google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, Dec 13th, 2014, Pawel Fludzinski and Michael S. Maurer

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Dec 13, 2014

Saturday, Dec 13th, 2014, Pawel Fludzinski and Michael S. Maurer

Theme: None

Words: 64 (missing J,Q,Z)

Blocks: 33

  A new duo for our Saturday solving strife, and a mouthful to pronounce, to boot~!  A big chunky grid with only four - count 'em - FOUR three-letter words.  Nice.  Argyle handled Pawel's last LAT puzzle back on July 29th, and I did not see Michael's name in the blog archives, so I'm guessing this is his debut.  Technically, triple 9-letter corners, but not on the grid edge, but I'm not being picky.  A little over the half-way mark in my personal time - but one bad cell, and I should have known better.  To change it up, here's the big three-letter words for the day;

21a. Beehive State native : UTE - the Beehive state being Utah, and therefore....

46a. Matinée idol Johnson : VAN - I never heard of him, and I see he was "The Minstrel" in the Batman TV series of the 60's - about the only place I would have seen him, and I don't recall the character at all


16. Deodorant product word : DRI - like this


48. CCCI quintupled : MDV - my math skills are suffering from the six-day worknights at UPS - first I multiplied by 3, and that gave me CMIII, and that didn't fit - oops, I meant 4X - nope, that's MCCIV - dah~! FIVE times~!














ACROSS:

1. "The __ the facts, the stronger the opinion": Arnold H. Glasow : FEWER

6. Bois __: tree once used to make bows : D'ARC - The irony is that this reappears at 12d. - more here

10. Simple race of fiction : ELOI - Saturday cluing for a crossword staple

14. Words from one who doesn't see : I'M OUT - "see" as in poker; "I'll 'see' your twenty, and raise you ten"

15. Wear tails to tea, say : OVERDRESS

17. __ diem : CARPE

18. Cutting : SATIRICAL

19. Egyptian life symbols : ANKHs

20. It was spawned by the Manhattan Project : ATOMIC AGE

22. It may precede a stunt : DARE - Tis the season for a "triple DOG dare"

23. Lover of Aphrodite : ARES

24. Polo and others : TEAM SPORTS - um, well, yeah, that's one example

27. Some rats : ALBINOS

28. Surprise : STARTLE

34. Super Bowl party array : SALSAS

35. Jack feature, perhaps : ONE-EYE - anyone else caught up in thinking about car jacks?

36. Gives special treatment to : EXEMPTS

38. Use to one's advantage : TRADE ON

39. Ironically, Samantha Bond portrayed her in several films : MONEYPENNY - I'm OK with the new girl playing Moneypenny, but I am very happy that Ralph Fiennes replaced Judy Dench as the new "M".   New movie, Spectre~!   Gratuitous Bond image


41. Suffers : AILS

45. "Up and __!" : AT 'EM

47. Titanic, e.g. : STEAM SHIP

49. Sister of Goneril : REGAN

51. On-site trial : FIELD TEST

52. Acid used in soap : OLEIC

53. About to cover old ground? : IN REVERSE - har-har

54. Trunk : TORSO

55. Soviet news acronym : TASS - ITAR or TASS~?  I figured at the bottom of the grid, the two "S"s worked better

56. Vibrating instrument piece : REED

57. Recesses : APSES - NAVES or APSES~? Again, at the bottom of the grid, the "P" worked better than the "V"

DOWN:

1. Pay stub letters : FICA

2. Pianist who often collaborates with Yo-Yo Ma : EMANUEL AX - cool name - his Wiki

3. Craftsman's item : WORK TABLE - I went with work BENCH, which makes sense to me - but then again, I'm a carpenter, so....

4. Softener of a kind : EUPHEMISM - like 'negative patient outcome' for 'dead.'

5. GPS data : RTEs

6. Back to back, in Bordeaux : DOS-à-DOS

7. Personification : AVATAR - like our little pics on the blog

8. Sass : RETORTS - the singular/plural threw me

9. Many a piece of pulp fiction : CRIME STORY

10. Author Jong : ERICA

11. '70s-'80s Rabbit competitor : Le CAR

12. __ orange : OSAGE - I had ELOI, then changed it when I thought this was "AGENT"

13. Man and others : ISLES - did not fool me, but then again, I had the "I" and last "S" in place

24. Zap : TASE - WAG

25. Pop partner : SNAP - and don't forget the third guy, Crackle

26. Letter man : POSTMASTER

29. Words after grab or take : A NAP - I had "IT UP"

30. Convert to condos, say : RE-DEVELOP

31. Romeo and Juliet, for two : TEENAGERS

32. Cooked with onions : LYONNAISE - Frawnche, "from Lyon", because Saaaaute-e-e-e wasn't working

33. Selection process word : EENY - meeny, miney, moe

37. "Take that!" : "SO THERE~!"

38. Like a diner eying a dessert tray : TEMPTED

40. German/Polish border river : NEISSE














41. Equally buff : AS FIT

42. Rock memoir : I, TINA - learned from doing crosswords

43. Hardly good looks : LEERS

44. __ resistance : SALES - meh

49. "The Godfather" composer : ROTA

50. Some PX patrons : NCOs

Splynter


Note from C.C.:

Here are two fun pictures from Lemonade. He was about 35 or 36 in the first picture. Thick mop of hair! Look who's on the most right?



Me, my ex-wife, my mother, my brother, his girl friend and Joe DiMaggio


 Lemonade and his girlfriend

They're getting married in 2 weeks! Please click here for a few more fun pictures of Charlotte.

54 comments:

Manac said...

Toughie but solvable. Lot of WAGs.
25 A Precedes a stunt, Just a couple letters short to fit "Hold my beer and watch this!"

Read you all tonight

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Most of the puzz went along smoothly enough, but that middle west was thorny. I made a Workbench, on which I arrayed Nachos for the party. They sat there for ages. Emanuel Ax stopped in, ate the Nachos, and put out Salads. Nice of him, but the football crowd wanted Salsas instead. Fussy bunch.

Morning Splynter, yes I was thinking car jacks. I never heard of Sales Resistance, but I suppose it's the force that naturally repels the Avon lady.

Big Easy said...

I hit my 30 minute limit but could not solve the NW. EMANUEL AX and D'ARC were unknowns, and that added to the fact that I had SALADS for SALSA and wanted the rats to be LAB-something instead of ALBINOS. I figured DOS-S-DOS was correct but I had DRAMA STORY instead of CRIME.

The other parts had many unknowns that fell into place with WAGS and perps. I wanted LEANS before I placed LEERS and AS HOT instead of AS FIT and that slowed the SW. ROTA and REGAN I did not know and the options of CPLS, SGTS, or NCOS slowed the SE. ONE EYE and MONEYPENNY were guesses.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Pretty slow solve for me today. Part of that was due to some total or mostly unknowns, such as ROTA, DARC and NEISSE, but a lot had to do with some very odd cluing on common words. I've never seen/heard of an array of SALSAS at a Super Bowl Party (we usually just have one big bowl of the stuff), for example, and "SALES resistance" meant exactly nothing to me.

Of course, there were also a lot of really good clues as well today ("softener of a kind" for EUPHEMISM was golden), and I was proud of myself for knowing semi-obscure stuff like EMMANUEL AX and OLEIC.

JCJ said...

Enjoyable Saturday puzzle. Exercise the old brain cells in preparation for a day of grading.

TTP said...



Good morning !

Thank you Pawell Fludzinski and Michael S Maurer. Thank you Splynter.

Happy 12-13-14 to all. A little over 19 years until the next month, day, year sequence like that. That would be 01-02-34. Of course, never mind if you are in one of those countries where month, day, year, format is not standard... Eh, Canadian ?

I don't know how I could do so well on a puzzle like this and so poorly on yesterday's offering from CC. Oh yea, that was a Dead Poet's Society feast. Not so many proper nouns in this one today.
Hey ! There's I'M OUT that I tried to use yesterday where I QUIT was the answer.
Agent orange or OSAGE orange ?. Easy decision today with ELOI and ARES.
Was that a VW Rabbit or was that a VW Golf ?
Grab or take A cAb ? No. Doesn't grab or take a nap sound like you are going to do something active to be passive ?
Rock memoir threw me. Chuckled when I saw I TINA.
REjuvenate ? REhabituate ? Add the V from VAN. REnoVate ? Add the O from TORSO. REDEVELOP. How easy was that ?
College sports fans would know the Utah UTES. (Much easier for me than dead poets.)
Intersecting R at REGAN and ROTA was pure WAG. No real basis other than R seemed better than next best guess V.
Hand up for having to prove ITAR or TASS.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

This one was tough, but came together surprisingly fast. Go figure. Hand up for BENCH (Wite-Out, please) and AGENT (more Wite-Out, please). I also learned that I don't know how to spell LYONNAISE -- I had one N and two S's at first. Nice CSO to Yellowrocks at DOS A DOS.

Splynter, if you weren't such a young buck you'd remember Van Johnson from all those 40's-50's war movies. EMANUEL AX should've been a guitarist.

Bois D'ARC is a little (almost non-existent) East Texas town not far from here. Locals pronounce it BO-DARK.

WBB said...

No grid?

TTP said...

Speaking of I'M OUT* and "SALES resistance," ABC NEWS' 20-20 had a segment with Shark Tank cast member Robert Herjavec teaching the art of salesmanship to a few young adults, only to prove that anyone could sell anything. “THE SELL GAME” ON “20/20″

Another segment showed how home security sales people overcome SALES resistance by claiming to be from reputable companies (eg ADT) by offering free upgrades. And then switching you into long term contracts with other companies.

Interesting points there. First, some target people with "No Soliciting" signs because they believe they are easier prey and weaker in resolve. Second, they'll look for ADT signs because they know you are already of the mindset, and they'll look at the back of the ADT sign in the yard because they want to see the date on it.

Lastly on the subject of overcoming SALES resistance, a different segment showed how (some?) CarMax used car salesmen will flat out lie to you and tell you anything to sell you a car.

* For those that may not be familiar, "I'M OUT" is a catchphrase used on Shark Tank when a 'shark" decides that he or she is not going to invest capital and buy into someones entrepreneurial dreams.



Avg Joe said...

Lots to like with this offering. Far more gimmes than typical, which made the less obvious things easier to suss. Carpe went in first, which at least gave me FICA. Then came Eloi, which yielded Erica, Le Car, Osage, Isles and Atomic Age. And so it went.

Didn't care for the work table, but with Ute in place, it had to be. Team Sport was clearly the dog of the bunch, but perps were solid. The final fills were the double D in Dos a Dos. Did an alphabet run to get Dare, and figured they had to be the same letter, so Fini. Very challenging, but a methodical solve all told.

In our part of the world Osage orange is usually called Hedge, and the fruit hedge apples. I'm curious if this is common, or more a colocquism.

BillG, from last night. Yes. That's the piece from On The Road about the Secret Santa. A nicely done bit of journalism, and the reaction of Scott Peley at the end is priceless.

Avg Joe said...

Forgot to mention. Congratulations Lemony. Take that Friday off :-)

Anonymous said...

Last year I was in Springfield, Missouri (for my mother's 95th birthday). While walking along a nature trail, a large green thing, about the size of a softball, dropped from a tree, just missing me. I then noticed dozens on the ground. Never having seen anything like them, I picked up a few. But how to Google "large green thing"? Then I thought to ask my mother's neighbor (a native, unlike my mother or me) and she immediately identified them as "hedge apples" (aka Osage oranges).

Bois D'Arc is also a town in Missouri (not far from Springfield), pronounced the same way as that little town in East Texas.

Fun with words. And strange fruit.

thehondohurricane said...

Morning everyone,

Found todays puzzle a bit tricky, but doable with lots of wags. First time thru had a total of seven fills But success arrived!. Cannot remember the last time I polished off a Saturday puzzle with nary an error.

Until I came here the crossing O for OLEIC & ROTA was my biggest concern.

MONEYPENNY was nice to see. Wish my petty cash keeper had been as attractive, but she was as honest.

DARC was another unknown, but I was very confident the perps were spot on.

I remember VAN Johnson. Wasn't my favorite, but he was an OK actor. Was cast in westerns, WW II films, comedy, etc.

Have a nice weekend.

HeartRx said...

Dudley @ 6:02, very funny! And so true - I did the same things.

The clue for 6-A could easily have been Jean ___. But with OSAGE in the grid at 12-D, I loved that they made it Bois ___, instead. I have a hunch that RIch may have played a role in that clue...

Congrats Lemony - your fiancée is lovely!!

Husker Gary said...

Neither DARC, nor DOSADOS, nor NIESSE, nor ROTA, nor LYONAISE could keep this solver from the completion of this appointed puzzle.

Musings
-Easiest Saturday ever for me
-T-Shirt for a weak argument
-CARPE DIEM was prominent in Dead Poet’s Society but led to a tragic death
-I was thinking of Monterrey Jack
-We pass laws but are EXEMPT
-Many the children TRADE ON their famous parent’s success
-Site of the most famous FIELD TEST
-Bob Eubanks’ EUPHEMISM was “Whoopee”
-Weakest RETORT – “Oh yeah”
-Appetizers, wines and dessert trays aren’t our style
-Can you name my most memorable VAN Johnson movie? where he took the rap for a an action he was coerced into taking (grammar police: I retyped "coerced into") ;-)

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Fun puzzle Pawel and Michael. I think Dr. Fludzinski is an alum of RPI.

Splynter, I always like your write-ups.

Started out with ANGST and daunting. But 'got' the NE and SE and was gradually able to build out the tendrils to get the rest. Only white-out gunk area was at VAN/TEENAGERS cross where I had tried Don Johnson/……lovers. But RE-DEVELOP clinched it.
NEISSE was a gimme. The long downs were nice ordinary words.
No lookups were needed; just patience.
DOS Å DOS must be where we get the square dance term do-si-do from.

Congrats to Lemon on your impending life change. Mazel Tov!

Magilla Go-Rilla said...

46A - IMHO a very non-convincing actor who was very popular in the 40's. My older sister's heartthrob. Sort of the Matthew McConaughey of the day, but without a stupid catchphrase: "Alright,..."

Magilla Go-Rilla said...

Please, someone, tell me you agree with me!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I got off to a rocky start with "O as in" for (Osage) Orange, which I've never heard of, salads/salsas, and freer/fewer, but, eventually, all fell into place. Overall, while it was tough, I found it easier than most Saturday offerings.

Thank you, PF and MM, for a fun challenge and thank you, Splynter, for the informative write-up.

TTP, your mention of 12-13-14 reminded me that my sister-in-law's granddaughter chose to be married today simply because of the date. She got very lucky with the weather, as it's cold but no snow.

Speaking of weddings, best wishes to you and your bride-to-be, Lemony; may you enjoy many happy years together.

Hope all of our California Cornerites are safe, sound, and dry!

Have a great day.

Great Granny said...

Aced it in an hour and fifteen minutes..What is your allotted time? I'm old enough to remember drooling over Van Johnson, but too young to know what my time solving goal should be!

Anonymous said...

I suspect the work table was for artsy projects like flower arranging, decoupage, origami, etc.

desper-otto said...

Great Granny: First off, welcome to the blog. So far as "allotted time" is concerned, it's a personal thing. Some people try to finish quickly, others take their time and enjoy the experience. I guess it's a lot like sex! After a while you get a "feel" for how long a puzzle ought to take. Monday puzzles are the easiest, so they're the fastest. Saturday's are the toughest, but Sunday's are the biggest, so both may take about the same amount of time.

And now for something completely different... I've noticed that if you "Preview" your post the Captcha disappears and you can simply "Publish".

Misty said...


Well, I got the NE and the SW corner and then had to struggle and cheat on the rest. But that's a Saturday for me, these days. Glad Splynter filled us in on everything. And Dudley, your post cracked me up!

A Christmas wedding, how wonderful, Lemonade! Have a beautiful one!

Heavy rains yesterday did very little damage here, thank goodness, and this morning the sun is shining. Tomorrow we host our annual Christmas party. Hope we have enough food.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Ergo said...


Thank you Splynter and Pawel and Michael.

A partially-solved puzzle is always worth a second look after a little sustenance of frozen burritos and coffee.

The NW and SE were pretty barren until WORKTABLE AND REDEVELOP provided some desperately needed perps. And voila! Nailed it in its entirety.

Lots to like in this well-suited Saturday offering.

Anonymous said...

d-o@11:32 "Some people try to finish quickly, others take their time and enjoy the experience."

Which is not to say that those who try to finish quickly don't also enjoy the experience. I suspect that those who solve the puzzle online are more aware that the clock is ticking.

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

You disgusting anonymous!

You're no different from those coward ISIS terrorists, hiding behind your damned mask and attack Lemonade & all Asians.

Google Analystics allows me to see who's on the blog at any minute. I wish I could rip your damned mask off if there were not so many visitors on the blog at this time.

There will be a time.

Rainman said...

Through sheer tenacity, I slogged completely through, taking a lot of time as usual, and after finally settling on MOTA instead of ROTA, got an FIW. Had MEGAN for REGAN, and was wondering if the answer to Sister of Goneril might be Syphil? I amuse myself. :O)
As small lads, we had bois d'arc trees growing wild everywhere in SW OK and believe me, a "bois d'arc apple" (I remember it being called a horse apple, too) could be a weapon of some destruction... IF you could throw the heavy thing, and we tried. Very hard, heavy, inedible "fruit."
Also, in my childhood home town, there were ALBINO twins, a boy and a girl, extremely intelligent, and I believe their non-albino parents (maybe adoptive) were farmers. I had heard the twins weren't allowed outdoors due to the skin sensitivity to the sunlight. I would have liked to know them better and even find them today, but I moved to TX when I was 12 and sadly forgot their names.
LYONNAISE is a verb? Past tense? Hmmm... can that be right? Looked it up and sure enough, "Adjective: prepared with onions."
Nice work, Pawel and Michael, for enabling me to recall old memories. Very good job, Splynter. Stay warm on that route, and watch for black ice, especially when walking. Memories.

Rainman said...

Way to go C.C.
That comment was mean-spirited.

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

Rainman,
You probably read only one comment. That anonymous posted a bunch of disturbing comments that Argyle removed this morning.

Welcome to the blog!

Spitzboov said...

German Checkout Scanners


D-O @ 1132: I've noticed it, too.

Ergo said...


Rainman - I understand. I've only been frequenting this board for a few months, and yet in that short period of time I have been appalled by the actions of the individual in question.

The governance of the board has been more than fair. I naively posted things of a political and religious nature, was kindly corrected, and we moved on. The disruptive influence on this board however has attacked and belittled. Quite candidly, I'm surprised that they have not been banished. But that is a reflection of the tolerance and integrity of board governance. And whether to allow participation or deny access, is a decision that is in their hands.

Rest assured that my comments here are intended as honorable, and I hope you continue to enjoy the board.

Respectfully,

Chuck Stepanek

Anonymous said...

why was the fbi.gov link removed from yesterday's blog?

Unknown said...

I enjoy your comments and especially the answers!
Carol in L.A.

Anonymous T said...

HI Puzzle Pals!

Way to many cheats to claim any sort of victory today, but I still wanted to play and suss out some answers.

NW fell like FICA taking money from a pay-check :-)

SW corner was empty until - ooh, Roman maths!

No one wanted SNACKS for 34a? That stayed until EMANUE(a at first)L AX fell. I only knew this because of an interview on WWDTM.

The rest of the puzzle took copious cheating. But I had fun. Thanks PF & MM and of course to our Sat host Splynter!

Fav: DARE - right before "hold my beer" and a Stunt. Manac & I are on the same page :-)

Congratulations LEM!

C.C. nice response. You'd think s/he would get the hint that we don't give a PENNY for their thought.

Cheers, -T

Big Easy said...

No politics or religion.Keep it that way

Rainman said...

CC, thanx. It's a privilege to be here.
Yes, I missed most of the sniper attacks. Thankfully.

Occasional Lurker said...


The daily censors on the blog have to be ever vigilant to prevent one person from ruining it for everybody ...

Great blog, Splynter.

Congratulations Lemonade and Significant Other.

Spitzboov, I really enjoyed the musical talents of the german 'scanners' or scan-persons, in playing, Silent Night. I wonder if they practiced in their spare time, to get the rhythm.

I wonder if this happened in the US, whether some customers might have objected to either the delay involved, or the nature of the religious music. There is always somebody who thinks he will get his kicks by making a big fuss and ado about nothing.

Happy 12-13-14 !!!

Best Season wishes to all.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Wow! Joe DiMaggio! Very impressive.

I saw Van Johnson play the lead in in The Music Man at the Kenley Players in Ohio. Musta been in the '60s. I was in a far balcony for that one, but Van made sure his fans could pick him out from among the huge cast ("76 Trombones!") by wearing bright red socks! An old vaudeville rick, very clever of him to revive it.

Pseudonymous said...

It only takes one jerk to give anonymity a bad name.

By the way, I think the post at 8:34 also warrants deletion.

Lucina said...

Hello, word wizards! Thanks, Splynter for clearing up a couple of my errors. Didn't know D'Arc or DOSADOS even though it sounds Spanish but my French is almost non existent.

I did breeze through 3/4s of this but the NW frazzled me. Finally I researched EMANUELAX and wouldn't have known it in MDV years.

That opened up ALBINOS and SALSAS and all the rest. Very challenging puzzle. Thank you, Pael Fludzinski and Maichael S. Maurer.

It was a busy morning with telephone calls, people dropping by with gifts, an excursion to my neighbor's and my granddaughters' arrival. Whew!

I hope you all are staying warm and having a spectacular Saturday! I am!

CrossEyedDave said...

I thought I did not have time to do the Saturday Stumper, & went straight to the Blog. About 5 Clue/answers in I thought, "I know this, this is easy, I should do the puzzle..."

I was wrong...

P.S. I hate cliffhangers because I have to know... While there is no YouTube clip of how Batman & Robin escape the BBQ spit, the following is an excerpt from this site.


"Suspecting another trap Batman places two bombs on the wall of the narrow corridor before entering the door.

They are caught by the Minstrel and tied to a musical electronic radar grill that will roast them to cinders.

The Melodic fiend had not wanted to destroy Batman for he admired his genius but was furious when the Caped Crusader tried to reform him and tells his henchmen to switch it on before playing a taunting song.

While the heroes are still revolving on the grill, the bombs that Batman place outside earlier go off distracting the Minstrel and his men long enough for the Dynamic Duo to loosen the pole that is rotating them and free themselves from their restraints."

Lucina said...

Oh. Congratulations, Lemonade and your beautiful fiancée! I wish you many happy years together.

Add my two cents worth against snarky anon. I always skip over those posts.

Occasional Lurker said...

I think the snarky anon is really a blog regular. I have a guess too, but I will keep that to myself in case I am wrong.

Occasional Lurker, too said...


Hey ! Who is that interloper who (mis)appropriated my avatar name ? huh ?

I have a trademark / copyright / Patent on that name !!!

Lemonade, how about unleashing a writ petition, great writ of habeas corpus or a Supoena duces tecum OR atleast, at the very least, a writ of certiorari to get the aforementioned interloper off my back ???

Someday - a day wil come - that'll allow me to indentify the interloper and taze him ( and I know its a him ) to la la land ...

Meanwhile, C.E.D. you mean Batman and Robin escape the grill cum rotisserie ? Thats totally unfair. ! You mean the McDonald's happy meal toy of the barbequed Batman is just make believe and a spoof ? I think I just disgorged my quarter pounder. I want double my money back. This is a scam !

here robot, robot

Occasional you-know-who said...

Thats Joe Dimaggio ?

It sure looks like George Kennedy or Lee Marvin.

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. Lots of awesome puzzles this week, and lots of pleasurable work to solve them. Best regards to you all.

Jayce said...

Congratulations, Lemonade! May you both be happy with each other for 10000 years!

Bill G. said...

This seemed a little easier than usual. Not easy but a little easier. Or maybe, not quite as hard...

Magilla, I agree with you.

The local rain has abated. I'm looking forward to the next encounter.

We just got back from lunch at a new fish shack. We split chowder, a fish taco and fish/chips. The fish and chips were really good though the fries weren't hot any more. Otherwise, everything was very tasty.

It would be interesting to meet our anon in person. I wonder if he would be as snarky and shallow as he appears online?

Avg Joe said...

I'm happy to see so many of the California contingent check in. I hope that all is well with every one of you. You've had a rough week.

Anonymous said...

No one remembers Van Johnson in "The Caine Mutiny"?

Geez, how old am I?

Spitzboov said...

Anon @ 1718 - Yes, I remember him. Played the XO.

Lucina - BH's SIL sent us an Arizona Highways calender today. They live outside Tucson. Beautiful state!

Lucina said...

Spitzboov:
Oh! It's usually a beautiful calendar and I'm glad you get to enjoy the many scenic vistas. My sister who lives in Charlotte loves it every year as it allows her to reminisce month by month.

BillG:
We received some of that rain early this morning. It was refreshingly welcome.

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

What a happy surprise! A Saturday I could work! (One cheat--looked up french for back--had _OS.

Lots of rain here last night. Roof leaked again.

Still sick.

Cheers!

Tinbeni said...

Well I don't (very often) do the Saturday or Sunday puzzles but I am glad I did this one today.

Yeah, I put it down a few times ... and Bois DARC got me the DNF ... and a learning moment.

Sunset has long past ... but you ALL were toasted!
Cheers