google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, Jul 19th, 2014, Mark Bickham

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Jul 19, 2014

Saturday, Jul 19th, 2014, Mark Bickham

Theme: None

Words: 72 (missing J,Q,V,Z)

Blocks: 26

    Who would we get today, I wondered; Brad, Doug, Mark...?  Ah, Mr. Bickham, with an enjoyable, but odd-looking puzzle today, having just a smattering of single blocks in the central part of the grid; low count, too.  It was not until I started on the Down clues that I noticed the FOUR climbers, and yet they were actually easier for me than some of the shorter fill.  Triple 10 corners, and two 8-letter answers on the inside.  I had to 'cheat' and turn on red letters to find one letter - the very first one.  First time for everything, I guess....the 4 climbers:

2d. ESPN talk show : OUTSIDE THE LINES - I don't watch ESPN, so this was a WAG based on sports more than the show itself

3d. Sport with end zones : ULTIMATE FRISBEE - I have played some Frisbee golf, but not this game, sort of like football meets basketball

12d. Best Picture of 1951, with "An" : AMERICAN IN PARIS - Never saw it, but with the few crossings I had, it came pretty easily

13d. Passive disapproval : SILENT TREATMENT - I'm not saying anything....get it?

O (may The Force be with me) nward~?

ACROSS:

1. Challenge for a comedian : TOUGH CROWD - First letter wrong?  Seemed OK having "Rough Crowd", but I missed "RHU" as the Holy 1d

11. Residencia : CASA - logical WAG; sounded Spanish for 'residence', so, Spanish for house

15. Uproar : HULLABALOO 

16. In : AMID

17. Lawlessness : UTTER CHAOS 

18. Solder : WELD - I can solder - wires and copper pipes.  I was asked a week or so ago if I knew how to braze brass; never did it

19. Fourier series function : SINE - Never heard the term fourier, but once I had --NE, I figured....more on the math from Wiki

20. D.C.'s __ Stadium : RFK - Renamed in 1969 after the assassination of Robert Kennedy; we had the Triborough Bridge renamed RFK Bridge here in NYC in 2008; not sure why it took 40 years....

21. 2015 destination of the Dawn space probe : CERES - One of two proto-planets in the asteroid belt; more from NASA

22. Edge : RIM

23. Bird that grew as tall as 12 feet : MOA - went with "ROC" - only 33.3% right, but this time, my "O" counts, D-otto~!

25. Stranded, perhaps : ICED IN

27. City NE of Amsterdam : EDAM - filled via perps

29. Cry of dismay : OH DEAR - Tried OH GEEZ, but couldn't think of a color with Z besides Azure...oh those eyes...

31. Place with a seat: Abbr. : CTY - CounTY

33. Charm : FETISH - The first definition refers to 'an object regarded...as being the embodiment...of magical powers'; I am more familiar with the psychological definition.... who me~?  a fetish~!?

35. Reflect : MEDITATE

37. "Dumb and Dumberer" actress : OTERI - The third installment is due in Nov this year

38. Profs' aides : TAs - Teaching Assistants

39. "Jazz in Silhouette" composer : SUN RA - Perps and a WAG; more here

40. Blood typing concern : Rh FACTOR

42. Former Canadian film awards : GENIES - another thing that went through a renaming process; once called the "Etrogs"

43. Debussy subject : MER

44. Vistula River city : KRAKOW


46. Biol. branch : ANATomy

47. Smooth cotton fabrics : LISLEs

49. __ crawl : PUB - ah, the days gone by....

51. Scoreboard fig. : PTs

52. Piano bar standard : MISTY - "Play Misty for me...."

53. Asian festival : TET

55. Good earth : LOAM

57. "Walk __": 1964 hit : ON BY

58. One of Sophocles' Theban plays : OEDIPUS REX

61. Stagger : REEL

62. Bond holding? : DRY MARTINI - excellent 'misdirection'; gratuitous Daniel pic for C.C. - are you shaken, or stirred, C.C.? (From C.C.:  Stirred! Thanks, Splynter. Email Me Maybe, Daniel?)


63. "Gotcha" : "I SEE" - Dr. Venkman's response to Dean Yager


64. Some finals : ESSAY TESTS
       
DOWN:

1. There's a holy one every yr. : THU - I just learned it's Maundy Thursday, tho I have heard this term before

4. Singer Campbell : GLEN - Here's the only song I know; I had the 45, and played it til it skipped; "like a...like a...like a...."


5. Sultan's group : HAREM - Got it....the answer, not the women

6. Ottawa-based media org. : CBC - Canadian Broadcasting Corproation

7. Spirited : RAH-RAH

8. Norwegian saint : OLAF

9. Wielders of weapons called bowcasters : WOOKIEES - I just noticed that the word is spelled W-O-O-K-I-E-E - being in the down position, I was thrown off by the "I" and two "E"s...

10. Cuts : DOs - Haircuts kind of Dos

11. Emulated a rook : CAWED - Rook, the bird, not the chess piece; I am building a "rook table", and ran into an interesting problem - so now I have a question for the math whizzes on the blog here - see below

14. Puts together : ADDS

21. Berry hue : CERISE - had to dredge this word up from the depths

22. Change for the better : REFORM

24. Excited cry : "OOH~!"

26. Heel : CAD

28. Sorvino of "Mighty Aphrodite" : MIRA

30. Old bread, briefly : D-MARK - Deutsche Mark until the Euro in 2002 - that kind of bread

32. Bakers' buys : YEASTS - Dah!  Not doughs; but I guess they would MAKE those, wouldn't they....

34. Not well : SICKLY - Considered AILING

36. __ salad : TUNA

38. They're often busy at breakfast : TOASTERS

41. Square root of nove : TRE

42. D.C. school named for a president : GWU - A school?  In D.C.?  Named for a president?   Such a novel idea~!

45. Kia model : OPTIMA

48. Panache : STYLE -

50. Divulge, with "out" : BLURT

52. Memento __: reminder of mortality : MORI

54. Slow Churned ice cream : EDY's

56. Bone: Pref. : OSTE

58. Tribute of a sort : ODE

59. Yield a return : PAY

60. They follow the nus : XIs









 Splynter

 - The math problem - I designed the base of my Rook Table with a slope, and essentially, it's just crown moulding installed at the bottom, not the top.  I have a compound sliding mitre saw, but I was shocked to find that the two angles for the cuts ( bevel, mitre ) are NOT what I thought.  I had to go online to find them, because I couldn't do the math - so who here understands the math behind the numbers?


63 comments:

George Barany said...

Interesting looking grid from Mark Bickham, low word count, not too many black squares, themeless. And thanks Splynter for your enlightening explanation.

For an opposite experience, try Tim Croce's amazing Look Both Ways. High word count, many black squares, and 100% of the white squares are devoted to the puzzle's theme. As the "midrash " explains, that ties a record that will never be broken!

OwenKL said...

When performing for a really TOUGH CROWD
The HULLABALOO should get extra loud
Let UTTER CHAOS
Drown out the rampageous
May the spirited RAH RAHs make you proud!

The hairdresser loved to comment
On all the gossip mags' content.
You could get all the news
While getting new 'DOS,
Or tip extra for a SILENT TREATMENT!

Ms. Hilton is a well-monied heiress
With boyfriends from Vienna to Venice.
But one from the U.S.
Got especially fresh --
He was just an AMERICAN IN PARIS!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cryptic clue for a word in today's puzzle:

Polish area where flaw's cry of pain is heard (6)

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Man, I almost threw in the towel on this one. The right side filled in pretty easily, but the left side was just a sea of white for the longest time. I did have a few short answers in place, but they were (mostly) wrong and kept me from getting anything else until I just finally cleared out the entire section and started from scratch.

Lots and lots of stuff I just didn't know (or couldn't get from the clues). After my first pass through the grid, the only correct answers I had oo the left side were RIM and MIRA. Unfortunately, RIM led me to put in REVISE for 22D, which in turn led me to put in EAU for 43A. I also had ROC instead of MOA at 23A, which seemed to fit but which kept HAREM from view. I also really wanted HOLLY (as in Lauren) for 37A, but that messed things up even more.

Anyway, as I said, I eventually just wiped out everything on that side (except for MIRA at 28D which I knew HAD to be right) and started over. This time I started from the bottom and realized that 43A was probably MER and that gave me just enough of a foothold to get the job done.

Elsewhere, I would have had trouble getting AMID from the clue, except that today's NYT puzzle had the exact same clue and answer (which did cause me a lot of grief).

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

My first pass didn't yield very much. In fact, I continued doing POORLY until I changed it to SICKLY and then things started to work. In the end, this one came in right on time.

USN got my RH FACTOR wrong on my dogtags.

One minor nit. WELDing and Soldering are not the same. You WELD by heating metal to its melting point. You Solder by using a low-melting-point alloy to join less fusible metals together.

MOA was a gimme. Never thought of ROC. Splynter, your math was absolutely correct. BTW, I've never heard of a Rook Table. Can you post a picture of what you're trying to build? With your demonstrated skill with those percentages, I doubt I'll understand the table math any better.

The bicycle awaits....

Al Cyone said...

Nice 'n' crunchy (though, of course, I'd have a different opinion if I hadn't, eventually, heard the "TaDa!").

As others have previously observed, those long fills look daunting but when you get one you're in perp heaven.

More than my fair share of WAGs but I'll take what I can get. And I guess it's an indication of how long I've been visiting this blog that I now notice fills that will appeal to particular members (e.g. PUB and DRY MARTINI).

[17:12]

Big Easy said...

Well after three passes I finally finished this one. So many WAGS PERPS and UNKNOWNS.
1A-After getting GLEN and HAREM I penciled in LAUGH- wrong becasue BETWEEN THE LINES didn't fit and it was also wrong. But maybe the Fournier series had something to do with WINE- wrong again so I moved over to the NE and CASA was a gimme along with WELD and ABED- wrong again. Couldn't think of a movie that started with ABE and when I made it to the SE and got to PARIS it was corrected.
Honey-what's wrong? Nothing. The old SILENT TREATMENT.

CERISE SUNRA ANAT were WAGS and I have never thought of FETISH as a charm. Does anybody here know what ULTIMATE FRISBEE is? Damn, this is a TOUGH CROWD to please.

Well it's time for the Rhinestone Cowboy to go look for his HAREM TO satisfy his FETISH but his wife says he had better Walk ON BY before there is UTTER CHAOS following the HULLABALOO inside this house.

HeartRx said...

Good morning everyone!

Thanks for all the info, Splynter. I am all too familiar with soldering and WELDing, with all the plumbing we had to do next door. We also had to do the bevel/mitre cuts for lots of crown moulding. Do I understand the math? No.

NOT WBS! I had to opposite experience, and finished this one in my typical Thursday speed. The long fills helped tremendously. TOUGH CROWD and HULLABALOO filled immediately, along with OUTSIDE THE LINES, , AMERICAN IN PARIS and SILENT TREATMENT. RH FACTOR was also a gimme, having been in the field of Immunohematology for a good part of my career. So with all those in place, the other question marks pretty much got locked.

Gotta run and take a cat to the vet - bloody urine. I hate it when they get sick!

Yellowrocks said...

This one was a worthy challenge. I enjoyed it and Splynter's expo, as well. The eastern half was not that difficult, but I labored greatly over the western half. The long answers, except for TOUGH CROWD and UTTER CHOAS, were not too bad and provided many perps as was said above. ROC before MOA. LAUGH before TOUGH. WOOKIEES seemed so wrong, but the perps were good so I let it stand. Phew! TA DA without help.
I have read a lot about the American Indian cultures and some about the African cultures. There you find FETISH objects used as charms.
I loved essay tests in college. One essay test consisted of just one question answered by a very long essay. In the 1950's it seemed that many students from the south had never before been exposed to essay tests and really suffered. In my liberal arts undergraduate and graduate courses there were many essays and papers assigned as homework projects, as well.
Owen, I loved your poems. I got the Cryptic quickly, unusual for me. Still not my cuppa tea.
Today I need to clean and store away my camping equipment. I buy more,replace, repair as I store it so that I am ready to go next time.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! TOUGH CRO(ss)W(or)D! Mark gets the SILENT TREATMENT from me. Seemed like UTTER CHAOS with WAGs and random letters all over the grid for awhile. I saw a lot of red. Got 'er filled, but...

Thanks, Splynter. What the heck is a ROOK table?

I got KRAKOW only because one of the recent contestants on Jeopardy mentioned having visited that city. It was floating right on top of my mind when I needed it.

I don't ever remember seeing WOOKIEES in print.

My daughter invited me to the Mexican Fiesta this evening, but I'm too SICKLY to leave the CASA. OH DEAR! Phooey! A little tequila might help.

Thank you for correcting my misunderstanding about Marti last night. Such a relief to know.

Splynter said...

Hi again~!

OK, here's the AutoCAD drawing I made for the 'Rook Table' - it's just a "leg" for my EIK table slab. After looking for a table & chairs set I liked and not finding it, I decided to build the table and buy bar stool seating - and the drawer is a great convenience, too.

Splynter

Husker Gary said...

OH DRAT, OH CRAP, OH DARN, nope OH DEAR and CERISE/SUNRA/GENIES cost me three bad cells (along with an extra E in WOOKIEES) but I had a fun run in Mark’s impressive puzzle.

Musings
-The two eastern climbers and entire SE corner were gimme's and helped the effort. I had to read Splynter’s write-up to see the SW down answers I blew by.
-OUTSIDE THE LINES has exposed some of the seedy side of sports
-Even in grainy black and white, Joey Heatherton looks good doing the HULLABALOO (1:55)
-Great life advice that starts with “Go placidly AMID the noise and haste”
-I always worried about getting ICED IN with 100 kids in an airport
-The CTA has seats too!
-Anyone who says the Yankees scored 5 PTS in a game, is new to the sport
-A RAH-RAH coach
-REFORM schools are now called Juvenile Correctional Institutions
-When you WALK ON BY, at least Walk Like a Man
-Dontcha just love it when a politician accidently BLURTS out the truth?
-YR, wouldn’t you love ESSAY TESTS more today on a computer where you could edit easily

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning;

I meandered through most of this fairly quickly (for a Saturday) but was stymied by the northwest corner for quite some time. Eventually, I finished w/o help so it was a satisfying solve. Tin will be happy with pub and dry martini, but no so much with the appearance of the ominous _ _ _d in reference!

Nice job, Mark Bickham, and super expo, Splynter.

Have a great day.

desper-otto said...

OK, now I see why it's called a Rook Table -- the pedestal is shaped like a chess rook. If you place the crown molding against the saw table and fence as shown here you won't need a compound angle -- a simple 45'll do. Note that the molding is upsidedown from the way it'll be installed (ie: the top goes against the table and the bottom against the fence).

Yellowrocks said...

HG, yes the advent of word processing was a boon to me. I had it in time to write my master's thesis, which had to be revised and turned in every week. Without WP, constantly retyping the paper would have been impossible.
I have become much pickier about my writing, revising and revising. Adding, deleting, or moving a sentence, a paragraph or an entire section formerly would have necessitated retyping many pages. Even correcting a spelling error used to require retyping an entire page. How did we ever survive without WP?

desper-otto said...

YR, it's easier to survive without WP than it is without TP.

Husker Ergo said...

First time through and my copy was still as blank as a refrigerator door. I groaned that this would be another Saturday where the puzzle would lay around unfinished.

A rare treat though when the longer answers on the right side and bottom emerged. Gaps then filled quickly. Never did get "WOOKIEES" (did I spell that right?) so much of that section had to rely on cheat mode.

Splynter said...

AH~!

D-Otto, I couldn't place the trim against the fence, so I laid it flat - that's why the angles changed dramatically. It just fascinated me when I went online to see the math required to do it - and I have a digital readout on my CSM saw, so I could get right down to the tenths for best fit.

Splynter

Maverick said...

Not too tough, for a Saturday, but I did miss a couple of squares. I fell in with the ROUGHCROWD, and the obscure clue of "a holy one" without a hint as to which religion, left me with an equally obscure RHU. I also missed the "berry hue" clue. I had a left-over L from CERULE (variation of cerulean?) and the perp was no help to me, which left me with CERILE/LUNRA.

TTP said...

Hi all.

It took me three passes totaling 1 hour and 12 minutes over the last 5 hours or 6 to complete this one. The last pass included changing the game to Regular for the last pass.

And that's where I found my error. I thought there was an ESPN program called BETWEEN THE LINES.

Splynter, no idea on the math, but I've always cut crown by putting the piece upside down on the miter box and simulating the bed as the ceiling as shown in the image D-O posted.

It's errand day today. Off to Costco.



Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Got the 2 right down spanners and most of the right side early on. Then, after a break, the top fell. SW was last and ended up looking up ON BY in my crossword dict.
Had Warsaw before KRAKOW. GWU helped.

St. OLAF - Some years ago, when attending a conference in Trondheim, I had the privilege of touring the Nidaros Cathedral there. It was built over the tomb of St. OLAF, a former Viking. A part of one wall dates from the 12th century. At that time it was a pilgrimage site for Europeans and rivaled Santiago de Compostela in Spain as a destination.
Lutheran today, the Cathedral houses one of the world's great organs which we also heard played.

Anonymous T said...

Splynter - from the drawing you may need a spacer against the fence before cutting. Cool table. Thanks for the answers & write-up.

Oh, this pzl. Total DNF only the SE was done correctly. I had Venus for the probe named Dawn (made sense to me) and violet fit for 21d. Out west, I only knew ULTIMATE FRISBEE and other smatterings.

Good to see you back YR!

Cheers, -T

Misty said...

I came so close to getting this delightful Saturday puzzle--stymied only by WOOKIEE because, like an idiot, I had RFD instead of RFK for the DC airport. Even so, I thought it was pretty brave to leave in the totally improbable WOODIEE. But to get this close to solving a Saturday puzzle is pretty awesome for me, and on top of that--did anyone notice--a shout-out to me, MISTY! You've made my day, Mark--a million thanks!

Nice Cuppa said...

OwenKl

In re last night's teaser:

Those dog years (… and so ad infinitum?) (3,4)

Your first guess (Big Flea) was on the right track, but the wrong end of the series… I was looking for the smallest "fleas" (on their backs to bite 'em), which are arguably the bacteriophages, or more commonly "PHAGES", i.e., the viruses that infect bacteria.

Do the H-IT swap gives you PIT AGES = Dog Years

NC

HeartRx said...

MISTY, I did chuckle and think of you at 52-A. But by the time I wrote my comment, it had slipped my mind to mention it. Huzzah to you for coming so close to finishing, tho I would have loved to see WOODIE as the correct answer!! (^0^)

Lucina said...

Hello, Super Solvers!

For a Saturday I would say this was medium TOUGH,though it started with TOUGH HOUSE, but aided by the long fill which once completed lays out a world of perps as Al Cyone commented, it took my usual hour.

My first charm was ENTICE but OTERI REFORMed that one and then the entire West End almost magically flooded in place. In the SE, the only play by Sophocles I could recall was OEDIPUS REX which fit right in then since PARIS was nailed, AMERICAN IN also appeared to name the film.

One tiny error cost me though. I had WWU (Woodrow Wilson U.) so WENIES seemed acceptable. Wrong!
But this was fun, thank you, Mark Bickham and Splynter, too.

CSO to MISTY!

TOASTERS made me laugh.

Have a wonderful Saturday, everyone!

Yellowrocks said...

D/O @10:33 HA HA.
Also life without TTP would be less satisfying.
For 1D I suspected right away the answer would be something about Holy Week, Palm Sunday through Easter. The crossing T and H indicated Holy Thursday, another name for Maunday Thursday.

Tinbeni said...

Splynter: Excellent write-up explaining my Ink Blot ...

OK "_ _ _ D IN" was never going to be entered. I have my scruples, there low (of course) but I have them.
I will never enter "_ _ _" in a grid, or my glass.
I like Pinch NEAT!!!

So another DNF ... at least I admit them. lol

Faves today (surprise!) was that PUB crawl and DRY MARTINI. Go figure ...
RAH, RAH !!! (Those are rahs, Cheers from yesterday)

miss Beckley said...

I was so proud of myself! Finished a Saturday puzzle without resorting to Google or a dictionary. But after I read Splynter's comments, I realized I had fooled myself. I, too, went with the rough crowd (as is my wont), didn't go back and look at everything, so didn't have RFK Stadium, and I thought a bowcaster might be some sort of saw. Woodiees, anyone? Ah well, I felt good for about three minutes! Everyone have a great weekend!

Anonymous said...

the Greek alphabet is Alpha, Beta , Gamma, DELTA, EPSILON not Epsilon, Delta

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, A toughie, but I did finish with Google help. I had the same experience with the Eastern half of the puzzle, with the Western half very spotty. I looked up Outside The Lines and that helped a great deal with the rest of the western section.

I always try Saturday puzzles, but usually have to use helpers. I learn a lot by doing them this way, so can't claim I've finished the puzzle, but have educated myself for future times.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Tinbeni said...

Marti: re: "tho I would have loved to see WOODIE as the correct answer!! (^0^)"

Reminded me of the classic crossword clue "The _____ is mightier than the sword." for PEN IS ... lol

Nice Cuppa said...

BIND IT LIKE BICKHAM

Outstanding grid and fill, SIR. Sorry for the pun, which I am sure you have heard many times.

I had "TOUCH CHORD" for 1A which I still think is a better answer.

Most impressive to place Oedipus Rex above Dry Martini, even if it made Essay Tests (bit of an oxymoron?) sound rather limp.

Minor comments:

52D MORI. This might have been better clued since MORTALITY AND MORI clearly have the same root.

19A SINE. Again, I thought might have been better clued. Not every Fourier series contains a SINE function.

44A. Took me some time to figure which spelling - CRACOW, KRAKOW, KRAKOV(?)

9D. WOOKIEES - It would have helped to know that these were fictional characters. I was looking at W---IEES for a long time wondering what was wrong.

46A. I think of ANATOMY as a branch of MEDICINE rather than BIOLOGY, but it's acceptable.

Otherwise, great stuff.

NC

Nice Cuppa said...

...And finally today's cryptoclue

Play on words? One soft-center cleaner (10)

NC

Anonymous said...

NC
"PHAGES" wasn't in the puzzle yesterday.

Splynter said...

Hi again~!

Still out working on the table - thanks, Anon-T. I realized I could have run the boards thru on the slant, but I am still pleased to have read up on the math.

Spitz - I have always wanted to go to Europe and listen to a pipe organ recital in one of those cathedrals...

Misty, oh so sorry for missing that shout-out~!

Anon - nice catch on the Greek alphabet; I picked it because the Nu and Xi were in the middle of the list.

Splynter

Nice Cuppa said...

And post-finally, the answer to OwenKL's teaser is………….KRAKOW.

The key word here is "heard", so "sounds like" CRACK-OW.

A fine clue, sir although I believe the locals pronounce it CRACK-OV, but no matter.

NC

Nice Cuppa said...

And post-post finally

Anon. I apologize that I did not specify that the answer was not in yesterday's crossword. I wrote

Well here is a cryptic for your Friday evening based on today's theme.

I don't think there are any potential words other than the theme words themselves, but I will check.

NC

P.S. There is a typo in today's clue posted above. It should read:

Play on words? One soft-centered cleaner (10)

and yes the answer is in today's crossword.

Nice Cuppa said...

PPS

Anon

There are no words in yesterday's crossword containing "IT" (other than the theme words themselves, which cannot be distinctively reclued using the H-IT formula).

ANd the entry would have been PITAGES, not PHAGES

PPPS

Mr. Bickham- I meant to suggest that "Essay Tests" was a TAUTOLOGY, not an OXYMORON. Now who's the moron? Cuppa culpa.

NC

Anonymous T said...

Splynter - For giggles, I went back and re-reviewed the math for flat-cutting crown. Just what I (vaguely) remembered. I crowned daughter's room years ago and worked it all out. With a table-saw and a protractor, I started cutting. It never fit correctly. I reworked my math - nope good. I finally called dad.

"Idiot!" he said, "Do you really think the walls meet at 90 degrees? That's the problem with you engineers." I got my compound-miter the next day. :-)

Lucina - TOASTERS made be laugh too, but for a different reason I'm sure. In an episode of the Young One's Vivian eats the TV (to avoid the Telly-Tax) and, when confronted by the tax-man for having a cord hanging from his mouth, says "It's a TOASTER."

NC - I've got a 1/6 chance of being right - my guess is in the SE.

Cheers, -T

Unknown said...

My only mistake was the same as Lucina's. I had WWU and wondered why in the heck they'd name a school after Woodrow Wilson. Never even thought of George Washington. Doh!

Yellowrocks said...

I beg to differ with the claim that ESSAY TEST is a tautology. An essay is not necessarily a test and a test is not necessarily an essay, so both words are needed for clarity.
I would have found TOUCH CHORD extremely obscure. TOUGH CROWD is more accessible.
We surely studied much anatomy in biology courses. Citing just one aspect, the anatomy (or morphology or form) of plants and animals can be used to help to classify them. For example we discuss vertebrates and invertebrates based on their anatomy.
Thinking of essay tests, in a biology test we were asked why certain specific animals had ____s. I don't remember the details. You could take that two ways. How did they come to develop ___s? Of what use are ______s to them? In an essay I answered both questions instead of taking a chance on what was being asked. The prof was thrilled and read my answer to the class. It had not occurred to him that the question was ambiguous. An essay gives you a chance to combat ambiguity.

Avg Joe said...

Pretty tough outing, IMO. Managed to plod through it all up til that cross of Weld and Cawed. Didn't like W as in weld for the reasons D-O cited, and could not get off the chess piece to think of the bird for Rook, so Cawed never occurred to me. Left it open and declared it D!WGAS!

TTP, I've always used your method to install crown the few times I've done it with my standard box. It will work well enough most of the time, but it's really hard to get the copes right. I've used a Sawbuck a few times for other purposes, and they give you a cheat sheet (assuming you keep the instructions). I've read it, but never employed it.

Anon-T, your comment reminded me of a joke somebody here told a few months age (pretty sure it was BillG, but not positive.) Going from memory, so the details may suffer a bit:

A physicist, an engineer and a statistician went elk hunting. They spotted their prey 400 yards off and set up to take their shot.

The physicist went first. He calculated the slope, distance and drag while factoring in pressure and humidity to account for atmospheric altitude, but forgot to consider headwind. His shot fell 10 yards short.

Next the engineer tried. He used the physicists calculations and added a fudge factor to account for headwind. His shot went 10 yards long.

The statistician then jumped in the air and yelled: "We got him!!!"

Anonymous T said...

YR - Again welcome back! I seldom fail to learn from your posts.

Avg Joe: I think it was Bill G. too, but never fails to evoke a laugh. Forgive me if I've posted this joke before:

Two mathematicians are walking through the woods and happen upon a small fire.

One spots a nearby bucket of water sitting on a stump and douses the flames.

A week later the other mathematician is hiking alone and spots a small fire. Fortunately, there's a bucket of water next to a stump.

He places the bucket of water upon the stump and, QED, moves along.

Cheers, -T

Ol' Man Keith said...

Thought I'd kayo'd this from Mr. Bickham, but No-oo! I would have knocked it from the park if only CETISO had been a berry hue. But as it turned out, that made me lose in four (4 - count 'em!!) places.
Repairs made me change CETISO to CERISE, WOOKIRES to WOOKIEES (why TWO Es?), OH DRAT to OH DEAR, and GONIES to GENIES. All for ONE tiny mistake.
I've visited WARSAW, so had that first, but changed it to KRAKOW, where I have not been, in time to avoid that demerit. I remember what it was like traveling by train in the old Iron Curtain days. It was pretty much open windows for my Polish trip, but twenty years earlier, back when I first saw East Berlin, the train guards pulled all the shades while rolling through Germany's eastern half.
Nice to see An AMERICAN IN PARIS. Have been thinking about George Gershwin lately. His biopic, Rhapsody in Blue, was on TCM this week. Like all Hollywood bios from that era it plays fast and loose with the facts, but it was still shocking. Hard to believe he died before age 40! What a tremendous loss. Can you imagine the music we might have had from the genius who gave us THIS!?

Unknown said...

Regarding the answer to 33A, I knew immediately that the answer was FETISH. As a collector of Native American art, I'm very familiar with their animal fetishes (charms). In fact, I own a bear fetish carved out of stone.

I knew the answer to 11D right away. I'm also a collector of American art pottery and own several Rookwood pieces, including a rook statuette and a decorative tile with a rook on it.

Unknown said...

Keith, thanks for the link. I'm not normally a big fan of instrumentals, but I love "Rhapsody in Blue."

Ol' Man Keith said...

I do believe it is a long established fact among cruciverbalists that there is in all of Asia but one holiday, and it goes by the name of

TET.

Bill G. said...

I agree with D-O about welds and soldering. Knowing how careful and picky Rich is about certain things, this clue seems a bit off.

It looks as if the BBC is not immune either. I was watching Endeavor. Inspector Morse was questioning a suspect who said, "She clung to Miss Symes and I like ..."

Avg Joe, yep, that sounds like me. I like it in any case.

Splynter said...

Hi again~!

I was hoping to see BillG stop in with some mathematical wizardry....

anyway, here's how far I got with the table today. More work tomorrow~!

Rook Table

Splynter

Jayce said...

Awesome puzzle! Had to look up SUN RA. The GH and O in 1A encouraged me to pencil in LAUGHALOUD. In fact, I did laugh aloud at TOASTER.

Anonymous said...

Nice Cuppa, please obey the rules of the blog and stop over-posting. None of us are special.

Avg Joe said...

OK, I've been doing some Pandora this afternoon....just heard a WOW offering by Trace Bundy playing Canon in D. Wonderful! Click here for ear candy. BillG, don't miss this!

TTP said...

Hi all.

Checking back in after a day full of errands, and while there is a lull.

Love reading all the comments.

But, Yellowrocks, are you sure that, "Also life without TTP would be less satisfying." was what you intended ? Perhaps your type-a-matic setting on your keyboard is too fast on the T's ? But I will take it as a compliment ! Thank you. I will promise not to try to dangle any participles in front of you, and not have any more sentences ending with prepositions. Can't commit to ending my run on sentences; they are my specialty.
I am open to corrections.

And Avg Joe, I think we would both agree that a compound miter saw makes the job easier, and causes less waste. At least for me. I couldn't count the number of times I slid the blade to the wrong side of the table. A good coping saw and knowing how to use it can overcome many inside corner issues on crown. I'm ok, but not as highly skilled as my buddy that makes a living as a trim carpenter.

Looks good Splynter !

Lucina said...

Today's lesson for me was the spelling of WOOKIEES. I had WOOK__ but then took a long while to proceed since I had COGITATE but when MEDITATE occurred to me, those strange creatures emerged.

NancyMurphy:
Great minds! or in my case, maybe wayward minds.

Misty said...

Splynter, forgot to thank you for the terrific pictures today! They make so many answers come to life!

BV Ahlers said...

YR, if you had not questioned/disputed Essay Tests as tautology, I would have! An essay is a written article, for school, for a newspaper, etc while a test can be a written response but often is some other response.
Out west the slow-churned is Dreyers not Edys.

Bill G. said...

Splynter, I'd be happy to provide my input but as yet I don't really understand the problem and what you are trying to figure out. Help?

That would be "None of us is special" I think.

Avg. Joe, very impressive. I've never heard anything quite like it. Thanks.

Anonymous T said...

Nice corners Splynter! That's going to be a nice table. Have you decided if you're going to play as white or black? (how do you plan to finish it?) Cheers, -T

Avg Joe said...

Cool table, Splynter!

What is that wood? Alder?

Chairman Moe said...

A distant cousin of OEDIPUS REX,
An ETRUSCAN named Lascivious Lex;
Alas, had no Mother,
Nor Sister or Brother,
What? No relatives with which to have sex??!

OK, that's a bit of a stretch . . .

BTW, Mark Bickham, I enjoyed the puzzle. I did the East Coast first and then wandered all over the grid. Had more white spaces than normal, but after plucking all of the low hanging fruit, I managed to fill in most of the puzzle. I, too had ROUGH CROWD/RHU and didn't consider TOUGH/THU to complete the 1D. 62A was a good clue/answer.

My sister - like Nancy Murphy - is a collector of Native American art, etc, and has several FETISHes. She too, likes bears. All of the "bear" ones seem to have a fish along with, so for me, those are the best value for the dollar. These "charm" fetishes are not cheap! Especially those carved from turquoise . . .

Yellowrocks said...

TTP @ 5:52, you are welcome. Far be it from me to be your grammar Nazi. I am at the low end of the strict constructionists on this blog. Casual everyday speech and writing are evolving rapidly and are not incorrect for these purposes. We do not wear tuxedos to beach parties.
Some bloggers here are are even more "correct" than the style manuals which do not apply to casual circumstances.
Splynter,cool table. Please show us the end result when you are finished.

Splynter said...

Hi again~!

BillG, doing crown moulding with the wood in the 45degree position on the saw means simple 45d cuts. Lay it flat, and you can still make the same cuts - but the bevel and mitre angles are now different. I don't understand the math to get to those numbers - even after cheating and looking them up online.

I was going to try oak, but decided on pine for the wood, because I figured I'd paint it like a castle, stone finish with a brick-like pattern.

I have to admit, I like the corners, too, Anon-T, but it's all in the saw, my friend~!

Splynter

PK said...

AvgJoe: you said it, WOW on the guitarist. He has some different moves!

Keith, thank you for the "Rhapsody in Blue".

Splynter, table is looking good. Let us see the finished project please. What is an EIK slab?