Let's start with the unifier. 59-Across. Device for exposing the end of 17-, 24-, 35- or 47-Across : DETECTOR. And there are four zippy phrases in today's grid to go with it:
17-Across. "You don't look a day over 29," probably : WHITE LIE. The US Federal government calls a LIE DETECTOR test a "psychophysiological detection of deception" test, or PDD.
24-Across. Didn't come to pass : WENT UP IN SMOKE. Everyone should have functioning SMOKE DETECTORs in their home.
47-Across. So as not to be noticed : UNDER THE RADAR. RADAR DETECTORs are illegal in D.C. and Virginia, but all other states allow them in passenger cars.
A few missteps, but fairly easy for a Thursday. Let me show you what I mean.
Across
1. Parlor action : BETS. Nailed it!
5. Dorm peer leaders: Abbr. : RAs. Resident Assistants / Advisors.
8. Lidless container : CARAFE. Wine!
14. Palm that produces purple berries : ACAI. This is becoming a crossword staple.
15. CPR giver : EMT. Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation / Emergency Medical Technician.
16. Missouri River city : PIERRE. And a clecho at 38-Down. Missouri River city : OMAHA. Map.
19. One may use a teleprompter : ORATOR.
20. IM guffaw : LOL. Instant Message: Laugh Out Loud.
21. Hustled : RACED.
23. Points in math class : LOCI.
28. Chorus for the villain : HISSES.
29. "Dang!" : NUTS.
30. Fellow : GENT.
31. Drink with sushi : SAKE. Pronounced sah'-kee, for heaven's sake!
32. Cow or sow : SHE.
40. Promos : ADs.
41. General organization? : ARMY. Cute misdirection.
42. Tetra holder : TANK. We just had a discussion about tetras and bettas a couple of weeks ago.
43. Reining word : WHOA.
44. "Given the circumstances ..." : AS IT IS...
51. Stories of the ages : LORE.
52. Invalidate : ANNUL.
53. Vacation destination : SPA. Aah..
56. Wanted badly : CRAVED.
61. __ Pie : ESKIMO. Are they un-PC? We no longer see Inuits referred to by that name.
62. Great Basin native : UTE. "What's a UTE?"
63. Orkin victim : PEST. Duh, I was thinking of the Orek brand vacuum cleaner, and filled in "dust."
64. Pull out of the water : REEL IN.
65. TD's half-dozen : PTs. Touch Downs are worth six Points.
66. Gorillas, e.g. : APES.
Down
1. Go through a lot of tissues : BAWL. Because "have an allergy attack" didn't fit.
2. Tunnel effect : ECHO.
3. Help from behind : TAIL WINDS.
4. Gather dust : SIT.
5. "I can __" : RELATE.
6. __ curiae: friend of the court : AMICUS. I did not know the term, but it was easy enough to infer with "friend" in the clue.
7. Tough to climb : STEEP.
8. Nav. noncom : CPO. Chief Petty Officer. Do they have a lot of nits to pick?
9. Word before base or ball : AIR. Neither of them have anything to do with baseball. AIR base is a USAF facility, and an AIR ball is a basketball term for a shot that completely misses the rim, the net and the backboard.
10. Kingdoms : REALMS.
11. Skywalker associate, familiarly : ARTOO.
12. Monastic garment : FROCK. The word "cappuccino" is derived from the color of the Capuchin monks' FROCKs.
13. Inducing the willies : EERIE.
18. Sea eagles : ERNS.
22. Kitchen dweller of song : DINAH. "I've Been Working on the Railroad." Meanwhile, DINAH is getting all friendly with some banjo player in the kitchen.
25. Spanish 101 verb : ESTA. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that it means "this" or "that"?
26. Cook quickly, in a way : NUKE.
27. Half-note feature : STEM.
28. Obey : HEED.
30. Campus no. : GPA. Grade Point Average.
31. Farm home : STY.
32. Unit between levels : STAIR STEP. Hand up for wanting "case" before STEP?
33. Prince in "Frozen" : HANS. WAG, with the H-A-N-* in place.
34. Large grazer : ELK.
36. Cowardly Lion player : LAHR.
37. Bouncy pace : TROT.
39. Sundance Kid's girlfriend : ETTA. I think the "Place that Sundance loved" clue has seen better days.
43. Boll eater : WEEVIL.
44. Actor Will of "The Lego Movie" : ARNETT. All perps.
45. Many diner dishes : SAUTÉS. "Greasy" just wasn't working with the perps.
46. Not working : IDLE.
47. Stress-related ailment, possibly : ULCER.
48. Language on a longship : NORSE. Longships were the epitome of Viking naval power.
49. 16th-century circumnavigator : DRAKE. His Golden Hind was not a long boat, but it did make a long trip.
50. Turn out : END UP.
54. Prepare for a shot : POSE.
55. Song and dance : ARTS.
57. Former Abbey Road Studios owner : EMI. Electric and Musical Industries, Ltd. I always mix this up with BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.)
58. "GoodFellas" boss : DON.
60. IRA suggester : CPA. Individual Retirement Accounts are often suggested by Certified Public Accountants.
That's it from me!
Marti
66 comments:
Puzzle did not go well. Couldn't get 44a nor 4 of the 6 crossing words, two of which also crossed ANulL (which spelling I was positively certain of!).
Sam the salesman is in fine fettle
He has no complaints, no annoyances nettle.
As peddler, he's a expert
Faces buyers without effort.
Each sales-call he's ready to put his mettle to the peddle!
Freddie the florist is mild and gentle
He fashions bouquets of blooms sentimental.
His specialty, congrats
With awards and eclats,
He was peerless at putting the petal to the medal!
Good morning all. Thank you Victor and thank you Marti.
So much to like in this puzzle, including ESKIMO PIE ! I sensed (DETECTed ?) a regional flare in that SW corner with NORSE and the fishing (REEL IN) reference. Minnesota lakes and fishing and boats and fishing tales (LORE ?).
Overall, I really liked the challenging but fair cluing.
Was trying to figure out where the theme was going after getting PETAL TO THE METAL and UNDER THE RADAR. Thought it had to do with cops and car chases, as in "Need For Speed", "Fast And Furious" or "Cannonball Run."
Bet our 'husker friends liked that second "Missouri river city" clue after the first one was PIERRE.
A little trouble early at the intersecting C in RACED and AMICUS. Didn't know the latter. And dwelled too long on the wrong verb and noun definitions of hustle. As in verb form fast-talk (hustle) and as a noun form in fraud (hustle). Couldn't come up with a letter that would fit either definition. When I went back to it later, the other verb definition came to mind immediately. Funny how the brain works.
Single words STAIRcase and STAIRwell before two word STAIR STEP but the Orkin answer had to be PEST, so STEP won it. I liked seeing the Truly Nolen cars when I was in Houston.
No idea on ARNETT, but it (he) perped in.
Why did I want to conjugate both "Turn out" and END UP ?
Oh well. Early day today, with much to get done.
Later dudes.
Morning, all!
I found this to be pretty challenging for a Thursday, personally. Once I eventually figured out the theme, things smoothed out a bit as I was able to go back and tackle some of the longer theme answers that had previously eluded me.
Did not know HANS (am I the only one in the world who hasn't seen "Frozen"?) Did not know PIERRE as clued. Barely remembered ARNETT, but couldn't think of CPO for awhile. SAUTES just never occurred to me and required all the perps, and even then I wasn't crazy about it. And is STAIRSTEP even a thing?
Anyway, not a bad puzzle by any means and it was eventually doable and enjoyable. But certainly no walk in the park for me today.
How nice to see a Minnesota maven having his work blogged by Marti. A pretty easy Thursday with a nice central grid spanner.
Lots of little things made it fun like the Velcro and placement like ARMY next to TANK and CRAVE with ESKIMO PIE.
Amicus briefs are common in major policy setting lawsuits and appeals. It is like getting to use more people on your side in a game.
Play away, it is Jeudi
What's a UTE? Well, if I recall correctly, a Brooklynite would mean "youth." Famous line from a movie... I remember Marisa Tomei and the actor from Car 54 Where Are you, (Fred somebody?... no, I'm not going to look it up.), but thassit.
This puzzle was about right for a Thursday, I thought. Very good theme. Relatively easier than yesterday's, IMO. Fairly fair. (Flooring phrase: PEDALTOTHEMETAL? I'm still sussing that one.) I had DIRECTOR at 59A and didn't want to give it up, then I realized I wasn't realizing and changed it to DETECTOR, the reveal.
I liked Chorus for the villain, HISSES. In fact, I liked this puzzle a lot. Thanks, Victor, and thanks, Marti, for an efficient summary. Enjoyed it.
(Apparently, no one is familiar with Crossfire for Mac? Oh, well. I'll let you know if it's something great.)
Rainman - Fred Gwynne, also starred as Herman Munster. A gentle giant.
Good morning!
My monk was wearing a CLOAK and I misread the number 23a as 28a, so I was sitting there staring at New Hampshire for quite some time. But not forever. New glasses should arrive next week.
Marti, my stud finder notices changes in density behind the drywall. I think they call them the internal capacitor type of "finder." There are some that detect metal, though.
Shoutout to Husker with OMAHA on the Missouri. The map shows that to be one dammed river!
Rainman, and the hilarious movie was "My Cousin Vinny."
Good Morning, Marti and friends. Good Thursday level puzzle with just the right amount of challenge.
General organization = ARMY was my favorite clue.
I thought STAIR STEP was a tad awkward phrasing.
I haven't seen either Frozen or The Lego Movie, so relied on the perps for the referenced names.
We have a termite contract with Orkin, but neither Termite nor Cockroach fit into the spaces provided.
QOD: The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning. ~ Adlai E. Stevenson (Feb. 5, 1900 ~ July 14, 1965)
Quick easy puzzle. I have heard of ARNETT, but needed a few perps, otherwise no unknowns. The long answers only needed a perp or two. After getting SMOKE and METAL I guessed that DETECTOR was the reveal.
Press the gas pedal to the floor, floor it, put the pedal to the metal, step on it.
Those put the pedal to the metal usually can't stay under the radar.
Wine carafes as shown by Marti have no lids, but many other kinds of carafes do, especially coffee carafes. But no nit.
I like ASA HI with sushi. The only SAKE I ever liked was a taste of an extremely expensive brand.
Many diners are more upscale these days and have delicious food. They are not all Greasy Spoons.
"SAKE. Pronounced sah'-kee, for heaven's sake!"
Really? And no nit from YR on this?
Greetings,
I have missed my puzzles and the Corner for a few days. Stuck in Dallas Monday whilst the snow flew in Chicago.First trip on Southwest in many years. some crazy stuff outside of the weather. I'll be thinking the decision between American and SW very carefully next trip.
I did a couple of easy puzzles hither and yon, but nothing very challenging. AND no one to talk to about it!!
I liked today's puzzle as it seemed much easier than the last two Thursdays. Thanks, Victor. Marti, thanks for the Missouri R. map. I always forget the path of the Missouri, Platte, and Osage Rivers. Yesterday(?) Armada and today, Drake: England's Golden Age. Arnett was a guess. I've heard his name but not sure I'd recognize him.
Stay cozy!
I liked this puzzle more than yesterday's. I wanted to enter Will Ferrell instead of Will Arnett -- both were in that movie. Stupidly, I put smock before frock.
No nit. SAKE, a loan word, has become Americanized (sah' kee.) In Japanese, it is “sah-keh.” The Japanese do not pronounce KARAOKE as carry oh kee. They barely pronounce the U in FUTON. We have Americanized these pronunciations. The way the Japanese pronounce American loan words is just as interesting, for instance Mc Donald’s.
Link listen
Once I went farther upstream to get PIERRE, the NE corner fell out and I was good to go. LECTER yesterday and DETECTOR today, ya gotta love language.
Musings
-OJ’s lawyers shut down a pre-trial LIE DETECTOR test because it wasn’t “going well”
-Politicians off the teleprompter can be a mess
-LOL
-Dang! Tetra/tank just hit me. I’ve never had a fish that wasn’t ready to eat.
-My church’s charade of ANNULing a marriage is laughable
-The UTES are one of many people we found inconveniently living on land we wanted
-I’ve seen TAIL WINDS give me a 2-mpg boost
-Some 72 year old FROCKS
-Our NUKE supervisor
-ETTA – some girls just love the bad boy
-My friend’s DINER adjacent to a very truck stop is doing well
-A mini blizzard kept me from seeing my surgeon for a consult in OMAHA yesterday. Weatherman said it would have been 60˚F if not for the snow. Huh…
-In what battle was “NUTS” a famous reply?
Thank you Victor and Marti.
WHITELIE and DETECTOR came out of the blue within the first few minutes. Had they not, I would likely be looking at an entire morning affair.
But DETECTOR gave me enough backstory to easily tackle the theme clues, almost to the point of it feeling like cheating.
Oh well, you take 'em as you can get 'em.
I've got a 10 a.m. phone interview for a job. Let's hope it goes just as well as the puzzle. It's not really what I'm in the market for, but again, you take 'em as you can get 'em.
Good morning everyone.
Fun puzzle from Victor. Not too hard as others have said. Used a little white-out in the NW , and also with SAUTES, where I had plates at first. DETECTED a very clever theme.
FROCK - Here is another (military) meaning:
Frocking is a U.S. military term for a commissioned or non-commissioned officer selected for promotion wearing the insignia of the higher grade before the official date of promotion (the "date of rank"). An officer or NCO who has been selected for promotion may be authorized to "frock" to the next grade. The need to frock is a result of the fact that the number of people who may serve in a particular rank is restricted by federal law. Thus, even though an individual may have been selected for promotion and (for officers) confirmed by the Senate, they must often wait for a vacancy (headroom) to occur in order to be officially promoted. Frocking customs and policies vary across military services, particularly for enlisted members; in the United States Army a general officer may request authority to frock soldiers of his command; in the United States Air Force, only senior field grade and general officers are usually frocked. The United States Navy makes use of frocking much more frequently than do the Army and the Air Force. An example of this is when all new chief petty officers of the United States Navy are frocked on September 16 of each year, although their official date of rank will be at different times over the next year.
Occasional Lurker @ 0415 in yesterday's blog. Are all the children above average, too?
Good Morning:
I found this relatively easy for a Thursday, although the theme eluded me until the reveal. Had a couple of missteps: chap/gent and ewe/elk. Nice CSO to our resident Huskers. Was familiar with the term Amicus (brief) from many Law and Order episodes.
Thanks, Mr. B., and thanks to Marti for a Thursday treat.
We have sunshine but it's very cold and you can barely see over the snow banks. More snow coming Sunday.
YR, hope you are feeling better. You, too, Rainman.
Have a great day.
Very nice, workable puzzle by Victor. Thank you. I loved the long and very clever them answers. DH was the first to get the reveal, even before we finished the downs.
Thanks, Marti, for a nice expo!
Happy Thursday to all.
Hi gang -
Wikipedia tells us that the UTEs are indigenous people of the Great Basin.
ESTA is a present tense form of the verb "ser," "to be" in Spanish. As in English it is highly irregular.
What a well constructed puzzle! Really quite a gem from Victor. Great theme, not easily sussed without the unifier.
No HISSES, no NUTS.
HOWL, WAIL, WEEP - nope - BAWL.
SMOCK - FROCK.
Are cowardly lion tales LAHR LORE?
Lots of hunting and pecking until it all came together.
Why isn't WEAVEL spelt that way?
Gary and Ergo - good luck with your respective appointments.
Cleve word play, Owen.
Wings travel to Colorado tonight. That used to be a red hot - actually quite bitter - rivalry. Now just another game.
he told a WHITE LIE
but his plans went UP IN SMOKE ~
her LIE DETECTOR
Cool regards!
JzB
Greetings, friends!
Thank you Marti and Victor!!
This was an entertaining challenge and no sashay, believe me. It cost me many WAGS and SUSSES although the theme phrases emerged with only a few letters exposed.
Count me as one who has not seen either The Lego Movie or Frozen so HANS and ARNETT were pure WAGS a la Marti.
Yes, Marti, ESTA can mean "this" but with an accent on the A, it means "he, she or it is" having to do with location.
The NE was the last to fall because I refused FROCK though it was obvious. I have never used or heard use FROCK as a term for a monastic garb. It is always "habit".
Have a delightful Thursday, everyone!
Marti,
Esta is the third person conjugation of the verb estar, which means "to be", so as a verb, Esta means "is", and should have an accent mark over the a. This or that is "este". End of Spanish lesson.
The Utes were a Native American people who lived in what's now Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming until we took their land. There are still Utes, mostly on reservations in Colorado and Utah. One tribe runs a casino in Colorado. Too much information?
To certain poor typists, cleve = clever.
Cheers!
JzB
Wow! I really thought this was going to be a DNF, it sure feels good to finish something you almost gave up on...
So many names and places I never heard of, but WAGing the theme answers really helped.
That pesky lidless container finally fell into place after I changed my Naval Noncom from ENSign to CPO.
AnonymousT from 10:32 last nite:
I am still having trouble with some sites. That geek link of yours would not load until I hit the "stop loading" button... (very strange...)
But you made an excellent point! I forgot that DW has NEVER shut that stupid Ipad off... It probably needs to reboot. Now if only I could figure out how to shut the Dang Thingie off....
P.S. just a friendly tip, don't put all your links together on one line. Even I thought it was one link at first.
The Star Ledger "Thought For Today":
"Many excellent words are ruined by too definite a knowledge of their meaning." - Aline Kilmer, American poet (1888-1941)
(hmm, this quote bugs me...)
Estar, not ser.
Han pasado demasiadas décadas.
I never quite sussed reflexives, either.
Cheers!
JzB
Thanks for the expo, Marti!
Not easy for me at all - took me longer than most Saturdays, so a real work-out for me. It was one of those "refuse to admit defeat" days.
Got there in the end, but phew!
"My Cousin Vinnie" is in my Top 5 all-time list of movies.
Barry - there's two of us, I've never seen "Frozen" either.
HG @9:03,
The one and only General Anthony(?) McAuliffe about the German demand to give up Bastogne at the Battle of the Bulge.
Wonder what he would have said today?
This one went pretty quickly for me, but I live on the Missouri River. With all the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial stuff over the last several years when my kids were in school learned a lot about their trek up the Missouri into Montana.
Escaped the snow for a few days down in Florida-- the local paper carries our crossword, so they won't be piling up when I get back!
Rainman- Car 54? Francis Muldoon. How about HERMAN MUNSTER? That character is known by more people.
I had a little trouble starting, especially the crossing of AMICUS & RACED & DINAH & NUTS. AMICUS & DINAH are unknowns and I initially wrote RATS and SAKI for SAKE. There was almost a double Star Wars couplet with ARTOO & C3PO with the 3 missing.
Also in the NE I was torn between SMOCK & FROCK and WEIRD and EERIE but it all worked out. Other unknowns were HANS, ARNETT, and I have never heard SAUTE used as a noun, only a verb.
ESKIMO- so many words are becoming un-PC. Absurd. Will towns have to change names to take out anything relating to any ethnic group? Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
I can't believe I had to cheat to finish a Thursday puzzle, but that NW corner just eluded me even though I thought of LOL, ECHO, and SIT at various moments. Why on earth I couldn't think of WHITE for that lie, just floors me. Guess I don't tell enough of those. Kept thinking of beauty parlors, although I did for a moment wonder if it was gambling I should think about. Aaarrggh. But at least I got the theme early and had everything else in place. So that part was a lot of fun, and I always enjoy Marti's expos.
Fun limericks, Owen!
Welcome back, Madame D.
Ergo, we'll keep our fingers crossed that you get that job and that it turns out to be satisfying.
Have a great day, everybody.
Just to spark your memories of Spanish 101 (or grade-school), remember drilling on ...
Estar: Yo estoy, tú estás, él o ella está, nosotros estamos, vosotros estáis, ustedes o ellos o ellas están
(Hence, ESTA = He or she (or it) is)
The puzzle was not too hard. After seeing the word "lie" at the end of 17D, and "smoke" at 24A, I went right down to 59A and after checking the other letters around it, put detector in right away. The rest of the clues were bland. I also thought of "staircase" first for 32D, until the "t" in detector negated that thought.
Rainman-You were thinking of Fred GWYNNE. Fabulous actor, and best known as the character Herman Munster. Loved that show,!
Speaking of Frozen.. Finally saw it on TV. I may be in the minority, but personally,"what's the big deal?"
It was kind of boring. But to each his own.
Let me get going. Have a fun day everyone.
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Victor Barokas, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Marti, for a fine review.
This puzzle was tough getting started. I finally got LAHR and ARMY. That got me started.
Finished the entire South before I ventured back up to the plain white North.
UNDER THE RADAR was my first theme answer. DETECTOR ame easily. Those helped with the rest.
That whole NW corner was tough getting started. Tried BETS and BAWL and they got me started.
Had CLOAK for 12D. fixed that later to FROCK. First inkblot.
Other was misspelling WEEVIL as WEAVIL.
Was 3 degrees this morning at 6:00.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Meetings all morning so just got around to finishin, and needed to come and check my two DNF areas: The NE corner--simply couldn't come up with CARAFE or PIERRE because I had SMOCK for FROCK, and NCO/CPO. Then in the near SE I had ANULL misspelled and SALTED/SAUTES and no idea about ARNETT or PTS.
Just another Thursday, I guess! At least the theme helped this time.
I too love "My Cousin Vinnie".
It was minus 15 here when I left at almost 8 am. Now it's a balmy 15 above.
I thought I was playing word pinball the way I jumped around the grid, getting one word here, another one there. Thanks for the challenge, VB, but this was a DNF. I'm OK with that at the end of the week. Thanks for the expo, Marti.
I haven't seen a movie in 5 or 6 years so I have no idea about who acts in them.
I was able to spend some one-on-one time with my snow shovel today. There was maybe an inch. By the weekend we'll be up to 50*. Not complaining.
I hope your interview went well, Ergo.
YR and Rainman, I hope you're feeling better.
Happy Thursday!
Pat
Muchas gracias for the memories. I took Spanish for seven years in school. But if you don't use it, you lose it. I learned the dialect of Spain, and in NYC all the speakers I knew were Puerto Rican. Completely different sounds and words in many ways. Spaniards pronounce the "c" in cinco as a "th". Wish I had travelled overseas to continue my education. Oh, well.
JazzB@10:52
Think of reflexives as "myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, themselves" though we don't use that particular expression in English in the same way.
me llamo Lucina (I call myself Lucina)
te llamas Ron (you {familiar} call yourself Ron)
(usted) se llama Ron (you {formal} call yourself Ron)
(ella) se llama Maria (she calls herself Maria)
(ellos) se llaman Juan y Jorge (they call themselves John and George)
and so forth.
The stickier uses are as in:
eso se me hace triste (that seems to myself to be sad)
It seems convoluted but when used daily and without thinking about it, it's natural. I hope that helps.
Musings 2
-Yesterday I asked in what movie was King Westley JILTED at the altar. This is the scene where the bride bolted. Name the movie.
-I was going out to remove our next 3” of snow yesterday afternoon but the neighbor’s two sons and one the wives had just finished up. What a great neighborhood.
-Yeah, it was General McAuliffe who told the German “Nuts” when defeat seemed imminent at the Battle of the Bulge.
-I best remember that line from Patton. Isn’t there also a scene in that movie where George “frocked”, “got frocked” or “is frocked” a rank by putting on another star before the effective date?
-It’s interesting to read the written stylings of our new UAE friend who is 10 hours ahead of CST.
-Good luck Ergo!
Good afternoon! I thought this was significantly easier than yesterday which was much harder than a typical Wednesday for me. I was whelmed by today's theme; OK but not inspired. Fun cluing.
Good luck Ergo!
Time Magazine sent me a renewal notice at $1.25 per issue. I called and mentioned an online offer. I ended up with a year for $40, about $0.95 per issue. If I'd waited a while without renewing, their offers would have gotten cheaper still I'm guessing.
I think I mentioned how much I disliked "How To Get Away With Murder." I really like "Endeavor". The plots are good but there is something about the characters and the atmosphere that I enjoy. Also "Foyle's War" though it doesn't seem to be on lately. I think I will pay whatever fee necessary to watch the earlier episodes on my computer. Aha! I found some of the earlier episodes on Hulu. Excellent!
Gary, KIng Westley sounded familiar but I think this was from before my time.
A little white lie?
redneck smoke detector...
Pedal to the metal, reminds me of this one hill growing up...
Radar detector detectors? Where will it all end?
Some things are better not detected....
Good puzzle today, thanks Victor and Marti. Only a couple overwrites; ENDED before END UP, STAIRCASE before STAIR STEP and SMOCK before FROCK. Perps to the rescue and a successful finish in 30 mins, better than most Thursdays.
Every time I see a clue about Butch Cassidy, I think of this scene, Butch & Etta. Remember seeing the movie in the theater (12 yrs old?) and thinking "This is going to turn out nasty" and then laughing aloud.
Marti: Regarding your question 62A, "UTE" is a very common crossword entry. I am surprised you questioned it. Here is a definition from the dictionary.
Ute
\ˈyüt\
noun
plural Ute or Utes
1 :a member of an American Indian people originally ranging through Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico
2 :the Uto-Aztecan language of the Ute people
I have mentioned this before, but...
Speaking of detectors:
Can you Americans imagine your Government sending detector trucks to prowl the cities searching for people using a TV without paying a license fee?
Sound like science fiction?
In Britain it is reality...
A picture is worth a thousand words...
Be afraid, it's only a matter of time before they figure out how to wring more money out of your TV set! Remember cable! the alternative to commercials?
Hard. Could not parse NE.
We used to need licenses for radio and TV in Oz too. I think they gave it up though. I remember thinking Ned Kelly was still with us because $25 a year seemed exorbitant!
Lucina,
Does Spanish have reflexive verbs like French that don't translate that way?
se mettre en chemin--to set out
se rencontre--to meet
se promener--to go for a walk
s'asseoir to sit down
Of course with all of these it can be argued that the reflexive object is justified, since in each case the action is done to oneself or each other, but to an English speaker it can be confusing.
Bill G, hate to tell ya, but my Time subscription is $12/year. Originally it was $14, but I let it lapse and they came back with $12.
Magilla, I'm pretty sure Marti wasn't confused. She probably learned that in her ute.
Misty@11:35,
Thanks. It's good to be back.
Greetings!
Thanks for interesting puzzle, Victor, and great expo, Marti!
I, too, have not seen Frozen (nor shall I see).
Time to swim!
Cheers!
Hello everybody. Haven't worked a puzzle or read this blog for almost 3 weeks now. Whew, a long time! But at least I got my "desert fix," having enjoyed a wonderful vacation with our family in Arizona. We stayed a lot longer than we anticipated, but it was time well spent, worth every minute.
Back home now and did the puzzle today, which I found easier than I expected it to be. Fun, though, as always.
Bill G, dear friend, please accept my hearty pats on the back and best wishes.
kazie@3:43
Though I don't know French I can deduce that use of the reflexive pronoun seems the same. Since both French and Spanish are romance languages stemming from the same root, it would appear logical.
Oops. That should read Kazie@2:43
I haven't seen Frozen yet, have to wait until it comes on TV so I can get it with closed captioning. Lego Movie I doubt I'll ever see, though Batman as a main character might entice me. I just don't understand the appeal of those Lego figures over the more realistic CGI of movies like Frozen. CGI technique fascinates me. And it's still developing. I'm waiting for its full maturity with a fully-convincing John Wayne movie!
Unit Between levels: MEZZANINE.
Readers Digest I would always hold out on, and watch the subscription rate go down. One year it went all the way to free! Guess they needed the subscription numbers to keep their ad rates justified. Sad that once upon a time they had bragged of being ad-free, supported by subscription only!
@CED - the TV Detector vans in the UK are pretty much just a deterrent - there is no evidence that there is any "technology" in those vans at all.
It's pretty simple to see if anyone is watching TV - you look for simple stuff like a flickering light in the room, an antenna on the roof, a satellite dish. It's not that difficult. When I was growing up, the BBC broadcast warnings that the vans were "in your area" and "they can even tell which channel you're watching" which is patently nonsense.
It was still enough to get a lot of people to go and purchase a license "while there was still time" though.
I dunno Steve, I am still freaked out by what happens to "Dave" @ 2:50.
I'd rather be safe than sorry...
Magilla Go-rilla @ 2:12 PM, you really have to get used to my "tongue in cheek" style of blogging. I have linked the scene from "My Cousin Vinny" several times before. (See my comment @ 6:50 AM.) I am very familiar with the crosswordese UTEs and OTOE and IOWAS (how else could you pluralize that one?) So I just try to put a twist on a ho-hum fill with my comments. (Not always successfully, I see...)
ANTHEM really, really screwed up, and has been leading their PR blitz with, "A very sophisticated attack..."
They, along with others in their industry, had been previously warned by the FBI that their safeguards needed to be improved...
The short stories on the news stations have been emphasizing along the lines that "...no personal medical information has been stolen..."
This isn't like getting your credit card number stolen due to the security breaches at Target, Home Depot and others. You can easily limit your losses and get a new credit card.
If your insurance is covered by Anthem, as some 80 million people are, you may want to read this CNBC article
Thank you all for your concern about me. I drove myself to the orthopedist today to have my stitches removed. He thinks I am making outstanding progress with my knee. I will have my last at home physical therapy tomorrow and next week will start outpatient PT and resume working with my Y trainer. I walked very far today accomplishing many errands on this my 10th day since surgery.
I told the surgeon about feeling ill and very tired ever since Saturday. Yesterday and today I had energetic afternoons and evenings and bad nights and mornings. The doctor thinks that Xarelto, which I was taking before bed, is likely to blame and told me to take baby aspirin instead. I hope that is the answer.
Alan and I can go back to a fairly normal schedule now, but I will have to take it easy on the housework. Only the ice and snow hold us back. Alan swept the snow off the walk and driveway today.
Of course Joe Pesci, who was the defense lawyer for "dese two youts" in "My Cousin Vinnie", was also a star in "Goodfellas"
Wow, what a day. 82+ F. here today. Does wonders for my soul. Healing well. Tennis twice this week! As Jake says, Life is Good. Sometimes.
Thanks to everyone who contributes to this site.
Really enjoyed the details of the UAE by Occasional Lurker UAE. Mañana, mas, por favor.
Thanks to Yellowrocks for explaining flooring as in floor it = PEDALTOTHEMETAL. Went right over my head, maybe because there was no question mark after the clue, and should there be? Clue: "Flooring phrase," which begs the question, is there a rule as to when a question mark is required? I'm guessing not a strict rule.
Thanks, Marti, and Bill V, and I think you were the first to come up with my missing info re. My Cousin Vinny. I also loved that movie, and Fred Gwynne was a big part of it.
*Thanks, pje, for your kind words, and to everyone else whom I'm forgetting, forgive me.
Bill G and Desper-otto, yes, and I've even gotten some offers recently as low as $5/year for magazines with 10 or more issues per year. The bad part of that is, besides the environmental aspect, I start getting too many magazines. (One good deal was National Geographic, which I've been a member of for 50 years, and always paid thirty something dollars a year... well, finally, I got an offer for $12.) So when you reach a certain age, something is triggered and low offers start coming in.
*To all Spanish speakers, I am currently approaching 80 days on Duolingo and learning a lot, but I still get estoy and soy confused as to which to use for "I am." Help. Duolingo doesn't make it easy to do much research on grammar rules (las reglas). I'd like to be studying French and Italiano simultaneously but I haven't found a way to do more than one at a time... so far.
*To he/she who needs closed captioning in order to enjoy a movie, I agree and I recommend the disk subscription to Netflix. DVDs are newer than they used to be and almost always have captions. Streaming comes up short (do they ever have captions).
*And for Spanish speakers, rent "Y Tu Mama Tambien," which was in Spanish, then use either Spanish OR English subtitles. What a kick!!!
*OwenKL, great limericks. Everyone here is so talented, I feel grossly out of place.
*Husker Gary, you ask the most intriguing questions, and then I usually miss your answers later. No, I doubt I can name the movie where the bride bolted. Not without more hints.
* Looking forward to Friday. And I wasn't always able to say that with a straight face... :O)
Please limit your posts to 5 per day and cap each post length at about 20 lines in Preview mode.
You might be three times over the limit there.
Rainman:
If you would like, send me an e-mail and I'll give you a mini lesson on soy and estoy.
Hi All!
I CRAVED a fun, do-able, Thurs and this was almost it. But, all BETS were off w/ the NE. I didn't give up on Chuey for 11d until things WENT UP IN SMOKE.
Thanks Victor. I almost "got" the whole thing, but IFIW - I put in TAlK for 42a. WHOA - V8 missed me. Marti - I got the TIC* for UTE. Like I said yesterday, everyone's write-ups are great - C.C. TROTed out a fine ARMY of puzzlers.
I liked the theme - I first I was thinking of mis-direction, LIES, SMOKE (and mirrors), but RADAR fixed that thought-train.
Fav: DINAH just 'cuz it brought back the whole song (for some reason I learned all the verses once).
Spitz - Thanks for FROCK info. I've only heard deFROCK == demotion - never me thankfully.
Misty @11:35a "I guess I don't tell enough of them..." So you flat out LIE or just tell the ugly truth? :-)
CED 1 - Thanks for a tip from a pro :-) To reboot, hold the top right button and the bottom-of-the-screen button for about 10 seconds. Release and then keep hitting one of the two until you see a WHITE apple.
CED 2 - In my UTE I learned about the Tellie-tax from The Young Ones. (Steve, what's the proper spelling of Tellie?)
CED 3 - The fist part of Dave commercial reminded me of "What have the Romans done for us?" in Life of Brian.
Ergo - please tell us the news. I hope it's good, but we're here for you for the bad if it AR TOO.
I can't believe no one linked UP IN SMOKE today :-)
Cheers, -T
YR - Glad to hear you HEEDed to your intuition and set of to the Dr. Get ready to dance again...
//non-IT, stop reading... It'll all be NORSE to you :-)
TTP - Right..., "Sophisticated." I don't buy it either. Sophisticated == StuxNet. Most breaches are inside initiated (Phishing is easy!).
I was doing research on ANTHEM (nee WellPoint) last night after I heard about it (NPR news crawl at 11-ish). Friends tell me that healthcare uses a all or a sub-set of prod data in test. Test is never monitored like prod. I'm betting SSN's are primary-key and hence plaintext. Many of these systems were built way before there was the Internet we all know and love.
Also, there are no brags nor data dumps on pastebin or TOR thus 1) its not Anon to embarrass ANTHEM (like Sony), 2) any darknet ADS for PII sales already happened a week ago or wont for a few weeks if at all.
BTW, it's not the 1st time they've been breached. Link to HHS.
Cheers, -T
//how long before I go dark after someone is really curious who I am... LOL :-)
Oh, and my favorite part - their statement that no medical records were stollen. Translation: "See, they got all that PII, but no med. records, so we aren't in violation of HIPPA." C, -T
Anon T,
Yea, they sure are emphasizing the "no medical records..." bit, which of course they would deny to avoid the HIPPA fines. That tactic may or may not save their corporate long-eared equines. Some mid level IT manager will most likely lose his or her job. Probably the vocal one that raised concerns internally about holes in firewalls and weak safeguards against user ignorance.
"Phishing is easy!" - Ain't that the truth ? Now we look back on all of the old movie plots and scenes that involved elaborate break-ins to high-security facilities just so the perp could stick a floppy disk into a drive. Now it just takes corporate greed and uneducated and indifferent users.
I'm familiar with the movie. Im afraid I may have been in the wrong frame of mind when I read your statement and didn't make the connection at the time. Sorry if I sounded pompous. 😪
Post a Comment