google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, January 23, 2015, Sam Buchbinder

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Jan 23, 2015

Friday, January 23, 2015, Sam Buchbinder

Theme: Sure Auric, we will be happy to make some gold paint for you; we will just add gold to the base.

The periodic table symbol for Gold (AU) is inserted in existing phrases to create new and entertaining fill. Two phrases have the AU added to the final word, at the end thereof; one added to the end of the fist word; and the final before a one letter phrase. Mr. Buchbinder, who is 28 and a teacher had his debut in the NYT August 19, 2014. There are two gridspanning theme answers. As marti pointed out yesterday, the big challenge for a theme is establishing symmetrical theme fill. 15, 10, 10, 15 is a common format; here we have the central reveal also at 9 letters, giving 59 in the theme. As a result we have many 3 and 4 letter words, but there are also some nice 7 letter fill to make this a Friday, such as BIG DATA,  CURTAIN, DRIVE-IN, FEATURE, HAN SOLO,  IT’S TRUE, NEUTRAL, OBJECTS, ONE EACH, SYNERGY, TRAPEZE, TRUCKER . Welcome to our world Sam.

16A. Striking painting of paddles, net and ball? : PING PONG TABLEAU (15). Ping pong table and crowd the plate are both sports references. I like the visual of the painting, but this fill does not really change the meaning of the phrase in the same way the two of the other themers change their phrases.

23A. Extraordinary northern bird? : SPECIAL AUK (10). We go from a cereal to one of our favorite crossword birds.

46A. Alaskan insects? : JUNEAU BUGS (10). June bugs might emigrate to Alaska and be Juneau bugs, I guess.

55A. Overdevelop a high plain? : CROWD THE PLATEAU (15). A baseball reference really transformed.

34A. Mythological figure who touched 16-, 23-, 46- and 55-Across? : KING MIDAS (9). The poor man could not eat or fool around.

Across:

1. "Mad Men" productions : ADS. Madison Avenue Admen.

4. Bark elicitor : SPEAK. I love the simplicity of this clue.

9. Lax : SOFT. The modern parent?

13. Force (open) : PRY.

14. Close-fitting dress : SHEATH.

15. Powerful dept.? : ENERgy. Pun one.

19. Uber : VERY. German. Our first clecho 48D. Uber : ULTRA.

20. Facebook button : LIKE. How many of the Corner use FB? A show of hands?

21. Truncation abbr. : ETCetera.

22. Austin of "Knot's Landing" : TERI. She had lots of HAIR.

26. Statistician's challenge : BIG DATA. Computers have created an exponential increase in data.
28. Plot component : ACRE. Misdirection two. Land, not a novel.

29. "__ thoughts?" : ANY.

30. Reasonable : SANE.

32. Purim heroine : ESTHER. A wonderful story. LINK.

36. Available : ON HAND.

39. Anthony Hopkins' "Thor" role : ODIN.


40. Channel for old films : TCM. Turner Classic Movies.

43. Noodle : BEAN. Interestingly I can find no references to why bean means brain or head. I just know in baseball throwing at the head is a "bean ball" and people are rewarded for "using the old bean."

44. "I'm not kidding!" : IT'S TRUE.

51. Chief Justice Warren : EARL. Appointed by Dwight Eisenhower, he led a court which drastically reformed the interpretation of individual rights.

52. Subjects of some conspiracy theories : ETS. Extra Terrestrials.

53. Specks on cartes : ILES. Carte is French for "MAP."  Along with 9D. Sprinkling on French fries? : SEL, (which means salt) and all the EAU words, I might guess Sam likes French.

54. Enthralled : RAPT. Do I have your attention yet? I want to warn you, I have a...

60. It may be cautionary : TALE.

61. "I shall be late!" speaker of fiction : RABBIT. WATCH? (2:00). Oh how punny?

62. Letter director : ZIP. Code.

63. Narrow opening : SLOT. Started with SLIT, picturing some of Splynter's favorite dresses.

64. Indo-__ languages : ARYAN.

65. Nixon has two : ENS. Not ears, or eyes, but the letters. Misdirection three.

Down:

1. Angry Birds, e.g. : APP. I know this but have never actually seen it.

2. "Happy Days" setting : DRIVE IN.


3. Cooperative action : SYNERGY.

4. "Dexter" airer, for short : SHOwtime. Anyone watch the entire series?

5. Write : PEN.

6. Scout rank : EAGLE.

7. Top story : ATTIC. At 11? Nope of my house, misdirection 4. So we get the clecho two 11D. Top story : FEATURE.

8. Uniform material : KHAKI. Urdu?

10. Free sample limitation : ONE EACH. Do you think you can pay for your Sam's Club, COSTCO etc membership just from eating the free samples?

12. Cab driver? : TRUCKER. At least the answer was not TAXIER.

14. One of a pair of Mad adversaries : SPY.


17. Off the __ : GRID.

18. Arthur of "The Golden Girls" : BEA.

22. Sched. uncertainty : TBA. To Be Announced.

23. Witness __ : STAND. In the US we sit so it all sounds silly.

24. Sharp feeling : PANG.

25. Rowing beneficiaries, for short : LATS. Latissimi dorsi. Side back.

27. Z-zebra link : AS IN. I doubt that will be Sue Grafton's choice.

31. Dashboard Confessional's genre : EMO. No idea. Still rock and roll.



32. Changes, in a way : EDITS.

33. Without : SANS. A French word now accepted in English.

34. Rosebud's owner : KANE. Orson Welles' sled.

35. "Cool, man!" : I DIG. Maynard G. Krebs.



36. Things : OBJECTS.

37. __ color : NEUTRAL.

38. Fictional pilot with the iconic line, "Laugh it up, fuzzball" : HAN SOLO. I told you last week Star Wars references were coming.

40. Circus staple : TRAPEZE. With the greatest of ease....

41. Sun block : CURTAIN. Meh.

42. "The Producers" screenwriter Brooks : MEL. Too many wonderful scenes and movies to link.

45. Milk dispenser : TEAT. We had the the bird TIT, the idiot BOOB and now we actually have a milk dispenser. Udderly amazing.

47. Help : AID.

49. "The View" alum Joy : BEHAR. The word BEHAR is Hebrew for on the mount.

50. Milk carton words : USE BY.

54. Snitch : RAT.

56. 18th Amendment opposer : WET. This was the Prohibition Amendment. Our HISTORY.

57. Cops' org. : PBA. Patrolmen's or Police Benevolent Association. Unions for the police.

58. Harvard grad Jeremy who's now a Laker : LIN. Made a brief splash with the Knicks, signed to big money by the Rockets, and now exiled to the Lakers.

59. Rises : UPS . Man, ending on a downer.

Well another Friday in the record books, I had fun. I hope you all did and for those who do not wake up to 70 degrees and sunny, stay warm. Lemonade out.


46 comments:

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Well, I must be feeling better, since I grokked the theme early on with this one and managed to get through it pretty quickly with no major problems. Didn't know BIG DATA, but was able to guess it easily enough. Also didn't know TERI, but the perps took care of her. Everything else was like butter...

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. I had a lot of fun with this puzzle. I realized that KING MIDAS was the unifier, but it was JUNEAU BUGS that gave me the AU.

Lots of fun misdirections. I especially liked Plot Component = ACRE.

I initially tried Head for Noodle. Unfortunately, two of the letters were correct. it took a while to move this to BEAN.

Hand up for Slit before SLOT.

I also tried Off the Rail before Off the GRID.

Very satisfactory Friday puzzle.

QOD: The cliché is that life is a mountain. You go up, reach the top and then go down. ~ Jeanne Moreau (b. Jan. 23, 1928)

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Pretty easy for a Friday. Went astray with BAD DATA, and with CU in place, I inked in CUMULUS. But the perps showed me the way. Thanks, Sam and Lemon.

EARL Warren is, perhaps, best known for chairing the Warren Commission which issued the report on the Kennedy Assassination.

My hand is down for FaceBook. Don't LIKE it.

Rainman said...

Very clever puzzle, and enjoyable. Like Barry, I got the theme early on and it probably helped me. I had ARNOLDS for DRIVEIN, at first. Admittedly, I guessed at a few and most of them were lucky. Very satisfying solve today. Thanks, Sam, you've got a future, and thanks, Lemony... very nice summary.

Good clue: 18th amendment opposer: WET (vs. DRY). Back in that day, I suppose you had to take sides and choose either the wets or dries.

Also liked USEBY, milk carton words.

Rainman said...

D-O,
Re. your Facebook comment, I agree, and I spend precious little time on it. But if I want to know what my kids are up to, I just check it and find any photos they've posted. Do you think they'll take the time any more to actually "attach" and email them? And I recall when people "mailed" letters with real photos enclosed!!! What a novel idea! And that dates me.

Madame Defarge said...

Thanks, Mr. Buchbinder, for a sharp theme. I didn't see it until Lemonade pointed it out. I was all wet because I only saw -EAU. I usually don't think about the theme until I am farther along, although today I had KING MIDAS on first pass and still didn't see all the gold.

Also: slit for SLOT and cumulus for CURTAIN.

Thanks,Lemonade, for explication. AND for the info that Eraserheads was already a band name. No I wasn't kidding. I had no idea. ;)

Have a good day everyone.

TTP said...



Good morning all !

This puzzle was golden !

CROWD THE PLATEAU was the first one I got. How hard do you think it was to suss JUN-A-BUGS from there ?

Took way too long today as I didn't want to give up on "Off the CUFF" and AKELA for scout rank. But trying to fit in table tennis TABLEAU didn't work as well as PING PONG.

Almost entered "witness MARKS" but held off. Woodworkers and machinists are among those that use witness marks.

Close-fitting dress ? = SHEATH ? OK. I couldn't make PENCIL fit. I didn't know there was a dress style/type/kind called a pencil until yesterday. I thought there was only one style of dress, and it was called an ALINE.

Ran out of time, so will read you later Lemonade.


Lemonade714 said...

Madame D., among the wonderful parts of coming to the Corner daily is all the things we learn from each other. We have people who are knowledgable in so many different fields.

I for one never heard of the 'witness marks' TTP just refenced, now I must read up on them. BTW there are many dress styles beyond the aline and the sheath. If you really want to know this stuff here is a GLOSSARY of style terminology

Lemonade714 said...

Well, see what was unearthed... areally fun SITE where people play with words.

Madame Defarge said...

Lemonade,

Indeed!! I am so glad HeartRx invited me to "go blue." It's more fun than lurking. Thanks, Mme D

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Sailed through most of the puzzle unmolested, but hit shoal water in the NW. Finally invoked red-letter help with BIG DATA. Wanted 'raw'.
Theme was cool beans. When I saw the transformation by adding AU, the KING MIDAS unifier loomed and it all made sense. Particularly liked JUNEAU BUGS.
ESTHER was a good guess.
UBER seems to have hit the mainstream patois. I'm used to seeing it spelt über with the umlaut, so when I see it in an English setting umlautless, it is like running your nails über (over) a chalkboard.

oc4beach said...


Finally, a Friday puzzle that I was able to finish in pencil and paper with a lot of help from an ERASER. No red letter help today.

It was an interesting puzzle with a number of newer words and clues that are not worn-out. I didn't really get the reveal until I read Lemon's expo. I did figure out the AU from perps but not the King Midas clue. I guess my BEAN wasn't totally in gear.

I tried to put MOSQUITO in for Alaskan insects, but it didn't fit. If you've ever been to Alaska in the middle of summer the mosquitoes are large, plentiful and vicious. I don't remember June Bugs in Alaska, but I sure remember the mess they made to cars in Florida.

I hope every one has a great day and that the coming storm this weekend doesn't hit the NE too hard.

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling thoughts":

Hahtoolah - i noticed that the name of the author of your QOD (MoreAU) was part of the puzzle theme. Intentional or coincidence?!

Lemonade - enjoy your write ups as usual; wish I had more time to read through the links

My hand is up for having the following boners: RAW DATA b4 BIG; SLIT before SLOT. Hand stays up for Facebook usage but I limit mine a lot; mostly to catch up on kids, grandkid and a few other events. Some of the quizzes they offer are fun; found out that I resemble Teddy Roosevelt if I could've been any President! ;^)

I'm not the AUthor of this limerick but thought it a good pun:

Hope this limerick won't make you wince,
But a groan these five lines might evince.
When Will Smith walks in snow,
Where he goes you will know
If you simply just follow Fresh Prince.

Big Easy said...

"No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!" I sensed the golden connection as soon as I filled the NE. Down here in Cajun country, many names end in eAUx or eAU. As in GEAUX Tigers (LSU).

I found this puzzle very easy for a Friday especially with all the TV and movies references that I did not know, with CHEWBACCA's description and KANE being the only ones I was familiar with. TERI, ODIN, SHO, BEA, EMO, RABBIT, MEL, and BEHAR were all solved by crosses.

SYNERGY-that's a phony word I hate to describe the old 'win-win' combination that the new CEO of a company uses before he screws things up after he fires the wrong people.

If you want your every move on the net to be followed by 100s of advertisers, just hit the LIKE button for facebook. Me, I use disconnect.me that stops the ads from tracking your every move when you 'click' on a website.

As for writeovers, NATURAL to NEUTRAL, RAW to BIG DATA, VPS to ENS.

I'm waiting for NIPPLE to show up shortly after TIT,TEAT, & BOOB.

I had never heard of a SHEATH dress; is it the same as a SHIFT?

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks for puzzle and review, Sam and Lemonade!

Fun theme. Encountered it in another puzzle recently.

Hand up for Slit before SLOT.

Am up after not much sleep. Dog having problems. Keeps waking me up to go out.

Have several people who wanted me to friend them on FB. Personally, would rather Zuckerberg never existed.

Cheers!

thehondohurricane said...

Hello everyone,

Nailed the SE corner right out of the gate, rest of the puzzle is 80& blank. Had the PLATEAU part, but CROWD THE...... I question that, makes no sense.

First big storm of the year heading in this weekend. Time to hunker down.





Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Lemon’s summation works for me. No need to gild the lily
-Hermione Gingold and her ladies use an URN motif for a series of TABLEAUS in what great movie
-JUNE AUBUGS? Huh? Oh, now I get it!
-A natural consequence of CROWDING THE PLATE
-This Seattle Seahawk is being fined tens of thousands of dollars because the press can’t PRY a word out of him
-I have started using Facebook and love it. I have heard from students from years ago. E-mail me and I’ll uh, “Friend” you.
-Ike said he always regretted appointing Warren
-Didja ever go to a DRIVE IN where the car hops roller skated out to your car?
- A sign “from the Uber “off the GRID” author
-More kids just came in. Gotta earn my $135!

Misty said...

So, here I am, all prepared for a Friday disaster, and instead we get this terrific puzzle from Sam. Hurray! I got LIKE right away (hey, isolated folks like us love Facebook!) and ESTHER and RAPT, and I was on my way. Not that it was easy, but it was a doable and delightful challenge. What a great way to start a Friday, thanks so much, Sam.

I did get the EAUs and figured the theme might have to do with French water or something. But still didn't understand the theme and the KING MIDAS connection until Lemonade's expo. Clever, clever. And I kept looking at WET and thinking that can't be right, that's not an acronym for some organization, is it? Guess I don't know my Prohibition.

Have a great weekend, coming up, everybody!

Irish Miss said...

Hi Everyone:

This was a fun solve, with a theme caught early on. Hand up for slit/slot and raw data/big data. I know absolutely nothing about Facebook nor do I want to. Ditto for Twitter and Instagram and Pinterest. CC's Corner in my only net interaction. (Though I do play Words With Friends and interact with some of my opponents.)

Thanks, Sam, for a Friday treat and thanks, Lemony, for the detailed expo.

Have a great day.

Lemonade714 said...

The pictures of my granddaughter when they were living in Buffalo and the updates on my Colorado son, along with reconnecting with some nice people, outwiegh most of the FB problems, for me.

C6D6 said...

This was a very pleasurable puzzle to work. The theme sussed early on and made me smile. Keep up the good work, Sam!

Nice write-up as always, Lemonade.

HeartRx said...

Thanks for the fun and informative write-up (as always), Lemony!

Loved the theme, mostly because I “got it” with PING PONG TABLEAU. I flew through the rest of it in about my usual Tuesday time. My only stumbling block where I needed perps was at BIG DATA. But, it makes sense, with all the information available nowadays.

I “have” to use facebook, because our book club is linked to it. But my posts are limited to friends only, so not really public if I post something (like the schedule.) Problem is, some of my Facebook “friends” tend to post inane pics of their lunch, their cats, their plants…and every time they do, I get an email notification that “You have 5 new notifications.” Grrr.

Mme. Defarge, it is more fun being “blue” on the corner, isn’t it~

HG @ 1:33, you knew I would jump on those famous TABLEAUX that Hermione (as the character Eulalie) et al. performed in “The Music Man.”

TGIF!!

Anonymous said...

Fun Friday puzzle. Typical Friday write up.

tawnya said...

'afternoon everybody!

this was a really fun puzzle for me although it felt pretty easy for a friday. maybe i'm just super smart today, who knows. either way, good job Sam! i enjoyed the run today!

had a big birthday and got 60+ messages on facebook, but only one real card in the mail. made me miss my grandmothers. but i feel loved by friends and family that are scattered all over the world at the same time.

marti, you can change your notifications in "settings" so as not to get emails. i have not figured out how to stop people from posting their lunch everyday. or every visit to the gym, doctor, grocery store, etc. i will let you know if i ever find a way, but it's not looking very hopeful. and save yourself the trouble of joining instagram - it's only pictures of lunches. (not me though, i post pictures of my dogs. because they are adorable!)

have a lovely weekend everyone :)

tawnya

Prairie Woman said...

Marti - look through your FB profile settings and turn off the email notifications. Life will be much easier after that!

I managed to do the puzzle from the bottom up. Everything seemed to click after "crowd the plate."

Madame Defarge said...

HeartRx @ 12:19:

You bet! I appreciate you inviting me to do so. I was probably a bit intimidated not only by the intelligence of the group, but the knowledge of construction and the solving process. What I used to do was check the Blog early and see the error or success of my ways and move on for the day. Now I keep checking in to see what bits of wisdom I may have missed. Thanks for the encouragement to chime in!

GrannyAnny said...

This one was definitely fun for me as compared to some of the earlier offerings this week.

Tried BAD DATA before BIG DATA
among many other missteps along the way and "ha-ha'd" out loud when JUNEAU BUGS and USE BY turned up.

Thanks, Sam, and I hope we see you here again.

SwenglishMom said...

Hi all, fun puzzle! and thanks for the great write up and comments! Also a FB fan here but only because it's so much easier for my family to see pics of the kids with it. Email is great but if a pic doesn't get through my mom won't tell me. I use all private settings and have learned how to "unfollow" the lunch tableau posters. I'm celebrating 28 years sobriety today which hardly any of my FB friends know but since othere have mentioned their landmarks I thought I'd join the crowd. And what a fantastic crowd it is.

Ergo said...

Thank you Sam and Lemon.

The SW and S central were killing me. I fired up the computer with the intention of cheating, but got distracted by pressing email. Eventually I returned to the puzzle and it unfolded like a sun-baked origami sculpture.

REALLY, really enjoyed this puzzle!

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

For me, this was not easy at all. Uttered an audible, "Oh, wow!" when I sussed the theme. That gave me many valuable perps to work with.

Late here today. Gloria and I went out to breakfast and ran into an old work colleague and his wife. Spent a couple of enjoyable hours with them.

Since we have TEAT, I'll mention that the origin of the word SLOT comes from old French esclat meaning the space between the breasts.

I linked this vid to Diane's FB page and got over 40 LIKES.

Happy weekend, everyone.

Cool regards!
JzB

Bill G. said...

Hi everybody! This was an enjoyable diversion, easier than I was expecting. It made me feel more competent than usual for a Friday. I sussed out the theme early on and it helped.

SwenglishMom, congratulations on your big 28!

I agree with Rainman. Now that Facebook is around, I get fewer photos attached to e-mails from my kids. I admit I do find some enjoyable links and such by thumbing through my wife's FB page but I don't have my own page.

Spitz, how did you approach the koi pond puzzle?

Lemonade714 said...

Congratulations Swenglish Mom! Good job.

"it unfolded like a sun-baked origami sculpture." Ergo.

A beautiful turn of phrase; with the limercists, poets, cruciverbalists we also have some very unprosaic prose. Thanks

Chairman Moe said...

JzB @ 2:01 - your comment about the definition of SLOT inspired the following "limerick":

If the space between breasts is a SLOT,
And the space between legs is a SLIT,
Would you then say that she,
Who exposed them for free,
Can be properly labeled a SLUT?!

Sorry in advance to anyone offended . . .

Spitzboov said...

Bill G @ 1408 - I continued a phantom path by completing the rectangle; ie. right turn 30 ft across and right turn 40 ft across to point of beginning. Such a rectangle which already has 3 pts touching the circle would have a 4th pt also touching. And it would be centered so that a diagonal would go through the center. The diagonal is the hypotenuse of a right triangle; in this case a 3 4 5 triangle. 30² + 40² = 2500. √2500 = 50.
QED

Lemonade714 said...

More at your call wit and words. Thanks Moe

CrossEyedDave said...

I had lots of time to do this puzzle in ink while waiting for DW's epidural procedure. The extra time helped me chip away at what I thought was a very difficult puzzle.

I managed most of it, but still wound up with a FIW/DNF. I thought 64A was asian, but 54D useby changed the I to a Y, & I could not erase the inked in "S". 49D behar was unknown, Juneau was known but I saw the "U" in used & stupidly put the "A" in front of it...

That left me with Juneauaugs??? (Waa?) & a 49D reading AEHAS???

I never recovered, what a mess...

Speaking of mess, poor Mr. Bond was left with one...

But it created a myth, that Mythbusters tried to tackle, & when Jamie got covered with gold paint, his blood pressure skyrocketed to dangerous levels. No one understood why, so they tried it again with Adam. Which led to embarrassment, pain & humiliation. Much like I experienced with this puzzle...

Sam Buchbinder said...

Hi All!

Really appreciate all the comments and feedback on my first LA Times puzzle. Seems like a great board, and I hope the puzzle is just one of many to come in the LA Times. And, Thanks Lemonade for the write-up. Always cool to see what others are thinking as they solve. Enjoy the weekend!

Argyle said...

Thank you for stopping by although you seem to have hit a slack time on the blog. We do appreciate the visit.

OwenKL said...

An easy Friday? Shouldn't that be an oxymoron?
SLIT/SLOT I waited on the perp, though despite being a Star Wars fan, I thought I had HANSeL?, and was trying to think of the pilots in Catch 22.

I was, for a time, addicted to facebook. Tried to keep up with every posting from every person or site I had "liked". Now I'm much more selective, and while I'm sure I miss a lot that I'd enjoy, I also miss a lot of the dreck. Still have a lot of "liked" "friends" and "liked" "interests", added a couple more just this morning, but only actually "follow" a select low-volume few of them. Even had to stop "following" a couple grandkids who reposted everything they found funny, including chain letters.

TTP said...

Hi all. Catching up on Lemonade's fine write up and all the comments.

Lemonade @ 8:44, thanks for posting that website you found for "A Way With Words." It has been bookmarked for future reference. Good stuff. Also @ 8:28, I was trying to be a little funny with the common crossword answer ALINE. Akin to OREO. We rarely have Chips Ahoy around the Corner.

Hand up for hand down on Facebook.

Bill G @ 2:08, your second reminder (counting the one from last evening) to Spitz to demonstrate his work reminded me of some of my ELHI math teachers. It was never enough to simply have the correct answer. You remain true to your craft !

Seattle Seahawk Marshawn Lynch may not be talking, but one of his Super Bowl opponents is.

WGN Morning News sports reporter Pat Tomasulo had a little fun this morning with New England Patriot QB Tom Brady's answers about Deflate Gate.
"Brady answered every question, deliberately, and with great detail…"

Bill G. said...

Hi TTP. Yes, maybe I remain "true to my craft" but I honestly wanted to know of Spitz's approach. It turns out it was related to but significantly different from mine. Clever thinking! There's more than one way to skin a cat...

I've heard more about footballs than I need to. Starting next year, why don't two captains (or quarterbacks) choose six footballs each that they are happy with (out of a bigger selection of mostly identical balls inflated to between 12 and 14 psi). The referees will select from those 12 balls each time a ball is put into play. Each quarterback could reject a ball one time. Otherwise, play the hand they're dealt.

TTP said...

Hi Bill,

I hope you weren't offended. I meant it to be funny, and a compliment. Too bad blogger doesn't support emoticons.


Sad news this evening. Mr Cub, Ernie Banks passed away this evening. What a great man.

I talked with him on three occasions. Each time on a golf course.

The third time I was having lunch in the clubhouse with my wife, and I told her, "Look, there's Ernie Banks." She didn't believe it was him. But we went out to say hello to him, and he was, as always, just as friendly and approachable as if we were all lifelong friends.

He and his buddy were heading to the first tee. We didn't want to delay them, but he insisted that she tee off for him. She did, and then he thanked HER ! "Great shot !", he told her.

He was never one of these big headed sports jerks we see so much of these days. He always made everyone else feel so special. He was so beloved by so many.

God Bless you and rest in peace, Ernie Banks.

Lemonade714 said...

Sam Buchbinder thank you for stopping by, we really enjoy getting to know constructors. Any comments or corrections are appreciated

Ernie Banks.....rest in peace

Bill G. said...

TTP, no offense taken for sure. Your comment seemed perfectly civil and thoughtful. BTW, you can use your own homemade emoticons. Right? :>)

A young brunette goes into the doctor's office and says that her body hurts wherever she touches it.
"Impossible," says the doctor. "Show me."
She takes her finger and pushes her elbow and screams in agony. She pushes her knee and screams, pushes her ankle and screams and so it goes on, everywhere she touches makes her scream.
The doctor says, "You're not really a brunette, are you?"
She says, "No, I'm really a blonde."
"I thought so," he says. "Your finger is broken."

Anonymous said...

Here in Chicago, Ernie Banks was very important. Lets play two.

Rainman said...

TTP ,

Thanks for giving me a heads-up on Saturday's puzzle which I have not started yet.