google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday, March 24, 2014 Marti DuGuay-Carpenter

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Mar 24, 2014

Monday, March 24, 2014 Marti DuGuay-Carpenter

Theme: Ithena - First part has an I, last part has an A.

20. Original Ice Follies slapstick skating duo : FRICK AND FRACK



28. Retaliatory equivalent : TIT FOR TAT

39. Happy heartbeat sound : PIT-A-PAT. How apt.

48. Knickknacky stuff : BRIC-A-BRAC

58. Small, irregular amounts : DRIBS AND DRABS. Origin

Argyle here with a Marti Monday. Neat how the sound of the target vowels match. Nothing forced with any of the entries and they're fun to say, too.

Across:

1. Injury reminder : SCAR

5. Pet adoption gp. : ASPCA. Some people bypass the The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and get their cats off the streets.

10. Environs : AREA

14. Nobel Peace Prize winner Wiesel : ELIE

15. U.S.-Canada defense letters : NORAD. (North American Aerospace Defense Command) More than just tracking Santa on Christmas.

16. Having a hard time deciding : TORN

17. Hard to find, to Caesar : RARA. Latin.

18. __ Gay: WWII bomber : ENOLA

19. Thom __ shoes : MCAN

23. "Just one darn minute!" : "SEE HERE!"

24. Amazed reactions : GASPS

27. Three in a deck : TREY

32. Found really groovy : DUG

34. Bud : PAL

35. Challenge : DARE

36. Part of WW II : WAR

42. Like veggies on a veggie platter : RAW

43. Expected landing hrs. : ETAs

45. Prohibition : BAN

46. Opposite of post- : PRE

51. Bible bk. with a sea crossing : EXOD.us

54. Trite : BANAL

55. Opie Taylor's caretaker : AUNT BEE

62. List-ending abbr. : ET AL.

64. 11th-century Spanish hero : EL CID

65. Give off : EMIT

66. Lo-cal : LITE

67. It divides the Left and Right Banks : SEINE. Ah, Paris!


68. Pal at the barbie : MATE. Are the shrimp ready?

69. Run into : MEET

70. More quirky : ODDER

71. Being, to Ovid : ESSE. More Latin.

Down:

1. Feudal farmers : SERFS

2. Red wine from Bordeaux : CLARET. More French, sorta.

3. Better ventilated : AIRIER

4. Got through to : REACHED

5. Lend __: listen : AN EAR

6. 14-line verse : SONNET

7. Cattle poker : PROD

8. Ranch newborn : CALF. 56D. 8-Down's milk source : UDDER

9. Purim month : ADAR. The sixth month of the Jewish calendar.

10. Use of one requires a PIN : ATM CARD

11. Groupie's idol : ROCK STAR

12. Significant period : ERA

13. Raggedy doll : ANN

21. Make excited : KEY UP. A rock star's appearence will key up the groupies.

22. Gone by : AGO

25. Prefix with legal : PARA

26. Ladled-out meal : STEW

29. Bucky Beaver's toothpaste brand : IPANA

30. Pub spigot : TAP

31. Envelope part : FLAP

33. Bee Gees family name : GIBB. Close to the theme. "Spicks and Specks" by the Bee Gees.



36. "Dragnet" star Jack : WEBB

37. Gillette razor brand : ATRA

38. Bad weather contingency : RAIN DATE

40. Paving goo : TAR

41. Sales manager's concern : TREND

44. Like the "A" in a Hawthorne classic : SCARLET

47. At the outer edges of the normal curve : EXTREME

49. "Sting like a bee" boxer : ALI

50. Bloodhound or boxer : CANINE

52. White House family : OBAMAs

53. Ledger entries : DEBITS. The red ones.

57. Cosmetician Lauder : ESTÈE

59. Spanish kiss : BESO

60. Iditarod transport : SLED. Dallas Seavey came from behind to win the 2014 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Story

61. Battery fluid : ACID

62. Good name for a tree-lined street : ELM

63. Dead heat : TIE


Argyle


70 comments:

  1. A crossword constructor named Marti
    Sets grids with clues that are hearty;
    Not too hard, not to easy,
    And themes that aren't cheesy.
    Once you solve them you feel like a smarty!

    Our friend Marti is hardly a tyro
    At climbing those tall hills in the Tyrol.
    An adrenalin surge'll
    Stimulate cruciverbal
    Plots, in waves that manifestly are tidal!

    A downhill ski slope, like a down-word, descends.
    Rock scrambling, like an across-word, extends.
    So here Marti belongs,
    Just like in the song:
    "I Get By With A Little 'Alp From My Friends!"

    ReplyDelete
  2. Morning, all!

    Fun Monday romp from our friend, Marti.

    Stumbled a bit in the NE with GAPES before GASPS, but that was was about it. Everything else was smooth sailing and the theme answers were cute. I didn't pick up on the consistent vowels, however, until I visited the blog.

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  3. How nice to come here and find a lovely puzzle by our friend Marti, an insightful explanation from Argyle, and a nifty poem by Owen. Meanwhile, over at the other daily crossword, my friend Tom Pepper has a puzzle too, check it out.

    As a technical point about Marti's puzzle, it's quite a challenge to have theme entries of length 13 letters in a standard 15x15 puzzle, because (among other issues) they preclude use of rows 3 and 13. Look how well Marti was able to fit in a total of five theme entries on every other row, between rows 4 and 12. That's quite a feat, and I take off my metaphorical hat to it.

    Finally, for those who haven't seen it yet, this riff is causing a bit of a stir in the crossworld. Read and laugh!

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  4. Thank you for the puzzle, Marti. Thank you for the review, Argyle.

    Easy puzzle. Just right for an early Monday morning. I was wondering if the theme had something to do with the first letter and the start of the last word, but it didn’t make much sense. Thanks for clarifying the theme, Argyle!

    SCAR or SCAB? I put in 3 letters and waited for a perp. I don’t know the Jewish months, but the perps got ADAR for me.

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  5. Another Monday from our prolific puzzler, how nice. I had completely forgotten about Frick and Frack.

    George thanks for the creative insight, but I am more confused than ever. I am glad there are so many o it there who keep pumping out these entertainments. Have a great week all.

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  6. If you really want to be confused, read pannonica's write-up.

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  7. Good morning from the planet Yokoono...

    Nice, dreck-free offering from Marti. I was COATing the RAIN before I DATEd it, but otherwise it was all zip and zap.

    34a "Bud" = PAL. I would have liked to have seen 68a "Bud at the barbie." I would have confidently, and erroneously, entered BEER.

    Now off to fire up the ATRA (actually, I prefer Sensor) and then brusha-brusha-brusha.

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  8. OK theme. The fill suck.


    http://www.crosswordfiend.com/blog/2014/03/23/monday-march-24-2014/#more-52365



    Other evidence of ballast fill compromise includes relatively familiar stuff that is nevertheless inelegant for a crossword ostensibly geared to newer solvers: BESO, Thom MCAN (crossing ANN, incidentally), RARA, ESSE, ELIE, EXOD., PARA-, PRE-, ATRA. and perhaps ESTÉE Lauder. Oh, and ADAR, which is definitely not Monday-level.

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  9. Ipana and adar are regulars here on the corner and can show up on any day of the week, according to the archives.

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  10. Oh no! I think I've suffered ablaut reduplication of my epenthesis. Now I'm probably going to have to undergo anaptyxis!

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  11. Good Morning Everybody! Super easy Monday puzzle today with no complaints from me.

    I liked the clue for 68A: Pal at the barbie: MATE.

    One of these puzzles I am going to remember that IPANA was Bucky Beaver's toothpaste brand!

    When I was a child my family would see the Ice Follies every year. I remember Frick and Frack well.

    Have a great week!

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  12. Good morning,

    Nice start to the week with my thanks to Marti. No issues, no nits, just a comment or two.

    Until today, never knew FRICK and FRACK began in the Ice Follies.

    Wanted Pitter Patter but it wouldn't fit so PITAPAT it was.

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  13. Fun Monday puzzle from Marti and good explanations from Argyle. No whiteouts.

    Argyle, I would have enjoyed the Dragnet theme on 26 down. Our high school band always played it when we lined up for the kickoff at football games. I haven't heard it in years.

    My NCAA brackets are all shot with the upsets.

    One week to opening day at Citi Field. Go METS

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  14. I guess this is what people call a "speed run".

    Thanks to OwenKL for yesterday's link to Gene Weingarten's column (and George Barany today). Gene and I were high school classmates (though we didn't know each other). He's not only a funny writer, he's a very good writer (as attested to by two Pulitzers). He won his second for his 2009 story about children who are accidentally left in cars. You won't soon forget it.

    [4:49]

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  15. Good day, MATES! Thanks, Argyle, for your theme title and excellent review.

    And thank you, Marti, for a fun filled puzzle which really caused me to sashay right through it. Nothing BANAL about this puzzle.

    FRICK AND FRACK are so familiar and yet I didn't know the origin and the Sunday Morning piece must have been aired while I was gone. Learning moment.

    desper-otto:
    You are certainly in good form today.

    George Barany:
    Thanks for the link to that amusing article.

    Have a terrific Monday, everyone!

    ReplyDelete
  16. What fun for a Monday, Marti! Did CLARET help you through the renovation? BTW, I do like this snack that somewhat fits the theme

    Musings
    -I thought FRICK AND FRACK were a vaudeville duo
    -My friend’s son who is running for the US Senate had to go TIT FOR TAT when rival starting throwing mud. He said the only thing worse would be to do nothing.
    -Since we have Aslan, Elsa and “Cowardly”, I’m surprised we haven’t seen this fictional feline for 1 across
    -The Smithsonian Channel’s Aerial America showed the ENOLA GAY and other B-29’s practiced dropping bombs in Utah before heading to Tinian Island. Ya gotta watch this series!
    -There were many GASPS last week with all the March Madness upsets. Mercer over Duke?
    -An unintended result of PROHIBITION
    -Spanish hero = CID, Dancer = CYD, Comedian = SID, Aust. Opera House City = SYD
    -I’m still amazed that I just put in a card, punch in a PIN and get cash money!
    -PARAS at our school have gotten hit hard by students they are trying to help
    -C’mon, you thought about ladling out SOUP first too, didn’t cha?
    -Very interesting comments, George. That Marti is pretty sharp!

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  17. Hi All ~~

    Thanks for a great Monday puzzle, Marti. It went quickly and was enjoyable throughout! I did have one write-over: Soup before STEW but it was correctly immediately with perps.

    ~ I liked the sound of the theme answers and the symmetry of AND being the connector in one and four and A connecting two and three, with RAW and WAR nicely bordering the center.

    ~ An almost-anagram with CLARET and SCARLET.

    ~ Great Marti poem, Owen!

    I enjoyed your write-up, Argyle ~ I hadn't noticed the I to A vowel progression. How did you come up with your title?

    Enjoy the day, everyone!

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  18. Fun puzzle Marti. A good Monday solve.

    Gene Weingarten's Sunday Essay was great. He manages to show the humor in things. He should do a piece on who Earthlings consider are the important people on this planet, like the Kardashians, Britanny Spears, Paris Hilton, etc.

    How many remember the Bucky Beaver Ipana toothpaste commercials? Ipana Commercial Link And who can remember where the yellow went in this early commercial?

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  19. Nice romp in the park today. Thanks Marti and Argyle. I loved how the theme answers rolled off the tongue! And I noticed that Marti got in her CLARET.

    OWENKL you outdid yourself today!

    I started out filling the Across clues but had more success filling the Downs first! I HAD SOUP before STEW and had to wait for perps for NORAD (hats off to good Canadian-US relationships).

    New Visa card can just be waved (No PIN required) for purchases under $50 but ATM card still requires PIN.

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  20. Good morning all!

    I finally decide to crawl out from under the blankets, and face this mid-January feeling day. Ugh! Has spring sprung, or did it just go kerflop?

    Instead of DRIBS AND DRABS, I originally wanted CLICK AND CLACK (The "Car Talk" hosts), but decided that might be too obscure for a Monday. Plus, it was too close to FRICK AND FRACk, which I really liked. Ah, decisions, decisions...

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  21. Fun puzzle!! I really enjoyed this one. Once I had titfortat and pitapat, I got the theme and went back and WAGed frickandfrack. The rest fell right in place. Really liked the write-up, too, and the comments. Always enjoy Owen's limericks, and envy his ability to compose these every day. Thanks to everyone for making this such a fun blog!!

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  22. Good Morning:

    Easy, breezy Monday offering from our Divine Miss M.
    Fun theme and a light-hearted start to a cold, non-Spring day! Thanks, Marti, and thanks, Argyle, for 'splainin it all.

    Is anyone else as shocked and disappointed as I am with the turn of events on last night's The Good Wife? I still can't believe what happened.

    Have a good day.

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  23. An old Limerick rewritten. Did you know that baby mice and rats can be called either kittens or puppies? Except one bred for snake food. they're called pinks.

    Five hardy kittens in a litter had Ms. Rat
    Plus runts Pat and Tat: against a Tat, PIT A PAT.
    Like musical chairs, they played musical teat
    When the music ended, 'twas Pat had a seat.
    Mom has only six spigots, so there's no TIT FOR TAT!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Fun, smooth offering today by Marti!

    Nice write-up, Argyle. Enjoyed the Frick and Frack link, because even though I've heard of them, didn't know who they were.

    Have a great week all!

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  25. Hello Puzzlers -

    Hand up for not knowing who Frick and Frack were. I think I posted a few years ago about a man named Frack meeting and marrying woman named Frick; both were in a water ski club near my Pittsburgh apartment in 1983. Frick is an established name there, dunno about Frack.

    Morning, Marti! We too lingered long before deciding to rise and face the Arctic once again. I've been doing demolition on the old roof, right out in the wind. It sucketh.

    Morning, Argyle! I haven't seen a post from Kazie in a while, so I'll offer to be a token Aussie today and mention that the little shellfish are called prawns in Oz. Of course,whatever the name, they are tasty.

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  26. Until I came here I was getting ready to tell you that I had a clean solve with no write overs but alas, I had DRIps and DRABS & PaTANDPAT. Bad me.

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  27. Owen, I forgot to tell you how much I enjoyed your poem today - way more clever than the puzzle, IMHO!!!

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  28. Marti - It was Click and Clack (1-888-227-8255, hello, yer on Caaa Taaak) in my head! Way before FRICK AND F?ACK.

    Morning all. I enjoyed the puzzle but it was a little much after deciding to take a day to rest the brain.

    George - thanks for the link. I've not seen that article, but glad I did (unlike the one about dead kids).

    Argyle - Thanks for the write up, but can you (or someone) explain TREY? I know it means three, but how does it tie into a deck (cards/boat/?).

    Cheers!

    -T

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  29. I just love a Marti speed-run on a Monday morning--gets the week off to a wonderful start! Many thanks! And great pic of the SEINE, Argyle--brings back happy memories of Paris trips.

    I got BESO for kiss because it came up on the last series of "The Bachelor" (I'm embarrassed to admit we watch it, but it is what it is). Juan Pablo, the bachelor, always asked for a BESITO. I'm guessing that's a "little kiss"? I used to call my little kiss for my husband a "Bussi"--what it was called when I was growing up in Austria. Now I've started calling it a BESITO.

    Have a great week, everybody!

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  30. Johnr,

    AL CYONE:

    Here is the DRAGNET THEME but I think you meant 36D.

    If you wonder why the bloggers leave out easy links like this, or the Bucky Beaver link, speaking solely for myself, I have three reasons:

    1. After five years I have used a link enough.

    2. The other items linked seem more interesting.

    3. Curiosity at whether someone else will link.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Lucinda and Irish Miss

    Regarding my post of yesterday, you're right, I should have checked my facts more carefully. I apologize for the error. Haven't done today's puzzle yet.

    Nancy

    ReplyDelete
  32. Oh, FRICK - it just dawned on me.

    TREY == deuce + 1, cards...

    C, -T

    ReplyDelete
  33. Whenever I hear IPANA, I think of the Girl from Ipanema, and vice versa.

    Reduplication, apophony, ablaut, epenthesis, anaptyxis? The first of those terms is the only one I (or my spellchecker) have ever heard before. I'd think they were made up just for that review if I hadn't looked them up. Yet pannonica passes them all off offhandedly.

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  34. OwenKL - I thought she was from Nantu... Oh, f*** it...

    Owen, while you are here (and I hope others (YR?) pipe in later) What do you think of this? My crack at you're craft.

    Full disclosure: I wrote a bunch (15+ distilled) of this DRIBble over the weekend, The conflation of you, Billy Collins, and a 3+ hour biography of George Harrison on HBO just kept it pouring out.

    "I've got Mail"
    My dear wife, mildly amused that
    she's my muse
    Found I'm suddenly interested in poetry and literature

    Her forte

    "You've Evolved," she said.
    no - "I've volved, nothing Electronic about it."

    ======
    Follow-up:
    She couldn't see, the Capital E as I spoke, so it fell flat.

    C, -T

    ReplyDelete
  35. Good morning everyone.

    Straightforward solve today. No nits, no strikethroughs. Hesitated with 43a; thought maybe DDay or some such, but WEBB pointed to ETAS.

    Other I THEN A:

    Rick-rack
    Zig-zag
    Click-ity clack
    chit-chat
    Tritsch Tratsch Polka ♪♫ ♫

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  36. A happy Monday morning education. I'd heard of FRICK AND FRACK before but had no idea why they were famous. Thank you, Marti!

    A nice romp today, with the paired alliteratives as our reward.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Irish Miss,

    I sure didn't expect last night's gut punch on Good Wife! I'm shocked, yes, but not disappointed. Didn't we have mixed feelings about him anyway? And just as we were beginning to warm up to him again--Bam!
    The writing is so good, I look forward to how they'll handle the aftermath.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Argyle: Thanks for the "tip-off" regarding pannonica's write-up over at the Fiend.
    Geez, it is just an easy, FUN, Monday puzzle. I guess she's not getting enough TAT ...

    Marti, hope you enjoyed your CLARET ... now how about some Pinch?

    Cheers!!!

    ReplyDelete
  39. I just got back from a small adventure at the supermarket. I got in a shortish line with my cart of maybe 25 items, avoiding the empty '15 items or fewer' express line. The asst. manager suggested I move into the express line. I did so while explaining to her that I didn't like to get dirty looks from other customers who might get upset with me for having too many items. Well, that didn't happen 'cause the checker started muttering about my having too much in my cart, and she didn't have a bagger and... So I thanked the asst. manager and headed back into the neighboring regular line. Ah, the excitement never stops...

    ReplyDelete
  40. Lemonade: Thanks for the link to the Dragnet theme. I still remember charging down the field on what was once called "the Suicide Squad" at the kickoff in high school football.

    Buckeye Bob: I saw that Aroldis Chapman was back at the Reds camp yesterday. Hopefully he recovers well enough to get back to The Great American Ball Park early in the season.

    Irish Miss: My wife and I were shocked at "The Good Wife" last night. Will was a good character even if he was a jerk sosmetimes.

    Again congrats to Marti and Argyle for a fun start to the week of crosswords.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Please, Johnr, please,
    go blue or change browsers. I can't keep getting you out of the spam locker.

    ReplyDelete


  42. A woman once begat

    triplets, named Tim, Tab and Tat,

    They were fun for breeding,

    but hell for feeding,

    Because there was no tit for Tat.

    -Edward Lear (?)


    ReplyDelete
  43. Hi everyone,

    Thank you Marti and Argyle.

    What Mari said regarding the puzzle.

    Have a great day!

    ReplyDelete
  44. Buckeye Bob @ 6:09, I forgot to give you my mnemonic for SCAR vs. SCAB. If the clue contains something like "reminder" or "remembrance" is it SCAR. If the clue contains anything to do with "sign of healing" it is SCAB. (Unless it's a picket line crosser, then all bets are off…)

    Spitzboov @ 1:13, thank you for linking the Tritsch Tratsch (Chit-Chat) polka - it is really popular at Viennese balls, and I tried to dance to it one time. Phew! I needed an oxygen tank after it was over!

    CED @ 3:06, Chinese water torture, indeed!!

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  45. Hi Y'all! Fun run, Marti! Didn't glom onto the theme but enjoyed it. Thanks, Argyle for all you do.

    I had never heard the term DRIBS AND DRABS, but it perped out.

    Enjoyed the "Dragnet Theme". I had sheet music of that when I was ten or 11 and played it over and over on the piano until asked to quit or suffer dire repercussions. Hey, she was always nagging me to practice and when I found something I liked....

    GeoB: too funny!

    After reading all night, I rose even later than some of you. I opened the shade and was shocked to find it snowing at 1:30 p.m. I would have gone back to bed, but my long-suffering cat in the garage insisted it was time for breakfast. Now most of the snow is melted.

    ReplyDelete
  46. OwenKL Admirer wouldn't haveMarch 24, 2014 at 4:33 PM

    unclefred - Owen did not write today's "limericks" this morning. He spent some time on them, and had them saved up, waiting for a day Marti had a puzzle published.

    You can tell because they are a bit more polished than the normal drivel he writes on a regular basis.

    It takes a big ego to usurp a daily CW blog with ones own "poetry," making sure he is the first to post, then checking throughout the day for comments to his "work."

    ReplyDelete
  47. Marti --

    Thanks for the tip. Now if I can just remember it!

    Johnr --

    We can hope!

    ReplyDelete
  48. OwenKL Admirer who wouldn't say...

    Piss off.

    We are here to play with words in our own way. Some days I do groan, at an Owen poem,

    but at least he tried.

    So what if they are recycled or edited - at least he did. Unlike me with my scribble in pages that will never see the light of day.

    Go ahead criticize that.

    Cheers, -T

    Owen - Keep it coming

    JohnR - It's not to late to go Blue.
    Afraid they'll (NORAD?) be watching you?
    Note to self, MIT kids did the math,
    a tin-foil hat works best inside out-etth*

    *look it up. They calculated the concentration of space-rays in and out of a parabola. Gotta love those kids.... PK - CC says you're cool. Stay un-blue. C, -T

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  49. Bill G. did you confuse this blog with your Facebook page again?

    ReplyDelete
  50. I had to look it up! (note electromagnetic hearing...)

    Public Service Announcement
    P.S. it is rumored that a tin foil hat will stop an Anon from getting to your Ego...

    My favorite (& easiest to make) tin foil hats were in the movie Signs!

    ReplyDelete
  51. Oh crap! I think I scared myself...

    Dang it Anonymous T, I was blissfully ignorant!

    ReplyDelete
  52. Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Marti, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for a fine review.

    OwenKL, keep up the good work, my Brother. Your poems are not drivel, IMHO. Outstanding, to say the least.

    Did this puzzle this morning on the train but had no time to check in until now.

    Enjoyed it. Theme was nifty.

    Liked EXOD for 51A.

    ODDER and UDDER crossing. Coincidence? I doubt it.

    ACID for battery fluid. Cannot tell you how many batteries I set in telephone offices, full of acid. The largest were 1500 pounds per cell. 2.17 volts each.

    Anyhow, I am off to another meeting. Still have to do yesterday's puzzle. I may take it with me. Yesterday I was taking my final Gardening test for 12 hours straight.

    See you tomorrow.

    Abejo

    (237 6493342)

    ReplyDelete
  53. Gene Weingarten's column reminded me of Jerry Seinfeld's take take on what aliens might think about life on earth.

    @HuskerGary I saw a segment on History Channel yesterday that mentioned applesauce popularity was also a result of prohibition. Apparently hard cider was very popular before prohibition, which forced producers to come up with an alternative product.

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  54. Oops, my typo should have been Take Tike or rather tike take.

    ReplyDelete
  55. Hello everybody. Fun puzzle, thank you, Marti. Knick knack, paddy whack, give a dog a bone...

    aka thelma, regarding the problem you described last night about not being able to insert a disk into your iMac: maybe there is already a disk in there, preventing the insertion of another one. Hunt around for the disk icon and trash it to eject the disk.

    Best wishes to you all.

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  56. -T: Argh! For that pun you should be drawn and quatrained! Amused at a muse was bad enough. Start letting start letters get a hold, and we'll be seeing "Eye-pod" as clue for a 4-letter word.
    PS -- liked your verse to johnr! And thanks for the defense.

    Gary, Spitz: liked your enlargements on today's theme.

    Dave: liked those first two fun links especially. The tin hats stuff was interesting.

    Admirer: I doubt that limerick was by Lear, since he wrote his for young children, but it's probably been around for just about as long. Thanks for sharing it.

    Anti-Admirer: The limericks for Marti were indeed written last night. I have to admit, they were done out of desperation, because I couldn't think of anything related to the theme. If I "cheated" at all (and why would writing something ahead be cheating?) it was that I was able to start working the puzzle at 8:30 last night, thanks to the hack I shared with you all a couple days ago. That left me extra time to read C.C.s interview with Marti, and her Blogger bio.
    I'm not sure if your comment on my ego was meant as an insult or a compliment, so I'll take it as the latter. After all, you must have a pretty big ego too, to crab about me right in front of my fan club here. ;-)

    Oh, Eye-pod? Stye.

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  57. So when is CED going to be a guest commentator?

    Make it so.

    ReplyDelete
  58. Thank you Marti for a nice start to the week. Never knew the origin of Frick and Frack til today.

    From yest. I was going to ask Nancy Murphy for tomorrow's lottery #'s... but rats! High hopes :(
    BTW Welcome, Everyone here loves a dog aficionado.

    AKA Thelma...My tech service tells me that's not the Cd drive. Its a
    Cup Holder

    ( He comes cheap )

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  59. Greetings!

    Swell offerring, Marti! Fine expo, Argyle! Thanks for explanation of theme.

    Hand up for soup before STEW!

    Irish Miss: I too as appalled! Went on the web and read all about Josh Charles' decision. There are comments galore, mostly by people who can't spell and use terrible English. (Query: why do people who comment not read the preceding entries to use correct spelling of names?)

    Back to taxes. Took a few days off due to aching intestines. Had a great swim today. Whoopee!

    Owen: Thanks for all of your efforts! Swell one today!

    Lemon: Thanks for Dragnet theme! A favorite.

    Cheers!

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  60. Jayce... thanx for your reply to my question.... I'm not sure what you mean about trashing the disc icon... ? :) :) I'm ready to trash the whole thing... :) but.... I don't think there is a disk in there for a couple reasons.... that part has rarely been used.... and also because the disc is accepted and ejects it right away....

    Called Apple and actually reached someone.... not much help.... take it to an Apple store... we will see......

    I am going to look for the disc icon now.. :)

    thelma

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  61. Thelma - I have a spare disc icon if you can't find yours.

    :-)


    Spitz 1:13 - enjoyed the Strauss link! Zubin Mehta always looks like he's having fun, sorta gives you the idea he's easy going. I'm waiting for Marti to score me some tickets to the New Years Day concert at the Musikverein...should be good.

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  62. Today's puzzle was fun....Hafpd SOUP before STEW, thought BEE would be BEA (for Beatrice) but I guess not. Didn't know the origin of FRICK AND FRACK, but I have heard it before. actually, that's what I call two look-alike tabby cats I feed. Needed perps for RARA.

    Disks and such.....I cannot find a way to get a Netflix DVD of "Quartet" out of a VCR built into the TV. Button on the TV broke and went inside, and there doesn't seem to be a button on the remote that ejects it. Guess I'll have to 'fess up to Netflix and pay the price.

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  63. Sorry for the typo on 'had.' Ipad typing can be a misery sometimes.

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  64. Manac... pretty funny.... :) :) at least that one is worth something... :)

    And Dudley..... I haven't had a chance to look for the icon yet... but...... :) if I can't find it I will be sure to let you know... :) :)

    Hope you all are having a great evening...

    thelma :)

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  65. desper-otto @7:36 am - hilarious.

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  66. Owen - Haven't commented in a while but some of today's posts got my blood boiling so I cannot keep quiet. Keep on keepin' on. I know and I think most on this blog will agree, that you have a special talent that we enjoy (and many are envious) to have such a talent. Funny how detractors choose to remain anon. You have some of the most insightful, humorous, and well I could go on and on with adjectives, but 'please don't stop' what you're doing!!

    Marti and Argyle - great job as usual (more talents the 2 of you have which is envied).

    George B. - Enjoyed the linked article. Thanks.

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  67. CED - I just gotta say thanks. The tin-foil-hat PSA made me blow Miller LITE out of my nose...

    Owen - I'm not a poet, but like pornography, I know it when I see it. And I've enjoyed yours since you started posting here a year or so ago.

    I tend to condense things in my head and after reading a book of poetry (Aimless Love), I thought I'd put pen to paper (and empty my head of random stuff). There is much more art to it; DW will help (she has a PhD in Lit) and kindly agreed to read the rest. I'll not post anything else until she approves :-)
    Keep your poems coming - just don't cheat by thinking of one before you think about one. Just one more think (Oh, wait that's Columbo, not WEBB's Friday). was the amused muse just too cute by 1/2?

    Mary K. Netflix will likely never notice the missing disk. Call them and say it is ruined and ask if they still want it back. The disks cost pennies to make (these are licensed differently than what we get at Best Buy or Wal-Mart, so don't think they're losing $15 on the movie).

    Manac - cup holder! I haven't heard that in years, thanks for the smile.

    BTW Marti, my fav today was NORAD. My uncle worked there 30ish years ago and War Games made it epic (and started me on a career of hacking). I especially liked NORAD sitting over ENOLA - both had one mission.

    Cheers, -T

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  68. Owen,
    What a great poem! You captured Marti brilliantly.

    Kjinkc,
    It saddens me that those anon detractors are perfectly fine in their Blue avatar name.

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  69. 43A: Except in the military, ETAS are calculated not to the expected landing time, but to the arrival time at the gate.

    10D: What is an ATM CARD? Does anyone actually issue those? I've always used a credit card.

    59D: We shouldn't have to be bi-lingual in order to work simple Monday or Tuesday crosswords. Otherwise, why not use the Russian or Greek or Japanese word?

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