google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday December 14, 2014 Paul Hunsberger

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Dec 14, 2014

Sunday December 14, 2014 Paul Hunsberger

Theme:  "Eureka Moments" - Common phrases are re-interpreted as what the inventor did when/before/after he invented the said item in the clue.

 23A. In inventing his elevator, Otis __ : ROSE TO THE OCCASION

31A. Nervously testing his new invention, the Aqua-Lung, Cousteau __ :
TOOK A DEEP BREATH

 54A. In inventing the hot air balloon, the Montgolfier brothers __ : GOT CARRIED AWAY. I like this entry the most.

 89A. Tired, but pleased to have invented the air conditioner, Carrier __ : COOLED HIS HEELS

105A. Proving his invention of the joy buzzer to be a complete success, Adams __ :
SHOCKED EVERYONE

118A. Immediately upon inventing the box camera (but not the lens cap), Eastman __ :
SNAPPED HIS FINGERS. This kind of "His" dupes are allowed in the theme selection.

16D. After inventing the forerunner to the modern toilet, Harington __ :

FLUSHED WITH PRIDE. So I did not know who Harington is, and googled "Flushed with Pride", and this guy Thomas Crapper came up. Gosh, what a name!

 39D. To celebrate inventing his revolutionary engine, Watt __ : BLEW OFF SOME STEAM

I'm so in awe of Paul's creativity in coming up with 8 long theme entries and his skill in designing and filling this grid with only 140 words and 70 black squares.

There are total 124 theme squares. The two Down 16's intersect two of the long Across entries. I could not imagine what would happen if Rich nixed one of his theme answers. This grid would be extraordinarily hard if he could not make the intersection happen. The gridding would be a nightmare.
  
Across:

1. Squabble : TIFF. Or SPAT.

5. "Dr. Strangelove" subject : A-BOMB

10. Packs again, at the checkout : RE-BAGS

16. Tasseled top : FEZ

19. Shivering state : AGUE

20. Lite to the max : NO-CAL. In the old days, I'd put down ??EST first.

21. Sellers of used texts : ALUMNI. Used text books, right? Unheard of in my college days. Our textbooks were very cheap.

22. Vientiane local : LAO

26. Troop-lifting gp. : USO

27. 1985, for Marty McFly : PRESENT. Needed crossing help. I never watched Back to the Future series.

28. Producer of steamy fare? : WOK. Sweet clue. Do you own a wok, D-Otto?

29. Some dorm rooms : MESSES

37. Open, as a deadbolt : UNBAR

 41. Oscar winner Sorvino : MIRA. She speaks Chinese.

42. Square on a game square : TILE. I like this clue also.
 
43. Winning the lottery, for most : DREAM. Our old neighbor won $100K and ended up bankrupt.

46. Soft wood : BALSA

47. Saw logs : SNORE

49. Periodontist's concern : GUMS

51. Old Norse poetry collection : EDDA

52. Black Sea port : ODESSA

57. Old Sony brand : AIWA

58. GoPro product, briefly : CAM. They're everywhere.

60. New branch : SHOOT

61. Thin plate : LAMINA

62. Enterprise counselor : TROI.  Star Trek.

63. Fonda's title beekeeper : ULEE. Ulee's Gold. Great movie. Detoxing is hard.

65. Concert finish? : INA. Concertina.

66. Banned bug spray : DDT

67. Slew : TON

68. Roadside light : FLARE

70. Vein locales : MINES

72. Hal who produced Laurel and Hardy films : ROACH. Also Our Gang.

74. Striped-shirt wearer : REF

76. Too easy : LAX

77. Emmy winner Arthur : BEA

78. Rail vehicle : TRAM

80. Doing business : OPEN

83. 1970s-'80s FBI bribery sting : ABSCAM. As in American Hustle.

85. Firewater : HOOCH. I did not know the meaning of "Firewater".

87. Certain screecher : OWL

88. Janis' comics husband : ARLO
 
92. Attendees of Connecticut's Battell Chapel : YALIES. OK, the chapel is inside Yale, Jayce's alma mater.

94. Orange-nosed Muppet : ELMO

95. Boomers' kids : XERS. Gen Xers.

96. "__ in Provence": Mayle best-seller : A YEAR. I loved the book. I bet many people visited France simply because of this book.

98. Bog flora : SEDGE

99. Take-off programs? : DIETS. Not the take-off I had in mind.

101. Middling grades : CEES

103. Deli offering : HERO

104. Low pair : TREYS. I can never remember this word.

109. 2009 World Series MVP Hideki : MATSUI. Fun guy. Very generous also.


111. How-to letters : DIY

112. Big memory unit : TERABIT. Gimme for TTP and Anon-T.

117. Can : AXE

124. Hot brew : TEA

125. Filled pastry : ECLAIR. Want to taste my Chocolate Bundt with hot fudge?


126. Singer John : ELTON

 127. Stink : REEK

128. Scary film street : ELM

129. Pickup game side : SHIRTS. And Skins.

130. Outfielder's "I don't got it!" : YOURS. I had ?OURS and still could not nail it. Dumb!

131. Additions : ANDs.

Down:

1. Campsite cover : TARP

2. Helper with a hunch : IGOR

3. Combine : FUSE

4. Bank statement entries : FEES

5. Not allowed : A NO-NO. Better without the "Not" in the clue.

6. Toast starter : BOTTOMS. Up.

7. Scot's "Crikey!" : OCH

8. West of "I'm No Angel" : MAE
 
9. Poison carriers : BLOW DARTS. Not a familiar term to me.

10. Hullabaloo : RACKET

11. Portuguese pronoun : ELA

12. Tour vehicle : BUS

13. Burgundy bud : AMI

14. "Harry Potter" garden pest : GNOME

15. Singer O'Connor : SINEAD. Known for her Nothing Compares 2 U.

17. Facility : EASE

18. Menageries : ZOOS
 
24. Pet shop fish : TETRAS

25. Miler Sebastian : COE
 
30. Transmit continuously, as video : STREAM

32. Checkers cry : KING ME

33. Buck back? : AROO. Buckaroo.
 
34. Where to go whole hog? : PIG ROAST. Great clue/answer. Nothing tastes as delicious as the small ration of pork we got at each Spring Festival.
 
35. Spill, with "out" : BLURT

36. Do followers : RE MI

37. German sub : U-BOAT

38. Low point : NADIR

40. Besiege : ASSAIL

44. Hersey's bell town : ADANO. A Bell for Adano.

45. Mesoamerican language family : MAYAN

48. Coneflower genus : ECHINACEA. This is one of the ingredients in the hot tea recipe Sandy sent to me for my flu two weeks ago. It boosts your immune system.

50. Infrequently, to Dickinson : SELDOMLY. A boring 8-letter fill.

53. Luxury SUV : ACURA MDX. Nice consonant clusters in the end.

55. Tiptop : A-ONE

56. Census info, e.g. : DATA

59. Drummer Van Halen : ALEX

64. Like some seals : EMBOSSED. Not the aquatic seals.

66. Tie : DRAW

69. Latin wings : ALAE

71. The "I" in I.M. Pei : IEOH. Tricky spelling even to me. You won't find such spelling in any Chinese name nowadays. So old.

73. Fossil fuel transport : COALER. Learning moment to me also. It's a ship.

74. Hustled : RACED

75. Carlo Levi's "Christ Stopped at __" : EBOLI

79. Prayer counter's beads : ROSARY

81. Poetic lament : ELEGY

82. Holders of glasses : NOSES. Nice clue also.

84. Cleaning supplies : CLOTHS

85. Payroll addition : HIREE

86. Fat Albert catchphrase : HEY HEY HEY. Big learning moment to me.

90. "Shucks" : HECK

91. Unwelcome look : LEER

93. Opposite of ahead : ASTERN

97. Cheer on : ROOT FOR

100. They're loaded : SOUSES. Life is hard for an alcoholic. Been there.

102. Matzo meals : SEDERS

106. Piece of cake : CINCH

107. YouTube find, for short : VID

108. Helmut's denials : NEINS

109. Partner : MATE

110. Eponymous skater Paulsen : AXEL

113. Indian tourist city : AGRA

114. "Where've you __?" : BEEN

115. Inflamed : IRED. A bit strained.

116. Tut relatives : TSKS

119. Woodcutter Baba : ALI

120. Ryder Cup number : PAR

121. Service station of a sort : PIT. OK, like pit stops.

122. U.N. workers' group : ILO (International Labor Organization)

123. Early Beatles bassist Sutcliffe : STU

C.C.


40 comments:

  1. Puzzlers are known to be cranky
    And opposed to all hanky-panky.
    If you do one a turn
    To gratitude earn,
    You'll get cross words instead of a "Thanky!"

    As monks, crossworders do well
    It's really quite easy to tell.
    Their rooms in the dorm
    They will always adorn --
    Their goal is to fill in each cell!

    One wordie, while still just a kid
    Played football. Yes, that's what he did.
    No other team's back'll
    Escape his fierce tackle --
    That's how he marks blocks on the grid'!

    A cruciverbalist's squeeze
    Said her hubby could be a big tease.
    He'd flex his vocabs
    Instead of his abs,
    And converse in High Crosswordese!

    ReplyDelete
  2. No promises that I'm coming back. I'm sure a few were glad I was gone. But thanks to C.C.'s concern, I've started working the LAT again (still shying from the NYT), and read a few of the blog posts this week. Not all, but I did see and appreciate the encouragements to me this past Monday. I've been trying to come up with some verse to return with before I posted anything, by my Muse has been on vacation (probably mental health leave from trying to deal with me). Today's Tom Swifty puzzle was the first to give me any inspiration.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Morning, all (and welcome back, Owen -- we're happy to see you back whether you post limericks or not)!

    Loved the theme today. Most of the rest of the fill was pretty straightforward, but I'm pretty sure that the bombs referenced in "Dr. Strangelove" were H-BOMBS and not A-BOMBS. Picky, picky, picky...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good morning!

    Started off at 1d with TENT. Didn't last. My NOCAL was NOFAT for far too long. As soon as ROSE appeared, I knew where the theme was heading, and that helped immensely. I quickly wrote TO THE CHALLENG---and then ran out of room. D'oh! I don't really care for the SUV = MDX. Those three letters could be **anything**. In this case the perps were kind.

    Nice CSO to Abejo with FEZ. It appears that ULEE's name will live forever in cw's. TERABIT is an awkward word. It takes 8 bits to make a byte. You could have a one-TERABYTE hard drive, but it'd never be expressed in TERABITs. I guess a transmission rate might be expressed in TERABITs per second -- makes it sound faster than it is.

    No, C.C., no WOK in my kitchen, but my cast-iron skillet gets a workout. We WALK three miles every day, does that count?

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Week in Review:

    M 5:41 T 8:30 W 9:10 T 8:15 F 17:27 S 14:41 S 20:45

    Saturday's puzzle was challenging (though not as hard as a "Silkie") and today's puzzle was fun and meaty but this week's highlight was C.C.'s Friday puzzle. I knew the poets but (save one) not the poems. And I should have remembered ANA but didn't and NESPRESSO was an unknown so that "N" was the last fill. A very enjoyable workout.

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  6. Newsprint is so small I read "lite to the max" as "life to the max." Either way NOCAL worked, especially if you're eating a NOCAL ECLAIR. That's living!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Good morning, gang - I thought this was an outstanding puzzle, from the great theme clues/answers to the very clever cluing.

    As with Barry, I was expecting H-BOMB instead of A-BOMB, but that corrected itself quickly. And I had the same problem as desper-otto in digesting TERABIT; it's a legitimate word, but you'd never use it. ABSCAM was a gimme since I lived up there when it happened. It was fun watching some of Philly's more obnoxious politicians get handed their lunch. Favorite clue by far was "Where to go whole hog?" Overall, a very enjoyable solve.

    Got up at zero-dark-thirty yesterday to go deep-sea fishing with two friends; after seven hours on the water, we returned with.......ONE fish (that looked like an over-sized guppy). I'd have been better off going to the local pet store...

    Saw Lewis Black in concert last night - some of his rants had people in tears. Fun show.

    Owen, great to see you back; hope you stick around.

    Hope it's a great day for everyone.



    ReplyDelete
  8. Good Morning:

    Unlike the last two Sundays, this was completed post haste, no problems whatsoever! Some Sunday puzzles are boring and tedious (IMO), but I liked and enjoyed this offering very much. The cluing and theme phrases were spot on and fun, to boot.

    Thank you, Mr. Hunsberger, for a lively Sunday workout and thank you, CC, for your professional analysis.

    On a personal note (and if you'll forgive a little patting one's self on the back,) today marks the 20th anniversary of my farewell to cigarettes! Hooray, and the some!

    Have a great day.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sorry, that should be "then" some.

    Also, welcome back, Owen. Don't be a stranger; with or without your poetry, we enjoy your presence. ☺️

    ReplyDelete
  10. Staying at a friend's house overnight, the smoke alarm started chirping at two AM and the three little dogs were trembling so uncontrollably, I was influenced to get up and start on the puzzle early. But the paper wouldn't be thrown up until hours later, so I ventured onto my MacBook. Only my second attempt doing a Sunday on-line. Getting halfway through and not knowing how to do interim "save"s, naturally I lost my work! I REBAGed the grid and got through unscathed. My Eureka moment was finishing the Carrier quote. For some mysterious reason, the perps just did not help there at first. All in all, however, the puzzle was an admirable accomplishment. The clues were very clever and the quotes well-constructed. Thanks again to everyone who has helped me get started. This blogging keeps me out of trouble...
    Owen KL: Todays limericks are some of your best. Waytogo! Your muse seems to have returned.

    ReplyDelete
  11. After I discovered Otis HAD HIS UPS AND DOWNS was wrong, I had a great time! Ya gotta love laughter and learning from Paul and C.C.

    Musings
    -The A-BOMB was not only the “close enough” fill but also a vehicle
    -Tassles that made me a big income for 23 summers
    -Does anyone still REBAG groceries and carry them to your car?
    -Yeah, that $60 calculus book might fetch $10 when you sell it back
    -Good luck with these TILES
    -Now we await those green SHOOTS of spring
    -Remember these FLARES?
    -ROACH put Stan and Ollie together after Stan had done 75 films and Ollie 250
    -I’ve done Kilo, Mega and Giga and now need TERA
    -Mine, mine, mine, mine, uh, YOURS
    -C’mon, you put TENT too…
    -BLOW DART tip: don’t inhale at wrong time
    -Riding a TOUR BUS with contemporaries is a whole different story than one full of 14-year-olds
    -At least Harry Potter fill was not a proper noun
    -Fat Albert’s creator is in trouble for more than LEERING
    -Origination of Service Station PIT
    -Welcome back, Owen!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi there~!

    I agree with Dennis on this one - just outstanding to get these themes to cross, and without 'meh' fill. Some awkward proper names/titles, but I got my Ta-DA~!

    Being an alcoholic, I have to say that life is much harder now - because when drinking, I just did not give a s**t....this has been my toughest year so far, but if I make it to Jan 8th, I'll have 10years in AA.

    Detoxing was hardest the first night - no "hooch", so the walls were melting....then I got the itchies something fierce while I was in the sober house.

    I really did drink Firewater - it was my choice of liquor, cinnamon flavored 100proof~!

    I don't get around to the crosswords much these days, so I missed C.C.'s poets corner....oh well - I DO care to try that bundt cake with fudge~!

    Splynter

    ReplyDelete
  13. Good morning !

    Thank you Paul Hunsberger and thank you CC.

    Got a very late start on the puzzle this morning. Late to bed last evening after a Christmas party. Staying up late upsets my apple cart.

    Fun puzzle that took a steady pace. Pretty much top to bottom. I prefer this type of puzzle over an "add a ___" or a "swap a ___" type of puzzle.

    I thought of Abejo at FEZ and TEA, and then again at ECHINACEA. He became a master gardener this year.

    My wife planted a mix of 18 ECHINACEA plants this year in a front garden. I was doubtful, but they blossomed and bloomed into a wonderful display. She said next year will be even better. Someone, I think one of her girlfriends, also planted a grouping of Celosia in the corner of that same flower bed about that same time. We received many compliments. One couple got out of their car and asked if they could take pictures of that particular garden.

    Of bits and bytes... With that clue, I have a bit of a nit with "BIT."

    Terabyte would be appropriate in quantifying storage. TERABIT is now a term that is most commonly used to express data transmission rates. In that regard, IBM broke the Tb/s milestone with optical transmitters and receivers a couple of years ago. I don't think there's been any implementation yet. Read some of the gee whiz articles if interested, but that's fast enough to transfer 500 HD movies in a second.

    Welcome back Owen.

    ReplyDelete
  14. The Theme fills were easy. It was the other unknowns that took time.

    NO-CAL- or was it NO-FAT or NO TAN?- crossing A NO NO- I first placed TABOO.

    AIWA LAMINA TROI 'A YEAR' MATSUI OCH ECHINACEA IEOH-( did anybody know?)

    Joy Buzzer TWICE in one week and I previously had never heard the term.

    PIG ROAST- Cochon de lait down here
    TERABIT- never heard the term as there are 8 bits to a BYTE.
    Completely unfamiliar with the comic strip that Janis & ARLO appear in. I wonder what JANIS Joplin and ARLO Guthrie would have sounded like in a duo. I wonder if they are still showing the FAT ALBERT cartoons now that everybody is dumping on Bill Crosby. Speaking on dumping let's hope everyone ROSE TO THE OCCASION, TOOK A DEEP BREATH and FLUSHED-naw I won't go there.


    C.C.- If your textbooks were cheap you couldn't have taken many Chemistry & Physics courses. Mine were expensive in the 60s. And does MIRA speak Mandarin or Cantonese?

    ReplyDelete
  15. D-O

    I remember our first modems as 1200 BAUD, as in bits per second. I was delighted to be able to log in at home to be able to work. Now, it's MEGABYTES and it's immaterial because I don't download music or videos.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hello Puzzlers -

    Impressive grid again today! I had a slow start, but picked up speed as it went along. Alae was unfamiliar, but it sure looks like a crossword word...we must've had it before. Smiled right out loud at the lens cap joke once I got it. Took ages to recall Abscam, which I didn't understand back in the day.

    Morning Splynter and Irish Miss, congratulations on your respective anti-addiction milestones! Well done.

    Hello C.C., I'm glad to have your input about I. M. Pei. I'll bet the constructor was just glad the name existed so the fill would work. Also, if we are meant to understand that you too have summoned the strength to overcome a powerful addiction, then congratulations to you as well!

    Howdy Owen, welcome back to the Corner.

    JzB - I was reminded of you last night, when at a party I found myself chatting about the Game of Thrones books. I just might take your advice and dig in to the series.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Gary, the Publix stores down here not only bag your groceries, but ALWAYS offer to take them to the car. And I understand they're not allowed to accept tips.

    Splynter, sincere congratulations! I can't imagine how tough a battle that's been; says a lot about your character.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Good Sunday morning wishes for everybody. (I haven't watched one of my favorite TV shows yet by the same name.)

    I enjoyed the puzzle and the clever theme very much. It took a while but it was fun guessing some of the theme answers before they appeared with crossing letters.

    Owen: It's good to see you again, poems or not. Irish Miss: Congratulations! I was so happy when my parents quit. I subsequently had a number of bad dreams that my father had started back up again. Splynter: Congratulations on your upcoming milestone!

    Our supermarket has baggers. Don't they all? Dunno about re-baggers though.

    A local Cuban restaurant has the best roast pork I've had in a long time, maybe forever.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Greetings!

    Great puzzle, Paul! Swell expo, CC! Loved the quirky theme entries! No cheats!

    IEOH and MATSUI were all perps. Scratched head at TERABIT.

    Splynter: keep it up! Almost 19 years for me!

    Owen: What Irish Miss said!

    Reagle puzzle is a fun Christmas-themed offering. I recommend it! (But somewhat harder, IMHO.)

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Owen,
    Don't put too much pressure on yourself to write poems to entertain us. We like your presence here, poems or not.

    TTP,
    I'm going to plant Celosia next year. Your link looks very pretty.

    Big Easy,
    Mira Sorvino speaks Mandarin Chinese. She spent a year in Beijing as an exchange student. Very very few foreigners speak Cantonese, which has 9 tones. Drives me crazy.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Splynter - You have much to be proud of; keep up the good work. (You, too, Ferm!)

    Bill G - For many years after quitting, I, too, had a recurring dream that I started smoking again and I would be so mad at myself! Then, I would wake up and be so happy and relieved that it was only a dream.

    Dennis, when I shopped at Publix, I would always offer a tip which usually was accepted by the "retirees" but never by the teenagers. The latter was afraid of breaking the rules and losing a job. My local market does't offer carry-out; half the time, the person on the register has to do the bagging, due to short staffing, I presume.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Hello everybody. I liked this puzzle a lot, and laughed out loud at Mr. Eastman snapping his fingers. Well constructed!

    Congratulations to you and you, Splynter and Irish Miss. Well done.

    My sister stopped smoking about 10 years ago and gained about 150 pounds. She's huge, but at least she did quit.

    The actress Michelle Yeoh also has an unusual spelling of her surname.

    One of my Mandarin-speaking friends once said that to his ears Cantonese sounds like a fire siren. I can say my wife's sister's husband sure does. The way he speaks, it sounds as if the language evolved so that you can talk with your mouth full of food without spitting any of it out. He just wads the food into his cheek and keeps on yakking away.

    Best wishes to you all.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Avg Joe, your video about Secret Santa showed up again today, on CBS's Sunday Morning. I enjoyed it all over again but I missed the Scott Pelley reaction shot. :>)

    Our local supermarkets, Ralphs and Vons being two examples, have baggers at each checkstand; either bagging your groceries into their brown paper bags (with handles) or into your reusable cloth bags as I use. If things are busy, sometimes the checker will do the bagging. They usually offer to help me out to the car (which I've refused so far). I just assumed all markets operated similarly but I guess not.

    Our little city avoids the rowdy crowds on July 4th by avoiding a fireworks show. Instead, they have one before Christmas. Tonight's the night. We usually double-park on the hill in a residential area overlooking the shore and watch from the car. Maybe Jordan will join us.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Totally Lurking Today said...

    I didn't have time w/ all the kids' activities (ballet again!) for puzzle play, but did want to drop in and say welcome back Owen. We missed you and not just for poems and limericks (though some are LOL).

    TTP - Yes, Tb/s makes more sense than a memory unit (set in bytes or words).

    But that's not my nit. No today it is with C.C.'s write-up. TROI is not Star Trek, she was in TNG (The Next Generation). Beware the Wrath of Kahn, er nerds :-)

    Ya'll have a great Sunday. Cheers, -T

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous T says "TROI is not Star Trek, she was in TNG (The Next Generation)"

    Well, to be precise, Deanna TROI is a character in Star Trek: The Next Generation. She also appeared in Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise.

    Sounds like Star Trek to me.

    ReplyDelete
  26. No Nits:

    The TROI / TNG "nit" was tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek for S&Gs*. I know not how she does it, but C.C. does not miss.

    Cheers, -T
    *s***s & giggles. It's been a long week...

    ReplyDelete

  27. Thank you Paul and C.C. Acknowledgements to those celebrating sobriety anniversaries; I can identify.

    Fun little Sunday romp. Only hurdle was that I was convinced the drummer for Van Halen was EDDY (or some four letter version thereof).

    We had a supermarket open recently where you have to PAY for a cart, bag your own, tote or wheel your own, and return the cart to the store to get your money back.

    Sakes...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's tge European model, or at least that's how we do it in Sweden. One is encouraged to bring one's own bags and even carts, so that the walk home through the planned living/shopping community isn't marred by the bearing of heavy groceries.

      If I behave and the creek don't tise, I'll be celebrating 28 years sober end of January. This is one reason I had kids so late in life! Another was of course waiting for my Swede to find me in Boston.

      Cool xword, thanks!

      Delete
  28. Irish Miss, I agree; if someone takes your groceries out for you, cart or otherwise, you should tip them or at least make the offer. Those people aren't bagging so they can cover the cleaning bill on their yacht.
    Publix certainly seems to be well-staffed; there's usually enough baggers for each register. And they're all unceasingly friendly. Maybe it's because I'm the poster boy for impulse buying, and I now do all the grocery shopping. Pretty packaging - I'm in.

    Ergo, that's certainly an interesting business model. What's the advantage of shopping there? Substantially lower prices? Unique items?

    ReplyDelete

  29. The store is called Aldi's. From what I understand, it is a regional chain.

    Other elements of their unique business model: They receive limited deliveries of produce. If you want it fresh, you need to know someone on the inside to alert you that the truck has arrived.

    They do not accept checks, and I believe the credit cards they accept are limited to an exquisite few.

    The wife and I drove by there on a Sunday evening a few weeks ago, only to discover an empty parking lot, and a posting that they close at 6:00 p.m. on Sundays.

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  30. Aldi has a unique niche business model, and it should work...but it's not for everyone. They're owned by the same corporate entity as Trader Joes, but bear little similarity.

    They deal in overstock and seasonal items, and while they have a warehouse approach, they have small stores. IOW, you won't find everything you want on any given day...but you will find some bargains. And the bargains vary constantly.

    We've shopped there, and will continue to, but it will never be a primary source. Glad to have it in Lincoln, nevertheless.

    ReplyDelete
  31. This was a fun puzzle. I enjoyed the themes. Thanks, Paul and C.C.

    No real problems with this one, just ran out of time to finish it.

    Congrats to all who have overcome addictions. It's hard! I gave up cigarettes 30+ years ago.

    I went to a Straight No Chaser concert last night and had a blast. The 2 hours went very quickly. I'd love to link their original "12 Days of Christmas" but this computer will not allow me to link anything.

    Welcome back, Owen. Limericks are enjoyed but not required.

    Enjoy your Sunday evening.

    Pat

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  32. Thank you for the post, Argyle.

    We had a grocery store here that made you insert a quarter in he slot to get the cart out. When you shoved the cart back in where it belonged, your quarter was released to you. It was supposed to make people return the carts to the proper place. It lasted a couple years. Guess customer satisfaction was more important.

    Pat

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  33. Hello, Friends!

    Since it's so late I almost didn't post but had to tell Owen how much I enjoyed his limerick and glad to see him back. I missed you, Owen, and even without a verse, I'd like to see your post.

    Also want to congratulate those who are celebrating milestones in abstention, Splynter, Irish Miss, and others. I, too, appreciate those efforts, not for myself but my mother who finally gave up both cigarettes and alcohol. It wasn't easy and definitely marked our childhood.

    As for the puzzle, I worked on it off and on and really enjoyed the theme, chuckling every time I cracked the code. Priceless. However, Hideki struck me out in the end and had to look him up to finish especially since SLICE, CRUMB, CRUST weren't a piece of cake.

    C.C., I liked your elegant review and usually learn something about your culture.

    Where I shop for groceries, three stores regularly, there is always an offer to help me carry the bags. Luckily I don't need it.

    I hope you all had a really super Sunday!

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  34. Welcome back, Owen! I've missed you. Please keep posting, with or without poems.

    I'm so impressed with the accomplishments of abstainers and congratulate you . I've been there.

    CC and Paul, great crossword day. Thanks to you both.

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  35. Owen, I'm looking forward to the Coincidences in Crosswords, myself...

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  36. This puzzle was just plain fun, to solve!

    Montana

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  37. Argyle - thanks for finding / sharing 12 days. Not only was it well sung, it was funny-good.

    To all those celebrating sobriety anniversaries, good show. I'm still hooked on nicotine, but do the eSmokes with a cigar on Sundays.

    Re: Aldi - there are now 6 (IIRC) in the H-Town region. I grew up with them as the "generic" store. I remember my brother an I laughing at a label that said "Soup." Later we discovered that was dinner.

    I've since learned Aldi is a big-time chain out of Germany. My brother says their beer (labeled "beer") is actually pretty darn good. YMMV.

    Cheers, -T

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