Ooof!! When I saw all the cross-references leading me to a Bible verse, I really thought my goose was cooked. But slowly, they started filling in and I had to smile:
1-Across. See 58-Across : GIGGLE.
7-Across. See 58-Across : GUFFAW.
15-Across. See 58-Across : BURST OUT LAUGHING.
34-Across. See 58-Across : CHORTLE.
38-Across. See 58-Across : CRACK UP.
49-Across. See 58-Across : TITTER.
58-Across. Psalm 100 excerpt suggested by six puzzle answers and graphically represented by certain black squares in this puzzle : MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE.
Unusual grid, with left-to-right but not top-to-bottom symmetry. Jeffrey also used a 16*15 grid, both the reveal entry and 15-A have 16-letters. Can you see the "smiling face" in the middle of the grid?
62 blocks of theme is a lot for a weekday puzzle, and necessarily led to a bit of dreck in the fill. But overall, an enjoyable solve.
Across
13. How many golf clubs are sold : AS A SET.
14. Member of Buck Showalter's MLB team : ORIOLE. Can you guess that I struggled with this one?
19. Put __ on: restrict : A CAP.
21. __ profit: make money : NET A. Two awkward partials in a row.
22. With 20-Across, "American Beauty" rockers, familiarly : THE. And 20-Across. See 22-Across : DEAD. The Grateful Dead. Did I really need to come across an extra cross-referential clue in the grid?
23. Gets harder to climb : STEEPENS.
27. Pester : NAG.
28. Valleys : HOLLOWS.
30. Can't stand : DETESTS.
32. Prefix with -pod : TRI. Tripod.
33. Oils and such : ART.
42. Baseball's Piniella : LOU. Nailed it, once I had the L, O and U from perps in place...
43. Measure typically given in knots : AIR SPEED. Dudley, what AIR SPEED do you usually fly at?
46. "Discreet Music" composer : ENO.
47. They can be lifesavers: Abbr. : EMTs. Emergency Medical Technicians.
50. Focus, with "in" : ZERO.
51. Greek cheeses : FETAS.
53. Swear : CUSS. Not aver or avow this time.
54. Withstand : REPEL.
55. Nick working at night? : SANTA. We all know that his real name is Argyle...
57. Crush competitor : FANTA. Does Santa drink Fanta?
64. Pub order : ALE.
65. Like "Gilligan's Island" characters : MAROONED.
66. Do yard work : MOW.
67. "Success!" : YES! [With or without a fist pump.]
68. Bicuspid : PREMOLAR.
69. Yakima-to-Spokane dir. : ENE.
Down
1. Pampas cowboy : GAUCHO.
2. Beersheba's land : ISRAEL.
3. [I don't believe it!] : GASP.
4. Prime meridian std. : GST. Greenwich Sidereal Time. A variant of Greenwich Mean Time used in astronomy for locating specific stars.
5. Regulus is in it : LEO.
6. Technique-building pieces : ÉTUDES. From the French word for "study."
7. Incited : GOADED.
8. Second-smallest S.A. country : URU.guay.
9. Pear-shaped fruit : FIG. Do you give one?
10. Warm alpine wind, in Austria : FÖHN. Without the umlaut, it would be spelled "foehn" in English. A gimme...
11. Klingons, e.g. : ALIENS.
12. Attacked : WENT AT.
15. Spa area : BATH. Hmmm, this could have two meanings. In many spas, a bath is sometimes filled with mineral water or mud, and it could be offered as a special service. -OR- We could be talking about Bath, England. The spas there date back to Roman times.
16. Support on the links? : TEE. hee?
17. Running measure : LAP.
18. Suppresses : GAGS.
23. Not entirely, informally : SORTA.
24. Like an early evening sky : TWILIT.
25. Comparatively warm? : NEARER. In the children's treasure hunt game, you say "Warmer" when they are getting near the hidden object, or "colder" when they are moving farther away from it. Didn't we just have a reference to this game?
26. Valuable cello : STRAD.ivarius. The Italian family was renowned for their violins, violas, cellos and other stringed instruments.
29. USPS item : LTR. United States Postal Service, letter.
31. List-limiting letters : ETC.etera, etcetera, etcetera...
34. Score symbol : CLEF. Thanks for the pic yesterday, Steve!
35. Realty transaction : HOME SALE.
36. Amusing DVD feature : OUTTAKES. Sometimes they are even funnier than the movie. 8:33
37. "The Grouchy Ladybug" writer Carle : ERIC. Lucina, did you read this to your students?
38. Accent pair? : CEES.
39. Tap your foot, say : KEEP TIME. I can assure you, that when my husband is tapping his foot before we got out for the evening, he is not keeping time...
40. Folly : UNREASON. Ugh. Valid, but not your everyday word.
41. Dirty __ : POOL. Because "Harry" wouldn't fit!
44. Disco __ of "The Simpsons" : STU. Have you memorized all the Simpsons characters yet? (He's in the third row, fourth from the right, next to Maggie Simpson.) If you go to this web site and mouse over the faces, it identifies each one. Quiz, to follow.
45. Gal.'s eight : PTS. Pints.
48. Levelheaded : SANE.
50. Philosopher known for a paradox : ZENO. of Elea. Think of "Achilles and the Tortoise."
52. Prepare for mailing : STAMP. I simply hit "send."
54. Getaway goal, for short : R AND R.
56. Somewhat open : AJAR.
57. Boxer's woe : FLEA.
58. Might : MAY. "It ___ rain this afternoon." Either works.
59. Rock worth mining : ORE.
60. __ Kippur : YOM. Day of atonement for those of the Jewish faith.
61. Rock's __ Fighters : FOO. They just released Sonic Highways in November last year. (Yes, check your calendar - it was last year!) Link away.
62. Not in the bk. : UNL.isted. Telephone book.
63. Field grazer : EWE.
Marti, out.
Note from C.C.:
Happy 6th year wedding anniversary to Marti and her husband Allan! Marti said "... we were married on New Year’s Day of 2009. So every year we get to celebrate our anniversary with a hangover." (Added Note: Gosh, sorry Allen, I'm hopeless!)
 |
| Marti & Allen |
60 comments:
Rabbit, Rabbit, it's a new year, boys!
It's time to MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE!
BURST OUT LAUGHING and CRACK UP
Like you did when y'were a pup!
GUFFAW & CHORTLE, TITTER & GIGGLE,
Let's plan for a year with nary a niggle!
Not too difficult, and the grid gave me a .̶c̶l̶o̶w̶n̶ clue before I even started the puzzle. A few missteps but perps corrected them easily enough: CAUSED>GOADED, IRK>NAG, GMT>GST, AHA>YES. Never heard of FOHN before (is that pronounced fohnetically?), and hope today's exposition will explain why UNLeaded is not in the BooK.
The year is new, the midnight fading,
A resolution list I'm making. --
Broke all by noon,
'Twas not too soon;
At least I've stopped procrastinating!
I really am impressed by the visual grid and the heavy themeage. The timeliness of the theme with the new year is also appreciated.
I too never heard of FOHN, like SANTA GANG A and wish you all a very happy healthy New Year.
Morning, all (and a very Happy New year)!
Hate to start of the new year as a wet blanket, but I gave up on this one after seeing all the cross references to 58-Across. Just not my cup of tea, and seeing clues like "How many golf clubs are sold" and "Member of Buck Showalter's MBA team" didn't give me any reason to stick around.
And no, it's not because I'm hung over... ^_^
I don't normally enjoy cross references as well and the bible is not my strong point however I was able to solve with much stick-to-itiveness once I figured out the theme. SE corner gave me the most trouble.Did not care for UNREASON but otherwise no complaints.
Good morning!
Early on this New Year's Day "Marti, out" sounds like a recap of last night's party.
I see that you survived -- you're reading this, after all. Congrats.
I thought this one was headed for a DNF. Buck Showalter? How should I know how many golf clubs are sold every year? And a Psalm excerpt? The only Psalm I know is the one about the meanest SOB in the valley. But I just couldn't handle two DNFs in a row, so I kept at it. Yay! I won.
I wonder if JW was actually thinking sidereal time or simply Greenwich Standard Time with his GST. The late Paul Harvey pronounced it "side-real" and set my teeth on edge.
My first thought was also HARRY, but it was too long. I wanted to spell ZENO with an X. And I was trying to SEE A profit....no, SET A profit. Oh, NET A profit. Whew!
Happy New Year, all! My resolution is not to make a resolution. So far, so good....
I hope this is not a harbinger of the year to come! WBS about the cross references, but once I got started I did alright. Sadly, the ending *AW in 7A was of course HEEHAW and the beginning CRAC* of 38A had to be CRACKLE, right? Took a very long time to sort those out but in the end it worked, in Saturday time :)
d-o:
Shouldn't that be:
"My resolution is not to make a resolution. . . . Doh!"
Good Grief! I knew i was done in from the beginning and there was nary a thing I could do to prevent the New Year beginning as the old had ended....with a DNF.
Time to put the Xmas stuff away so I'll read all the comments later in the day.
Happy Anniversary and white rabbit white rabbit Marti.
A great Thursday puzzle. I think I would have solved it faster if I had read the clue a bit more carefully. Initially I thought we were looking for more verses of the psalm. Eventually I got the last laugh.
Whew, I survived another New Year's Eve! It was a fantastic party, with an incredible array of hors d'oeuvres, a raw bar, a three course meal, and tons of champagne. We met new friends, reunited with old ones, and had a wonderful time.
But it's not over - today we celebrate our anniversary by getting ready to host our own party tomorrow night. I will be sooooo glad when the weekend gets here.
I had a hard time getting started on this puzzle, not having a clue as to what Psalm 100 consisted of, but the down clues from 46D to the end were easy. When I first saw this puzzle it looked strange, although I didn't pick out the 'smiley face'.
The bottom of the puzzle was easy and let me work my way back to the top after I 'got' it. CHORTLE, TITTER, and GUFFAW are words that I know but have never actually heard anybody use, but they were easy to fill in.
I wanted to put CHINOOK in 10D but it wasn't German and had too many letters. UNREASON was 100% perps and I really wasn't sure if it was correct until I read Marti's 'non-explanation' of it. UNREASONable- yes it is. 'THE DEAD' another unknown all from perps; I'm surprised that they aren't all dead from the drugs they took.
13A BY SIZE or AS A SET
19A A LID or A CAP
43A SEA SPEED or AIR SPEED
4D GMT or GST
5D ARA or LEO
8D French Guiana, Guyana,Suriname, Paraguay, Uruguay, Ecuador???- I knew it wasn't Brazil
17D MPH, MPS, KPS, KPH- I was not looking for distance but eventually got LAP
I wonder if Disco STU dances to the music of THE DEAD? I doubt it. I don't care for the music of the The Grateful Dead but anyway you want to look at it, DISCO still SUCKS.
Happy New Year
d-otto, I think you may have been confusing ZENO with this character?
Happy New Year! Thanks for a daunting puzzle to Jeffrey and to Marti for so many clarifications. I saw the smile on the grid, but when I started I recalled Ps 100 as joyful noise. This directed me to singing and music, which turned out to be my demise as I was looking for musical answers as opposed to laughter. How many golf clubs as a question and kept working on a number! I wanted lid instead of cap, and chose the ubiquitous AEDs instead of EMTs. Sigh! And we weren't even out last night: movies at home with no champagne. I should have started the New Year on a better note.
happy new year everyone!
the puzzle today was quite daunting but i liked the smiley face and wanted to see how it finished so i kept going. overall fun and not as scary as i thought it would be.
thanks to all of you for keeping up the blog and teaching me something every day.
wishing you all the best in 2015!
tawnya
First thought on seeing the referential clues was: "Ugh!". But I waded in anyway. Took a long time to get started, and found the bottom was far easier than the top. With the theme in hand and GMT in place, I confidently put in Laughs for 1a. Wrong, and having Bust a Gut Laughing for 15a didn't help. Finally came up with Gaucho instead of the Caballero that was dominating my thought for 1d and it began to get sorted out. Needless to say, the eraser got a lot of use. But it was fun once solved, and seemed like it was worth the time spent.
Happy New Year to all. I'd like to link "Another Year" by Leo Sayer, but it's apparently too well protected by the copyright police. Same for "J. Edgar Swoop" by Mason Williams, which contains the lyric "But the worst thing of all was that he had the gall to wear some baggy old knickers. They were pink and blue plaid, and fitted so bad, they caused titters, guffaws and snickers."
Another Wechsler puzzle that doesn't make any sense. I was hoping for a workable puzzle to start the New Year
Happy New Year, everyone! It's good to know that you survived the celebrations, Marti, and are up to your usual smarts.
YES, my classes loved all of ERIC Carle's books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar was a favorite, so much so that the books ended up tattered but loved.
I also sighed deeply when seeing the referential clues, my least favorite kind of puzzle. But like AvgJoe, I slid to the bottom, solved MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE and thought "unto the Lord" would be next, but found GIGGLE, CHORTLE, CRACKUP, TITTER, etc. Still not my favorite.
Of course the sports clue stumped me for a while but ORIOLE eventually emerged. AS A SET did not so that entire section was a mess. That's not a good way to start the year.
People who love dancing love disco so my daughter, the dancer, tells me.
And I thank Jeffrey for the challenge. Also a big thank you to all who make this blog a delightful place to hang out, especially C.C. for starting it.
Have a lovely day, everyone!
Starting with a cross reference is somewhat daunting especially when I had cancelled the paper and had to do it online which makes it harder to see ahead. Oh well, it was fun and well conceived with even a ☺ to boot.
Musings
-Companies have to bid to give A SET of clubs to pros. I wonder what company gave them to Rory?
-Working without A salary CAP baseball has the most overpaid players (e.g. The DETESTED A-ROD)
-I had Tennessee HOLLERS before HOLLOWS
-Did you have to do this TRIPOD in P.E. too?
-This gallery of LOU pix tells you for what he is remembered
-REPEL – Water-resistant doesn’t mean Water-proof
-The persistent Gilligan’s Island question.
-The International Space Station uses GMT
-Phone book? What’s that?
-It’s great to ring in the New Year with Marti and Allan and wish them congratulations on their anniversary.
It is barely above freezing in Pasadena this morning and so I am curious to watch the parade. I just saw pictures of people in the bleachers ($65 a pop when we were there) who were covered in blankets and ski masks.
My high school buddy lives in Pasadena and is president of the LA Chamber of Commerce and I thought of jabbing him about his weather, but it is zero here so…
A happy new year to all of you, my virtual friends. May it be prosperous, joyful and healthy.
How cheerful to be greeted by a smiley face puzzle when I opened my paper this morning! I had JOY from perps very early on and sussed the verse. Remembering the smiley face, I soon changed CHORUS to CHORTLE which helped with the six theme answers. Terrific theme, Jeffrey.
I have a mental block on the Simpsons. I needed the ST to get STU.
I didn't blink at UNREASON,another of those literary words, used by many famous authors.
“Perverse unreason has its own logical processes” ― Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent
"I had never much natural sympathy for the passion of love; but this unreason in my patron’s wife disgusted me outright with the whole matter." - Robert Louis Stevenson
"And so his solemn oath had already gone the way of so many other resolutions. Unreason had triumphed; at the first itch of desire he had given way. He was hopeless, hopeless." -Aldous Huxley
"And is reason turned to unreason." -Nietzsche
Good Morning:
Happy Anniversary, Marti and Allen; may you share many more.
Happy New Year, one and all.
Somehow, I managed to finish this puzzle w/o help but also w/o any joy. I haven't said this in a very long time, but this is definitely a Thumper moment, IMO.
Have a great first day of 2015!
Rabbit Rabbit
Hello Puzzlers -
Today's Jeff Wex looked intimidating at first, but it went smoothly. Loved the smily face!
Happy Anniversary Marti! My usual airspeed is around 115 knots. That's faster than a stock 172 of the same vintage, because the prior owner put in a more powerful engine/propeller combination. Rainman had the same arrangement.
Happy New Year everybody!
Husker 10:08 -
Mary Ann. Lower maintenance.
:-)
I couldn't believe that I was able to figure out 99% of this puzzle without cheating. I knew the answer to 58A after only the word "joy" was entered. After that I knew I was looking for words that meant "happy" sounds. Only 41D, 50A, 50D, 54A and 54D couldn't be completed because I didn't get the first letters. a great start to a new year! To everyone...A happy prosperous 2015. May you all succeed in all of your endeavors.
"Puzzling thoughts":
Well, it's a good thing that one of my New Year resolutions was not: to finish all crossword puzzles unscathed! I knew when I saw the asymmetric grid I was in for a challenge
Hmm, where to begin ... unlike others, AS A SET and ORIOLE came immediately; I knew the phrase MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE, but it took me awhile to realize the solves were synonyms for smile and laughter
FOHN (with or without an umlaut) was unknown to me, and I studied German; I had to cheat a few times and look up words on Google - helped me to finish! This was at least "Saturday" tough, for me anyway
Loved the write-up Marti and Happy Anniversary to you and Allan
I am having a bit of a fit,
With the word from the puzzle, TWILIT:
It's a word I'd not use
For any crossword clues,
And if I did you can call me a twit!
Barry, come back and give this puzzle another chance. If I can do it, you can do it! When I saw the fourth SEE 58 ACROSS I was ready to tear up the newspaper--I was not going to start a new year with a miserable puzzle like this. But I had a hot cup of coffee and doxies curled up beside me, so I gave it a shot. As the stuff around the 58 ACROSSES filled in, slowly words like JOY and others emerged and after a while I got the Psalm, and then GUFFAW, the first of the other puzzle answers. Mind you, I got this only because I'm Austrian and know what a FOEHN is, and am not surprised this was a toughie for many. But I can't believe that in the end I got the whole thing, and yes, it made me CHORTLE a little. So, many thanks, after all, Jeffrey, for a delightful way to start the new year!
Can't believe you did an expo the day after a big party and the day of your wedding anniversary--many thanks, Marti. Beautiful photo of you and Allan--have a great day!
Have a wonderful 2015, C.C., and everybody!
Happy New Year all.
Congratulations Marti and Allen.
May you have many more hangovers.
Don't even try on Thursday (or Friday, Saturday, or Sunday).
Cheers
Good morning. Happy New Year! Thanks to CC and everybody else for making this a great place to hang out.
The puzzle looked daunting and started out with cross-references, always a bad omen. But I persevered and enjoyed the end result. Thanks Jeff and Marti.
Are you watching the Rose Parade this morning? It's pretty and clear but colder than usual (around 40 here, about 20 miles southwest of Pasadena). My furnace is running.
Happy anniversary Marti! Allan is a lucky guy!
Musings 2
-10-4 on Mary Ann. In a real pinch, Ginger would be about as helpful as a screen door in a submarine.
-Isn’t it lucky that both girls packed swimwear and makeup for that “three hour tour”?
-BTW, not getting a newspaper on the front step for the first time in over 50 years was too much. We just re-upped. This is so true!
-Music Addendum – Most used words in song titles on Billboard’s Charts in three different decades:
1930’s – Moon, In, Swing, Sing and A
1970’s – Woman, Disco, Rock, Music and Dancin’
2010’s thus far – Yeah, Hell, the “F word”, Die and We
-Make a “Joyful Noise” indeed!
Happy New Year!
I'm really not into cross-reference puzzles.That said I gave it a shot anyway. It just didn't do anything for me. Another nonsensical theme and some of the cluing didn't give me a reason to stick with it. When are constructors going to give up the Simpsons clues and that direction cluing? For example 69. Yakima-to-Spokane dir. in this puzzle. Tiring.
Happy Anniversay, Marti. Allan, too! Now I'd like to hear the story of why you picked New Year's Day for a wedding.
Thanks for the anniversary wishes, everyone. I'll be sure to have Allen read them later...if he ever gets out of bed, that is!
Owen & Moe, you are both in rare form with your poetry today.
I was sure there would be gripes about all the cross-references, so thanks for not letting me down. But I'm glad most of you persevered, because so far, it's my favorite puzzle this year. (^0^)
d-otto, DH has a bad memory, so he wanted to have an anniversary he could remember. His parents were married on Christmas, so that was out. I got rooked into marrying my late husband on Valentine's day, which was also my birthday. Bad move, and a mistake I definitely wasn't going to make a second time! And Easter is moveable, like Thanksgiving, so those were out. So that left fourth of July or New Year's. We flipped a coin, and New Year's Day won the toss.
Marty Allen???
Husker, interesting you went back to the dead tree version.
I too had cancelled our paper because: I get most of my 'world and national' news from places like Drudge, Huffington post and cable news long before I receive the delivery. I have a local news app on my smartphone along with a weather app and several sports apps. I watch PTI and listen to sports talk radio as I make my rounds, so I have that covered.
I found that when opening my paper I often said, "read that, yep saw that, wow...saw that like 2 or 3 days ago..." so we cancelled it.
Turns out that I missed the routine of walking to the end of the driveway and then sipping coffee while turning those big pages. Also couldn't keep up with the obituaries online since they are hidden deep in the webpage and cause the computer to really slow down.
Most importantly, solving the puzzle online is, well, non-rewarding. Really awkward to go back and forth checking and double checking during the solve. If I forget to turn red letters off, that's cheating in my book. Later in the week I rarely complete it before life takes over and it makes my night when I walk past the half-solved, perfectly folded newsprint version laying there on the kitchen table and think, "oh yeah, I still have that to do, cool". Also, I found that I retain crosswordese more when I use my trusty old dictionary(covered with newsprint ink) than when I use Google.
So its back to newsprintfor us and we'll leave the computer to watching mindless cat videos.
Happy New Year! Like others, I didn't think I had a chance of solving this puzzle, but I kept trying and finally things started making sense. Thanks for the great start to the year, JW and Marti!
32A-prefx with -pod: Daughter's Dobie was diagnosed with bone cancer and had his right front leg amputated. He is now a TRIpod.
Happy Anniversary, Marti! May you celebrate many more. Love the story of choosing the date.
Pat
Anon 2:
I also missed the rotating "Lifestyles" section. Recipes and restaurant wed., gardening sat., books and movie fri., etc. etc.
Can't believe I missed the High school athletes of the week telling us what their favorite music, movie and snacks are or who they admire most. I think it keeps us young peering into a teenagers likes.
New Year's Day is Everyone's Birthday! Enjoy your day.
Happy Anniversary to Marti and Allen!
A happy puzzle from Mr Wechsler - nice way to plunge into the new year's worth of morning eye-openers.
I screwed up by committing to ESE in the very last slot.
Enjoyed seeing Marti's posting of the Roman spa at Bath. What a curious place that is--with the Georgian tea room built right atop the old pool (to the left and toward the camera as you look at the photo). I had an orange crush there while listening to a string quartet. The continuity of "civilization" is what was most impressive.
Happy anniversary, Marti. May your day be filled with joyful noises.
I didn't think I was going to get even one answer in this clever puzzle today until I finally clicked with SANTA and FANTA. Then I saw ZENO, which I knew, and the feeling of despair began to wane. It ended up being quite an enjoyable solve.
Best wishes to you all for a terrific new year.
Saw the constructors name, read 4 clues and just moved on to the sudoku.
Sorry Mr Wechsler, don't care for your puzzles.
Happy New Year everybody and Happy Anniversary to Marti and Allan! (Love the story of how you picked the date!)
Back from World Cup Jr. game and celebrating our first Canada-US win. Final games should be interesting this weekend.
I got the theme eventually although I agree that all the cross-references were a little daunting. But I did not see the smiley face. What does that say about my brain?
Hand up for A LID before A CAP, IRK and BUG before NAG, AVOW before CUSS. STUDIES changed to ETUDES when it wouldn't fit. Anybody else have TUNE in before ZERO?
Light-bulb moment when I realized the Boxer was a dog!
I must put FOHN in my CW memory bank.
d-o @7:41 - I thought I had a nit with GST because the clue had std. and I had never heard of Sidereal. Once again, I'm thankful for the info that I get here!
Cross reference cluing usually makes me grumble and today was no exception until JOYFUL NOISE filled in. From there on I was grinning all the way to the end. Technically a DNF, I guess, since there was no TA-DA until I changed SET to NET a profit
Thanks, Jeffrey, for a fun puzzle to start the year.
And a big HAPPY NEW YEAR and THANK YOU to all of you hardworking contributors for the daily explanations, and to all the folks who take the time to write up their comments and opinions. It's always fun to see how many I can agree with.
P.S. Nice poems today, OwenKL and Moe.
Interesting, Gary, LW opted to let our newspaper subscription lapse, so we had no paper today. Man oh man that sure put a crimp in my morning routine! I'm already having withdrawal symptoms. She doesn't miss it at all, though, so it is unlikely we will re-up.
Musings 3 (while in the throes of football where the Big 10 is doing very well.)
-I emailed the Omaha World Herald that we wanted to renew our subscription after 50 years of continuity. A nice young lady called an hour later (on New Year’s Day no less) and said that was fine but we owed $41 first because our subscription ran out on October 1. We were shocked, apologized and will send a check tomorrow for the arears and all of next year.
-BTW, Re: time, what are you doing with the three minutes of daylight we have gained since Dec. 21?
Hola Everyone, Just wanted to wish everyone a Very Happy New Year, with health, happiness and good fortune.
Enjoy this first day of 2015.
Happy 1/1/15, everyone. And happy anniversary, Marti and Allen.
I enjoy reading everyone's comments and a few occasional nits. I had few if any problems or nits with today's puzzle. I wasn't familiar with NEARER for "comparatively warm" and thought it was clever. I might question PREMOLAR's accuracy. Rather esoteric, I bet. Do we have a dentist that can settle the question? I've heard "bicuspid" called first and second incisors, I seem to recall.
This was one of those where knowing the theme helped with the fill.
Mary Ann, without a doubt. Ummm, or maybe Ginger...
Yes, the tactile feel of a newspaper is satisfying. And there are distinct advantages in doing the puzzle therefrom. So far, the main advantage I see in doing it online is knowing if it's correct or not. I can time myself using other means. I'm not competing with myself, just sometimes.
My local paper, The Californian, recently added a lot of puzzles to the page, and I like most of them. The Super Quiz is educational and 7 Little Words makes me think in different ways. KenKen is my current favorite but the paper always has a 6x6 whereas my online favorite is 7x7, but I do them all. Totally hooked on KenKen. USA Today has some interesting puzzles, like the phone-text one.
Nice Rose parade today. Glad I wasn't there but I enjoyed the posthumous tribute to Louis Zamperini... the USC riderless Trojan horse was a nice touch, along with having his family ride in the Grand Marshal's car.
Happy New Year, Everyone.
Yeah, I got FÖHN early on, too. Used to the English foehn spelling, though. Similar to the Chinook winds in the American West. Wanted GMT but perps begged GST. We've had that dustup before.
Joyful noises are always good. Great theme to start the year.
Spent New Year's Eve in Saratoga. First Night celebrations. Lots of Music and other Performance groups scattered all over town. Weather cold but clear.
DH surprised me with raw oysters he had flown in from his buddy in New Orleans. With his homemade cocktail sauce and fresh horseradish, I am in heaven.
Later on, we'll finish off the rest of them as oysters Rockefeller. Yummm! Oh, and did I mention that he had included fresh brown shrimp and lump crab in the shipment, too?
"It jist don' git no better'n'at!!"
Happy New Year and a happy 2015 all year through.
Regarding getting married on January 1, or soon thereafter -
When the US Federal tax rates contained a marriage penalty, a few years ago, it was good tax planning to postpone your marriage till the next year, because 2 single taxpayers, each with equal, comparable incomes paid LESS combined taxes than a married couple, each with the same, comparable incomes.
But now, since the Federal tax tables (and itemized deductions) for married couples is EXACTLY TWICE the tax tables for single taxpayers - and there is no marriage penalty - there is no tax advanyage in postponing the date.
No one ever picks Mrs. Howell.
Happy Anniversary to Marti and Allan!
Montana
Oh, oh, Marti, I forgot. Congratulations on your anniversary! It sounds like a gastronomical celebration.
Lucina, I'll trade you some oysters for some of your tamales!!
Too late, Marti. They're all gone! I can tell you, they were exceptional.
I recorded the Oregon/Florida State game and I'm a little more than halfway through it. Oregon gets my vote as the most fun team to watch.
Jordan and I went for a short bike ride and an espresso. It was cold! The riding, not the espresso.
Tamales...oysters. Jeez, I wish I could partake in just some table scraps.
Barbara and I went to a small talk locally by Louis Zamperini about 15 years ago. He was a very impressive and likeable fellow.
Forgot to wish:
Happy anniversary to Marti and Allen.
Just back from seeing the movie about Stephen Hawking titled "The Theory of Everything". It was superbly done. The actor portraying Prof. Hawking was very, very convincing.
Dudley:
Weren't you astonished to see his contortions? Some time after seeing the movie I saw him being interviewed and was even more impressed to see him as a completely normal person.
HI all!
Oh so late to post re: a DNF... I really messed up the SE; 50d != kaNt. Oh, well.
I did notice the smiley face from the get-go. After TITTER, the other "see 58a" clues fell with only a letter or two. 58a was stuck on MAKE A JOYFUL_ tImE.
Happy New Year Cornerites and Happy Anniversary Marti! I want Alan's NOLA buddy's number... :-)
Cheers, -T
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