17A. How poets write? : IN VERSES. This one gave me pause until I remembered "function inverses" in algebra.
21A. How moonshine is made? : IN STILLS. "Pinch" would be a better clue for this blog, eh Tinbeni?
33A. How parts of a whole can be written? : IN FRACTIONS. Math day today.
44A. How a priest preaches? : IN VESTMENTS. Fire, brimstone and what-not.
57A. How kangaroos travel? : IN BOUNDS. Timely March Madness basketball reference.
62A. How some paper is packaged? : IN QUIRES. My favorite, I like to see these old measurements or quantities being kept alive. If our priest above addresses 24 sheets of paper, is he preaching to the quire?
Welcome to Wednesday everyone. Steve here with what looks to be the first collaboration between Doug and Patti and a fun one at that. Six theme entries and no reveal - it's up to us solvers to figure it out. We're only a Z short of a pangram too. Let's see what else we've got.
Across:
1. "That's enough from you!" : SHH
4. City whose tower's construction began in 1173 : PISA. It began tilting during the first phase of construction. Wouldn't you fix it before things got out of hand?
8. Pops out of the cockpit : EJECTS. "Pops" sounds very gentle for a maneuver in which the rocket-propelled seat subjects the occupant to between 14 and 22 gs of force and compression fractures of the vertebrae are not uncommon.
14. Seoul-based automaker : KIA
15. Bulky boats : ARKS. The British Navy's aircraft carrier Ark Royal certainly fits the "bulky" adjective.
16. Hit one's limit, in slang : MAX OUT
19. Like a classic French soup : ONIONY
20. Tree of Knowledge locale : EDEN
23. Quick summary : RUNDOWN
26. Learned : WISE
27. Actress Thurman : UMA. Shown below in "Pulp Fiction" - one of my favorite movies.
28. Bath bathroom : LOO. Understanding that "Bath" refers to the spa city in the west of England is the key to this clue/answer combo.
29. Go to the bottom : SINK
38. Middling grade : CEE
39. "Doctor Who" actress Gillan : KAREN. Crosses all the way for me here. The good Doctor has been waging war against various space aliens since 1963. I used to hide behind the sofa when the Daleks appeared.
 |
| Exterminate! Exterminate! |
41. Strong glue : EPOXY
43. Lyrical preposition : ERE
47. Electrically flexible : AC/DC. A device that can run on either alternating or direct current.
49. Lyrical preposition : O'ER
50. Feel crummy : AIL
51. World power until 1991: Abbr. : U.S.S.R.
53. Spirits brand with a Peppar variety : ABSOLUT. It's spicy in the chili pepper fashion.
60. Former Cubs slugger : SOSA. Sammy's appearance is appropriate for this week of Opening Days, except that the Dodgers and D-backs had Opening Day in Sydney, Australia last week for no good reason that I can tell.
61. Meadow lows : MOOING. Low is to moo as bleat is to baa. I think.
65. Land on two continents : RUSSIA. Europe and Asia. And a member of the 51A union.
66. Squeaker in Stuttgart : MAUS. The world's most famous rodent is spelt without an "E" in Germany.
67. Big fan : NUT
68. 1987 Beatty flop : ISHTAR. It was a box office flop, but maybe not an outright bomb. Even with estimated losses of $48m, it doesn't crack the top 50 world's worst, which is some consolation for Warren.
69. Freelancer's detail : SPEC
70. Big primate : APE
Down:
1. One going downhill fast : SKIER. "To turn is to admit defeat" - the downhiller's mantra.
2. __ Kush mountains : HINDU. The range dividing Afghanistan from Pakistan.
3. Port in a storm, so to speak : HAVEN
4. Score to shoot for : PAR. A pipe-dream for most golfers for an entire round of 18 holes.
5. Taxing initials : I.R.S. It's that month again.
6. Knitter's coil : SKEIN. Another great word. Some nice stuff today.
7. Part of LPGA: Abbr. : ASSN. The association for lady professional golfers. They don't pipe-dream about par.
8. What the cold-blooded don't feel : EMOTION
9. She performed between Creedence and Sly at Woodstock : JANIS. This song was part of her encore after the main set.
10. Sends away : EXILES
11. Aloof : COOL
12. Napa vessels : TUNS
13. Piggery : STY
18. Last : ENDURE
22. Needs a fainting couch : SWOONS
24. Saudi neighbor : OMANI
25. WWII female : W.A.C. The Women's Army Corps.
28. Hard-hit ball : LINER. Sammy Sosa hammered quite a number of these in his time.
30. Clickable image : ICON
31. Coming up : NEXT
32. Florida __ : KEYS
33. Blue-and-yellow megastore : IKEA
34. Stash finder : NARC. Narcotics.
35. Willard of "Best in Show" : FRED
36. Brewpub : TAVERN. Hmmm. To me, a brewpub is a pub that brews its own beer (like the Gordon Biersch chain). A tavern is a place that serves drink, whether it's made there or not. A minor distinction.
37. Pre-final rounds : SEMIS
42. Speaker between Hastert and Boehner : PELOSI. Nancy is the only woman to have served as Speaker of the House.
45. Coffee order : NO SUGAR. No milk in mine either.
46. Pickup at a 36-Down : TAB. Oh. I was thinking of something else.
48. Picasso, for one : CUBIST
52. Justice Sotomayor : SONIA. Another notable high-ranking female.
53. "Easy-peasy!" : A SNAP
54. Fictional Doone : LORNA. The novel was published in 1869, I guess it's about time I got around to reading it.
55. Go through entirely : USE UP
56. Small bite : TASTE
57. Short notes? : IOUs
58. Small bite : NOSH. Clecho with 56D.
59. Lowers, as lights : DIMS
61. X-ray kin : MRI, or Magnetic Resonance Imaging if we're going to be formal about it.
63. Ont. neighbor : QUE. CanadianEh could probably draw this map with his eyes closed. I needed the atlas though.
64. L.A. campus : U.S.C.
That's about it from me, or as they might say in Toledo - "Es una envoltura".
Steve
67 comments:
INVERSES can teach what to value, what not,
INSTILLS lessons that will not be forgot.
But if by that token
Trusts are then broken,
INFRACTIONS will tie conscience up in a knot!
INVESTMENTS bring profits to brokers and buyers.
INBOUNDS are the shuttles to Wall Street's hot wires.
But when things go wrong
The impoverished throng
INQUIRES if the brokers, 'stead of trains, have took fliers!
Morning, all!
Loved the theme today. I got it right off the bat with INVERSES and had fun figuring out the rest as they came along. INQUIRES was a bit on the obscure side, but fortunately I was familiar with the paper measurement and that gave an extra little frisson of delight.
Hello Puzzlers -
I loved the theme too. Zipped right through, except for being iffy about Quires, a word I only sorta recall.
Morning, Steve, I'm with you when it comes to Canada's eastern provinces. My mind's-eye image of Quebec is especially faulty. I'm a little better with NB and the Maritimes.
Good Morning, Steve and friends. I was IN STEP with today's puzzle. Exactly WBS!
QOD: Rule of art: Can’t kills creativity! ~ Camille Paglia (Apr. 2, 1947)
My brain could not recall QUIRES but by then the game was up. This was a very fun puzzle. My favorite was the kangaroos. Karen Gilman was all perps.
I wonder how much longer people will be able to name the band's that played at Woodstock.
Any good April Fool pranks? The guy who faked a proposal is not doing well.
Steve, preaching to the quire? *GROAN*!
A fairly easy run with an easily sussed theme, except for the mid-W. Infraction was all I could get there until my brain started melting and running out my ears. I had NOSE for stash finder, couldn't remember Gillan's given despite being a Doctor Who and Amy Pond fan (love that long red hair!), and the rest were unknown or too murky in my mind.
Surprised by the confluence of USSR, ABSOLUT, and RUSSIA. Even SOSA was clued as Cuban, a client country of the USSR. Though there may have been more confluence between SOSA the Cuban and Picasso the CUBIST. Or between Cuban Sammy SOSA and Puerto Rican SONIA Sotomayor.
MAUS I know from this classic, ground-breaking as the first serious graphic novel.
Greeting!
Really late getting to bed. Thought I would congratulate Patti, Doug and Steve on fine work.
Loved the theme and quires (Sp?) came easily. No cheats, but took a while.
I will explain why later. Can't seem to get a single word typed correctly the first or second time!
Cheers!
Good morning!
Got the theme right off -- totally unlike me to do so. Only write-over today was SONYA/SONIA.
I take my coffee black, but didn't start drinking coffee until well into my thirties. I got assigned coffee-making duties once while in the navy. Just once. I didn't mean to, but I drew the water from a saltwater tap aboard ship.
Steve, I always thought the Daleks (pronounced the way a Bostonian would pronounce "Darlecks") were stupid. They looked like giant salt shakers rolling around screaming, "Exterminate! Exterminate!" Since they were on wheels they should have been pretty easy to outwit. It was the weeping stone angels that freaked me out.
Only four taxing days remain. I'm closing in on my 100th return. Pretty sure I'll make it. Today I have to phone back to the Texas Dept of Insurance. One of our volunteers fat-fingered their employer ID number on a W-2, and the IRS bounced the return. I called TDI yesterday, and the woman I talked with refused to tell me their ID. I hope to have better luck today.
Hi everyone!
Steve, I cracked up at your "preaching to the quire" comment - you are in rare form today. I also wondered what a pickup at a bar might be…
Easy Wednesday, and wonderful to see these two powerhouses collaborate. 6 theme entries again, with four overlapping, nary a piece of junk fill to be found, with only a Z missing for a pangram?! Wowza!
I knew MAUS from the German opera "Der Fledermaus" (literally, "The Bat.") I think in German it might translate as a "flying mouse." But fly is fliegend, so I am not sure of the exact translation?
Hands up for Karen being all perps. But at least I remembered SOSA with only the S---. Does that make me a baseball guru? (NOT!!)
Steve, funny that "Pulp Fiction" was referenced today... one of my favs as well. I was just thinking about the movie before I got to the puzzle. Don't have the link handy, but Google "Pulp Fiction with Bunnies" - a parody cartoon summarizing the plot with rabbits playing the main characters - hilarious!
Good Morning to all,
The WACs were also in the Korean War.....oh, wonder if they are calling it a war now? For a while it was the Korean Conflict.
The GIs hated to see Wacs come into their realm, 'cause it meant they were going to Korea!
Spoken as a former WAC during the 50s.
This was a very easy Wednesday puzzle. It was obvious that it would be an IN day from the start but I was sensing basketball after INBOUNDS and INFRACTIONS. The only unknowns that will soon be forgotten were KAREN and FRED which were taken care of by perps. There were way too many abbreviations in this puzzle. SHH ASSN ERE OER QUE WAC USC MRI IOU USSR ACDC IRS SEMIS. PAR was very elusive yesterday after have five three-putt bogeys and one snowman (8).
Musings
-A fun theme on a gray humpday on the Great Plains, Doug and Patti
-One of my friend’s voice level is always INVERSELY proportional to the strength of his argument
-I’ve heard kangaroos traveling IN BOUNDS can be a nuisance down under. Kazie?
-Was he IN BOUNDS? Only the replay can tell us for sure.
-How stupid would it be to raise the PISA tower to perpendicular?
-The Smithsonian Channel aired the fascinating Titanic’s Final Mystery (1:32:01) last week. That bulky boat did SINK because it could not be turned with only 30 seconds warning.
-As you can see on this more representative skewed “bell curve”, a CEE ain’t middling any more
-Is the U.S.S.R. trying to get the band back together?
-“The cattle are LOWING, the poor baby wakes”. Duh, that LOWING!
-Are moviemakers so close to the cinematic trees they can’t see the forest bomb they are creating?
-Hey, CIA, he’s not in the HINDU Kush, he’s in a HAVEN in Abbottabad
-A good golfing partner almost SWOONED on the tenth fairway last week. Scared me to death
-I wonder if SI regrets this 1998 cover after the drug scandal came to light?
-Who in today’s puzzle was huggin’ and a’kissin’ with Seven Little Girls Sitting In The Back Seat?
Hi All ~~
I really enjoyed this puzzle with a clever theme ~ thanks, Doug and Patti.
Thanks, Steve, for a wonderful write-up. I always know I'll have a few chuckles and smiles when I read your comments ~ I, too, loved "preaching to the quire!" :-)
~ My only write-over was 'Near' before NEXT ~ EPOXY took care of that. Perps were needed for KAREN Gillan.
~ I started a new SKEIN of yarn yesterday for the afghan I'm crocheting.
~ Favorites: 61A - Meadow lows / MOOING and 8D - What the cold-blooded don't feel / EMOTION. I was thinking of temperature, etc.
No snow today! :-)
This was an easy, clever puzzle with a quickly discernable theme.
KAREN was all perps, which were handily available. QUIRE was a gimmie.
I wasn't into Dr. Who, but in Splynter's picture of the Daleks they do look like salt shakers.
Pulp Fiction won much acclaim, but it was one of my all-time least enjoyable movies. Watching it with a friend I developed a "headache," real and figurative, and went home after the first 45 minutes. For me its non linear storyline was so confusing and irrelevant it made all the violence seem gratuitous.
Brew pubs are pubs or pub/restaurants that brew their beer on the premises.
Fledermaus is literally flutter mouse. Fleder is derived from "flattern", which means "flutter".
In Old English it was flitter mouse. According to the entomological dictionary the word BAT originates from bakke and similar early European words which mean flapper.
I read a fanciful article which said BAT originates from a word for bacon, because bats hang upside down in caves, resembling hams hung up to cure. I doubt it.
Oops~!
Not Splynter, YR - Steve~! This is becoming a concern....
Splynter
Fun, puzzle today by Patti & Doug... and loved Steve's write-up!
Favorite clue was Electrically Flexible, which befuddled my electrician husband on the first pass!
Good morning everyone.
Not quite A SNAP but close. Theme fill was all easily gettable Had a brain fart over ABSOLUT, but once I got TAB right it all worked out. Had 'empathy' before EMOTION. Favorite clue was for LOO in Bath.
HAVEN also means port or harbor in Low German; ie Bremerhaven, Cuxhaven. German is 'Hafen'.
NOSH - As kids, 'naschen' was forbidden before a main meal.
Maus - pronounced exactly the same as 'mouse'. pl. Mäuse.
Have a good day
Yellowrocks beat me to the Fledermaus clarification, but she did it so well and saved me double-checking it! Thanks!
Delayed jetlag is setting in today, so I'll be brief. No problems at all, and the theme jumped out at me early on. I enjoyed some of the rarities like QUIRE too, and loved especially MOOING for meadow lows.
Back to bed for a nap before yoga. Sounds like Fermatprime was sleep deprived again when she wrote last night too. I hope it's better for her today.
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Doug and Patti, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for the fine review, as always.
Walked out and got my newspaper since the IPad still does not work for the crossword. But, that's OK when I am home. I enjoy the paper version.
This puzzle was easier than I expected. Theme became apparent as the puzzle progressed.
Never saw ISHTAR. OK, I do not see most movies.
Liked ERE and OER.
CUBIST was easy. I took and art class once and learned these sorts of things. I did need a couple letters to get me to the answer.
SONIA was my only inkblot. I had SANYA first.
There are not too many, if any, items that work on AC or DC. It should be one or the other.
KAREN was with perps.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
(53922569 4567)
Sorry, Steve and Splynter. Please forgive my senior moments. I can walk down the street with a dear friend and panic when I need to introduce her. All I can think of at that moment is, "What's her face."
We had four girls in our family. My mother used to call us by each other's names. She would realize she was wrong and call another name. Sometimes she went through three or four. She would laugh at herself and call it "roll call." This was when she was young and "with it."
Thanks, Steve, for the expo.
I think this is the fastest Wednesday solve I have ever done. I read clues both directions as I went and the puzzle was done in record time (for a Wed.)
Bomb threat at our school today. I live across the street from the school. I see some of the country kids driving in to empty parking lots looking puzzled, but happily leaving after checking in with the parked law enforcement car. Even though they are always 'hoaxes' in our small towns, administrators have to take them seriously.
It is finally warming up where I live. It is supposed to get out of the 30s today.
Montana
Hi gang -
I'm delighted by alternate word parsings, so I loved this theme.
Slow going in the NE and SW. Tried to stuff EURASIA into RUSSIA's place. Forgot JANIS's spelling.
KAREN Gillan looks like the kind of girl I would like to rescue from a cold corridor.
Gail Grabowski hit a double yesterday. Besides her LAT entry with Bruce Venzke, the Freep also had her Newsday Crossword "On the side" Edited by Stanley Newman. The four theme answers were side dishes, like BAKED BEANS, in a pinwheel array.
Tigers' opener.
More Opening day highlights.
Cool regards!
JzB
Good Morning:
A fun and breezy Wednesday offering from Doug and Patti and a witty expo from Steve. What more could we ask for?
I, too, had near before next and never heard of Karen Gillian.
Temps today near 60 but, so far, not an ounce of sunshine. Boo!
Have a good one!
Yellowrocks, Spitzboov, Kazie - thanks all for the expansion of the meaning of "Fledermaus." "Flutter" makes sense to me!
(YR - one time, I called Splynter by Steve's name. Oops! So on average, I guess it evened out?)
HG, I am nearly 45 min into the Titanic video. Watching it full screen on my hi-def screen is amazing. But, work calls and I have to put off the rest until later on...
HG, I am sure SI made millions on all the McGuire/Sosa hype that year and no one is asking them or the players to give back the money. Personally I am appalled at the hypocrisy in sports where using substances has always been part of the game. We don't want Barry Bonds or A-Rod in the Hall of Fame but we do not question all the amphetamines taken without a prescription in the 50's and 60's. How about the pot smokers and coke addicts? How many people would honestly not take a performance enhancing drug that was not even officially banned, knowing it could result in $40 to 50 million in additional income? If baseball and football had really wanted no drugs in their sports why did they wait so long? And the penalties, miss half a year but make twice as much money the next few years?
Any update from the mini-coven?
I was just reading about the explosion in music festivals across the nation. Do any of the corner attend? My son was a loyal Bonnaroo audience member, and I have seen Coachella on TV, but it seems there are at least 26 must sees this year.
I enjoyed this Tuesday puzzle very much. Clever theme. Thanks Doug, Patti and Steve.
I vote with YR. Pulp Fiction was well-respected but I didn't like it. I even knew the writer/director. Tarantino used to work at a local video store and would offer advice on what to rent. The problem for me with PF was that there weren't any good guys. I couldn't find any rooting interest; they all were scumbags.
Doug and Patti, your clever, fun speed run totally made my morning! Many, many thanks! And Steve, like others, I loved your expo with its shout-out to Tinbeni and its QUIRES.
There were so many things to love about this puzzle. Owen already covered the USSR/RUSSIA and beyond allusions. I was particularly gratified to see both SONIA and PELOSI--go women! And, given all the hype about the movie NOAH, I enjoyed the clue for ARKS.
Anyway, this all got my Wednesday off to a great start. Have to take Misty Jr. to the vet to get her anemia checked. Have a great day, everybody!
Hello, friends! Super blogging, Steve, and hand up for chuckling at your singing to the QUIRE remark!
That word is familiar to me because I keep a list of all possible Q words for Scrabble. It's a fairly short list.
This was A SNAP, thank you, Doug and Patti and fun as well.
Like others I glommed on to the theme and enjoyed it all the way. One erasure was TURKEY before RUSSIA as it straddles both continents, too.
KAREN, ISHTAR and MAUS were all perped though had MOUS first.
Fun! Fun! Fun! For some reason I like the word piggery.
Have a terrific Wednesday, everyone!
Lemon, it is sad what some people will do in order to get more money. Lie , cheat and steal!
Steve: Wonderful write-up & links.
Doug & Patti: Thank you for a FUN Wednesday puzzle.
Really enjoyed the "IN" themes. My fave, of course, was IN-STILLS (for the obvious reason!).
Moonshine and a Pinch 'shout-out' ... it doesn't get much better.
Throw in ABSOLUT, TAVERN and a (Bar) TAB ... this was close to being my "Favorite 2014 Puzzle."
Lemon: The "Visit St.Pete-Clearwater agency pulled off a great April Fools about the "Manaphin".
The "Half-Manatee, Half-Dolphin" spotted off our local beaches.
ABC News called it the "Best Business Hoax" of the day.
Personally, "after-a-few" at my local Brewpub ... I've seen them many times. They're cuter than Pink Elephants.
A "toast" to ALL at Sunset.
Cheers!!!
Hello everyone,
Bill G, I believe today is Wednesday and Tuesday was yesterday.
I too enjoyed today's puzzle, especially the "in theme". Only goof was starting with "In a Still" before realizing INSTILLS was the correct fill.
19A ONIONY was my only MEH.
The clue for IKEA held me up for a bit. Never knew their colors were blue/yellow.
that's it for today from the Nutmeg State.
Hola Everyone, I was on Doug and Patti's wavelength today. Even with a few unknowns, like Absolut, Karen Gillan and Fred Willard, I managed to complete everything with perps and guesses. A fun puzzle with a theme that was rather sophisticated.
My favorite today was Learned/Wise. I had to pronounce learned, learn ed then it was an easy fill. Quires I learned doing crosswords. Steve, I groaned at "Preaching to the Quire"
I had forgotten that Ikea's colors were yellow and blue. I've never shopped there, though I know they have some real bargains.
A great lunch yesterday with JD and Garlic Gal. JD kept us enthralled with her adventures in Costa Rica. We are anxious to see her pictures. As I'm typing this a message came up on my e-mail saying, "Pictures from Judy". How did she know?
Have a great day everyone. I'm off the blog to look at Judy's pictures.
Lemonade:
Both Coachella and Bonnaroo have SPOTIFY playlists up on their websites, in the event you might want to listen to either. I think Arcade Fire might be at both…. or at least that's what I remember hearing. And, they're pretty good.
My daughter is going to "Country Thunder" just outside Lake Geneva WI. this Summer. That's a pretty popular Festival here in the Midwest. Believe it or not, she and her HS friends bought the tix last Fall not even knowing the line-up!
My wife and I will probably go to at least one night of Lollapalooza here in Chicago. They just announced that line-up last week.
Yellowrocks, I have four daughters, also, and I've gone through all four names before I hit the right one. About the third one down, the daughter gives me her name and that really helps. LOL! This happened often when all four were here at home. I was young, but frazzled I think.
My classroom didn't escape this type of 'name calling' either. Can't say why.
We had a family in our church named Maus. Now I know the origin. Fun.
Thanks for the nice write-up, Steve. Patti & I cooked up this theme while discussing puzzles and clues (what else?) on GChat one day.
Hi all:
Even with still 1/2 laid up with a back, this was a nice drift through the morning. Thanks Doug & Patti. And to Spynter, er, Steve for the write-up. For the record, I liked the QUIRE pun (though that theme-C/A took me the longest to ponder - is it like a ream?)
MOOING also took a bit to SINK INto. No sir, I've never heard of it.
KAREN took a while - with so many Dr. Whos, who can keep up with all his cuties helping to saving the universe...
D-O & Abejo - Hand up for Y before I in SONIA.
Montana - is that avitar your pretty puppy?
OwneKL - Really, you can stone Steve on the pun? :-) Just kidding. I agree Amy Pond is cute, but sans red hair she looks like my eldest. Stay back before I go APE.
Also, DW studied MAUS in a graphics novels class on her way to a PhD (really, that's an option?) Great trilogy, but heavy. I too noticed all the cold-war goodies INtertwined.
YR - Re: mixing up names and mashups. The kids know who's giving the RUNDOWN when I yell Zofie through the house!
PISA out!*
Cheers, -T
*see Owen - I can do worse :-)
Husker: To answer your question ... FRED.
Seven Little Girls (Sitting in the Back Seat) 2:15
Note: There are only six little puppets in the back seat along with a very familiar looking "Fred".
Recorded at the Little Theater in New York City on January 16, 1960.
A fine pzl: good theme, tough but 100% doable, some sly misdirections, verging on sending me to Google but happily falling shy of that -- everything I like in a humpday Xwd.
Never noticed the colors at IKEA, but blue and yellow make sense for a Swedish company. Patriotic.
I reckon a "Brewpub" is either a place where beers are brewed OR brews are sold.
A QUIRE is a twentieth of a ream. I remembered the word but didn't know the quantity until checking.
Keith - thanks for the info on QUIRE. What's with the new avitar? New role? Are you sure you don't want the Anon -K? The new mask is ABOSOLUTly creepy... C, -T
Yes, indeed, what a great puzzle today. I, too, liked the theme.
HRx: I thought of the operetta, too. I think it is Die Fledermaus. Why is a fledermaus feminine?
YR: In Afrikaans (from old Dutch), they call a pickup truck a bakke. In Texas, they call it a flivver. Is there an etymological connection with flapper?
My mother also used to run through the complete list of kids names. I was the youngest, and she usually screamed "Dammit!" before she got to my name, but I knew she meant me.
Speaking of names, HeartRx, just who was the Victor you were referring to yesterday?
Karl, I've lived in Texas since '79 and I've never heard a pickup called a flivver. Are you sure?
Frustration: Having viewed half a season of 24 and learning that Netflix dropped the series on April 1. They coulda warned me!
Karl - Fledermaus is feminine because the root, Maus is feminine, die Maus. However, if we add the diminutive 'chen' to Fledermaus, 'Fledermäuschen', it becomes neuter and we get das Fledermäuschen. That would be a baby bat. Voilà .
Musings 2
-Anonymous T, you’ve never heard LOWING used in the Christmas song I referenced above?
-Marti, The Smithsonian Channel has taken over our TV. We just finished the Aerial America tour of North Carolina. My map shows Liz Lee and Chef Bea in that state but we have not heard from them for awhile. Our visit to NC took us to this fabulous estate!
-Lemon, I’m sure you’ve heard of the SI Cover Jinx. Many teams/individuals featured on its covers go on to a bad run of luck. This Omaha team sure had that happen in the NCAA’s this year!
-McGwire admitted his guilt and is back in baseball. SOSA has not and even claimed to not be able to speak English in testimony before congress. America forgave McGwire, Pete Rose, Ryan Braun, et al but will not forgive the unrepentant AROD, Bonds, et al. Admit it and move on Sammy!
-Yer right of course, Tin. Further worthless info: The song was originally written for Merv Griffin.
-In this farm country a pickup is often called a pick ‘em up from CB lingo.
-Uh, Keith, your new avatar may now be number 3 on this list!
I remember the use of the word "flivver" when I was growing up in North Carolina, but I thought it referred to a car.
Webster describes it as a small cheap usually old automobile.
oldsageinvirginia beach
Anonymous T, I hope your back eases up soon.
Karl, I think flivver and flapper have no connection except the time period, the first two decades of 1900’s, during and right after WWI. FLIVVER was being used from 1905 or 1910 through the 1920’s and Flapper was used in the 1920’s.
My mom used to use the word FLIVVER for the Model T Ford of her youth. It refers to a small cheap, usually old car, or often the Model T, which was nicknamed Tin Lizzie. The origin of both words is not known, although some guess at it.
Flappers were a "new breed" of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. Flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles, and otherwise flouting social and sexual norms.[1] Flappers had their origins in the liberal period of the Roaring Twenties,
I’ve seen BREW PUB defined in many places, but never just as a place where beer is brewed. There is the PUB part that is essential to it or it would be just a microbrewery. A BREWPUB is a bar serving beer brewed at a small microbrewery on the premises.
Hondo, shame on you for picking on an old retired guy who doesn't pay much attention to what day it is. :>)
I always worry about going to the doctor for a checkup; afraid of getting bad news I guess. I just got back from my physical. He couldn't find much to complain about. I was pleasantly surprised since I'm not doing anything major. I eat what I want but try not to overdo the bad stuff. That plus a short bike ride once a day seems to be working out OK.
I've never been a fan of serious April Fools pranks. Little ones, OK. Ones where everybody gets a little laugh are fun. But the big ones where somebody gets embarrassed always bother me. I remember a classic years ago where the BBC (I believe) broadcast a story about spaghetti growing on trees and their concern about a particularly poor spaghetti crop. Fun stuff...
I always associated flivver with that old Ford that was sort of a pick up truck looking thing. IMAGE.
Doug Peterson and your Bat signal are always welcome; keith I have that mask in my home. I think my youngest son got it during his musical theater period. It is reddish.
Bill G.
I remember that BBC "spaghetti crop" April Fools joke ... too funny!
That's why the "Manaphin" was sooooo funny yesterday.
It was posted at 6:00 am ... and by 7:00 am an Orlando Radio Station was broadcasting about the "true" story ... they didn't realize it was a hoax.
April Fools pranks should ONLY be funny and never hurt (or bully) someone.
Well I'm off to my Brewpub with the 50 Craft Beers on Tap.
OK, they don't "brew" on the premises ... but I call it a Brewpub nevertheless!
Cheers!!!
I think the Brewpub laws vary by state. In Nebraska you have to have brewing facilities on site for at least one retail location to use that title. But they do allow satellite branches, so you don't have to brew on site for all outlets. And they can all serve other brands without restriction. We were in one such brewpub in Kearney on Saturday night while on our crane safari. Had a blackberry Weiss and a honey Weiss. Tasty, but the blackberry was a little too syrupy....one was quite enough!
Great puzzle today. Favorite theme answer was inbounds. And laughed heartily at the preaching to the quire comment Steve.
Cross Eyed Dave
I saw this picture, and thought of you ( you'd have enjoyed it ...).
Link couple on motorbike
The first time in a while I got the theme early on. I didn't know QUIRE but since I knew it began with IN, process of elimination got it for me. Had ROSE before SOSA, but then it turned into Pete Rosa, and I didn't think that was right,
I remember the spaghetti crop, also Taco Bell buying the Liberty Bell as good April 1 fare. I agree with Bill, the jokes should be funny, not mean spirited.
Yellow rocks, you are in good company with scrambling kids' names. I have 5, and it happens frequently. My friend Sue has 9. She would even end up throwing the dogs name in once in a while!
Inverse
Instills
Infractions
Investments
Inbounds?
Inquires
AC/DC Motors (& how they work) Tutorial.
Anon @4:14 Thanks for the link! At first I thought it was their pet cat in the middle, but a search of the internet revealed they were not so terrible after all...
Does anybody remember the show Shindig? I certainly don't...
Anyway, IN celebration of today's theme, drift away with Dobie Gray and THE IN CROWD.
If Steve can make a gross pun
'Bout what a pastor to paper hath done
Then I shan't be a denier,
He can preach to the quire,
But I fear he'll be reamed for his fun!
Mary: Dog comment got a good laugh from me! I have prosopagnosia, so the stories I could tell about mixing up names...!
Karl, yes, you are right. It is “Der” Fledermaus. I always want to write it as “flIEdermaus” but have to correct myself. So this time I subliminally put the “IE” in the definite article! (No idea why it is feminine…German tenses make no sense to me!!)
d-otto, Victor/Venzke…Splynter/Steve…tomAYto/tomAHto
OwenKL @ 5:24, THANK YOU!! I now have a legitimate “disease” that I can blame my forgetfulness about names on: prosopagnosia!!!
Fledermaus {f} [zool.] bat
from German-English dictionary
Not quite EASY-PEASY today but almost. Fun puzzle.
I debated between MAN and QUE and was not really expecting a Q but QUIRE was a given.
WEES
Favorite April Fool story: A woman wrote her husband a note, put it on the dresser and hid under the bed. The note said, "I`ve taken it as long as I can. I`m leaving you. You`ll hear from my lawyer soon." When the husband came in...he read the note, wrote something on the bottom, put it back and opened his cell phone. "Darling! Good news", he said. "The old bat is actually leaving me! We won`t have to wait to be together much longer! Yeah! I`ll be right over! Love you!" Then he left the house and the wife heard the car drive off. She scooted out from under the bed and snatched up the note. On the bottom she read, "Your feet were sticking out...I`m gone to pick up take out for supper. Love only you so go wash your face and re-do your mascara and I`ll see you in about 30 minutes."
Put me down on the feminine side. Die Fledermaus muss richtig sein, nicht wahr?
Thanks to those who noticed my new avatar. My last head shot (the anonymous face) was just a place holder.
This is one I have been seeking. It's a demon mask from the Japanese Noh. I have a similar one on my office wall--a souvenir of an epic Japanese history play I did over thirty years ago. My real one is just a wooden cut out. I need to find a red one (an appropriate color!) such as Lemonade714 mentions.
Maybe This Guy?
Keith - I just clicked your link and next to the devil mask was a "Christian Singles" ad. Ha!
YR - my back will be better tomorrow otherwise DW says I have to see a Dr.
Bill G. Do you also remember the Ragu (I think) ad years ago where the family was harvesting spaghetti? Grandpa only put noodles in trees when he ran out of chair backs.
I think a funny April fool joke would be an NPR-esqe story on saving the new Loch Ness young hatchlings as pollution (or whatever) is destroying its natural habitat.
My favorite April Fool joke is RFC 3514 which defines the "evil" bit in an IP header.
CED - I guess I'm not such a bad parent!
Cheers, -T
OwenKL has left a new comment on your post "Wednesday, April 2nd 2014 Doug Peterson and Patti ...":
Just finished Thursday's puzzle on the Mensa site. The theme depends on circled letters, but the Mensa site does not have the circles. I finally figured out they are four words, each running diagonally, determined by the pattern of blocks. this should be enough info to give non-circle site puzzlers a even chance with the others of you, but without any spoilers.
Posted by OwenKL to L.A.Times Crossword Corner at April 3, 2014 at 12:49 AM
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