17A. Chinese noodle dish : CHICKEN CHOW MEIN. Food! Off to a great grid-spanning start, although it wouldn't span the grid in Mandarin with just these two characters: 炒面
 |
| Yum! |
47A. Greeter of new homeowners : WELCOME WAGON. New to me. I didn't know the next theme entry either, so very reliant on crosses down in this area.
57A. Will Schuester portrayer on "Glee" : MATTHEW MORRISON. I needed to be introduced to him today.
and the reveal tucked away in the middle of the grid:
38A. Whiskas alternative ... or, literally, what's hidden in 17-, 23-, 47- and 57-Across : MEOW MIX
Welcome to Wednesday everyone! Steve here with a fine anagram-themed puzzle from John Dunn. I love anagrams and so I threw in an extra one with my posting title. Extra credit for the solution to that!
This puzzle gave me fits for a Wednesday - it took me quite some time; in fact longer than last Saturday's Silkie. Finally I had to WAG the "U" for the UBOATS/UGARTE intersect - EGARTE would have looked equally correct to me. When we opened up with "Z" I was looking out for a pangram but in the end we're missing a Q.
Across:
1. Takes out in an arcade, as bad guys : ZAPS
5. Longtime AFL president Gompers : SAMUEL. I was surprised I'd not heard of him as I'm such a sports fan, but then I discovered that the clue refers to the American Federation of Labor, not the American Football League.
11. Rank above cpl. : SGT
14. Spread unit : ACRE
15. Really enjoys : IS INTO
16. Quattro meno uno : TRE. Spanish math class today!
20. Clothes line : HEM. Check the clecho at 43A
21. Antiquing agent : AGER. For faux antiques. The genuine agent is time.
22. "A Farewell to __" : ARMS
27. Lincoln Town Cars, e.g. : SEDANS. Almost always black, for some reason.
30. Highest point : ACME. Apex went in first, then came out just as quickly.
31. "Jeopardy!" name : ALEX. Mr. Trebek one of only two names in the puzzle today that I knew. I didn't know that he is part Canadian.
32. Hanging around : LOITERING. Doing this "with intent" used to be a crime in the UK. It's still not actually legal, but you now violate the wider "Criminal Attempts Act".
37. Org. for Hawks but not Eagles : NBA. The purist in me would have liked to have seen this clued this as "Org. for Hawks but not Falcons" as they're both Atlanta-based teams.
40. Pivotal : KEY
41. Commonly yellow blooms : DAFFODILS. I thought all daffodils were yellow, but I'm not a horticulturist. I thought the white/yellow varieties were narcissi.
43. Clothes line : SEAM
44. Not quite closed : AJAR
45. WWII fleet : U-BOATS. As I mentioned earlier, I could easily have put E in place of U.
52. Missouri River tribe : OTOE
53. "Dies __" : IRAE
54. Deluge refuge : ARK. Loved the clue.
62. Was tricked by a worm? : BIT. It took a few beats to see this one - from the perspective of a fish.
63. Pull into, as a motel : STOP AT
64. Late-night rival of Jimmy and Jimmy : DAVE. Letterman, to Fallon and Kimmel.
65. Pavement warning : SLO. If you drive on the pavement in the UK you'll get arrested - that's what Brits call the sidewalk.
66. "__ here": "Poltergeist" : THEY'RE. I've never seen it and never will - I can't watch horror movies, they scare the bejasus out of me. I snuck into "The Exorcist" when I was about 14 and I had to sleep with the light on for a month.
67. Expel with force : SPEW
Down:
1. "The Hangover" actor Galifianakis : ZACH. I'm terrible with actors' names. I saw the movie but didn't have a clue with this one.
2. Workout consequence : ACHE
3. Schoolmarmish : PRIM.
4. "Hold on a __!" : SEC
5. Extended attacks : SIEGES
6. Good __: fully restored : AS NEW
7. Start to manage? : MICRO. Micromanage. Another fun clue/answer.
8. The Wildcats of the America East Conf. : U.N.H.
9. 1940s mil. zone : E.T.O. The European Theater of Operations. I think it should be "theatre" being as it's Europe.
10. Cattle call : LOW. Hand up for MOO first.
11. Back at sea : STERN
12. Fairy tale brother : GRIMM
13. High-strung : TENSE
18. Lyricist Gus : KAHN. I had to look him up, he has quite a body of work including this gem.
19. Champion skier known as the "Herminator": MAIER. The other name that I knew. He is famous for getting up after this amazing crash during the Nagano Olympics downhill event and winning gold medals in giant slalom and Super-G a couple of days later.
23. Strain : TAX
24. Seriously injures : MAIMS
25. Overture follower : ACT I
26. "Breaking Bad" setting: Abbr. : N.MEX. I just stared watching season 1 - I'm a tad behind the times when it comes to popular TV culture.
27. Beach pailful : SAND
28. Where Napoleon was exiled : ELBA. He was able, ere he saw it.
29. Like The Who's Tommy : DEAF. Also mute and blind; he wasn't dealt a good hand. Did you know his last name was Walker?
 |
| Elton John exercising his usual understated restraint in "Tommy" |
33. Head-rotating bird : OWL
34. Source of much dorm furniture : IKEA
35. "Groovy!" : NEAT
36. Fitness centers : GYMS
38. Magic amulet : MOJO
39. Mild cheese : EDAM
42. Gem surface : FACET
43. George W., to George : SON
45. Lorre's "Casablanca" role : UGARTE. No idea, and came close to having me stumped as I mentioned before.
46. Certain Afrikaner : BOER. I thought all Afrikaners were Boers? This seems to suggest that there are Afrikaners who are not.
47. Areas for development : WOMBS
48. Cybercommerce : ETAIL. It took me a while to shake E-TRADE out of my head.
49. Numbers game : LOTTO
50. Not macho at all : WIMPY. It's a fast food chain in the UK and pre-McDonald's invasion it was pretty much the only place to get a burger. Take my word for it - they were not good.
51. Like a loud crowd : AROAR
54. "By yesterday!" letters : ASAP. Tempted by STAT, resisted.
55. Gad about : ROVE. I'd like to see Karl do this, so I could say I saw Rove rove.
56. Had down cold : KNEW
58. FDR successor : HST. Hunter S. Thompson? Wait, no, Harry S. Truman
59. Biblical verb suffix : -ETH
60. Misfortune : WOE
61. They may be checked at the door : ID'S. This was my first US driver's license before the stress of living in California turned my hair gray.
... and with that I'm done, or as the ruler said to the knuckles - it's a rap!
There once was a kitten who somehow
ReplyDeleteJust couldn't learn how to MEOW.
It was all she could do
Just to manage, "O, MEW."
But she fluently barked out, "Bow-wow!"
One day, in the depths of December,
With the sun like a dying, lOW EMber,
A noisy snow plough
Brought a startled "MEOW!"
As it started the snOW MEn to dismember!
btw, i'M OWEn!
Not a Beach Boys fan but Pet Sounds sounds familiar.
ReplyDeleteYou look so British in your pic Steve, it must be why this puzzle which seemed easy to me was not for you. U boats is very common fill.
I really enjoy how phrases or products like Meow Mix inspire a puzzle.
Happy hump day and thanks Steve and Mr. Dunn
Grrr. A technical DNF. I spent five minutes looking for my "typo" to no avail. I figured it was somewhere in the UGARTE (who?) area but when I finally gave up and turned on the red letters it turned out I had CAPS instead of ZAPS and never noticed that CACH didn't look quite right. Still, a clever theme and no complaints (though it helped that MATTHEW MORRISON (who?) has such a common name).
ReplyDeleteMorning, all!
ReplyDeleteNot really my cuppa tea today, I'm afraid. Just way too many pop culture references and names I didn't know (SAMUEL, THE WOMAN IN ME, MATTHEW MORRISON, KAHN, MAIER, NMEX, UGARTE, etc.) I managed to get everything filled in thanks to liberal perp help, but I just found the process a bit annoying.
Ah well...
Hello Puzzlers -
ReplyDeleteEven though we've had themes like today's in prior puzzles, this one just seemed cleverer somehow. Nicely done, Dunn (John)! Quite a few unknowns but perp strength was running high.
Morning, Steve, enjoyed that Herminator link.
Thank you for the puzzle, John Dunn. Thank you for the illuminating review, Steve.
ReplyDeleteI agree there were a lot of pop culture references here that I did not know, and I also got them with liberal help from the perps. But it did not annoy me. I enjoy the solving process, and using perps to solve a clue is challenging and fun to me. Sometimes they give me enough help to dredge up something I know from a dark recess of my mind (UGARTE). Sometimes they give me enough that a logical answer appears (MATTHEW MORRISON). Then sometimes I need every perp. But they are all potential learning moments. Just my opinion.
I did not “get” 62A. Was tricked by a worm? : BIT until I read Steve’s review. Thanks, Steve!
Steve, I believe 16A is Italian. It is similar, but I believe Spanish would be quatro menos uno = tres.
Good Morning, Steve and friends. I actually found this puzzle easier than others who have commented.
ReplyDeleteGlee is a guilty pleasure, so I knew MATTHEW MORRISON. Seeing MORRIS is his name briefly made me think that Cat Name was the unifier instead of MEOW MIX.
My cat is on a prescription dry food, so can no longer eat MEOW MIX.
SAMUEL Gompers (1850 ~ 1924) was in the back recesses of my mind. I knew that he had led the American Federation of Labor in its early years.
I had E-Mall before E-TAIL.
I earned my graduate degree at UNH.
The little girl in Polgergeist, Heather O'Rourke tragically died very young.
Although he calls himself DAVE, I think of the show as being with David Letterman, whereas the rivals go by Jimmy instead of James.
QOD: Measure your mind’s height by the shade it casts. ~ Robert Browning (May 7, 1812 ~ Dec. 12, 1889)
Good morning, folks. Thank you, John Dunn, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for a fine review.
ReplyDeleteGot started easily in the NW and it went smoothly all the way through. As Hahtoolah said, this seemed easier that usual for a Wednesday.
Got the first theme answer right off the bat with a few letters to get me started. Even though I do not eat CHICKEN CHOW MEIN.
Lots of tough answers, but lots of easy ones as well.
I remember the WELCOME WAGON. Wonder if they are still around?
Did not know MATTHEW MORRISON, but had HARRISON first, then GARRISON, then tried MORRISON. WIMPY and AROAR made that a solid answer.
Liked SPEW. Good answer. Tricked me a first.
IRAE, crosswordese. As is AJAR.
Tried to squeeze in Dandelions for 41A. DAFFODILS won that battle.
Lots to do.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
(ntairyspe bureaus)
(deut bylitim)
Good moring all,
ReplyDeleteWell, it wasn't a DNF, but it was with error. I wagged an E for square 45. I wasn't going to be stumped by Eboats again and who ever had a name like UGARTE? Well, creepy Peter Lorre did! Go figure.
I did not find the puzzle annoying at all. An enjoyable, but doable challenge. (with one incorrect wag)
Laughed at 47D Areas for development/WOMBS. Questioned 66A THEYRE. Doesn't seem right without the apostrophe.
Happy hump day. Initial lawn mowing today. Go John Deere! It's closing in on twenty years old.
Thank you John Dunn. Very enjoyable puzzle. As I solve, I keep an eye on letter sequences in crossing words. Having filled CHICKEN CHOW MEIN, ARMS, THE WOMAN IN ME, and ACME, I immediately looked at the 19D clue because I had MAIE and was thinking I must have an incorrect answer. Nope. Phil MAIER. Whew.
ReplyDeleteI noticed in those first two fills that we had the same last 4 letters. The theme would be something about "mine." Nope.
My last fill was the B intersecting WOMBS and BIT. Clever cluing. Of course, I was thinking virus or casual surfer's vulnerability.
Thank you Steve. Nice write up and nice mug shot. I don't think many take great driver license pictures. I think it might be due to the odd looking cameras they use.
I was into Shania big time, and knew the album from get go. She is a beauty, isn't she ? I'd like to see her driver's license picture.
I didn't know MATTHEW MORRISON either, but I had so many of the perps there was no issue, and that first R gave me all but the e or U in UGARTE.
ZACH has been on the WGN morning news multiple times. I've been amused with his "Between Two Ferns" interviews. I think that is what it's called.
Work beckons. I don't really want to respond, but...
See y'all later.
I saw …chowMEIN and …womanINME and thought I was onto the anagram theme early but not so much.
ReplyDeleteMusings
-You can electrically ZAP bugs all night but for everyone you get, a thousand come to the funeral
-Kids were LOITERING in parking lots here in town and the resultant fighting, drinking and littering made the city put the kibosh on that. Their chorus of “That’s not fair” fell on DEAF ears.
-I have three KEYS to my golf swing. If I mess up one, I’d better have GPS on my cart
-One of mom’s sayings – “The fish that gets caught is the one who had his big mouth open”
-SPEW? Ah, election season!
-This beautiful Tampa School Marm wasn’t so PRIM with a 14 year old boy
-U.S. Grant’s SIEGES of Vicksburg and Petersburg were KEY factors in ending the Civil War
-Some of those GRIMM fairy tales could give any kid nightmares. Sheesh!
-There are more stars in the universe than all the grains of SAND on all the beaches of our planet
-I remember poor UGARTE who never did get to cash in those “letters of transit”
-“Had down cold” and “Understood” can be separate concepts. Hilarious Exhibit A
-“Well, Harry, now that you’re president, we have to tell you about this bomb we’ve been building…”
-What Buckeye and Hondo said about this puzzles and others like it
-FORE!
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteHand up for MOO, but SAMUEL fixed that. I saw the CHOW in the first theme answer, so my MEOW MIX started life as CAT FOOD. D'oh! Also couldn't logically decide on the EBOAT/UBOAT dilemma. Wagged the "U."
Steve, that hamburger chain is probably named after J. Wellington Wimpy, a character in the old Popeye comic strips. Wimpy was almost always pictured with his mitts full of a hamburger or five.
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve for explaining BIT. Had trouble getting my fish hat on this morning.
No serious problems solving. WAGs were good. Only knew two of the four theme fills outright, but perps sufficed. Overall, a good outing.
54a clue reminds me of "APRÈS MOI LE DÉLUGE" attributed to Louis XV.
I enjoyed today's puzzle very much. Needing perp help makes a puzzle interesting, especially if the perps are "gettable," like today's. UGARTE was all perps.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Boer and Afrikaner are synonyms. The clue was better without the addition of "certain."
Wimpy's catch phrase was,"I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." I can still picture him saying that. I just now read that Winmpy's hamburger place was started in Chicago in the 1930's and appeared in the UK in 1954.
I learned that MOJO is an African amulet or charm from x-words. I seldom see or hear it outside of x-words.I frequently see MOJO as describing when someone is at peak performance or on a roll, or conversely, as needing to get his MOJO back, when he is not.
Good morning all!
ReplyDeleteReally fun puzzle and write-up today. Thanks John and Steve! I was an avid Beach Boys fan in my teens, and had every single one of their albums, including PET SOUNDS!!
So it's a good thing I got extra credit for that because I had to WAG the crossing in UBOATS/UGARTE as my last fill. I guessed wrong. Bzzt! Also hands up for Apex before ACME.
Hahtoolah, "Glee!" was also one of my secret pleasures in the early seasons, but not so much lately. We usually watch "Grey's Anatomy" on Thursdays - much better writing and cast, IMHO.
Have a happy hup day, everyone!
Oops. "Hump." Or maybe I really did mean hup - two - three - four, marching on to Friday??
ReplyDeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed this solve very much and the "meows" reminded me of CED and his ubiquitous, but welcome, kitty links.
Only write-over was Ugarti before the i became an e. Thanks, John Dunn, for a fun Wednesday romp, and thanks, Steve, for bright, witty expo.
Great verses, Owen.
Have a great day.
@Buckeye Bob - you're right, thanks for the Italian/Spanish correction.
ReplyDeleteFun Wednesday puzzle--many thanks, John. And you too, Steve--for a fun write-up. Ah, the stress of living in California! (LOL)
ReplyDeleteI actually had trouble only in the NW since I miraculously ran into UGARTE just a day or two ago in the bedtime crossword puzzle I do with my husband every night. I too had MOO before LOW for a bit, and then goofed by having ZACK instead of ZACH. Figured KEM was some obscure clothing chain--rather than getting HEM. Dumb!
But it was all fun and a great way to head into the middle of the week.
Have a good one, everybody!
Hi Y'all! Some fun! Thanks, John! More fun with Steve! I couldn't come up with the Pet Sounds anagram though.
ReplyDeleteDespite not knowing the names everyone else didn't, I WAGd U BOAT so didn't have that problem. Forgot there were also "E's". I knew the Hermanator by sound, but not spelling which took several tries.
Favorite clue was "areas for development": WOMBS.
A club to which I once belonged decided to do a "Welcome Wagon" project. The family I visited was not one anyone would want in their town. The house and unruly bunch of kids were filthy. They ran up a bunch of bills, failed to pay their rent and skipped town. The next year none of the "girls" would sign up for the project, so I think their experiences were not good either.
Had to turn on the A/C last night to cool off my bedroom enough to be able to sleep. Summer has arrived a few months early. What happened to spring?
Wees, (with a hand up for Moo...)
ReplyDeletePet Sounds! Very good Steve! Being terrible at anagrams I had no idea until I read the comments.
I was very proud of my ink on paper accomplishment today, & thought my CW skills must be improving to get all those unknown names. But whats this? I spelled it BOAR? I reversed the I & E in IRAE? It's not Ugerte???
Ack! ACk! AcK!
(I am so upset, I may not be able to track down any Kitty Pics for this puzzle...)
Steve, I "attempted" to understand it, but I just don't get it...
Red Daffodills? (Who Knew?)
Between 2:30 & 4:30, Townshends brother Simon does the great guitar piece It's a boy, which starts "Captain Walker didn't come home, his unborn child will never know him."
UGaRTE!
TTP, Shania Twain drivers license is a big seller on Ebay!
Good morning all,
ReplyDeleteKnew enough to zig zag my way thru, but got stuck at spew crossing knew. Please explain:"had down cold"????
So many great clues: "areas for development" and "deluge refuge". Used all perps for ugarte, ager and the Wildcat univ.Knew Boer, but had to wait for the e to spell it.
Glee has had a strange year since the seniors left and went to NYC.I think they did a good job keeping the original cast, but now there will be no glee club. Matthew Morrison will probably get a job on Broadway(on and off of the show). I tape that show so I can whiz thru the parts that are silly or boring.
It's nice that Shania Twain has made a comeback. She had a few rough years after 9-11 and couldn't sing.
""Have down cold"
ReplyDeleteHi gang -
ReplyDeleteI don't excel at anagrams, so this is not my favorite theme type. Well executed though. Fine puzzle overall. I had some perp help and guesses. But I am very unfond of the AGER/MICRO cross, which did me in.
Shania is part Cree, from her biological father. I saw a program about her a few years ago, with some video of her when she was in her early teens. She was very ethnic looking back then. Now, a very white bread appearance. What happened?
Ever wonder what constitutes a good batting average? I explore the topic here.
Cool regards!
JzB
The themes MEOW MIX are NOT anagrams.
ReplyDeleteTHEY'RE just mixed up MEOW's!
"Sends up to" for PET SOUNDS is an anagram.
You've got a point there. But if you wear a hat maybe no one will notice
ReplyDelete@Al...Thanks for that link.I have it down cold now.For some reason that idiom did not pop into my head.
ReplyDelete@Point of order - you're absolutely right. Unless, tongue-in-cheek:
ReplyDelete"OW ME" as in the cockney cry on a stubbing accident "OW, ME TOE!"
"EWO M." - a Frenchman from the Congolese village.
"O MEW!" - a plea to the silent cat
and
"EW, MO!" - On catching sight of a disliked, nicknamed, Moses.
@CED - "Loitering with Intent" was a specific contravention of the 1824 Vagrancy Act, basically to deter ne'er-do-wells hanging around waiting to clonk someone on the head and steal their watch, for example. The point was to make waiting around to commit a crime a crime in itself.
The salient section of the Vagrancy Act was replaced by the Criminal Attempts Act in 1981, therefore "loitering with intent" is no longer on the statute books.
It was also pretty difficult to prove unless an actual attempt to pinch someone's wallet was made.
If a copper accused you of waiting around for a suitable target, you could just say "no, I wasn't" and that was pretty much that.
Thank you John Dunn and Steve. This was a fun puzzle, a little easier than a typical Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteI had MOO before LOW.
SAMUEL, UGARTE, KAHN, and MAIER, were all solved with perps.
That was a pleasant Wednesday puzzle. I never heard of Matthew Morrison but most everything went OK. WEES.
ReplyDeleteI kept my old 1993 Camry when I bought a new one a couple of years back. I keep the bike rack on it and pretty much just drive it and my bike back and forth to the beach. I had the distributor replaced a while back after it wouldn't start. Since then, it became old and gutless rather than just old. It had a hard time climbing the many gentle hills in this beach area. I was also going to have to get it passed the Smog inspection before I could get it re-registered. I was apprehensive. But the local mechanic solved the acceleration problem and adjusted everything. It just passed Smog with flying colors. Yippee! Two more years of driving it back and forth to the beach.
.
ReplyDelete.
.
ACK!
JazzB - Bassoon was an answer in this past Sunday's NYT, although not clued as a double reed instrument. Thought of you when I filled it in.
ReplyDeleteSteve@2:37: "If a copper accused you of waiting around for a suitable target, you could just say "no, I wasn't" and that was pretty much that."
ReplyDeleteI can't help but think of this as a Monty Python sketch, with John Cleese playing the copper and Eric Idle playing the loiterer. Eric, wearing a striped shirt and mask, with a large bag over his shoulder, and sporting a knife, a gun, a lead pipe, a rope, and a bomb with the fuse lit, is saying "no, I wasn't."
Al - priceless!
ReplyDeleteGot a bunch of these through perps. Overall, a neat Weds pzl, a pleasant diversion.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Steve, for the link to the Maier crash. That must either inspire or make one appreciate a sedentary lifestyle.
Irish Miss & JazzB,
ReplyDeleteYep, BASSOON was in the Sun NYTimes pzl, and the cluing, as I recall, identified it as a "cousin" of a smaller instrument, indirectly referencing our old pal, OBOE.
Well, the "Al Cyone" who posted at 4:12 PM is not the Al Cyone (i.e. me) who posted at 5:42 AM and 1:02 PM (though it's a very good impersonation).
ReplyDeleteTasting. Tasting?
ReplyDeleteHI all!
ReplyDeleteHope everyone's having a wonderful Wednesday. WEES - but I had two look-ups to help me finish (SAMUAL (SAM__m - mOW?) and UGARTE (which helped me WAG MO__ISAN and finally get BOER - that was the KEY I need). But, I was done before the sales demo finished. Argg! Only two more product demos!
Like Hondo, l loved WOMB c/a. I'll chalk that up for my fav. Other fav as NEAT shout out to Tin. John, I'm sure you're good in his book :-)
I thought maybe MAIER was "Agony of Defeat" in your link Steve, but nope Bbogataj is. Gosh, I hope I never have to parse that in an x-word.
JzB - Nice Job on the batting ave. analysis. I agree with you PED conclusion.
From last night - I just "doctored" my sauce for a quick dinner. Late ballet night for youngest.
While looking for Looney Tunes ACME clips, I discovered it's now a video game (trailer). Looks like fun!
Cheers, -T
T, you must try my "doctored" spaghetti sauce. You can make it in almost the time it takes for the spaghetti water to boil and the pasta to cook. The taste improvement is well worth the effort. It is hard to tell that the sauce is not homemade, although our homemade recipe is extra special.
ReplyDeleteYR - I intend to - it would add freshness to the sauce. Alas, tonight wasn't the night - we did math homework while the pasta-water came to a boil.
ReplyDeleteCheers, -T
AnonT, what kind of math?
ReplyDeleteJordan and I worked on math too. He is learning to take a function or equation like y = 2x + 1, pick a number for x and figure out a corresponding value of y. That's about as far as they've gotten so far (4th grade). So I helped him make a table of pairs of x and y and we graphed them. (We even picked a couple of negative numbers but he hasn't learned the rules for multiplication with negative numbers yet.) He graphed them and got a nice straight line. Then, for a lark, I wrote y = x^2 or x times x. We picked some numbers, graphed them and got a cool curve. He was grumping much of the time 'cause he wanted to get back to his game on the smart phone. But, when Bonnie came to get him, he showed her what we had done. She was impressed...
BillG:
ReplyDeleteMore pre-AP geometry / a bit of trig. She's got it. I think state tests are soon and she's a bit nervous. She'll do fine.
BTW, I've been meaning to ask re: your avatar: Is Jordan eating cotton-candy or helping insulate the attic? :-)
Cheers, -T
Heh heh; regarding Jordan's pink blob. There's a restaurant near here that we enjoy. Their lobster bisque soup is great. Jordan, normally a finicky eater, loves it so we took him there for his birthday with Grandma and Grandpa. They have a big plate of cotton candy as a dessert option. Jordan had been thinking about that since a couple of months back when he saw it being delivered to another kid at another table. So we ordered it for him. He had been smiling back and forth with a couple of girls at a nearby table so he invited them over to share. Fun.
ReplyDelete"Bless me Father, for I have sinned. I have been with a loose girl."
ReplyDeleteThe priest asks, "Is that you, little Joey Pagano?"
"Yes, Father, it is."
"And who was the girl you were with?"
"I can't tell you, Father. I don't want to ruin her reputation."
"Well, Joey, I'm sure to find out her name sooner or later so you may as well tell me now. Was it Tina Minetti?"
"I cannot say."
"Was it Teresa Mazzarelli?"
"I'll never tell."
"Was it Nina Capelli?"
"I'm sorry, but I cannot name her."
"Was it Cathy Piriano?"
"My lips are sealed."
"Was it Rosa DiAngelo, then?"
"Please, Father! I cannot tell you."
The priest sighs in frustration. "You're very tight lipped, and I admire that. But you've sinned and have to atone. You cannot be an altar boy now for 4 months. Now you go and behave yourself."
Joey walks back to his pew, and his friend Franco slides over and whispers, "What'd you get?"
"Four months vacation and five good leads..."
Little Casanova, that Jordan... C, -T
ReplyDeleteTesting
ReplyDeleteHello, Friends. I'm late to the party and have been unable to post all day. My "blue" Google account disappeared and I had the devil of a time restoring. Thank you to C.C. for trying to help me. I tried a number of things and finally restored it. What an ordeal! I know some you have mentioned having to endure that in the past.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your comments this morning and really liked this puzzle. I wanted to post but just could not.
I hope you've had a great Wednesday!
Lucina, it's good to see your name again. Be sure to remember or keep track of what you did because I'll probably need it some day too.
ReplyDeleteCooler weather over your way I'm guessing.
Yea. Quattro meno uno= tre is Italian. In spanish, Cuatro menos Uno = tres
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, great puzzle, but definitely difficult for Wednesday.