Well, a very enjoyable visual (rebus) puzzle from our first LAT constructor on the change (March 23, 2009). While Rich does not publish actual crossword rebus puzzles where multiple letters fit in one square, he does present these where you have to use your imagination to see the theme. I really had fun with this one; we have four down clues for songs where the title is scrambled with words missing. It really helps if you recall the exact song title. To make the clues work, you had to have the theme in the downs, except the first which work across or down. Symmetry dictated the grid. For the many newbies or relative newbies, C.C. interviewed Mr. Harrison way back WHEN. We have another high word count Friday, with a few fun mid-range fill:AILMENT, BATGIRL, BREWSKI, DOORMAT, SPUMONI, TELECOM and some tricky/humorous clues. Lots of music here for the taking. Let's go.
4D. 1973-'74 Jim Croce hit, aptly : A TIME BOTTLE. ("Time IN 'A Bottle' ") The trickiest and most fun of the theme. If your brain started humming the song, and the IN A kept coming up, you can see the word TIME is inserted in the phrase A BOTTLE, hence the clue/fill. LISTEN. (2:29)
8D. 1964 Marvin Gaye/Mary Wells hit, aptly : ONCE A TIME. ("Once UPON a Time") I did not remember this SONG. (3:04)
27D. 1989 Bette Midler hit, aptly : MY WINGS WIND.("Wind BENEATH My Wings") LINK.(4:35). This is a simple picture of the placement of the words.
33D. 1936 Eddy Duchin hit, aptly : MOON MIAMI. ("Moon OVER Miami") LINK. We do have some lovely moons over the ocean here in SoFla. Also a straightforward visual.
Here we go again into the fray...
Across:
1. Pinky-side arm bone : ULNA. Cute way of saying the outside one of the pair of bones. Meanwhile, I can't believe they killed off another character on Bones. I wonder if the actor just demanded too much money or asked to leave to not play third fiddle and become a lead.
5. Vibrate : THROB. I like this word and how it sounds like it feels.
10. Lurking locale : BLOG. Well here we all are, I started as a lurker here, finding an answer I filled in but did not understand.
14. Ferrari parent company : FIAT. Hard to believe they produce both of these
15. Spanish royal : REINA. Queen.
16. Furnish anew : REDO.
17. "A Total Departure" hotel chain : OMNI. Is this still their marketing? I think it goes back a few years.
18. Put into effect : ENACT. Did you all watch how Governor Scott was 'enacting' at the debate Wednesday night? Not politics, just humor.
19. Took too much : ODED. This very serious term has become a catch all for overdoing anything.
20. Neapolitan kin : SPUMONI. Spumone, plural spumoni, is a molded Italian ice cream made with layers of different colors and flavors, usually containing candied fruits and nuts. Typically it is of three flavors, with a fruit/nut layer between them. Wikipedia
22. Massage beneficiary : EGO. Love this misdirection.
24. Sticky stuff : GOO.
25. Earth, in Essen : ERDE. Not in my limited German vocabulary.
26. Cold, for one : AILMENT.
28. Anchor man? : SWABBY. A fun clue especially after the Will Ferrell movies.
31. Occurring as an isolated instance : STRAY. I had trouble sussing this definition.
32. "Me too!" : SO DO I? I want some Ice Cream! Maybe some LINK.
33. Work hard : MOIL. I always put in toil and end up here.
34. Baylor Bears' home : WACO. The gave us RG III and now they are a top 5 team.
38. "My Honky Tonk History" album maker Travis : TRITT.
39. First note of a tuba solo? : OOM pah pah.
40. Kept from sticking : OILED.
41. On its way : SENT.
42. Pour affection (on) : DOTE. I dote on my Charlotte.
43. Catty : SNIDE. Not the definition I thought of at first.
44. Extremely foolish : LOONY. The Minnesota and Corner bird is the Loon.
46. Macbeth's "fatal vision" : DAGGER.
47. Sprint, for one : TELECOM. A portmanteau?
50. Minor players : COGS.
51. Color-coded EPA meas. : AQI. Air Quality Index.
52. Prefix with athlete : TRI. A nice view of differing ways to do three letter clues/fill.
53. Cold one : BREWSKI. hear? here? for beer.
57. Failure : BUST. I guess from poker where you lose all your money and go bust.
59. Shows up in time for : MAKES. Nice of you to make it to the Corner.
61. Sews up : ICES.
62. Athens apéritif : OUZO.
63. Dante's love : AMORE. Just the Italian word.
64. Dundee dissents : NAES. Scotland's NO, maybe a sub-theme? 67A. Villain named Julius : DR NO. How many were slowed by the name DRNO?
65. Bone: Pref. : OSTEoporosis for example.
66. Two sheets to the wind? : TIPSY. Three sheets and you are drunk.
Down:
1. Tabloid craft : UFOS.
2. It can result from favoring one side : LIMP.
3. Sitcom sign-off word : NANU. Rest well Mork.
5. All the rage : TRENDY.
6. 1932 Lake Placid gold medalist : HENIE. To our gone but not forgotten figure skater Clear Ayes and the others, this CHAMPION. (3:30).
7. River inlet : RIA.
9. Barbara Gordon's alter ego : BAT GIRL. Apparently there have been THREE in the movies.
10. Good buddy : BRO.
11. Window __ : LEDGE.
12. Ancient theater : ODEON. Lots of vowels, good for crossword building.
13. Title character absent from the cast : GODOT. We are still waiting.
21. Round trip? : ORBIT. Actually part of a round and round trip.
23. Suffix with pay : OLA. The SCANDALS are now ancient history.
28. Droop-nosed fliers : SSTS.
30. Match point, maybe : AD IN. Tennis term where the server needs one more point to win the game.
31. Like a well-used chimney : SOOTY. Dick Van Dyke, anyone.
35. Sacha Baron Cohen persona : ALI G. This flame burned out rather quickly, now FXX is trying to bring about his REZURECTION.
36. Yield : CEDE.
37. Frankfurt's river : ODER. It also is the Polish/German border. One of many four letter European rivers you must know. Oder, Ider, Isar, Eder, Yser
40. Oklahoma native : OSAGE. The original natives. Two days in a row. Clued very differently. Is it rarer to have fill two days in a row or in the LAT and NYT the same day? Owen?
42. Something that may hide a key : DOORMAT.
45. Canadian Thanksgiving mo. : OCT. They just celebrated this on Monday.
46. Big name in the Big Band Era : DORSEY. Tommy and Jimmy, listen LINK. (3:11).
47. Verboten : TABOO. What an appropriate clue to precede....
48. Shaffer play about a stableboy : EQUUS. The interesting but controversial 1973 play about a young man with a religious/sexual fixation on horses. The character is naked for much of the last part of the play, which created an extra dimension when it was revived with Daniel Radcliffe(Harry Potter) playing the role at 17.
49. Symphonic poem pioneer : LISZT. Talk about prolific, here is a LIST of LISZT.
54. Lasting mark : SCAR.
55. Finely honed : KEEN. Both a knife and a sense of humor.
56. "That __ last week!" : IS SO. So is this phrase.
58. Corn site : TOE. If you ever wondered, the name is from the Latin CORNU meaning horn. Not sure that helped.
60. Keystone lawman : KOP. Alliteration made these characters so much funnier. LINK. (3:31).
Well you do not get to see my pratfalls or silliness, just my words, but Mack Sennett would be proud. I hope you had a good time with this Pancho presentation, a fine Friday (thanks PH). Lemonade out.
66 comments:
Morning, all!
My brain is not fully engage this morning due to staying up late to watch the Pats game last night, but I still managed to get through this one pretty easily. I got the theme early on (although I initially thought that every answer would involved TIME), but struggled with MOONMIAMI. Partially because I just didn't know the song, and partially because I had TOIL instead of MOIL and LOOPY instead of LOONY. TOOP (over) MIAMI didn't make much sense, however, so after a little reflection I went with MOON instead.
Go Pats!
Greetings!
Interesting puzzle, Pancho, and great expo, Lemon!
Those songs were rather baffling. Finally figured out what two must be. No cheats.
Horrible 2.5 hours in the dentist chair. Came home in horrible pain (after lots of pain).
Had a doctor's appt. yesterday. Harvey took me on errands, too. Scooter had to be coaxed several times to run. Came home and forgot to blog. But enjoyed yesterday's effort also.
Happy belated birthday to very prolific CED and to Blue Hen, also!
Have a great weekend, all!
Make that "engaged". Or "in gear," for that matter. Did I mention how tired I am?
Oh -- did anybody else go with THRUM before THROB?
Morning! (You may notice the "good" is absent.)
Big DNF for moi. I was certain ALIG was wrong, and as it turns out, that's just about the only thing that was right. I had TOIL (not MOIL), ADORE (not AMORE) and ACES (not ICES). That left me with TOONMIADI and MYWINGSWAND for two of the theme answers. Fie! For shame! The PH was just too high today.
And yes, Lemon, "this" is a word.
Coincidental Crossword Watch has had nothing to report for a few days, and today's isn't an exact match, though the clues were the same.
ST 30d. "Me too" : AS AM I
LAT 32a. "Me too!" : SO DO I!
Lemon, I haven't been keeping tabs, but editors (Norris at least) seem to purposely schedule puzzles with repeating words. Get them firmly embedded in our brains, and then we'll never see them again. It's a plot to overload our minds with trivia! But it's also a choice the editor knowingly makes. The cognates between two puzzles with non-colluding eds is something else.
I have never heard the word, MOIL. It was my only problem. I used red letter help, so a DNF, but I never had to make a run of the alphabet.
I couldn't figure out the theme. Thanks, Lemonade, for the explanation. (Charlotte looks cute as ever!)
Thanks for the condolences. Grandkids from Hawaii are still here. Commander texted AF son to watch effects of hurricane Ana before family flies to Honolulu. May need to change ticket dates.
Montana
Well I ALMOST completed this puzzle with the exception of one letter that started 33A & 33D. I have never heard of the word MOIL(I had TOIL) and TO ON MIAMI didn't make since. I knew TIME IN A BOTTLE (and Big Bad Leroy Brown) and WIND BENEATH MY WINGS, but the other two songs were complete blanks.
The NE was the last to be filled because of the misdirecting clue of 10A. I guess we are all 'lurking'. Other unknowns filled by perps were BAT GIRL, GODOT, EQUUS, AQI, OCT, OMNI, LISZT, and ALI G. My mother was a piano teacher from a very small town in Texas and she asked her boyfriend ( my dad) to get the sheet music for Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #2 when he went to Dallas. The whole store stopped and asked him to play it and he informed them the only key he knew was middle C.
The SPUMONI down here is in the colors of the Italian Flag. I love it.
Big Easy, I like the simplicity of the spumoni!
Montana, thank you and our best to you and your family.
We have had MOIL a few times over the years I have been here, but not in a long while. It really does not feel right, but maybe NC or Steve are more accustomed tot he usage.
This one flummoxed me. I even had MY WIND WINGS and wondered why? After resorting to Google for several entries I saw the theme. Dang! It should have been easy. And then...I was so sure of TOIL, even though I know MOIL, but the getting the theme would have corrected that.
Belated happy birthday, Blue Hen. Those were nifty cakes.
So sorry for your dental pain, Fermatprime. I hope it lets up soon.
Hello Puzzlers -
Really struggled with this one, until at long last I had enough reliable bits and pieces to suss the theme. After that it was a matter of guessing at unfamiliar song titles; Toon over Miami somehow made sense at the time...
Irish Miss from yesterday - actually, I'm an equal opportunity cat/dog fan. We have had only cats the last 20 years for reasons of geography. Now that we've moved we really want a doggie!
Excerpt from The Optimist’s Good Morning
by Florence Hobart Perin
Suppose a kindly word of mine
Could lift the clouds and bring sunshine;
Am I my brother’s keeper?
Suppose the weary worker toils
For scanty pittance delves and MOILS;
Am I my brother s keeper?
Suppose in penury and fear
My neighbor see the wolf draw near;
Am I my brother s keeper?
Perhaps — who knows? — perhaps I'm not!
Self-centred soul! hast thou forgot
The marvel of our common lot?
The mystic tie that binds us all
Who dwell on this terrestrial ball
Stupendous hope of time and song.
The bourne for which the ages long?
How hard our hearts must seem to Thee,
Exhaustless Fount of Charity!
Thank you Pancho and Lemon.
Had my 'aha!' moment early with A TIME BOTTLE and then nailed MY WINGS WIND. But that's where the fun ended.
Most incomplete puzzle I've had in a long time.
The Cremation of Sam McGee
By Robert W. Service
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who MOIL for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.
Good Morning:
This was a very enjoyable puzzle with a clever theme and some tricky cluing. But, alas, it was a FIW due to careless, unchecked spelling: oozo/ouzo crossing Equos/Equus.
Dudley, I don't dislike cats but have never had them, whereas dogs were more present in my life. Do you have a particular breed in mind when you decide to get one?
Fern, so sorry to hear about your pain. I hope relief is on the way.
Lemon, that ball looks bigger than Charlotte! Is her hair getting more red? It's a darling picture, but, then again, she's very photogenic.
Thelma, your crossed-fingers (except when typing!) must be working as I am still signed in! Hooray.
YR, thanks for sharing that lovely poem.
Last but not least, thanks to Pancho and Lemonade for a fun Friday frolic!
Have a great day.
Croce, Time, Bottle – OMG, I get it! Okay not until MOON over MIAMI (had to discard TOIL and learn MOIL just like you did) but still… What a hoot!
Musings
-The NE corner about did me in – TAR/GOO, PAL/BUD/AMI/BRO were the main culprits.
-It’s nice when our Lurkers come out of the electronic closet
-I massaged an EGO for quite a while and he still disappointed me when I needed him.
-Pearl S. Buck in Deutsch with 25 Across
-Have you ever said Dang! after hitting SEND? Me too.
-Could you stand being a COG in this well OILED machine?
-Ursula Andress’ bikini was more memorable than Julius
-Those UFO’S always seem to land in trailer courts and not at MIT
-Schools with no walls were TRENDY in the 70’s. Almost every vestige of that nonsense has been retrofitted and is gone. Ask C.C. if you’d like to teach next to someone with my voice and no buffering wall.
-A poignant book about a window sill (LEDGE) and real teaching
-Under the DOORMAT. No burglar would think to look there.
-Pithy CB’ER dialogue (4:02) sung by Omaha adman C.W. McCall
-That song above IS SO 70’s
YR, a wonderful poem. If it weren't by a woman, I'd think it was a Masonic poem, with mention of the "mystic tie" and a couple other terms with ritual significance. But of these people who think they didn't know moil, I wonder how many had not only seen it before, but even memorized it in the Service poem? 'Fess up, folks!
Nearly threw in the towel on this one, but kept at it and won out. Oddly, the area that gave me the most trouble was the only song I could think of with certainty from the clue alone: Time in a Bottle. First theme answer to fall was Once Upon a Time, which I've never heard, and that helped tremendously. Also didn't know Moon Over Miami (and of course had penciled in Toil and Loopy), but with the gimmick solved, that became clear quickly.
I learned to read, in part, by reading the Works of Robert W. Service. So I've known the word moil all my life. But doubt I've ever seen it outside poetry and crosswords.
All in all, a fun puzzle that seemed worth the extra effort it took to git er done.
Lots of MOIL today. I did not get the theme until I came here although I had all the songs.
CSO re Canadian Thanksgiving. No more turkey for a while please!
PRO before TRI, MOIL before TOIL. Thanks Owen KL for the Robert Service poem - I hadn't heard it for a long time. Yes I certainly memorized it in public school. Thanks also YR for the other poem.
I thought clue for UFOS required a plural but I see that for vessels it is NOT required.
I have stayed at the OMNI King Edward in Toronto. Stately old hotel!
What will Tin say about 61A and 53A??
Not being familiar with any of the song titles except "Time in a Bottle" made this impossible for me. I didn't suss the omissions in the theme, so finishing with all but a few letters missing was a complete fluke and due to unprecedented WAGs.
I ended with GOOFY/LOONY, TOIL/MOIL, ACES/ICES and -RNO. I didn't remember Macbeth's vision being a DAGGER, and didn't know ALI G either, so the G remained blank.
See you all again Monday.
Owen, thanks for the lovely poem. I had forgotten about it. I have always liked The Cremation of Sam McGee.
HG, I taught in an open space, no walls school. There were half walls (2½ ft.)between the hall and the classrooms with steps and/or corners between the rooms as in some modern homes. The kids and teachers soon learned not to be distracted, but it drove visitors and student teacher supervisors nuts.
Visiting instructors from museums, etc. raised their voices louder and louder until the whole school was shouting. They were incredulous that the secret was for teachers to lower their voices.
No walls were really no problem, unless you were a teacher who didn't want your teaching observed constantly. However, there was no advantage to it, either.
The "whole language" craze was occurring at the same time. Now that was a problem.
Good morning everyone!
What an adorable picture of Charlotte, Lemony. I can see why you DOTE on her so much.
Barry G., yes for "thrum" before THROB! And I also fell for the tOIL / MOIL trap. But I knew the song "Moon Over Miami," so that was quickly corrected.
The theme was cute, and I figured out the gimmick right away with A TIME BOTTLE, but I didn't care for the repeat of TIME - in a bottle and once upon it. Really?
OwenKL, yes I remember the Robert Service poem well. And I'm ashamed to admit, "The Optimist's Good Morning" was a complete unknown.
TGIF!!
Irish Miss 9:39 - ah, there's the thing. We don't have a specific breed in mind, and we don't want to rule out a rescue dog. Our only firm criteria are 1) the dog must be light enough to be picked up by an aging fellow and chucked in the car for a vet trip, and B) it absolutely must not be a dog with yappiness in its DNA.
Apart from that we're flexible!
I LURK about about the blog all the time. :) Now, I have to comment on the death of Sweets on Bones. I read that the actor is finding success as a director and requested a significant amount of time off for a project. The writers/network felt that he will likely have more success (he's pretty good, I guess) necessitating more time off so decided the best course of action was to kill off his character. I am sooo sad but think it gives the remaining characters a great challenge. Thanks for mentioning one of my favorite shows (and characters)!
My "puzzling thoughts" after back-to-back late night Wine Tastings ...
Finished yesterday and today; found them both a good challenge for Thurs/Fri - had a tough time getting the themes, though
Hand up for confusing PAL/BRO; SOAMI/SODOI; ACES/ICES; TOIL/MOIL - I thought MOIL was the name given to the Rabbi who performs circumcisions!
Once I got A TIME BOTTLE and MOON MIAMI (after realizing that the MOIL was correct ... I guess it IS work to remove the extra skin!) the "theme" appeared - did not know the song ONCE (upon) A TIME, though
Kudos to Pancho on the puzzle and to Lemony for the great recap. A belated HBD to CED and Bluehen.
Hope all have a great weekend! My Pitt Panthers won on National TV last night so I am pleased!
That was an enjoyable challenge. Hand up for MOIL/TOIL. (Chairman Moe, your circumcision pro is a Moyle.)
Two unlikely best pals.
YR,
I was interested in your comment about the no-walls-school. I didn't experience that, but I did note that when on a few occasions, I had laryngitis, and had to whisper, the kids would all whisper too when answering questions. Seems like speaking quietly made them listen more intently too.
Lemon: Thank you for explaining my Ink Blot ... DNF/FIW!
But there were some things I enjoyed ...
Faves, of course, were BREWSKI and OUZO which will get you TIPSY if you imbibe them together.
I'm glad I never "Sews up" my scotch (Or fill in that word in crossword puzzles).
Looking forward to the World Series ... probably will be rooting for the KC Royals (along with Husker).
... Just wish they started the series this weekend. Too many "off-days" before it begins.
A toast to ALL at Sunset.
Cheers!!!
Thanks, Bill G for the spelling update. While I remember "phonics" as a subject from my elementary school days, I wasn't raised on them! And I was sort of saying that tongue-in-cheek, as I figured the circumcisor (sp?) was not spelled MOIL! I know there's gotta be a limerick or pun to accompany this separate "thread", but I have a full afternoon at work . . .
We're off on a trip to Riverside today where I'm a featured speaker at a conference tomorrow--speaking on James Joyce's 'Finnegans Wake.' Crazy week trying to pack and get ready for a short trip, since we return on Monday. Still, tried the puzzle this morning and did better than I feared, though I had many of the same problems as fellow bloggers. Got GODOT early, which helped, and knew TIME IN A BOTTLE but was flummoxed by the order of the words. Still, fun, and thanks for all the explanations, Lemonade.
Dear Ferm, take good care of yourself. Canadian Eh, got OCT thanks to your presence on the blog. Neat poems today.
Have a great weekend, everybody, and see you next week!
Please, please, please...
...can we get someone else to do the Friday write-ups?!
Lemonade@8:28
My MacDic describes MOIL as "Archaic, Dialect or chiefly N. American); so it is not my dialect, and I fail (more or less on the other 2 counts), but from what I can gather:
MOIL is found in late Middle English with the sense of "smear with something sticky".
It is found in modern English 16th Century, chiefly in the rhyming couplet "TOIL and MOIL" - maybe "work and sweat"; and eventually it lost its distinct meaning, and (apparently) most of its usage.
NC
Well actually guys, the ritual of brit (or bris) milah is performed by a mohel Hebrew: מוֹ×”ֵל, which sounds like both moil or moyle but is neither or both. While many are rabbis, many are not, often a doctor performs the ritual, or a cantor.
In history a man could toil
and make his living as a moil(mohel)
But the religion is now more hip.
So next time you see someone clip
Don't be shocked if it's a goil
Greetings, Super Solvers!
Thanks for an enjoyable review, Lemonade and I can't blame you for doting on adorable Charlotte.
Well, some of this puzzle was fun and then I caught the song scramble which added to the amusement. For some reason though WIND would not come to mind and that whole corner was a mess since BREWSKI is not in my wheelhouse. I was thinking of GRETSKI, the great hockey player.
TOIL then MOIL which I learned the same way many of you did, in poetry. And I should know AQI as we've seen it numerous times but I automatically put U after Q and never looked back.
Loved the cluing for ORBIT.
Ferm, please feel better. You are always in my nightly prayers. Montana, I hope the pain is slowly dissipating.
I hope all are having a blissful Friday!
Man oh man, I didn't get the theme at all! The song names made no sense to me whatsoever. After finishing the puzzle (on paper) I had no idea whether I had the correct answers or not. It turns out I didn't, having entered TOIL instead of MOIL and TOONMIAMI making as much sense to me (namely none) as MOONMIAMI would have.
The puzzle was fun to solve anyway, and had some very cool clues and fill.
On the the same page as the puzzle, our local paper informed us that 200 years ago today a large vat of BREWSKI became TIPSY and caused the London Beer Flood.
More here.
It's almost lunch time and I can get a quick word off to all the bloggers and lurkers to say this was a fun puzzle! I guess that's because I got it quickly and the only goof was spumone instead of spumoni. I giggle whenever I hear Moon Over Miami because once a LONG time ago, I went spinnaker flying and did just that. After being hoisted up by the wind beneath my sail, I found that my bikini bottom was around my ankles. There's a choice you make when you're about 25 feet over the ocean and you don't want to let go and fix the problem. Do they still race the Columbus Day Regatta? BTW, I like all the explainers, always. Thanks and off to my moiling.
The prologue to
The Cremation of Sam McGee
By Robert W. Service
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.
It goes on. I love this poem.
Sheesh, OwenKL beat me to it. I gotta read all your comments before posting mine.
It wouldn't be Friday without Lemony's witty blogging.
My unbridged American dictionary says that MOIL, meaning wet or smear is archaic. MOIL meaning hard work or drudgery (noun or verb) is common and there are many recent examples of it, at least in American writing.
There is another meaning of MOIL in use today: a jumble of sound or motion, uproar or turbulence.
From the Guardian, June 2012:
"......enormous, beautiful blackboard drawings. Some are near-empty, just turbid blackness; others are filled with moiling rapids and rushing rivers."
Wow ! They're circumsizing goils now ? Is no one safe ?
Hi Y'all! Shocked myself by getting the theme with TIME (in A) BOTTLE so that helped with the others. Fun puzzle, Pancho! I had MOON & tried to put in "river" which ran red immediatly. I didn't know the Marvin Gaye song, so just perped it in.
Hadn't heard of Travis Tritt in years and though he'd died. However, he is still touring according to Google and will be in Kansas City, MO next month. Go Royals!
I was thinking Barbara Eden. Gordon? Who zat? I tried "Jeannie" for the alter ego. Bat Girl? don't remember that.
Tried OoZO before OUZO.
No, no! Don't replace Lemonade! Really dumb idea.
My youngest brother had a heart attack early yesterday morning. He got immediate attention and they put in a stint to correct some blockage. He is doing well, but also has Parkinson's. He is a college professor who directs medical research labs. He was trying to talk them into letting him go back to work after the stint was installed. He's still in ICU. After my oldest of 3 brothers survived a stroke in July and is now having radiation for prostate cancer, we're a little on edge when the phone rings.
Sorry, my limerick was based on the emergence of female rabbis and mohels. It was intended to be a light-hearted response to the Chairman. I am no expert, but I have read of the circumcision of females in different cultures, and apparently also here in the US.
I don't read this blog often since most of the LA Times puzzles are gettable. The last time I did there were only 4 commenters. Today, what a surprise.
The puzzle was easy but I did mess up with one letter, so technically I have a DNF. I now know how to spell spumoni.
Ron Diego La Mesa, CA
lemony you are so transparent. it's obvious what you are doing.
Lemonade:
I was thinking about that very practice of mutilating girls especially in Africa. I believe the model, Iman, is actively working to eradicate it. Thanks for mentioning it.
Hi gang -
I'll admit to having seen MOIL before, but . . .
Anyway, I made it, though with lots of head scratching and overwrites: LUBED, TOIL, SO AM I, ACES, DANGER.
Also many empty cells for a long time. Finally sussing the theme led to corrections and a few helpful perps.
And yes, DR NO did trip me up.
Though I do not like this kind of theme, it was brilliantly executed.
Happy weekend. I'm going to my 50 [gasp] year class reunion tomorrow.
Cool regards!
JzB
Lucina 1:46 - of all the abominable cultural practices still present on Earth, that has to be among the worst. May it be eradicated soon.
First, the puzzle: I did not care for the theme. Too tricky for me. I got the "tada" moment but only with great perseverance and overruling what logically seemed wrong in my brain, but were required to accommodate those darned theme entries. Thank goodness for perps.
Secondly: thank all of you for the very kind birthday wishes yesterday. Marti, as you probably know, that image on the cake link is Youdee, the mascot of the University of Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens athletic teams. I thought about using him as my avatar, but 1) I couldn't find an isolated picture of him, and 2) I haven't the foggiest idea of how to create an avatar. CC, thanks for the kind thought. At first I thought about dissuading you since at this stage of my life celebrating a natal anniversary is pretty redundant, but then again being remembered does touch the heart. Thank you all.
Happy Friday everybody!
Was shocked as hell to get the Ta-Da today. The theme V8 can hit me with about 10% to go, which helped immensely, namely by forcing me to change TOIL to MOIL....
Pretty racy puzzle today, Pancho, what with LIMP, THROB. BUST, HENIE, EQUUS and TABOO.... Or is that just me...?
Misty, you're in Riverside today? That's me waving at you from my window LEDGE at work, since I'm MOILing away at work today....
QOD: "My Big Fellows! My Giants!" - Jim Mutrie, co-owner and manager of the New York Gothams, who soon thereafter (1885) changed their name to the New York Giants....
Finally, Happy Belated Birthdays to CED and BlueHen...!
Very late to the party due to Friday overload. I wanted to do a puzzle, & boy was I puzzled. I had 14 nits, but I see they have pretty much already been covered, so, Wees... However...
5A vibrate = throb? I only had the "H" am I the only one who inked "shake?"
28A Anchorman = swabby No, don't like it. Don't like it at all. So what if it's in the dictionary, as far as i'm concerned you can stick it in your ear...
34A baylor bears, out of desperation, I cheated, & Google told me they were in West Virginia???&^%$&^%^$#@^*&(the W fit too, just try & fit wva in 4 spaces!!!)AARRGH!
44A Nobody had goofy before loony?
50A minor players = cogs. Now yesterday I learned that cogs are gear teeth, & now you are trying to convince me that they are minor players? You ever had a gear missing a tooth? The whole gosh dang thingie doesn't work! Minor player,,,balderdash!
It was mentioned, but 61A sews up = ices was just despicable, because 99.9% of the world would have said "aces."
57A cold one = brewski, I am a little concerned because i originally wanted to put "beerski" for some strange reason. Which brings me to 66A... 2 sheets, or 3 sheets? I always recite this little ditty to be sure:
I SLIT THE SHEET,
THE SHEET I SLIT,
AND ON THE SLITTED SHEET I SIT.
(yeah, I said it right, I can have another brewski...)
I wanted to share with you teachers who might appreciate this. My college professor brother reaped the benefit of his teaching career when he entered the hospital with a heart attack yesterday. His former students taking care of him included several nurses, the surgeon who installed his stint and the surgeon's wife. He could not have had more attentive care and expects to go home tomorrow. He has always taught his classes rather than turn them over to a TA because he said he knew a lot more things these students destined for the health professions needed to know. He is insisting he can be back in the classroom Monday.
Time in a bottle we don't talk about 1915...
My wings wind (Eww!)
Moon over Miami?
& Finally, Once upon a time Aw, gimme a break, I can;t slit a sheet right now...
PK@5:01
That has to be so rewarding for your brother. Good teachers are priceless.
I've had a similar experience though not nearly as life threatening when I went for a sonogram and the tech was one of my former ESL students. Her English was perfect as were her tech skills. She learned that elsewhere.
Dudley:
From your mouth to God's ear as they say.
Has anyone seen the movie "Gone Girl"? I am still recovering from the intensity. Great acting but such a deplorable story.
I was slow, mighty slow, to pick this one up. It took two separate sit-down sessions before I reached my belated Ta-Dah! Senor Pancho has my respect.
Last Sunday's NY Times had a similar "rebus" pzl. (Example: HAND HELL BASKET.)
I think my mind was clearer then, as it didn't give me as much trouble. More likely it was because it was based on familiar sayings, whereas today's version required familiarity with song titles. I knew only the Bette Midler number here, and depended on perps for the others.
One of the delaying traps for me today was at 46A. As I am pretty familiar with Mr Shaxper's work, I was satisfied too soon with BANQUO. Once I realized the "B" was wrong, I switched over to DUNCAN. It wasn't 'til much, much later that I landed on DAGGER.
Ah, hubris... We sometimes know just enough to dig ourselves deeper holes.
PK,your brothers are in my thoughts. I am pulling for both of them. It must be difficult for you. I am glad the prof's students are rallying around. It is so satisfying to have former students remember you fondly.
1610
Alan's malady has returned after more than a month of good health. He missed work these last three days
Best wishes and positive thoughts for several of you with family members going through tough times. I hope our close-knit on-line group can provide some support. Good luck!
PK @ 5:01:
As a college professor myself I know your brother is buoyed incredibly by the support of his old students. And I'm not surprised that he aims to get back to class ASAP. A couple of years ago, when I was hospitalized several times, I relished the support of my students--and I did everything I could to time my absence from classes so as to miss as few sessions as possible. There is nothing quite so salutary and energizing as that contact with younger members of one's own field. It works both ways-- and your brother deserves all the support he is getting!
Evenin' All.....
Has anyone here gotten a message saying that your version of Safari will no longer be supported - I am assuming it is google sending the message since I have gmail ... ??? so far I can disregard it.... but;;;; ??? for how long....
Anyway, the puzzle got done.... felt very much like CED's explanation... I got it done and still didn't get it all...... was thinking about a shot of that Ouzo and a Brewski chaser by the time I finished......
Irish Miss I am glad that all is well so far :) seems I type just about as well with them crossed as not... :)
PK and Yellowrocks... I will keep your loved ones in my prayers.....
thelma :)
PK - Best wishes for positive outcomes for both of your brothers.
YR - Sorry to hear of Alan's relapse. I hope it is short-lived and not as serious as the earlier bout.
Can't believe I'm still signed in; hope my problem is solved.
Thelma, yes I get that message too on a few websites like Gmail and the LA Times but not on lots of others. So far as I can tell, I can't upgrade Safari unless I first go to the latest Apple operating system (which I don't want to do since I've got an older iMac). So I downloaded Chrome and it seems to work fine though it works a little differently but not so much that I can't learn to use it OK. So I use the older Safari part of the time, Chrome part of the time and Firefox part of the time. One of these days I will spring for a new iMac but I know that will produce a little frustration with the newer operating system that I'll have to get used to.
Whew that one was hard for me. I knew time in a bottle but that was it. Loved the write up though. I know the DNF stands for Did not finish, but what is FIW and Natick?
Natick - A word used in crosswordese, coined by blogger Rex Parker, meaning two crossing words/clues that very very few people would know. As an example, one clue would be "A town in the eighth mile of the Bostom marathon" Answer-Natick ~ Urban Dictionary
FIW (Finished It Wrong)
Bill G...
Thanx for the feedback ..... I have chrome downloaded already... but quit using it and don't even remember exactly why now... :) went back to safari and eventually got all the kinks worked out with safari that made me even go to chrome.... :) if all that makes any sense... :) :)
I got my mac in 2010.... guess it is getting old.... ? and I have taken all the upgrades.... once I quit paying the insurance it seems the upgrades are few and far between now.... :) :) have no intentions of downloading something I don't know what it will do... that is why I turned down free maverick.... maybe I shouldn't have... but I get enough changes without asking for them... :) :) probably from google mail... ??? I will keep disregarding the message until I have to do something about whatever they are telling me... :) :) and it could be my mail that I change... ??
I have absolutely no intention of buying another mac....
Have a great evening.... and thanx again
thelma :)
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