a Memorial and Museum in Louisiana. The USS KIDD actually flew actually flew the Jolly Roger flag.

    QOD: Love is a game that two can play and both win. ~ Eva Gabor (Feb. 11, 1921 ~ July 4, 1995)

    ReplyDelete
  26. I am trying to avoid any 1D's (one downs) about this puzzle, because doing it in ink gives you the disadvantage of being Tada-less...

    I could not remember anything about the billy goats bluff, & not knowing Latin figured the bluff might be just a "B"rag. I mean bragging is sort of like bluffing, in a way,, (maybe?)

    But what really messed me up is that I have never heard of "cadge," & that "Reo" is so common in crosswords. So I came to the Blog to find out what freeloading had to do with "cadre."

    Speaking of badly broken, this sign at a supermarket checkout is proof that parsing is everything...

    ReplyDelete
  27. Like YR, cadging cigarettes was big when I was young and foolishly smoked. Many friends favorite brand was OP.

    Ed Sessa always delivers and it is great to see an Argyle shout out on one of his days.

    To Sir With Love was very controversial at the time, now we have a gay man bold enough to proclaim his identity before the NFL draft, pushing the envelope on that issue.

    Our South Florida Cuban immigrant skater was disqualified; many of you watching the Olympics?

    You have to be kidding with all this Kidd talk, how about Jason Kidd?

    ReplyDelete
  28. Oh my, I struggled with today's puzzle. I won't list the clues I had trouble with--the list would be too long!
    I did get the theme, but that didn't help me. I made a whole lot of correct guesses, but at the end I didn't feel good about my solve.

    I have never watched Breaking Bad and I have never seen a roach in person--only in pictures.

    Keep warm. It is above zero today here. Wow! It's been awhile.

    Montana


    ReplyDelete
  29. I'm home for lunch and to make flyers for our Chinese feast. I have only 30 minutes before I leave.

    When my kids were teens (teeners?), BUM was used as a verb instead of cadge. Kids bummed rides, cigs, money, whatever.

    From Wiki: "Cockroaches are mainly nocturnal and will run away when exposed to light."

    ReplyDelete
  30. WBS (what Barry said in his first paragraph). Fun puzzle, Ed, although add me to the folks that never saw BREAKING BAD (thank goodness, some of the comments suggest). But I still got the whole thing which makes this a great Tuesday morning. And I loved seeing ARGYLE in the puzzle. Great expo as always, Argyle.

    ROACH and ORKIN were a great combination. Had hordes of roaches in campus housing when I was an undergraduate. I love animals, but these were not fun.

    Great movie: TO SIR WITH LOVE. Remember it fondly.

    Sad to hear about Shirley Temple. I feel as though my cultural world is slowly disappearing. But the movies and art will live forever.

    Sorry about the Bichon Frise, Irish Miss. Dusty and Misty Jr. want to know how the dachshunds fared at Westminster?

    Have a great Tuesday, everybody!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Loved the puzzle today. Fun, fresh, and really liked the rub-a-dub-dub.

    Thanks, Ed, and Argyle for your always good write-up.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Montana:
    If you've never seen a ROACH it must be too cold for them. They love the Arizona heat and keep pesticides in business. Fortunately the city of Scottsdale does a good job of clearing out the critters.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I enjoyed the puzzle (as almost always). Thanks Ed and Argyle. "Don't give a rip" sounds right but I've never heard "What a rip!". "What a ripoff" sounds OK too.

    Like Lucina, I've tried certain TV shows and movies but the theme turned me off so much I couldn't continue. That was true of Breaking Bad and the older movie, Goodfellas.

    Dense fog here today when I got up. It's all gone now.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Hahtoolah @ 1039 - Thanks for linking the USS Kidd; interesting history. We were privileged to visit the Kidd at Baton Rouge in 2000 for a reunion of my shipmates on the Beale, also a Fletcher Class. Even took BH down into the forward engine room which was Main Control. Very nice museum there. The link article mentions the Cassin Young, another Fletcher class destroyer, which serves as a museum ship and is moored near the Constitution in Boston.

    Our area is all agog upon learning that Erin Hamlin, a resident of Remson, a village 12 miles N of here has won the Bronze in Women's Luge at Sochi. First time American Olympics medal in Luge. BZ

    ReplyDelete
  35. Hands up for who knew the original Capt. Kidd was done dirty!

    A nice puzzle today, of solid Tuesday weight. Unlike Monday's I had to think in a few places. The ROACH in the middle was unexpected, but isn't that always the way with roaches?

    We got on the BREAKING BAD bandwagon after my son the critic recommended it. I enjoyed the series but can't say I understand its incredible popularity. "Dexter" was our favorite among the cable baddies. Outrageous yet true to its form. Some of those episodes could turn your brain around.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Good Tuesday puzzle today... no problems. Remembered "Cadge" i think, from the book "From Here to Eternity".

    We have had electrical power since Sunday , but the communication land lines (phone and Internet) were not restored until today.
    Ice buildup on lines resulted in multiple break points, sometimes whole lines of poles went down, that took days to fix. Noted many bucket trucks from out of state, and as far as Quebec working the problems.
    We had a 5 KW portable generator with some small elec. heaters that kept the house from freezing, and ran the fridge and freezer.
    This storm was worse than "Sandy" due to the cold and length of time the power was out.
    We lost three 30 year old, 40 ft Spruce trees from a grove on the back lot... no other damage except for a nasty chest cold from those cool nights..
    Warm Dogs were a helpas the snuggled in with us.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Misty @ 11:12 - Unfortunately, the Doxie fared as poorly as my Bichon; didn't land in the top 4. The Bloodhound won the best in group. Condolences to Dusty and Misty JR.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Musings 2
    -Desperation can drive people to extreme measures and that appears what seems to drive the plot of Breaking Bad where a chemistry teacher cooks and sells meth
    -Speaking of recent social issues, it’s amazing that Julian Fellowes had incorporated homosexuality, abortion, classism, politics, sexual attacks and racism into his fabulous screenwriting on Downton
    -BTW, I’ll give you 5 -1 Mr. Green doesn’t make it though the season.
    -50’s on the horizon! OMG, I want to see something green!
    -We’ve never had COCKROACHES here but they have been on the planet millions of years before us and will probably be here millions of years after.
    -22-year-old neighbor had her TONSILS out last year and I had to use our spare key to get into the house as she called to tell me she was bleeding profusely in the upstairs bathroom. The EMT’s had to come and get her.
    -I’ve still got mine and I’m taking ‘em to the grave. The dangers from a tonsillectomy seem to increase with age.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Sorry to see we have lost Shirley Temple.
    She handled stardom beautifully. Even in her youngest days, she was aware of the dangers of being an icon. She once said, "I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph."

    ReplyDelete
  40. Lucina, I just looked up information about roaches since I seem to be ignorant about them.

    Here is what I found:
    "Worldwide there are currently over 3,500 identified species of cockroaches. A total of 69 species occur in the US most of which (approximately two-thirds) have been introduced from other areas. The states totally lacking in native roaches include Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, while Florida has the largest number of native species at 27. Of course, all this adds up to the fact that roaches do best in warm, humid areas with an abundance of food and natural diversity."

    Guess that is why I've never seen one. And what YR said about them liking the dark--when I've visited areas where they might be--they hide.

    Montana

    ReplyDelete
  41. Surprised to read that some colleagues have never seen a roach! But now that I think of it, all the roaches I saw (and I've seen plenty!) were when I was living on the east coast-- in NYC, New Haven CT, Williamstown MA, and some down in Richmond VA. The largest of course were in Florida. Yikes, they could be big!
    I guess the research is true that they thrive in warm, humid climates. I don't remember seeing any, growing up in San Francisco. But then I don't see any around here (SoCal), and we certainly have warm, if not hot weather....

    ReplyDelete
  42. We've got Jack Roach Ford in Houston. Sounds to me like an unfortunate name for a dealership, but what do I know? I'll just crawl under my rock now. It's still light out.

    ReplyDelete
  43. desper:
    LOL about your hiding under a rock!

    I made the meatballs and spaghetti sauce from ATK over the weekend and had some for lunch today. It is uncommonly good!

    Montana:
    Your research confirms my suspicions that roaches prefer heat, not too humid here, though; I've seen some really large ones, at least 3-4 inches. Today the exterminator is out spraying so that keeps them off the property.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Hi Y'all! Enjoyed Ed's puzzle, although I didn't recognize the unifier as such so didn't really get the theme.

    Never saw BREAKING BAD. Didn't know Vince Gilligan. Wasted time trying to remember if the guy on the island had that first name.

    Don't watch CNN. Didn't know SOLEDAD. Conan didn't fit & wrong channel.

    I had never seen a ROACH until I moved to Texas as a young bride. We moved into a house that had a BIG infestation. I could hear them scurrying around at night. I would leap out of bed into my shoes, jerk the ceiling light chain and start stomping those big greasy things. My sleeping husband was rudely and unhappily awakened. Some genius had installed a masonite counter top which absorbed water around the sink. One night before going to bed, I used enamel to paint the counter. In the morning, I had at least a dozen ROACHes of assorted sizes trapped in the paint. I cried a lot in that house.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Boy do I feel dumb - I just posted the following to yesterday's (2/10) blog (everything that follows is for today (2/11)

    Anon Anon (ok, that's from yesterday)- I did the puzzle at 8a* and followed posts while I worked. Then we did do something... Dinner followed by Seshaa (sp?) and more. We are just now turning in at 2a.*

    The puzzle was fun, but I ended with a DNF at 58d perp'd with 64a; And at 62a/56d I put an "I" instead of an "A" so double-doh!

    I've never watched Breaking Bad, but NPR had the cast/writers on so often that I know the arc and filled 57a in early. I still can't recall the in-between parts of RUB-A-DUB and the butcher et.al. but it was almost a gimme.

    Ed - thanks for the fun; Argyle (a well deserved shout-out) nice writeup, and Anon Anon thanks for goading me to post (though, I probably shouldn't Sheesah(?) and post...)
    ---------------------------------------------------
    I'll catch-up with everyone after I catch up with sleep...

    Cheers from Cairo, -T
    *Time = GMT -2; or +8 CST

    ReplyDelete
  46. Oh, and when I lived in El Paso, we had some pretty sizable cucarachas.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Anonymous T,

    I show Cairo Egypt at +2 GMT, and Chicago (and Houston town) as -6 GMT (since no DST until Mar 9).

    We both agree that you are 8 hours ahead. It's that funny math (+2) + (-6) = + 8.

    (I hope I wrote that correctly so as to not draw the ire and wrath of the retired educators here !)


    Lucina, one of my new favorites is watching Kary Osmond on Best Recipes Ever. It's produced by CBC and shown on the Live Well Network. ATK is on every Saturday here. I love the info they pass on.

    ReplyDelete
  48. I had more difficulty with this one than is usual for a Tuesday. Perhaps my brain is tired from working all day but actually I think it was a regional disadvantage today. I don't watch CNN, we don't have ROACHes and don't have ORKIN. Never heard of PETCO.

    Like CED, I had REO instead of GEO and could not figure out how CADRE=FREELOAD!

    I did get the BREAKING BAD theme but didn't see the separations until reading ARGYLE's explanation.

    TONSILS today and UVULA yesterday.

    Children's rhymes and stories well represented today with RUBADUBDUB and BILLY GOAT'S (gruff) BLUFF.

    Canadian athletes doing very well at Olympics. We have 9 medals already. Spitzboov, I thought at first you were referring to Charles Hamelin, our Quebec skater. He has one gold and we expect more for him.

    ReplyDelete
  49. TTP - you are correct; it is +2. I guess I'm so used to -X from GMT that I typed the - sign.

    Speaking of off-sets, it's 9:30a, so back to work :-)

    Cheers, -T

    ReplyDelete

For custom-made birthday, anniversary or special occasion puzzles from C.C., please email crosswordc@gmail.com

Her book "Sip & Solve Easy Mini Crosswords" is available on Amazon.

Please click on Comments Section Abbrs for some blog-specific terms.

Please limit your posts to 5 per day and cap each post length at about 20 lines in Preview mode.

No politics, no religion and no personal attacks.