One word of a common phrase is wrapped in As, with an A inserted at the beginning of the word, and an A inserted at the end of the word. Doug has been a prolific and skilled constructor for the past 12 years, and was among the early INTERVIEWS C.C. did after the change to LAT puzzles. He was very forthcoming and helpful. Doug also edits and collaborates with others. Doug does many themeless puzzles, but this version of add a letter was fun with the added layer of complexity adding both beginning and end. Not a crusher Friday, and some nice long non-theme answers like I’LL PASS, BAD PATCH, GOTTA RUN, MEAL TIME, RAIN DROP, all of which are compound fill. Multi word fill seems to be the focus here, but most were not obscure. Well I see the bat-signal so it is time to save Gotham and solve the puzzle.
17A. *Media member with a curly tail? : PRESS AKITA, (10). Press kit + AA=
25A. *With 50-Across, travel guide that touts Oranjestad's worst hotels and restaurants? : ARUBA THE. (8) 50A. See 25-Across : WRONG WAY (8). Rub the Wrong Way becomes a travel guide from hell.
38A. *"Whatever you say, wise goddess!"? : ALL RIGHTY ATHENA. (15). All right then, let's read about this GG. LINK.
61A. *Refrigerator on the front lines? : AMANA OF WAR. (10). I like this one best
And the reveal.
64D. Smallish batteries, and a hint to how the answers to starred clues are formed : AAS.(3).
Across:
1. Common telenovela theme : AMOR. Spanish soap operas are all about LOVE.
5. Travel needs for many : VISAS. Another area I know very little about.
10. Lose, in a Vegas game : BUST. Isn't it odd how this repeat fill can be both so sad and so nice?
14. Amplify, in a way : MIKE. I have heard the phrase 'mike-up' so I guess this makes sense, but it took a while.
15. Not available : IN USE. Also known as Occupied, Occupado.
16. Fit : ABLE.
19. Word with barn or storm : DOOR. I think we have a puzzle where DOOR was the hidden end to the theme answers.
20. Sorceress jilted by Jason : MEDEA. Well, thanks for the CSO, but she was not a nice WOMAN . With the mini-theme: 67A. Legendary galley : ARGO. Galley is a type of ship (I linked recently that discussion) and this was Jason's.
21. "Not interested" : I'LL PASS.
23. Seahawks' org. : NFC. National Football Conference. Interesting, especially as they began in the AFC.
26. "Time to split!" : GOTTA RUN. Modern shortspeak spelling.
30. Ore. setting : PST. Pacific Standard Time.
31. José __: frozen Mexican food brand : OLE.
34. Santa __ Mountains: coastal California range : CRUZ. West Coast Warriors, you want to expand?
42. In-land link? : LA LA. This may have begun with bedtime music but as a phrase is attributed to Los Angeles and the attitudes there.
43. Henie on the ice : SONJA. Back again so soon? Never forget Carol.
44. Grammy-winning "We Are Young" band : FUN.
45. Cybernotes : IMS. Instant Messages.
48. Six, for many : MEAL TIME. Sadly here in So.Fla, this is when the second shift eat dinner.
54. "King Kong" studio : RKO. Radio-Keith-Orpheum. HISTORY.
55. Franklin's note : HUNDRED. It is all about the Benjamins.
56. "Cheers," e.g. : TOAST.
60. Qatari potentate : EMIR.
65. In __ parentis : LOCO. A hark back to last week's Latin exercise, "in the place of parents."
66. What a shin guard protects : TIBIA.
68. __ school : PREParatory. Been there.
69. How-to units : STEPS.
70. Actor Gosling : RYAN. We end this part with this face: His eyes do not match, but don't tell Eva.
Down:
1. Digital clock toggle : AM/PM.
2. Squishy area : MIRE. I enjoy the Ocean Spray commercials in the bog in Maine.
3. Didn't deny : OKED. Tricky, as I was thinking verbal assent.
4. Feel offended by : RESENT. Context, as it looks just like RESENT.
5. Itinerary word : VIA. More Latin.
6. India __ : INK.
7. Fashion designer Anna : SUI. For me a mostly unknown DESIGNER who reminds me of C.C. Only because of Target have I heard her name.
8. Buzzing with activity : ASTIR. A word!
9. Close securely : SEAL UP.
10. Run of lousy luck : BAD PATCH. I guess if you fix your clothes and do a bad job might be where this phrase meaning a run of bad luck comes from?
11. Threat to a WWII destroyer : U-BOAT. A German submarine.
12. Splash clumsily : SLOSH. People who are sloshed often splash clumsily.
13. Clipped : TERSE. All perps, but reasonable in retrospect.
18. Trip to see the big game? : SAFARI. Really nice mis-direction, no Super Bowl here.
22. Birth announcement abbr. : LBS. Lesbian Baby Sister? Oh, pounds.
24. Climbing challenge : CRAG.
25. Subject for da Vinci : ANATOMY.
26. One may go into an empty net : GOAL. Very common in Hockey where teams pull the goalie in the last minute when down.
27. Earthenware pot : OLLA.
28. Bluff betrayer : TELL. The TV popularity of poker seems to be waning, though I think everyone learned about 'tells' from watching the World Series of Poker, Rounders etc.
29. Words of disgust : UGHS.
33. Holiday song closer : SYNE. Scottish for 'since.'
35. S&L offering for homeowners : REFInance.
36. Word on the Great Seal of the United States : UNUM. And still more Latin, E Pluribus.
37. Novelist Grey : ZANE. Great writer of westerns.
39. Shower harbinger : RAIN DROP.
40. Cracked open : AJAR. When is an A word not an A word.
41. Have words with : TALK TO.
46. Dept. head : MGR. Manager.
47. Workout garb : SWEATS.
49. Beyond reasonable limits : TOO FAR. All right this time you went too far!
50. Young wolf : WHELP. I used to love reading Jack London's books.
51. One may be going around : RUMOR. better than the flu.
52. Ready if required : ON ICE.
53. Not turn away : ADMIT. Not turn away, oh as in they had to turn away thousands who went to see Taylor Swift at Times Square.
57. Not right : AWRY. And then everything went awry.
58. Multigenerational tale : SAGA. Not related to RAGA.
59. Suffix with Jumbo : TRON. A shout out to the scrappy KC Royals.
62. Mount Rushmore figure, familiarly : ABE.
63. Tang : NIP. Nope, no idea.
Well this is the last day of this month; remember to turn your clocks back on Sunday, and enjoy the extra sleep. Thanks Doug P. always good to see your work; also thanks for an amazing performance by Madison Bumgarner. Lemonade out.
63 comments:
Morning, all!
Cute theme. Got it early on and only really struggled with the split up ARUBATHEWRONGWAY.
Had minor bumps along the way with the unknown SUI, FUN and CRUZ, and shot myself in the foot a bit by entering NFL instead of NFC, but the perps took care of all those issues eventually.
Thanks, Lemonade, I was stuck on "travel needs for many" being an ESTA, which non US citizens such as my husband and others at our company need when traveling to the states. Otherwise lots of fun, especially after I got the refrigerator going to war, amusing image that. Last of the themed clues to fall was curly tailed press member but fall it did! Happy Halloween all. Little sad here as I am not sure my kids will be able to trick or treat as most Swedes are not familiar with the custom. But it's a gorgeous October day here and I wish the same to all of you.
Good morning!
This was a pretty zippy Friday. My only stumble was ON TAP/ON ICE. I got the theme early. Totally missed the reveal, as it was already filled in. I got TRON for 59d, but still don't understand the jumbo connection.
Around our house six is time to get up.
Nice shoutout to LALA Linda. Wonder if she's still reading the blog.
Come on CST! You can't get here too soon.
D-O the jumbotron is the oversized screen used at sporting and other events so people can watch replays and see close ups.
All righty then! Now this was a clever theme!
Slowly crept from E to W. first theme fill was Amana of war, and even that was tough cuz I wanted zip instead go nip. But accepting that and having the reveal the rest became more accessible. Favorite was Aruba the wrong way. Hard to parse it, but that's funny!! Press Akita is a tad weak, but with the theme in hand it was sussable.
Good job Doug, and thanks Lemony.
Hello Puzzlers -
This looked imposing at first, but the first pass gave so many toe holds I was able to fill in faster than expected. Aruba was first to fall but that wasn't enough to suss the theme; needed the reveal for that.
D-Otto - the giant sized video displays used at sports venues and the like are called JumboTrons. I presume that's a trademarked name.
This was one tough Friday-and-a-half puzzle. On my first pass I only had a few sure fills, such as UBOAT OLLA ZANE TIBIA and SONJA. AAS was a gimme and it got me going in the right direction. My WAGS were wrong; TIGHTS for SWEATS, ZIP for NIP, FISH for GOAL, FDR (I know it's TEDDY) for ABE.
I really enjoyed watching the Saints finally win one on the road last night, beating the Carolina Panthers. The Panthers dropped so many passes it was ridiculous and that was good because the Saints have lost most of their defensive backs.
Jose-OLE- never heard of. Way too many Tex-Mex brands available and since Katrina, we've had a Mexican restaurant open on every other corner. If there is a song named 'We Are OLD', I might know the answer but FUN was strictly from perps, along with Anna SUI and RYAN Gosling. The rest of the puzzle was just one that I had to grind out, which is the way I like 'em. I don't bother to do Mondays or Tuesdays-too easy.
WHELP was my last fill on this challenging Friday morning puzzle.
adios, auf wiedersehen, au revoir, arrivederci, aloha- they all start with 'a', except ours-goodbye.
Minor nit on the write-up. The Seahawks entered the NFL in 1976 and played one season in the NFC West before moving to the AFC West where they remained until returning to the NFC West in 2002.
Good morning everyone!
Fun write-up today. Thanks Lemony! I noticed the shout-out at MEDEA, but you are right - she was not a nice "woman."
I pretty much solved from tip to toe on this one. Only a couple hang-ups, like entering "crap" before BUST. Then I wanted the Santa "Ynez" mountains before perps demanded CRUZ.
Jose OLE: only because it's a Friday puzzle, and "Spanish cheer" would be way too easy of a clue. I did love the clue for SAFARI: "Trip to see the big game?" Great stuff!
TGIF !!
NR, of course you are correct; I completely forgot when Tampa Bay and Seattle came in the league they were in the NFC. I was just recalling them in the AFC tormenting Dan Marino and the Dolphins.
Jumbotron is the over-sized screen. The connection is that tron is a suffix to jumbo.
Big Easy 7:56 -
You got me wondering, what's the connection between Katrina and the emergence of Tex Mex restaurants?
I have a former student and family dropping in this morning at 10am, and so woke up at 5 so I'd have time to read the paper and do the puzzle. Too early for a Friday toughie--got only the bottom and a few on top and then had to cheat to finish. I did get MEDEA and ARGO, though, and, surprisingly caught on to the theme, thanks to AMANA OF WAR (never owned appliance brand, though). Anyway, a clever interesting puzzle even if I didn't do so well on it.
Lemonade, I still don't get the Bluff betrayer answer.
Have a good Halloween, everybody!
Officially a DNF because I had to turn on red letter. I sort of got the added "A"s after the AMANA OF WAR, and then was able to go back and fill in the other "A"s. All in all a good Friday puzzle.
Had trouble with 44a "FUN" because my memory could only think of the Pat Benatar song Love is a Battlefield which starts with the lyrics "We are young." I don't think I've ever heard the FUN band perform.
We had our Halloween last night with 45 little ghosts, goblins, princesses and a few ghoulish characters. Most all of them seemed to be chaperoned by parents, even the Tweens and early Teens. Some of the parents were even in costume. It was a fun evening. I would imagine there were a number of sugar highs after the kids got home.
Everyone have a great Friday and for those who will be having Halloween tonight, have fun.
Wow! I really thought my goose was cooked when I started this today. I scratched around for a while trying this and that before a few more certain guesses seemed to be fitting with perps.
I started thinking the AAs had to begin each word in the pairs, and then tried beginning and ending each answer with "A", before realizing it only applied to one word in each. By then I's sussed out a few more certainties, so eventually it all fell in.
Other hold ups were never having heard of NFC, JOSE OLE, RKO, ANNA SUI, JUMBO TRON. Also I had LOCK UP/SEAL UP for a while. So wags and perps did most of this one for me.
In the card game of poker, a bluff is a bet or raise made with a hand which is not thought to be the best hand.
A tell in poker is a change in a player's behavior or demeanor that is claimed by some to give clues to that player's assessment of their hand.
A bluff betrayer is a tell.
I had a nit that it's Man O' War but there was an old British sailing ship known as a man of war, so ok.
I came, I saw, I struggled, I conquered, I enjoyed!
Musings
-The ARGO Galley is not the TATE Gallery! Dang bifocals.
-RAGA (didn’t know), NFC not NFL held up that area
-Starts with P, curly tail, but not PIG
-ALL RIGHTY (a)THEN(a) (:03)
-These MIT’s peeps counted cards to not go BUST
-We’ve discussed Charles Emerson Winchester’s poker TELL here before.
-BARN DOOR on the way to Lincoln. Grandson delights in saying, "Papa, your barn door is open!”
-In LOCO Parentis 1,500 miles from home can be daunting
-This Omaha PREP School has been an athletic and academic juggernaut for years
-RESENT stand-in
-Our kitty is ASTIR at 6 AM
-I first thought of this going into an empty net
-Jerry Seinfeld once told George, “Wearing SWEATS in public tells the world you’ve just given up.”
-In our group, we all tried to “top” each other until someone went “TOO FAR” which always happened
-What TV character’s favorite author was ZANE Grey?
LR, yes life is full of tells. Many married couples claim they know when their spouse is lying based on some behavior trait, higher pitch to the voice, blinking etc.
Bluffing goes on in life as often in poker. It is a big part of personal injury law where each side is trying to outfox the other. I never like PI law.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! ... I'm already in my costume, dressed as a Florida Beach Bum.
I always enjoy a Holiday Themed Puzzle ... lol
Chairman Moe: Thanks for the recommendation, I enjoyed some Black Bottle scotch last night. Neat, of course!
(I never TOAST the Sunset with scotch "ON-_ _ _.")
Soooooooo, today was another DNF.
Cheers!!!
Good Morning:
What a clever theme to end the month. Am I the only one who caught the sub-theme devoted to Tin: Slosh, Toast, Nip, and, last but not least, On _ _ _! I don't get tang=nip.
Fav clue was Trip to see the big game=Safari.
Great job, Doug, and very informative expo, Lemony, as usual. Nice CSO to LaLa Linda; hope you are feeling better.
There is a "nip" in the air on this last day of October. The goblins will have to bundle up for their trick or treating ritual. I don't get any trick or treaters as I'm off
the beaten path.
Have a great day.
Lime Rickey
-Yesterday while writing my musing I thought of the triple jump for Hop, SKIP and Jump, visualized it and knew perfectly well what it was but wrote LONG jump right there in front of God and everybody. Thanks for the correction.
Irish Miss
For the 11th year-in-a-row I went out and got a couple of large bags of Mini-Snicker candy bars.
There has NEVER been a Trick-or-Treater here at Villa Incognito.
If one showed up they will get a lot of candy ...
Probably the advantage of living in a Plus-55 neighborhood.
As a fellow 55+ community resident who gets zero trick or treaters, I regret having no excuse to buy candy.
Thanks for the explanation, Lime Rickey.
Intriguing puzzle, and fun. As usual, I didn't fully understand the theme until I read Lemony's expo. I knew it had to have something to do with extra A's.
I agree with AJ's assessment of PRESSAKITA being weak. HG, hands up for your net comment. Love fly fishing for trout one week every year in WV.
One minor nit: since soccer pads go on the front side of the shin, my shaky knowledge of anatomy says that they protect the fibula more than the TIBIA.
Happy Halloween, everyone. DW and I will be dining out to celebrate our 44th. Cya!
HG, Col. Sherman T. Potter
I haven't read the writeup or anybody's comments yet but here are my thoughts (maybe not worth two cents) from late last night. Very tricky and clever, this puzzle; it was hard for me but I finally sussed out the theme and that helped me straighten out a few missteps. Then I finished off quickly feeling quite proud of myself at the end. I should have noted down my missteps so I could discuss them now but I didn't and I forgot. They've probably been discussed at length already. So now I'll read everybody else's impressions.
WEES. I also had Santa YNEZ mountains and CRAP. 'Trip to see the big game' = SAFARI. Great! Doug or Rich?
Bluehen, I think your shaky knowledge of anatomy needs updating. The TIBIA is the shin, in front of the fibula.
It's supposed to do some fairly serious raining tonight. I'm looking forward to it.
Musings 3
-I am subbing for the 10th day of the last 15 and am starting to wonder about my sanity. What retirement? I laughed when I saw “Sub finder” in a puzzle this week. Most schools use email these days and don’t resort to SONAR.
-We are prepared for 240 trick-or-treaters this year but will still probably run out. Answering the door with the new kitty is going to require some strategy. I may have to sit out in the garage. ‘Yes, honey, it’s perfectly safe to walk into that dark garage and get candy from that old man.”
-Yep BH, Colonel Potter – Zane Grey, Gin Rummy and Tex Ritter. Winchester – Tolstoy, Chess and Enrico Caruso.
I fought and fought and fought with this one today. Finally couldn't stand it anymore with a dozen empty squares remaining.
I was convinced that the media member with the curly tail was ASTA, but just couldn't get the ST (for either 'saint' or 'street') to fit. Most of my other problems were incorrect initial fills: PLED for OKED, ALCHEMY for ANATOMY, BALL for GOAL. Well, you get the idea.
The wife bought FIVE, count 'em, FIVE bags of candy for tonight. Temps will be near freezing with a respectable wind. And to think that I had finally started making progress dropping a few pounds. Piffle...
Also, thank you Lemon and Doug.
Erghoul
I hope she bought your favorite candy.
That's why I get the Mini-Snicker's ... when no Trick-or-Treater's show up tonight ...
I guess I'll have to enjoy them.
BOO !!!
Happy Anniversary, Bluehen; Celebrate in style!
Took me a minute to figure out erghoul=ergo! (One my sisters kiddingly turns Agnes into Agony!)
Oh yes, she bought all five of my favorites.
btw... Alex Gordon used to trick or treat at our house. He grew up just down the street. Even in those days his costume was sports-related.
Happy Anniversary BH and many more; Erghoul, the question is should Alex Gordon have tried to score knowing knowing dominating Bumgarner was?
240 trick or treaters? Wow!
Greetings, fellow puzzlers.
Not much time today as I overslept due to insomnia and have a haircut appt.
Clever theme which I got trying to establish a foothold skipping around and finished the bottom.
Thanks to some familiar fill, AMOR VISAS, SONJA,EMIR, etc. I was ABLE to hook long phrases together in the manner of Dudley and finally got most of it. Had to research NFC and though I knew UNUM, I had Sta INEZ until I cried uncle!
Yet I WENT THE WRONG WAY not realizing I had left AMFM up there until reading Lemonade's thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening blog.
Great grid! Thank you, Doug Peterson.
Have a happy Friday, everyone!
Hello everybody. I smiled a lot and wrinkled my brow a lot while enjoying this puzzle today. Pretty neat-o theme. I left one cell blank, namely the crossing of NF_ and _RAG. Even going through the alphabet in my mind, I couldn't settle on C being that unknown letter.
I've been reading up on Scotch whiskies since the discussion of them the other day. Holy cow, there are so many brands!
Happy Halloween!
HG, Charles Emerson Winchester III played a pretty mean game of gin rummy, too. It got him sent to MASH.
"Puzzling Thoughts"
First to Tinbeni @ 10:28: glad you like the Black Bottle. I paid about $20 for it at a Crown Liquors in Boca. I have had it "neat" but still prefer one or two ice cubes (Oh! The Horror!! - ;^)
Second, WEES, this was a Friday+ puzzle; though it took me awhile to finish, no look-ups or Google cheats. But now that I reviewed Lemony's recap, I find that I FIW, since I had FIN/UNIM in the 44A/36D grid . . . OOPS!
Third, to Lemony @ various times: sorry I didn't email; I never made it to your side on Tuesday. Maybe in another week or so; will alert you if I am in your 'hood
Fourth, only write-overs were: PUCK/GOAL in 26D; NFL/NFC in 23A; and of course the screwup of FIN/UNIM
Happy Halloweening, all. My "treat" tonight will be a Dominican Corona and a semi-neat Scotch!
My poor attempt at a CW-themed limerick . . .
Opinionated masseur named ZANE,
Proudly known to be very profane;
Hockey's Gretzky's a client,
Who seems always defiant:
It is clear, ZANE RUBS him THE WRONG WAY(NE)!
Booo!
Hi Y'all! I got the theme with AMANA WAR and went back up to fill all the white spaces. The N Central was the last to fill. As many PRESS KITs as I got in my journalism career, I could not come up with AKITA. I was thinking monkey. Interesting, Doug! Great expo, Lemony.
We heard of one teenaged girl who went to ARUBA THE WRONG WAY and never returned. Never heard of Orangestad. Thought it sounded S. Afrikaan.
Not available didn't compute to IN USE to me. Love before AMOR. Didn't deny wasn't "nolo" (contendre).
Happy anniversary, Bluehen & spouse!
I haven't had trick-or-treaters for several years due to a dirth of neighborhood children. Now I have little ones next door that come bombing across my porch trying to pet my cat who isn't cooperating. So I bought a bag of 3-Musketeers early in Oct. It disappeared. Had to buy a second bag. It's mostly gone. I'm trying to decide whether to buy a third bag today or just turn off the porch light and go to bed early. The bolt lock on my front door is stuck right now and I'd have to hand the candy out the window anyway.
Good afternoon everyone.
Got the bottom half easily but the top was more of a slog. Finally invoked red letters in the NW. Liked ARUBA THE WRONG WAY. Good theme gimmick today.
U-BOATS generally did not seek out destroyers except when under attack. U-boats were usually after shipping targets or high value capital ships. Great movie of destroyer vs u-boat was "The Enemy Below" Starring Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens and Theodore Bikel as his XO, as 'Heinie' Schwaffer
PK @ 2:32 - I went into a fit of laughing at your last sentence. You are too funny!
The name Oranjestad comes from the European House of Orange, and is physically apparent in all the orange rooftops in the Netherlands Antilles. You can READ all about it.
Reckon just about every other solver went for NFL first--as did I. But I was wary enough to be only *sure* of the "F." It was easy enough to change when neither RESEAT nor LRAG made any sense at all.
The other common slip-up was ZIP for NIP. (Yes, me too.)
As for my other hold-up, 10D, I'm guessing I'm the only one who hesitated to commit to BAD PATCH. PATCH finally won over CATCH, BATCH, LATCH etc.
Re Orange. Oddly, the Dutch word for 'orange' is sinaasappel or 'Chinese apple'.
What would be fun is if all of you would send in pictures of your costumes, your children's, your trick or treaters' costumes etc.
There will be a nip in the air here tomorrow, right now the only nip present is in my hand.... and it's neat.
I struggled with this for a long time and finally said the heck with it..another DNF. Never even had a clue about the theme.
Received an EMail today from Lucy in Gay Paree. Having a great time, loves the food and has gained 3 pounds in a day and a half. My reply to her was addressed as "Dear Fatso". I will pay dearly, but what the ....
For the past 1 1/2 hours been watching the Giants victory parade. In the rain, looked like 3/4 of the city was there. Great job by MLB TV, NO COMMERCIALS.
Happy Halloween
Lucina ( meant with respect - )
1. I overslept due to insomnia ? (some insomnia -)
2. I overslept ... and have a haircut appt. Surely you are no Rip Van Winkle ? ;-)
In other news,
FACT: The ship Argo ( with our eternal Jason - ) was named after the ship builder named Arghoul. Or was that Argyle ?
Has anybody followed the numerous blogs on 'carpet baggers' i.e. people from poorer neighborhoods (have nots), busing their bunches of kids, in minivans, and 'invading' the 1% haves neighborhoods for candy and stuff during this festival night ? There is even a Neighborhood App applied nationwide, to find out the most richest and(supposedly) the most generous houses for candy. Note: The richest people are never the most generous - speaking from personal experience.
Should we encourage them with a gracious smile and gratitude, or grumble to the death on the various blogs ?
Apparently, the kids are being bused in not to get a better class and genre of candy, but because their own neighborhoods are not safe enough to go trick or treating. Any thoughts on this ?
The Google doodle today, has about 7 or 8 different doodles on Halloween. Kinda cute.
Oh yes you will pay, Hondo, but it'll be worth it.
I just checked CA weather radar. There a nice band across the E Bay Area, and I'm sure it's very welcome. Glad to see you folks getting some much needed rain.
Since none of the Bay contingent has added to the Santa Cruz comments, I'll chime in. It's the ridge that forms the spine of the San Francisco peninsula, more or less...but it does go much further south. Altitudes are not stunning, but the scenery is. I'd recommend taking La Honda Rd from Sky Londa to San Gregorio. It's a beautiful drive, and it's amazingly devoid of population when you consider how close it is to 6.4 million people on the east side.
Happy Anniversary Bluehen
Huge DNF today, & my only nit is that I can't find anything to complain about. It all looks legit, with the possible exception of Olla. Hmm, I wonder if Rich knew it could be clued differently. (would you believe not one of the little buggers was doing a crossword to pass the time...)
I saw a video on Facebook today that I thought was a shocking example of a way to give some one a heart attack! I think it is hugely irresponsible, but by the time I got to the last guy in the Subway, I couldn't look away. It's like watching a trainwreck...
So in the spirit of Halloween...
(Ghoul tonight)@4:30
LOL. Firstly, I was in a rush when I posted so obviously didn't explain myself well. Secondly, I may be at the onset of some kind of dementia as quite often my thoughts aren't always precisely reflected in what I write.
The insomnia lasted until about 4:00 A.M. which was the last time I peeked at the clock and fortunately a good and thoughtful friend, knowing that I had that appointment, called to awaken me at 9:45.
Luckily insomnia doesn't often beset me as it does others, just once in a while.
Tinbeni@10:28
LOL at your costume. Now that image is etched in my mind.
I myself am dressed as an elderly retired teacher.
Hallowe'en in our town starts with a "Horribles Parade" through downtown, led by all the fire trucks and police cars with sirens wailing. Then Trick-or-Treating is from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. So I was prepared with a huge bucket of candy for all the monsters who were sure to show up at our (highly decorated) door...
We had exactly one visitor: a 1 1/2 year old in a stroller, dressed as a pirate. He reached into the bucket and took exactly one mini Reese's cup.
(Anyone have a good recipre for 3 lbs of assorted Hershey's chocolates????)
Well Marti, I doubt they'd make very good soup:-)
Ergo, my bride worked at Alex Gordon's HS for a couple of years during his time there. Drop me an email some time if your interested. I think it's likely we know at least one or two people in common.
Similar story here. We had two little sisters, cute as all get out, but that's all. However, our candy surplus isn't as big as it might have been: the two guys who came yesterday to coat our garage floor munched up about a dozen KitKats, plus some Reese's, each. Helpful, actually.
Once we feel free to turn off the lights, we're off to the local brewpub for some pints. One of the staff is a young woman who is just adorable day to day, and she told us to expect to see her in a Cindy Lou Who costume. Should be über cute!
/rant on/!
So we're at the pub, and as our bad luck would have it, there is a live musician for entertainment. He's pretty capable with both guitar and voice, but AS ALWAYS, it's TOO DAMN LOUD! It always happens. These musicians all seem to have an egotistical desire to drive the music into patrons' skulls, against their will.
We are both wearing hearing protection. It's that loud.
/rant off/
By the way, the Cindy Lou Who is adorable.
Pictures Dudley. Photographic evidence.
Lucina, first of all, thank you for responding - which I never dreamt you would. And also for taking my questions with a sense of humor. I am very appreciative of that consideration.
We had two bunches of kids @12 each come to our door today. I pack some Kit Kats and O'Henry's in sandwich bags, with a twistee, so I can hand out a rationed amount at a time. After all the holiday comes only once a year, and our driveway is fairly long. Also it was 49o and slightly rainy. Also it was quite dark. The kids deserve some good candy to make up for their efforts. The remaining candy, of which there is considerable, will go tomorrow with my wife, to the kids at her place of work. I do not need to see that candy in our fridges, as it is too much of a temptation.
Happy Halloween all.
Oh, I forgot to say thank you to Doug, Rich and Lemon.
We've had about the usual number of Trick or Treaters. Jordan will be coming over soon I hope.
When some of the older kids say Trick or Treat, sometimes I tell them I'll take the trick. They look befuddled.
Party on Wayne, party on Dudley.
Every Friday we experience Jason's Golden Fleecing.
Enjoyed this puzzle even though it was a DNF...finished this morning with the blog! Halloween is always iffy at our place, had the candy only one group of kids showed up. I think the parents take them up the hill to the subdivision. (I live downtown). I thought we would get more since it wasn't snowing this year. Oh well, thanks for the great write up!
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