google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, June 18, 2014 Andrew J. Ries

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Jun 18, 2014

Wednesday, June 18, 2014 Andrew J. Ries

Theme: O's Only. Each name has no vowels other than "O".

17A. Rolling Stones guitarist : RON WOOD. Prior to the Stones, he was Rod Stewart's sideman with "The Faces". Tearing it up in 1972 in London.

25A. Harpers Ferry raider : JOHN BROWN. His soul goes marching on.

50A. Legendary Manhattan restaurateur : TOOTS SHOR. When Charlie Chaplin complained about having to stand in line, Toots told him to entertain the others while they were waiting.


61A. "The Joy of Painting" artist : BOB ROSS. Ron Wood may have started with one of Bob's kits, he's an accomplished water-colorist.

20D. Regular on Bob Newhart sitcoms : TOM POSTON. He played the bumbling George Utley.

and the reveal

39A. 1976 horror classic ... and, read another way, group that appears at 17-, 25-, 50- and 61-Across and 20-Down : THE OMEN. Alternatively, THE O-MEN. Flashback nightmares for me; after watching The Exorcist and this terror-fest at an early age, I swore off horror movies for ever.

Good morning all! Steve here with Andrew's Wednesday Workout, and I confess this was a real tester for me. Bob Ross and Tom Poston were both unknowns, and there was some real crunch in the fill. I thought this was a tremendous puzzle. Six theme entries, some sparkly non-themers and not much wince-worthy made for a really fun test. One of the highlights in the fill that I loved was the OMEGA/OMICRON pair - not only a shout-out to the main theme, but I'd never made the "Mega" and "Micron" connection before. A great learning moment.

Across:

1. Part of a Genesis-inspired costume : FIG LEAF

8. Tom in an alley : MALE CAT. Hanna-Barbera's version. I can still remember the theme song pretty much word-for-word.


15. Good-natured : AMIABLE. I had to leave this alone and go back to it - I couldn't understand why AMICABLE wouldn't work when I had the "AM" and the "LE"

16. Vivid language : IMAGERY

18. Fuddy-duddies : CODGERS

19. "__ said it!" : YOU

20. Cross at a frat : TAU

21. Bloke's bathroom : LOO. I tried "LAV" first against all common sense.

22. "RUR" playwright : CAPEK. This was about as tough pulling this from the inner recesses of my brain as pushing a strand of wet spaghetti uphill.

28. Trash emanation : ODOR. Not PONG, which was my first thought. I seemed to have my English head screwed on today, it might be a side-effect of watching the World Cup and calling "soccer" "football" again.

29. Sponge, as a smoke : BUM

30. TNT part : TRI. Nitrotoluene is the rest. Makes a big bang when it's all put together.

31. Chain including the Matterhorn : SWISS ALPS. I've skied the Matterhorn. Well, the ski-able bits at the bottom. It looks mightily impressive from the Swiss side, but from the Italian side it just looks like a craggy lump.

Matterhorn, Italian-style
34. Cancel, NASA-style : ABORT

38. "Oh, wow!" : MAN

41. "Hunh?" : WHA'?

42. Weed control giant : ORTHO

44. George Orwell or George Eliot : PSEUDONYM. Eric Blair and Mary Evans. Evans used a man's name to ensure her works would be taken seriously. Orwell is famously known for Animal Farm and 1984, his other books are also worth exploring, he was a wonderful writer.

46. Hoppy brew, for short : I.P.A. India Pale Ale. Beer shipped to the British troops in India in the 1800's would often arrive spoiled due to the long sea journey and the heat. Faced with a lot of sulky faces in the ranks, the IPA recipe was developed - it increased the hops and alcohol content to act as natural preservatives.

48. Road surface : TAR

49. Re-re-re-re-shared link on Facebook, e.g. : MEME


54. Fall beverage : CIDER

55. Roadie's unit : AMP. Jackson Browne's homage to the roadies and the fans.

56. Dawson in the first Super Bowl : LEN

57. Soft slip-on : MOC. I'm not sure if I knew this or WAG'd it. The latter, I think.

58. More prepared : READIER

65. Suitable for tweens, usually : PG-RATED. The more common usage is "Rated PG" but this variant is perfectly OK.

66. Weaken from disuse : ATROPHY

67. Ancient provincial governors : SATRAPS. Dear Perps. Thank You. Kind Regards, Steve.

68. Suffragist Elizabeth Cady __ : STANTON. You'd better be up on your suffragists today. There's a potential Natick with 57D if you're not careful.

Down:

1. Not within walking distance : FAR. Kind of an odd clue here - something can be far, but still walkable, just a long walk. No? The Proclaimers didn't think 500 miles was too far.

2. "I'd say," in texts : IMO. In My Opinion. Usually seen with an embedded H for 'Humble".

3. Rickey ingredient : GIN. Perps all the way. I'd never heard of a Rickey. I discover it is gin (originally bourbon), lime juice and soda. Cover your ears, Tinman - it's got one cube of ice in it.

4. Ones doing case studies : LAWYERS

5. Tablet download : EBOOK. Tortuous brain-path from apps, through painkiller pill scripts to the final result.

6. Baseball's Moises : ALOU. I knew the name, but little about the man. I looked him up, and discovered he had a rather novel way of toughening his hands as he didn't wear batting gloves. I'll let you read it for yourselves if you're interested. Not over breakfast, probably. C.C. surely knows all about him.

7. Gave lunch to : FED

8. Old Testament prophet : MICAH

9. PayPal figure : AMOUNT

10. Young chap : LAD

11. Quiche base : EGG. Food! And is this a misdirection or - shhhhhh - a mistake? The base of the quiche filling is egg, but the base of the quiche itself is pastry. What say all y'all?


12. Hip-hop star Green : CEE-LO. I sat next to Mr. Green on a flight from New York to London. Bizarrely, I was listening to "Crazy" on my iPod when he boarded and sat next to me.

13. "This way" symbol : ARROW

14. "The Pluto Files" author Neil deGrasse __ : TYSON.

22. Fruity cocktail, familiarly : COSMO. It's a cocktail-fest in the downs today!

23. Pitching duel? : AD WAR. Loved it.

24. Writing end : POINT

25. Minty Derby cocktail : JULEP. That makes three cocktails in five minutes, I'd better slow down *hiccup*

26. Product name : BRAND

27. Baby-back goodie : RIB. Perfect, ribs and quiche to go with the cocktails.

29. "Dang it!" : BAH

32. Local stations : STOPS. Yeah, I guess so. Local stops could also be stations.

33. Makeup mishap : SMEAR

35. Didn't lease : OWNED

36. Sample, for example : RHYME. Lovely clue.

37. Worker with show tigers : TAMER

40. 31-Across locale: Abbr. : EUR

43. Bomb opposite : HIT

45. Greek for "little O" : OMICRON. As I mentioned at the top, I loved this pairing with 51D and the cunning tie-in to the theme. When I realized O-micron and O-mega indicated the size of the letter I was thoroughly entertained and educated. Bravo, Andrew!

47. Dreaming, say : ASLEEP

50. Canvas covers : TARPS

51. Greek for "big O" : OMEGA

52. Mesmerizing designs : OP-ART. This was a gimme for CrossEyedDave!


53. Steers the steers : HERDS. Another nice clue.

54. Deadly snake : COBRA

57. Suffragist Lucretia : MOTT. I'm up on my British suffragettes, not so much the US suffragists. Crosses took care of most of Mott, and I think I knew Ms. Stanton, so potential Natick nastiness avoided.

59. Patriotic women's org. : D.A.R. I'm blindly going to call this one: "Daughters of the American Revolution" and not fact-check to see if I really have learned this one from crosswords. How did I do?

60. Feminizing Spanish suffix : ITA

61. English lit degrees : BAs Bachelor of Arts-es (way to make an ugly-looking plural!)

62. Choose : OPT

63. "Homeland" airer, briefly : SHO. Showtime, usually part of a premium cable package.

64. Specimen, for example: Abbr. : SYN. I got the answer through crosses, but I stared at this for ages trying to understand it before the penny FINALLY dropped. SYN is an abbreviation for "synonym", and "specimen" & "example" are synonyms. Devious!

 Well, that's it from me. I'm in sports junkie heaven. World Cup soccer! GO USA!

Steve

Note from C.C.:

1) Today's constructor Andrew J. Ries is from St. Cloud, Minnesota. Andrew also made a puzzle for the the third Minnesota Crossword Tournament which will be held on June 22, 2014  at The Landmark Center in Saint Paul. Please click here for more information.

2) In case some of you skipped the comments yesterday, Steve linked a fantastic picture of him at the bike leg of the 1989 Winchester Triathlon.



 

53 comments:

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Pretty straightforward solve for me today. I really thought 8A was going to be POLECAT after getting __LECAT, and I was all prepared to comment that POLECAT is actually a skunk and not a feline, but obviously I was wrong. Still, it slowed me down for a bit until MALE CAT became evident.

The SE corner was a little tricky until I finally remembered BOB ROSS and was able to guess at STANTON. Fortunately, I knew MOTT.

It was nice seeing CAPEK in the grid for a change instead of just the clue for R.U.R. And yes, having both OMEGA and OMICRON was a treat.

One more day of fishing!

Tinbeni said...

Steve: Wonderful write-up & links. Hope YOU enjoyed your food ... EGG.

THANK YOU Andrew! I was in Heaven solving this FUN Wednesday puzzle.

Faves today, of course, GIN, COSMO, JULEP, IPA ... and some nice "Hard" CIDER.

Geez, about the only thing that would have made this "more perfect" would have been some Pinch in the grid.

Luckily, I have some of THAT here at Villa Incognito. lol

Cheers!!!

Lemonade714 said...

A really fun puzzle with all those Os floating around, LOO ODOR ORTHO EBOOK and COSMO all giving us double the pleasure.

Steve it is always interesting to read your insights and anecdotes, but you left us hanging....did you and ! well harmonize?

OwenKL said...

Well, that was an, uh, Odd theme. One might even say Ominous. A lot of interesting clues and words, but some odd ones, too. Hunh signalling a slangy spelling of WHA. Meta-clues "sample for example" and "specimen for example". Metaclues ought to have some signal, like the ? for puns or abbreviation for abbreviation. I'd never heard of OMICRON & OMEGA described as little O and big O before, but didn't even pick up on the O+suffix form until I read Steve's write-up. "Big O" was the closest to a nickname anyone ever called me. Wish I'd realized I coulda been "OMEGA"! Local stations I was thinking TV stations, until perps gave me train stations. OP ART and psychedelic are favorites of mine, and I'm sorry they went out of style. I still see a lot of optical illusions on the net, but I think OP ART was more than that.
Sorry, maybe because I've been an "O" myself all my life, but so far my Muse hasn't given me any poetry this morning.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Found this one crunchy for a Wednesday. Interesting seeing TYSON and COSMOs in the same puzzle. Did you watch it? I thought it was very well done.

I had no idea about Homeland, and I am definitely not up on my suffragists (I always thought there was a "jet" in there somewhere). I WAGged the O and second T in MOTT and came up with.....applesauce!

thehondohurricane said...

Hello everyone,

Real challenge today and I was very fortunate to have a successful solve.

There was one slip up that I caught while reviewing the completed puzzle. 22A Began with Capet. EBOOK corrected the problem.

Steve, I known about Moise's process for toughening his hands. Safe to say, he probably did not get many high fives from his teammates.

Suffragists not in my wheelhouse, so wags and the across or down fills saved my butt, especially in the SE.

SATRAPS...see comment by Steve.


That's it.

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Andrew Ries,mfor a fine puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for a fine review.

Got through this because of a plethora of known answers. The tough ones appeared with a perp or two. Occasional wag.

Liked FIG LEAF.

MALE CAT was good as well.

No idea who BOB ROSS was. Had ROSE and then fixed it to ROSS.

Remembered the MOT for Lucretia. Had an E at first, fixed it to MOTT.

I like I.P.A. I knew the story of its history, as well. I did some research a while back. There must be 200 varieties in the U.S. from microbreweries.

Did not know OMICRON. After a few perps I wagged it and won.

Theme was neat. Never saw THE OMEN.

Working again in Far Rockaway, NY, putting up siding today. Yesterday was flooring, Monday was painting. Gods variety this year.

Went to Radio City Music Hall last night. Saw "Garden of Dreams," 20 different groups of young people singing and dancing. Went for two hours. It was sponsored by some charities including Madison Square Gardens. Many famous personalities were there to introduce the groups. Katie Couric, John McIntoe, etc.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

(315)
See you tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

smooth solve for me today, as many of the clues were "in my wheelhouse" ,and those not were easily solved by the perps.

Just got back from El Salvador after a long day of travel yesterday, so I filled in opart, but couldn't figure out why an o- part was a mesmerizing design....I'll be fully awake soon!

Big Easy said...

I thought this was a cleverly clued puzzle with many words that one rarely finds in the puzzles such as AMIABLE CODGER PSEUDONYM ABORT. It was a DNF for me because of the SE. WAGs and PERPS couldn't help because MOTT BOB ROSS and STANTON were unknowns, don't subscribe to SHO, and along with Steve had no idea what 64D (SYN) was about. THE OMEN was a movie that I never saw but had heard of and was solved by perps.

Yellowrocks said...

First of all, fabulous triathlon picture, Steve. Oh to be that fit!
HG, condolences on the sad fate of your golfing buddy. A sudden, unexpected demise is so hard on those left behind.
Abejo, I can't believe how much energy you have, always traveling and working hard. Rehabbing homes in this heat and humidity must be difficult.
I found this puzzle crunchy in the middle horizontal third. The rest was solved easily. Fortunately I knew CAPEK, TYSON, MOTT and STANTON. The two formidable suffragists had very interesting biographies.
PSEUDONYM and THE OMEN took a while. I didn't know George Orwell was a pen name. George Elliot is another feminist heroine. TOM POSTON was mostly perps until the light dawned. I remember him well.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

Smooth going, except for the west central, which did me in.

Despite having SWISS ALPS, ODOR and MAN, I couldn't fill in the rest.

Sadly, the theme eluded me, but I'm a bit distracted.

Not up on my suffragettes, but perps helped.

Em wants to play Blockhead,
IMBO.

Cool regards!
JzB

HeartRx said...

Good morning Steve, C.C. et al.

Fun, fun, fun. Loved your write-up, Steve. It was exactly what I thought, every step of the way!!

I finished the puzzle and stared at it way too long afterwards, trying to "get" the theme. I finally gave up and came here - HUGE "D'oh" when I read the explanation. O-MEN. Very funny!

Busy day today - have to get all the chores done before PM thundershowers hit. But, we need the rain, so I can't complain. Happy hump day, everyone!

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-I loved “Sample, for example” and “Specimen, for example”
-I knew TOM POSTON but otherwise, Steve’s summary works for me
-For all I knew, IPA/HIT could have been OPA(?)/HOT but this ale naïf picked right
-Who’d a thunk RON WOOD and the other CODGERS could go on this long?
-JOHN BROWN – one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. He never visited Nebraska but the state’s link to the Underground Railroad is named for him
-To BUM a ball or tee on a golf course is bad form.
-The ABORT handle is prominently displayed in the Apollo 13 liftoff scene
-Willie Wood got a “pick six” off LEN in Super Bowl I and that was the turning point in a tight game for a Packer win
-More NASA – Muscles ATROPHY in the weightlessness of space and astronauts returning from the Space Station take a long time to get back to one-g vs. a zero-g life
-IMO coffee mug
-Many school kids don’t seem to want to eat what the gov’t thinks they should be FED
-CEELO made two versions of one song, F**K You and Forget You. The latter for a wider audience
-Have you ever missed the ARROW on a One-Way street? Me too.
-Don’t you SMEAR a schmear?

Husker Gary said...

The finality of Dave’s death is starting to hit me and I take comfort in your kind words. His league partner is cutting short a fishing trip to Oklahoma to make the Friday funeral which speaks of how highly thought of he was. We will all travel to Clarkson for the services and are going to plant a tree and dedicate it to Dave on a fairway that always gave him fits. He’d just laugh and love the irony of that since he always said his woods always seemed to find the woods! Rest In Peace my friend.

kazie said...

Names are always my downfall, so of course this puzzle didn't help. The only ones I knew were ALOU and TYSON, the former from experience here, and the latter as a frequent commentator on MSNBC and guest on Bill Maher. John Brown I remember from the "molding in the grave" song we marched to in grade school, but nobody ever bothered to explain its history.

Much of the theme cleverness was totally lost on me, as since most of the the name answers meant nothing, I came here with parts missing: I misspelled JULIP and had PASTOW/LEW instead of POSTON/LEN. Missed OPART, expecting a plural so ended up with OPARS/SASTRAPS.

I still don't understand why RHYME is a sample. I also had no idea that George Orwell was a PSEUDONYM until I filled that in. IPA was another unknown only filled with perps.

Pretty bad for a Wednesday!

Husker,
I can imagine the reality is still not quite completely set in. The funeral will be the kicker. I hope having all Dave's friends together then will ease the pain somewhat for all of you.

C6D6 Peg said...

This was a bit crunchy, but wag'd my way through. Didn't care for all the proper nouns outside of the theme answers. But can appreciate the construction. Agree with Steve about the Omega/Omicron.

Thanks, Steve, for a great write-up. You never fail to put a smile on my face.

desper-otto said...

Kazie, I think John Brown's body was "mouldering" in the grave. That answer was RHYME because Sample rhymes with Example:. "Sample, for example"

Anonymous-T from last night: My former boss used to ride the MS-150 every year. In 2012 he was practicing for the race when he suffered a massive heart attack, and died at the side of the road. He was just 50 years old.

Yellowrocks said...

I make crustless quiches which our family and friends like even better. They are lighter,lower in calories and for me tastier. There are many recipes on the Net. I seldom make a quiche in a crust these days.
BASE/EGG didn't bother me because BASE has several meanings. Thinking of the lower part or bottom, the crust is the base of most quiches. But, thinking of base as the fundamental ingredient and quiche as the entire item, crust and all, the best reply is EGG. We can have a quiche without a crust, but not without an EGG, or several

Jazzbumpa said...

Well, now, what do you know,
A puzzle based on letter O,
Has stumped our pal Owen,
On most days all-knowin';
But that's how the O-wind does blow.

JzB

VirginiaSycamore said...

I was reading Capek’s RUR for a report in High School and babysitting Czech kids. To my alarm, I was pronouncing his name wrong. Insteady of “Kaypek” it is properly pronounced “Tcha-pek”.

Steve, I too have started calling soccer “futbol”. I don’t have cable but can watch all the games on the Univision channel over the air. I am learning some Spanish Soccer terms.
IMO it is very annoying that the USA match was only available on ESPN when women’s beach volleyball for the Olympics was aired on regular networks.
I find the ads to be of Superbowl quality and quite humorous. And I love the way they scream GOOOOOOOOOOOOL when a goal is made. You can be getting a drink in the kitchen and still run back in time for the replays.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Had a few iffy spots but perps saved the day. I caught the theme of the O's but it didn't register that there were no other vowels until reading Steve's write-up. Enjoyed some fresh fill: pseudonym, atrophy, fig leaf, imagery, etc. Omega/omicron cluing was very clever which only sunk in thanks to Steve's expo.

Thank you, Andrew Ries, for a challenging and enjoyable Wednesday solve and thank you, Steve, for a witty and informative review.

Tin, this puzzle more than makes up for the last several "dry" ones and with nary a mention of _ _ _, either!

Have a great day.

kazie said...

Desper-Otto,
Thanks on both counts. I guess at 10-11 years of age, molding sounded just as logical to me!

PK said...

Hi Y'all! OOOOH, what a puzzle, Andrew! I'm proud to say I got the OMEN theme, after I puzzled over it a good while then saw all the "O's" in the names. Never saw the movie but knew the name.

Pretty racy picture, Steve! Er I mean, you were in a race and all. Great expo!

Suffragist names were known since they are some of my heroines in history. But like D-O, I thought they were "suffragettes" in the U.S. also. I probably was one in a past life.

My niece went to John Brown University. That was the first time I realized some people thought he was a hero. I thought he was a crazy old criminal. There is a wild eyed mural of him in the Kansas Capitol.

Didn't know CAPEK, this TYSON, or RON WOOD. Had BOB but couldn't think of ROSS or POSTON or TOOTS SHOR without a few perps. Don't subscribe to SHO, tried HBO first in the puzzle.

Abejo, sounds like a great concert. Wish I could have gone with you.

Ooooh, now I'm hungry for quiche! The Copper Oven here made great ones, but burned down. I haven't made one in 20 years.

Yellowrocks said...

from Wiki-Suffragettes were members of women's organization (right to vote) movements in the late 19th and early 20th century, particularly in the United Kingdom and United States. Suffragist is a more general term for members of suffrage movements, whether radical or conservative, male or female.

PK, I am sure you will enjoy this article. I, too, am a fan of the feminists.
Link suffragettes

HeartRx said...

HG, what a wonderful tribute to your golfing buddy.

JzB @ 9:54, funny!

VirginiaSycamore @ 9:54, thank you so much for that tidbit! I didn’t know how to pronounce “Capek” correctly until now. (I do know, however, how to pronounce Joan Miró!)

Tinbeni said...

Irish Miss
With all the drinks ... this may be my "NEW" favorite "Puzzle-of-the-Year!!!"

Add in the subtle stuff ...
TYSON & COSMO
OMEGA & OMICRON in a grid with "THE-O-MEN" theme
A "mini-test" of Suffragist's MOTT crossing STANTON
Also a CSO to Husker & my roots ... the SWISS ALPS

All-in-All, a total joy to solve (in Monday time).

It doesn't get any better ...
Cheers!!!

Argyle said...

First and last name:

Karel ÄŒapek

Anonymous said...

Interestingly, the New Haven Register had printed 41C as "Huh?" I thought Steve had made an error in spelling it "Hunh". Wonder who did the proof-reading? Fun puzzle!!! Sally W.

Lucina said...

Greetings, super solvers! Very nice, witty write up, Steve.

What a really enjoyable puzzle with so much crunchy fill, IMAGERY, CODGERS, PSEUDONYM and SATRAPS(?) That last one filled in with perps and I had many doubts about it, so I'll have to research it.

WSS. What Steve said about OMICRON/OMEGA. What an eye-opener! And I knew most of the names except RON WOOD but it almost filled itself. My late DH watched BOB ROSS religiously and became a good painter himself but I believe the innate talent just asserted itself.

TOOTS SHOR was featured on TV way back when in one of the comedy shows.

ABEJO:
You are a wonder! I agree that you must have tremendous energy and generosity.

Have a lovely Wednesday, everyone!

Misty said...

Had a doctor's appointment this morning so am late checking in. The not great news--possible cataract in my right eye. But doing the puzzle before leaving and reading the blog helped surround the medical stuff with some fun. Steve, thanks for explaining the O vowel theme, which I didn't "get" even though I "got" "The Omen." Loved the shout-out to the suffragists! Hey, us feminists know our suffragettes! So, many thanks to you, Andrew, for a fun puzzle.

Have a great Wednesday, everybody!

CrossEyedDave said...

I just felt I was not on the constructors wavelength, (Is Mr. Ries British perhaps...) it took a long time to suss this out!

But I still have questions, thank you Steve for explaining 64D Specimen for example = Syn. & The Star Ledger also printed "Huh?" as the clue for 41A Wha.

Readier (58A) (is that English?)

Moc (57A) (is that Mohican?)

&29D Dang it = Bah! (Meh! My dang it is not Bah! it's more like *&%%^*&^%&^(*&%&^%)(*&%*&%^$%)

67A Satraps, the only recourse for such a difficult clue/answer is a really bad pun!

All in all, if the weeks puzzles keep getting harder, this puzzle is an ominous sign...

River Doc said...

Some IMAGERY from one MALE CAT to his fellow CODGERS....

ATROPHY, not A TROPHY....

Anonymous said...

I remember being in New York to take a deposition in the early 70s. I had time before my flight home and walked into Toots Shor's and asked if they could make me an egg cream. The bartender looked at me as if I had just emerged from a Martian spaceship. Who knew you could only get these in delicatessens ?

Bill G. said...

I finished this late last night and enjoyed it OK. The crossing letters got me WHA for HunH? I filled it in and it seemed plausible but I realize I don't really understand it. I don't think I've even seen or read HunH. What am I missing?

I also didn't get SATRAPS and I thought OMEGA/OMICRON was clever.

Thanks Andrew and Steve.

Abejo, I see you're working in Far Rockaway. Barbara grew up in East Rockaway. I guess it's devastated from the flooding.

Anon (2:36), I think I read that an egg cream contains neither egg nor cream.

"It's hard to explain puns to kleptomaniacs because they always take things literally."

CrossEyedDave said...

Egg Cream Recipe...

Toots Shor, I was curious, as he was way before my time. Seems like he was Ed Sullivan before he had a show...

I do not/would not fill out my email on this site,, but,

11 is definitely Frank Sinatra, & 14 looks like Phil Silvers.

Who are the other guys?

Unknown said...

This was a really fun puzzle. I got the theme early on for a change. Bob Ross was an unknown but was solved by perps, same with IPA.

CED, I think 8 might be Sid Caesar, and 13 might be Ernie Kovacs.

Avg Joe said...

Busy day, so late arriving. I enjoyed this puzzle a lot. Some great fresh fill like atrophy, pseudonym, fig leaf and omicron. Serious reliance on perps required in places like Satraps and Stanton, but no true Naticks.

Despite liking it so much, I was only whelmed by the theme. Kind of like a joke that needs to be explained is not really funny. Plus I've always held some animosity toward The Omen because I think that flick gave Rotties a horrible and undeserved reputation. But none of that really dropped the rating by any measureable amount. It was a fun yet challenging outing for a Wednesday.

CrossEyedDave said...

Oh Dear... I Google Imaged Bob Ross...

(What a mistake!)

"Tinbeni, don't look!"

It gets worse....

& Worser. (Hey! if he can use readier, I can use worser...)

Bob always hangs in there...


Now that's more like it!

Bill G. said...

I agree with the guesses so far. I'm thinking Number 3 is Rod Steiger.

**********

Three sailors get shipwrecked on an island where they find a pile of coconuts and a monkey. They agree to go to sleep and divide up the coconuts in the morning. During the night, one sailor wakes up, gives one coconut to the monkey to keep him quiet, takes exactly 1/3 of the rest, and falls back asleep. Then the second sailor wakes up and does the same, gives one to the monkey and takes 1/3 of the remaining coconuts for himself. Later, the third sailor wakes up and does the same. In the morning, there are fewer than 10 coconuts left. They each take exactly 1/3 of the remaining coconuts with none left over. How many coconuts were in the original pile? (No broken coconuts please.)

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks for chewy puzzle, Andrew! Thanks for detailed and humorous review, Steve! Got it all in the end!

Did not know BOB ROSS. WAG. (Scratched head over this one for awhile. Puzzled over RHYME and SYN.

Really liked Homeland. Won't be the same w/o Damian Lewis.

Someone at Google got ahold of my Visa card numbers and was making bogus charges. A pain to have to memorize the new card that was Fedexed today.

Cheers!

Dennis said...

#4 looks like Joe Louis, #6, Rocky Marciano, #8, Sid Caesar(?), #13, Ernie Kovacs, #14 Phil Silvers. Great picture; never seen that one before.

Avg Joe said...

Well, the Anteaters are about to take the field against the Longhorns in the CWS in a win or go home game.

Hook them Horns! Zot, Zot, Zot!

Bill G. said...

I just got back from my bike ride. I was heading toward the beach in my car with the bike on the back. There were two helicopters hovering noisily overhead. As I got closer to the ocean, the car and foot traffic got more substantial. I figured out it was the LA Kings local celebratory parade. Almost all of the team members live locally. I pulled up just as the parade turned north heading toword the pier. I'm not much of a hockey fan but I enjoyed the parade. It was interesting to see three drone quad-copters circling a few feet overhead taking crowd shots, a sight becoming more commonplace all the time I'm sure.

Vidwan827 said...

#1 is Jackie Gleason

#2 is Bob Hope. #10 is Al Capone.

CED thanks for linking Bob Ross. He was a truly great man and a great artist. I used to watch his show for hours and I don't even know how to paint. He was a very gentle soul. There was a Google doodle in his honor a few months ago.

Steve, after 'seeing' you, albeit 25 years ago (1989 - ), I'm definitely not going to be arguing with you. People at work must be very meek around you. lol. Your clients must be like putty in your hands.

Bill, you gave away too much in your math question.

Solving for the coconuts left in the morning, before dividing by three -

It can be solved as 2/3*( 2/3* ( 2/3*(X-1) -1) -1) < 10

Or, Very Simply :

a number less than 10, and must be divisible by three, viz. 0,3,6,9.

also must be divisible by two. Thats the answer.

Now, my Kapcha is a trig ratio - HUnnh ?

fermatprime said...

Bill G: Since I can't write with right hand anymore, had to cope with this i MS Word. Am hoping 106 is correct.

Bill G. said...

Fermatprime, 106 eh? Let's check. 106 - 1 = 105. 105 - 1/3(105) = 105 - 35 = 70. 70 - 1 = 69 (minus 1/3) = 69 - 23 = 46. 46 - 1 = 45 (minus 1/3) = 30. 30 is divisible by 3. OK, but the remaining number of coconuts was supposed to be less than 10. So your answer is right in all other respects but a little too big.

Anonymous T said...

Hello AMIABLE puzzle pals...

I kept working and working this puzzle all day during the conference.

NW fell so quickly I was AMPed. Then WHA? I had to bounce around an fill a square here and there. Final downfall was 64d SYS and OPARS at 52d. My puzzle is such an ink-blot, there's probably an error somewhere else that hasn't HIT me yet.

Scrub for ABORT, Alegory before IMAGERY (I can't spell either :-)) Hand up for poLECAT (WBS) and everything else Kazie said.

ALOU was with the Astro's before joining the Cubs where Bartman snagged the foul ball before he did. Goat Curse lives on.

I recall ALOU had a cannon for an arm while playing right - I was at the game where he nailed the runner going to third after a tag-up. That, and folks won't shake his hand.

HG - didn't know it was bad form to BUM a ball. Even with two sleeves at 1st tee, I usually need another one.

D-O - I did the 2012 ride and remember hearing that happened. Please tell us he was a horrible boss...

Steve - Thanks for the write-up. If you take your job as seriously as your Wed. duties, you don't need your physique to bully your clients.

Mr. Ries, since it's only Wed, this is a bad OMEN for the rest of my week puzzling - but it was a great fun!

Re: FAR. "Everywhere is walking distance, if you have the time." Steven Wright.

Bill G. - The coconuts were a mirage :-)

Cheers, -T

Blue Iris said...

PK, I thought I'd let you know that John Brown University was named for the founder, Dr John Brown, an evangelist around about the same time as Billy Sunday. My husband graduated from there and I was the University nurse in the 70s-80s. It is not usual for people to think it is named after the Kansas John Brown.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Had to have two gos at this one.
But it went.

Anonymous T said...

Bill G. I cheated and created a spreadsheet :-) I know it's a square! Cheers, -T

Bill G. said...

AnonT, nothing cheating about that. Guess and check or working backwards might work too.

With your spreadsheet, I'll bet you can answer the second half of the question. What would happen if the puzzle didn’t state that there had to be fewer than 10 coconuts left? Then what could the starting number be?

I mentioned that there were several quad-copter drones at the Kings parade today hovering over the crowd. Dunno whose. That happened at the main parade at Staples Center a couple of days ago too. Some fans started throwing something at them and knocked one out of the sky. I think it might be annoying to have something hovering over your head taking pictures.

Anonymous T said...

Bill G: Curses YOU! (19a) MAN, I had to pull out my laptop again...

Fermat's 106 is good w/ 30 before the morning split; 187 w/ 54, 268 w/ 78, 349 w/ 102, 430 w/ 126, 511 w/ 150, 592 w/ 174, 673 w/ 198, 754 w/ 222. That is one prolific island -- it must be in the Bermuda TRIangle.

Gotta get up at 6:08a again (I want every minute). Cheers, -T

Anonymous T said...

To be honest, I did the maths first and had a common denominator of 81. So, 82-1= 81 / 3 / 3 / 3. Then I saw you run through Fermat's offering. WHA!

O. Each MAN fed the monkey, not just the 1st. C, -T