google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday, January 22, 2015 Don Gagliardo

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Jan 22, 2015

Thursday, January 22, 2015 Don Gagliardo

Theme: Letter play

19-Across. *Beginning : GETTING GOING. Okey-dokey, so let's get going, then!

26-Across. *They carry remainders : SURPLUS STORES.

44-Across. *Bike safety device : REAR REFLECTOR.

51-Across. *The rest : EVERYONE ELSE.
And the reveal:
65-Across. Both words in each answer to a starred clue begin and end with the same one : LETTER.

I noticed the duplicate letters at the end of the first word and beginning of the second as I was solving, but it required the reveal to get my V-8 moment.

Other possibilities might include:
DROPPED DEAD
KNICK KNACK
SALES SLIPS
Since the rules of construction dictate symmetrical theme entries, it is really tough to get 4 entries with the right letter count.


Across

1. Modern "Keep in touch!" : TEXT ME. I kept thinking "Call me"...maybe.

7. Ann's sister : ABBY. The advice columnists.

11. Extras may comprise one : MOB. As in "a cast of thousands."

14. Tennis star Gibson : ALTHEA. One of the biggest success stories of the '50s.

15. The real thing, so to speak : TRUE LOVE.

17. Riddles : POSERS.

18. Regretting a wild night, maybe : HUNGOVER. Who, moi?

21. Field of study : AREA.

24. "We __ Family": 1979 hit : ARE. Remember Sister Sledge from the 70's?

25. Tamper : MESS. (with)

31. Org. where weight matters : WBA. World Boxing Association. Can you name all the weights? I'll start: heavy...

32. Without __: riskily : A NET.

33. On a streak : RED HOT.

36. Capp and Capone : ALs. Cartoonists and crooks can always get together in crosswords.

37. Syr. neighbor : ISR. Syria and Israel.

38. Jueves, por ejemplo : DIA. Spanish "Thursday, for example" clues the Spanish for "day."

39. Natural resource : ORE. I had the O** and almost wrote in Oil. But I am learning my lesson, and decided to check the perps first.

40. Tease : NEEDLE.

42. Vibrater in a wind : REED. The thing that vibrates in a wind instrument. The spelling just "looks" wrong, but is technically correct.

43. Like Gen. Powell : RET.ired.

47. __ Men: "Who Let the Dogs Out" band : BAHA. Oops - used up my you tube limit.  Feel free to link away!

49. Edible Asian shoot : UDO. Everything you wanted to know here.

50. Greek mount : OSSA.

56. Burns poem that starts, "Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie" : TO A MOUSE.

57. Time of your life : OLD AGE.

61. Marching band instrument : SIDE DRUM.

62. Mill around : LOITER.

63. Passing stat. : YDS. Yards, in football.

64. Egyptian symbols of royalty : ASPS.


Down:

1. Keep time, in a way : TAP.

2. Symphonic rock gp. : ELO. Electric Light Orchestra.

3. Cadillac sedan : XTS.

4. Store to "fall into," in old ads : THE GAP. From the 70's.

5. Scant : MERE.

6. First word of the chorus of "The Sidewalks of New York" : EAST. side, west side, all around the town...Come on - hum along with me!

7. Parched : ATHIRST.

8. Dark-haired guy : BRUNET. "Dark-haired girl" is brunette.

9. Cask stopper : BUNG.

10. Safecracker : YEGG.

11. Some Cannes films : MOVIE SHORTS.

12. They have hoods and racks : OVENS. Because "redneck pickup trucks" didn't fit.

13. Cold-water hazards : BERGS. Hands up for "floes"?

16. Was impending : LOOMED.

20. Perp subduer : TASER.

21. Egyptian dam : ASWAN.

22. 100 kopecks : RUBLE.

23. Parts opposite points : ERASER HEADS. I have never heard them called anything but "erasers." But I wonder if Don G. intended the clue for the Filipino rock band, who took their name from the surrealistic David Lynch film, "Eraserhead."

27. First name in women's boxing : LAILA. Ali.

28. Racing family name : UNSER. Al, Bobby et al.

29. Bay window : ORIEL.

30. Aptly named novelist : READE.

34. Easily crumbled cookies : OREOS.

35. Betta tankmate : TETRA.

38. "Colonel Jack" novelist : DEFOE.

41. "Oh, my!" : DEAR ME!

42. Uses, as credit card rewards : REDEEMS. But only if one
45. Amasses : RUNS UP. a whole bunch of charges first!

46. Work on together, in a way : COEDIT. This filled with perps, so when I saw it I was trying to figure out how CO-ED IT might be clued.

47. LPGA great Rawls : BETSY. You have to go back to the '50s to remember her, too.

48. Stay clear of : AVOID.

52. "The boy you trained, gone he is" speaker : YODA.

53. Sharing word : OURS.

54. Relax : LOLL.

55. Blackthorn fruit : SLOE.

58. QB's stat : ATT.empts.

59. Turn right : GEE. On the farm, that is.

60. Go wrong : ERR. I hope I did not ERR with any of my comments!

I'm out.
Marti



Note from C.C.:

1) Happy 69th Birthday to our LAT constructor John Lampkin! As I mentioned before, John helped me greatly in my earlier days of blogging and constructing. He patiently answered every little question I had about crosswords. He's just incredibly kind and generous to every new constructor.
Lemonade & John Lampkin, March 21, 2012

2) Happy 83rd Birthday to Marge! She had a bad fall in 2013 and has not appeared much on the blog after that. I hope you're still reading our blog Marge. Kazie is now our only representative from Wisconsin, I think.

54 comments:

Rainman said...

This is one where knowing the theme is necessary for me to finish. And it took me a while to find the theme. I scooted through this fairly easily, though, finishing the NW fast because I knew ALTHEA Gibson (but not the Cadillac Sedan, XTS). After 31 minutes, I finished but no immediate fanfare. The final correction was ERASERHEADS. I had ERASER(everything else). The clue of Parts opposite points seemed to need an apostrophe and I’ll look forward to reading your comments today about whether it should be clued “Parts’ opposite points” or Pencil’s opposite points or Pencils’ opposite points. And Betta tankmate threw me, I thought it was Beta. Guessed at the spelling of LAILA (Ali).

I kind of prefer the asterisk rather than itemizing three or four clue numbers for the theme entries and I’m wondering if everyone feels the same. This would have been really difficult, IMO, if we had not been handed the 65A reveal, Both words in each answer to a starred clue begin and end with the same one = LETTER.

Favorite clue today: Jueves, por ejemplo for DIA (I’m studying Spanish, using an app called Duolingo, as I mentioned recently.)

Thanks, Don Gagliardo for a nice Thursday workout, and to Marti for a very good summary.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all (and Happy Birthday to John and Marge)!

Chalk it up to my not feeling well, but this puzzle didn't do anything for me. I thought the theme was extremely week and much of the cluing seemed forced ("Beginning" for GETTING GOING, for example). And what the heck is a SIDE DRUM? OK, so it's a drum that's on the side, but it seemed very arbitrary.

Same problems as Rainman with the clues for TETRA and ERASERHEADS. If my brain weren't so fuzzy I'd probably have found it to be a good workout as well instead of a slog.

TTP said...

Good morning all !

Of all things, could not parse BETSY. D'OH ! Had the HAHA Men as the "Who Let the Dogs Out" band. Maybe I was thinking of Ha HA Clinton Dix ?

Until I thought of a pencil, ERASER HEADS took forever, even with ERASER-E--S. At that point, I was thinking FIFE DRUM (is there such a thing ?), and had no clue on Burns' ode.

In fact, the midwest also gave me a wee bit of a problem. I feel really dumb. Can you imagine that I actually wrote in RIALS instead of RUBLE for 100 kopecks ? Doesn't everyone know kopecks ? ... :>) .... Good thing SIRPLUS was easily remedied to SURPLUS, and then RUBLE came to mind.

Oh well . I thought it was an excellent Thursday puzzle. Thank you Don and thank you Marti.


Happy Birthday John and Happy Birthday Marge.

CC, BTW, Happy 7th Anniversary yesterday. I don't recall seeing the note at the bottom of the blog when I first posted yesterday morning, so you must have posted that later. Thank you and the team for creating this venue.

HeartRx said...

Happy Birthdays, JL and Marge!I hope you both get to do something special today.
¸¸¸.•*¨*♫♥♫¸¸¸.•*¨*♫♥♫¸¸¸.•*¨*♫♥♫¸¸¸.•*¨*♫♥♫

Rainman, I didn't see any need for an apostrophe in the clue for ERASER HEADS. Parts and points are simple plurals. Erasers are the parts opposite the points.

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Marti and friends. Nothing really jumped out at me on this puzzle. Getting the LETTER unifier helped with the starred answers.

Happy Birthday to Marge and John Lampkin.

QOD: People who keep dogs are cowards who haven’t got the guts to bite people themselves. ~ August Strindberg (Jan. 22, 1849 ~ May 14, 1912)

Lemonade714 said...

How great to have a Don Hard G as the second puzzle in the 8th year of this blog. For the newer readers, Don was C.C.'s compiling until she got her license to construct solo.

I also loved that the first themed had four hard Gs, a nice SO to himself.

SIDE DRUM is an alternate name for a snare drum.

Thanks Don and Marti.

Also a very happy birthday wish to John Lampkin who is a very talented multi-dimensional and generous man.

Finally, a healing happy birthday to Marge, hope to see you here again.

Lemonade714 said...

Oh how I hate autocorrect and myself for not previewing before posting.

Don was the co- pilot

Big Easy said...

I really liked this puzzle because, although it only took 10 minutes, I hard a hard time GETTING GOING. There were only a few clues that only had one possible answer such as ALTHEA or ASWAN and only a couple that required abbreviations, YDS & ATT. Puzzles that have clues referencing movies that nobody saw, or books that nobody ever heard of, or too many foreign words crossing the other two types, while I find solvable requiring WAGS and PERPS, sometimes just require luck to finish correctly. Enough of that.

I thought BUNG is a character in the 'Wiard of Id' comic strip? I wanted PLUG but BUNG was all perps. Never heard of it.

If 'Betta' is a tankmate of TETRA, are other fish named alpha, gamma, or maybe quadra, penta, octa? I prefer flounder and snapper.

I had never heard our marching snare drums referred to as SIDE DRUMs.

XTS, UDO, GAP, LAILA- all perps. Well I am ATHIRSTy, so I am signing off.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Thanks for the correction, Lemon. I was going to ask if our birthday boy, JL, was complicit in the compiling. Also Happy Birthday to Marge from a former cheesehead.

I had to turn my JEEPS into OVENS (is that like swords into plowshares?) this morning. The theme finally convinced me to change BETTY into BETSY. I'd been wondering about that TIDE DRUM.

Recently I've taken to charging groceries on my "rewards" card. I pay the full balance every month and get 2% back. If I pay with cash, I get nothing back.

People in my town are inflamed about our new outdoor burning ordinance. This clause is particularly onerous: Burning shall not be conducted during periods of actual or predicted persistent low-level atmospheric temperature inversions. I know those things can occur during any season, but fortunately they only occur during daylight hours...or at night.

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning,

Heading toward the weekend. . . . I couldn't move from BaJa. Like the Maroon 5 clue yesterday, I know the music and often not the titles or the names of the bands. My radio in my relatively new car makes me seem smart now because it tells me what's on. I had TO A and tried MOUSE. who knew? But the quote from the poem made sense with mouse. Here and there I floundered a bit. I liked GETTING GOING--that was my problem--a slow start. GGGG I think Gagliardo means strong in Italian. Thanks, Don.

Thanks Marti for the walk through. I hope EVERYONE ELSE who is under the weather is feeling better. Drink plenty of flu-ids.

thehondohurricane said...

Good morning everyone and Happy birthday to Marge & John.

Today was one letter at a time and soon a phrase or word would appear. After the initial pass through I was ready to call it a failure and get on with other stuff. I picked up the theme early on (for once) but it was not helping much.

Eventually things began to look up and although I made some entries "on faith" or wags, success now seemed possible.

I remember Althea & Betsy, both well accomplished in their sport. Never saw them play because they were long before TV, but read a lot about their accomplishments in the papers and sports mags.

HUNGOVER got me through the NE and also brought up memories of many years past. OLDAGE caused a couple of my body parts to groan as I penciled it in.

Enough procrastination, now I have to face the day and a couple of issues. UGH!

Avg Joe said...

I seriously questioned Tide Drum, but never thought to question Betty. So, FIW. But enjoyed it nonetheless.

Happy Birthday to John and Marge!

Montana said...

Happy Birthday to John and Marge!

I missed ERASERHEADS, TOAMOUSE, AND BAHAS. Otherwise I completed a Thursday puzzle.
(however, I had red letters turned on, so even though I never saw red, it is help because you immediately know the answer you entered is correct.).

Have a good day everybody,

Montana

Yellowrocks said...

TOAMOUSE was a gimme. I thought it was BAJA instead of BAHA I missed only the J. I never thought of ERASER HEADS, new to me.
Happy Birthday to Marge and John Lampkin.

kazie said...

Happy Birthday John Lampkin and Marge!
And thanks to Irish Miss and Granny Annie for your empathy yesterday too!

Everything was WAGS inspired by perps for me today. I still had no idea about BETTA and TETRA until someone's comment here that clarified that they are fish. Tetra I knew of, but have no idea about Betta, and just seeing them in the blog didn't help me connect--I thought tetra sounded scientific when I got it.

Again, having no knowledge of sports or new music artists doesn't help.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Don’s fresh fill made for a fun puzzle
-GETTING GOING – which gender waits in the car more often?
-These lights (:52) beat any REAR REFLECTOR
-A bunch of extras that are cheaper than people or CGI
-ALTHEA was also the first black member of the LPGA
-Who MESSED with those footballs in Foxboro
-Working without A NET? Yikes!
-When does OLD AGE start?
-Hitting a baseball between two outfielders is called hitting “into the gap”. So guess who buys advertising there?
-ATHIRST with no comment from the lovely Marti?
-BRUNET/Brunette? Really?
-Recent theories hypothesize refraction by very cold air prevented the Titanic’s AVOIDING the BERGS that LOOMED ahead
-I use a Scheel’s Sporting Goods credit card and REDEEM their points for golf balls
-Five science teachers COEDITING a test was not a fun day for me
-Chubby Checker has GEE and HAW backwards (2:07)
-Best wishes to John and Marge!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Kind of fun to have a Don G follow a CC, especially the day after the Corner's anniversary.

This puzzle had some bite, but perps and wags did the trick. Thanks, Don, and thanks, Marti for a spot-on expo.

Happy Birthday to John and Marge; hope it's a special day.

Have a great day.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

Typical Thursday experience - lots if hunting and pecking before it all came together.

Not a typical Thursday puzzle, though. Nobody constructs them like Don G.

Some interesting symmetries:
RED HOT NEEDLE
OLD AGE POSERS
HUNG OVER TO A MOUSE
LETTER? No TEXT ME

Cool regards!
JzB

John Lampkin said...

Congrats on yet another notch in your cruciverbal belt, Don. Once again you show great versatility in theme ideas.
Thanks Marti, and Lemonade, and big thank you to you, C.C. for the kind words and for rerunning the 2012 pic. Gee, I haven't aged a bit according to that.

Tinbeni said...

Happy 69th Birthday to John
Happy 83rd Birthday to Marge

Marti: Nice write-up and informative links. Thank you!

Though a FIW/DNF I thought this was a FUN Thursday puzzle.
Thanks Don G.!!!

Liked how A-THIRST crossed HUNGOVER ... something I haven't been in ... probably 10 years.

Cheers!

HeartRx said...

Hahtoolah, is your new avatar from your trip on the Amazon?

HG, maybe Chubby Checkers is British?

Misty said...


I had only AREA, ASWAN, and MESS on my first run-through on this puzzle (thought to myself, "what a mess!"). But slowly, slowly, it started to fill in, even though I had to guess at a lot of items, and in the end I got the whole thing! Yay! Many thanks, Don, for a challenging experience! And Marti, without your expo I would not have understood DIA and REED (I kept picturing a swamp reed blowing in the wind). Most interesting clue and answer: BRUNET. Makes perfect sense, but I'd never run into it before.

Have a great birthday, John Lampkin, and we miss you, Marge.

Mme. D, had to laugh at flu-ids.

Have a wonderful Thursday, everybody!

Bill G. said...

That was a very pleasant puzzle with good cluing, appropriately tricky for a Thursday. Thanks Don and Marti.

Deflategate. Cosby. Geez, what next?

I loved seeing the finale of WKRP again. Thanks AnonT. Add Bailey Q. to my list of attractive young women (cute, smart, sexy, funny, etc.). The list includes, Jan Smithers (Bailey), early Shirley Maclaine, Emma Stone, Sophia Loren and Sofia V., ... Oh wow!, I can see this list is hopeless. It's going to be too long and I keep forgotting old favorites...

Happy birthday John and Marge!

I agree with Gary about ATHIRST. I didn't know BRUNET vs. brunette.

Those strobe running lights are very common on my daily bike rides along the Pacific. The white ones in front can been seen a long way away to let you know another rider is coming. Not necessary in my opinion but they look cool and are really bright, even in the daytime.

Rainman, I agree with Marti; no apostrophes needed; they are just plurals.

CrossEyedDave said...

DNF & Wees!

Did not know Althea or XTs, & had rare for mere. If only I could have sussed tap & east... (Hmm whats left in that corner?)

Betsy/Baha, there are heads on erasers?
Toamouse? Ouch! Another corner shot to hell... (Learning moment, side drum, not bass)

I figured the theme at "everyone else," but only had loiter/letter/err/loll/sloe in the SE.
Never heard of 58D ATT & 59D Gee, and I refused to see old age which left me with a 46D C-E-it work together?
Thwarted at another corner...

But it was all worth it for the AHA moment at the NE corner, which filled in when I found true love...

HBD John Lampkin!

HBD Marge!

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure that you don't want to put tetras in the same tank as bettas. The bettas are sometimes referred to as "fighting fish" for a good reason.

coneyro said...

The first puzzle this week that had some bite. I got the theme and relevant answers quickly, but earned my pay for everything else.
Except for laila, the sports names were given to me by my husband. The other sports clues were
answered by perps. 56A was a "WHAT?"and never heard of a bung or a yegg.
TO RAINMAN@4:33AM....Re: Goldbergs comment. I didn't exactly know what you meant. With all the crap on tv that is filth and violence, this show brings a smile to my face. Reminds me of my own family, as we are of the same faith with similar parental idiosyncrasies. Rather watch something I don't have to close my eyes to, to avoid the gore.
I guess that's it. Let the three day "cryfest" of puzzle DNF's start tomorrow.

TTP said...

The Anatomy Of A Pencil

Ergo said...


Thank you Don and HeartRX.

Don's style of constructing is different than my approach to solving. Not a bad thing, just different. WEES about ERASERHEADS.

I did get a laugh out of THEGAP. Either I didn't see the original advertising campaign or just didn't get it at the time. But I do now: Fall into - The Gap. Ha!

I tried my best to fit "Target" into that spot, as the T & G matched up nicely.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Happy B'day John & Marge!
Yes, the theme helped me today. It kept me from sticking with THE LAP and DEFLECTOR that I entered on my first go-through. This was almost 100%, but I had to cheat to get BAHA and, I shamefully admit, DEFOE.
And yes, ERASER HEADS was my toughest as well. Just not familiar enough with the internal parts...

OwenKL said...

BRUNET's gender neutral, a brunette is a woman
Blond's gender neutral, a blonde is a woman
Men are left out, no words of our own
Until with OLD AGE are our follicles flown.
We're left with a pate that's as white as white bread,
Or just flesh on top, hair ERASED from our HEAD!
Yet still our wives keep us, despite lacks above.
I guess that's their penance for having TRUE LOVE!


Robert Burns wrote the poem with the full title "To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough 1785", and also "To A Louse, On Seeing One On A Lady's Bonnet, At Church 1786". Links are to English translations.

Ol' Man Keith said...

GREAT poem, OwenKL @ 1:25 pm!

It takes a certain sort of genius
To take a thing as mean as
A cruciverbal puzzle
And give it a nuzzle
To turn its words and phrases
Into something that amazes,
And wins these readers’ praises.

Thank you!

HeartRx said...

OwenKL and Ol' Man Keith, I'd say both of you outdid yourselves with your poetry today! Bravo!!

Anon @ 12:15, I have had both tetras and bettas in my life. I found that if you introduce the tetras to the tank first and let them establish their territory, then the bettas are not as aggresive when they get introduced. Bettas do get along with other fish - just not highly colorful ones, or ones that have similar appearance to themselves.

Bill G. said...

The Pope met with his Cardinals to discuss a proposal from Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of Israel.
Your Holiness ", said one of his Cardinals, Mr. Netanyahu wants to challenge you to a game of golf to show the friendship and ecumenical spirit shared by the Jewish and Catholic faiths."
The Pope thought this was a good idea, but he had never held a golf club in his hand. "Don't we have a Cardinal to represent me?" he asked.
"None that plays very well," a Cardinal replied. "But," he added, "there is a man named Jack Nicklaus, an American golfer who is a devout Catholic. We can offer to make him a Cardinal, and then ask him to play Mr. Netanyahu as your personal representative. In addition to showing our spirit of cooperation, we'll also win the match." Everyone agreed it was a good idea, and the call was made. Of course, Nicklaus was honored to be made a Cardinal, and agreed to play.
(Continued)

Bill G. said...

The day after the match, Cardinal Nicklaus reported to the Vatican to inform the Pope of the result.
"I have some good news and some bad news, your Holiness," said the golfer.
"Tell me the good news first, Cardinal Nicklaus," said the Pope .
"Well, your Holiness, I don't like to brag. Even though I've played some pretty terrific rounds of golf in my life, this was the best I have ever played by far. I must have been inspired from above. My drives were long and true, my irons were accurate and purposeful and my putting was perfect. I played like I was 30 years old again. With all due respect, my play was truly miraculous."
"And what’s the bad news?" the Pope asked. Nicklaus sighed. "I lost to Rabbi Phil Mickelson."

Hahtoolah said...

HeartRx: yes, we went piranha fishing one afternoon. I caught 5 piranhas. The fish were small, but the mouths were full of sharp teeth.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday, Marge and John! I hope you have a wonderful day!

I had trouble in all the spots mentioned. Also, for 31a-Org. where weight matters, I wanted Weight Watchers International. I'm a lifetime member.

Thanks Don and Marti.

Have a good day.

Pat

Bill G. said...

Anon (12:15) and Marti, I had an acuarium for years. There was never a problem between bettas and any other community fish. However, if you put another male betta in the tank, they will fight to the death.

This is probably old hat to many of you but I just realized there is a little controversy over the pronunciation of EGG. I think I pronounce it as AIG rather than EHG though they both seem very similar to my ears.

A koi pond
A recently-acquired boy koi was introduced to his new home, a circular pool. He started at one edge of the pool and excitedly swam due north for exactly 30 feet where he hit his head on the pool. Thereupon, he heads east and after going 40 feet, he hits his head again. At this point he was a bit addled but still able to calculate the diameter of the pool. What is it?

Madame Defarge said...

TTP-

12:44 Love the anatomy of a pencil. Perfect.

While I was in the car today with the radio on I Heart Radio, I began to wonder why there has never been a band named "Eraserheads." Makes no less sense than other band names. ;)

Yellowrocks said...

Bill G @ 4:50. Although I have heard egg pronounced AIG it is quite uncommon here and in PA where I was raised. We pronounce your AI like the A in ATE. We pronounce the e in egg like the E in MET or END.

Madame Defarge said...

pje-

@3:33 congrats on being Lifetime. Nice work!!

Rainman said...

Thanks to everyone who tried to straighten me out on the ERASERHEADS clue: Parts opposite points. What a clue. If a pencil is new, could it be clued Parts opposite the blunt ends? I mean, the puzzle came together, was entertaining enough and that's all that matters, I guess. We actually need some misdirection... but eraserheads is not in my unabridged dictionary. Neither is the band. And I could misread the headlines with those implied articles.

Great poem, OwenKL, as always.

Ol'ManKeith, your poetic words made me think... I spent most of my day at the Apple Store, hanging around the "Genius Bar" but you know, no one offered us a drink. Is that genius?

Happy Birthday to John and Marge.

Bill G, I liked your koi pond quiz and I'd guess 30 feet is the diameter, but we don't know precisely where the boy koi started and when he hit his head the second time, was it the pool? Why a boy koi? Used to love algebra stated problems in college.

Manaña. Manaña. Manaña is goood enough for me...

Lemonade714 said...

Madam D

You were kidding, right?

LISTEN

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, Thanks, Marti, for the expo. I had a few errors, but had put in Brunet and thought it was all wrong. I always spelled it brunette. So glad there is a masculine word for Brown-haired man. My learning moment for the day.

I put in Thirsty in place of A Thirst, so that whole section went begging for a while. I also couldn't sus Abby for the longest time. Then it hit me that Ann(the columnist) had a twin sister. That middle area in the North finally fell.

Happy birthday to the two birthday people. Marge and John both are wished a Happy Day.

I was surprised that there were only 42 comments this late in the day. Maybe everyone has been as busy as I have today.

I'm baking a pear custard for dessert tonight, so I finished the puzzle while it was in the oven. That also was something that eluded me for the longest time. I wanted SUV's, UTE's, anything that had to do with a car. Nothing would fit.

Have a great evening, everyone.

Chickie said...

DesperOtto We have had a no burning ordinance in our area for many years. No outside burning at all and no fireplace burning on what they call "Spare the air days". The pollutants from the wood burning fireplaces settle into our large valley and just stay there for days if we don't have much wind or rain. This month we had about 12 Spare the air days in a row.

Anonymous said...

Madame D. @ 5:10: Thank you. It's a daily battle.

Pat

Madame Defarge said...

Lemonade;

About flu-ids or Eraserheads as a name for a band?

If there is a band b that name, then I'm toast. if not, why not? ;)

Madame Defarge said...

Lemonade.

Oops. I answered before I clicked on your link.

I am so proud! My nephew would love this. I have never heard of this band. . . .BUT. I knew it would be a good name!! I am grinning from ear to ear. Very funny. Thanks for teaching me something else new. :)!!

Madame Defarge said...

pje @5:10

It's well worth your effort and my goal>

Keep it up.

Bill G. said...

Rainman, the koi started at the edge of the pool and ended at the edge of the pool. It could have been a girl koi but I didn't like the sound as much as boy koi. It could have been a mechanical swimmer and then it would have been a toy boy koi. In Hawaii, it could have been at a luau, near the poi.

Spitzboov said...

Bill G @ 1650 -- 50ft.

Abejo said...

Good evening, folks. Thank you, Don hard G fr a fine puzzle. Thank you, Marti, for a fine review.

D-O: "and Spears into pruning hooks"

I finished his puzzle after a long struggle, but with errors.

I liked the theme. Excellent!

My tough spot was he SW. Did not know BAHA. Did not know SIDE DRUM. Did not know BETSY. Did not know TO A MOUSE. Did not know ERASER HEADS. Other than that it was a piece of cake.

I had answers for all of the above but they were wrong.

BUNG and YEGG were easy and right next to each other.

A NET was a good one.

On my way to Erie, PA. To help my nephew and sister with a gun raffle.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Bill G. said...

Spitz, yes. How did you approach it?

I found a couple of old movies (both very different) on cable and and enjoying them all over again. One is "Gosford Park" and the other is "High Noon." It's amazing how much Gosford Park is like Downton Abbey.

Anonymous T said...

Hi all!

Maybe it's just because it's late (yeah, that's the ticket), but Don hard G lived up to his name. I got 65a, but not much more south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Long day at work fighting the wily hacker (we won this round). Time for a brew and bed.

HBD JL and Marge!

Cheers, -T

Anonymous said...

To suggest that tetras are compatible with bettas is just bad advice.

"Vibrater?"