google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, March 27, 2015, Jacob Stulberg

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Mar 27, 2015

Friday, March 27, 2015, Jacob Stulberg

Theme: Waiter, what is this fly doing in my soup? ANSWER? See number 3.

Jacob has always puzzled me with his puzzles like his Wednesday NYT, and while the solve was okay and I am not a great solver, I was having difficulty with the explanation. The basic theme has TANG inside the fill, and I now understand why after consulting with the Corner guru. The first four themers are:

14A. *1952 #1 hit for Leroy Anderson : BLUE TANG(9), Do not know the SONG or the artist, but the perps and the theme gave me this answer quickly.

17A. *Math reciprocal : COTANGENT(9). This was easy, but I will defer to our math experts to discuss.

61A. *"Atomic" Crayola color : TANGERINE (9). I am not sure why but I remember this color.

66A. *Bogged down : ENTANGLED (9). Not perfect fit for me.

Then we have the supplemental variation of the old joke about a fly in the soup:

30A. With 35-Across, question the starred clues might ask : WHAT IS THIS FLY (13).
35A. See 30-Across : DOING IN MY ANSWER (15).
44. Response to 30-/35-Across, and a hint to a hidden word in 14-, 17-, 61- and 66-Across : THE BACK STROKE (13).

I was struggling to make sense of the back stroke reference when I was made aware that TANG backwards spells GNAT, which makes it all fit together as the GNAT in each theme answer is backwards leaving a FLY doing a backstroke. Really inventive combination of words and visual.

Again we have a Friday with almost 60 five letter or shorter words, 42 blocks and only a few non theme related sparkly fill such as ANCHOR, BEATER, EERILY, IT WAS I, KEITEL, OUTLAW, SHIRTS, SO THAT, AT STAKE, ESSENCE. We also have the cross-referenced reveal which get some complaints, and if you do not know the old joke it may have been a bear, but overall this was as an inventive and puzzling puzzle.



Across:

1. Long __ : AGO. We begin like STAR WARS Episode IV only it is our constructor who has a mind from a different galaxy.

4. Spartan colonnades : STOAS. You see many of these on college campuses as well.


9. Belief of more than a billion : ISLAM.

16. "Done!" : THERE.

18. Expand : WIDEN.

19. Numskull : DOLT.

20. Start of a rumor : I HEAR...that Rich does not like partials, is this one?

22. Fuel economy testing org. : EPA. Environemental Protection Agency.

23. Business card word : FAX.

26. On the table : AT STAKE.

33. Zhou __ : EN LAI. This Chinese POLITICIAN and cohort of Mao actually died a few month before Mao's death. And 25D. Capital of Shaanxi Province : XI'AN. CSO to our own.

34. Wide size : EEE.

42. Boston Coll. is in it : ACC. Atlantic Coast Conference.

43. '90s runner : PEROT. For president, not for distance, Ross.

50. Pith : ESSENCE.

51. Medit. land : ISRael.

52. Revised versions: Abbr. : EDS. Editions.

55. Sharp : ACRID. I think of smells.

57. Stop on Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited route : ERIE. CSO.

58. Theodore's first lady : EDITH. This LADY. She was however, his second wife.

65. Event with pole bending : RODEO. Like slalom for cowboys? No idea.

67. "Octopus's Garden" songwriter : STARR. Ringo wrote some interesting songs. His best with the BEATLES.

68. Holds up : LASTS. And, 46D. Hold : ANCHOR.

69. Sch. units : YRS.


Down:

1. Start of a children's song : ABCDE.

2. Gluttonous Augustus in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" : GLOOP. I did not remember his NAME.(2:39)

3. Posse target : OUTLAW.

4. Stop: Abbr. : STN.

5. __ sale : TAG. We have yard sales, garage sales, moving sales as well as THESE. My grandmother manufactured tags in Southbridge.

6. Word with man or horse : ONE. ReallY?

7. Latin lambs : AGNI. A variation from our normal reference.

8. To make sure : SO THAT.

9. Confessor's words : IT WAS I. I started with I DID IT which also fit.

10. Haberdashery stock : SHIRTS. The original meaning was the peddler of notions such as needles, thread etc. but it has become associated with outfitting a man.

11. Directed : LED.

12. Exist : ARE.

13. Sign on a door : MEN. It safer to put gentleman and ladies, too easy to remove WO.

15. Put away : EAT.

21. Djibouti neighbor: Abbr. : ETHiopia.

23. Canine : FANG. Rhymes with TANG.

24. Hun king, in Norse legend : ATLI. Is this a comeback this week for ATTILA?

27. Several : A FEW.

28. "Twittering Machine" artist : KLEE. I had the K and filled in the rest, but I still am not very knowledgeable about painting. I have seen the picture, but did not know the name.



29. Observer : EYER. Not a favorite clue/fill.

31. Mother __ : HEN.

32. Fools : SIMPS. Literally I guess this is true as a simpleton is a foos.

35. 2/3, say : DATE. This partial clue fooled me for a while.

36. Big name in publishing : OCHS. Really, really BIG for the NY Times, not so much our journal.

37. Decorates, in a way : ICES. Tin, it is okay to ice a cake.

38. Mountain sighting : YETI. Ridiculous. I would rather see....

They were at Woodstock

39. JFK list : ARRS.

40. Queen dowager of Jordan : NOOR. Our American export. LINK.

41. Wall St. purchase : STK.

45. Rattletrap : BEATER. I know the term from reading old books,, but I have never heard anyone actually use the term.

47. "Born on the Bayou" band, briefly : CCR. Credence Clearwater Revival, a 2nd Woodstock band.

48. "Mean Streets" co-star : KEITEL. Harvey.  A powerful FILM. (2:58)

49. How ghost stories are told : EERILY.

53. "2 Broke Girls" setting : DINER. A female variation of the ODD COUPLE in the grand tradition of sitcoms from Lucy to the present. Much more sexual innuendo and talk. It used to follow The Big Bang Theory so I tried it.

54. Origins : SEEDS.

56. Actress Delany : DANA. I have watched her on many things since China Beach. (2:28)

57. Bit of work : ERG. Followed by....

58. Triage ctrs. : ERS. Emergency Rooms.

59. Finish, as a letter, perhaps : DOT. Finish writing the letter (i) , not the letter! Ah ha, I get it.

60. Wyo. neighbor : IDAho.

62. Some Windows systems : NTS.

63. Hood's gun : GAT.

64. U.S. Army rank abolished in 1815 : ENS. A WAG that was easier than I expected.

Another Friday gone, another month, another change of season and another puzzle with a somewhat complicated gimmick. I had fun once I got past the TANG + GNAT backwards part. A reminder to always look both ways when you see "BACK" in a puzzle. Enjoy the birdies. Lemonade out.

61 comments:

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Well, I fortunately did know the old joke, although it still took awhile to suss out this variation of it. Part of the problem was that I had MOST instead of DATE at 35D, which hid the second half of the question from view. The other problem was that I mistyped KLEE as KEEE for some reason and therefore couldn't see the first half of the question either.

Anyway, once I got that all sorted out, I understood what was going on pretty quickly and this actually allowed me to put in the TANG where it belong in the two theme answers in the NW which I otherwise wouldn't have been able to get. So, thanks, theme answer!

The rest of the grid had its ups and downs. Wasn't overly fond of STK, STA, ETH, EYER, NTS and IDA. But I was happy to get NOOR, KEITEL and GLOOP. I know I generally complain about too many names in a grid, but the world would be a better place with more GLOOPs in it.

Rainman said...

Found this Friday's offering about average in difficulty but never got the theme until reading Lemonade's report. Not that I didn't try finding something pertaining to a BACK STROKE. But is a GNAT really a fly? Dunno.
-Learning moments; GLOOP, OCHS, XIAN, but they all fell to perps.
-Did not know TANGERINE was an atomic Crayola but as a child there was nothing better than getting a new 64-crayon box of Crayolas. But I had no artistic talent, drat.
-Also, I recall I had STA until the end when I had to change it to STN to accommodate COTANGENT, the cross. Not a bad Friday experience, all in all, despite not getting the entire theme.

Rainman said...

Barry G,
I, too, had MOST before DATE. Clue: 2/3, say

TGIF.

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. Ouch! At first I thought there was a disconnect between the starred clues and the riddle. I easily saw the TANG, but needed to think about the riddle's answer to find the GNAT.

My favorite clue was about Teddy's first lady. I went for ALICE, knowing she was the first wife and his true love. EDITH has the same number of letters.

I tried Seer before EYER for the Observer.

Do people still use FAXes? I prefer to get electronic copies e-mailed to me.

QOD: Every ten years a man should give himself a good kick in the pants. ~ Edward Steichen (Mar. 27, 1879 ~ Mar. 25, 1973)

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

I got it, but I didn't get it. That theme was way too esoteric for this dude. When I looked at BLUE, I thought of the blue-tailed fly, but I couldn't see any flies in the other answers.

ONE man, ONE horse, why not ONE peanut butter sandwich or ONE piece of pie? I just don't get that clue.

Lemon, perhaps you were trying to remember a singer rather than a composer/arranger. Leroy Anderson composed a number of pieces for orchestra concerts -- principally for the Boston Pops, including The Typewriter, Sleigh Ride, and Blue Tango. Surely, you remember.

Big Easy said...

What a grinder. Nothing came easily in this puzzle. GLOOP, BLUE TANGO, XIAN, AGNI, KEITEL, BEATER, DINER, OCHS, KLEE were all perps. I never knew a RODEO had a slalom for horses.

Windows NT- that was before XP, which I had initially filled. I had to change 35D from MOST to DATE and SEER to EYER.

When I read the clue to 44A I did notice that I had TAN in COTANGENT and TANGERINE-a WAG.But I did NOT notice the G. Basically that enabled me to finish the puzzle. This was definitely a Saturday level X-word.

Great puzzle to rattle my brain on the cool and windy Friday.

Avg Joe said...

Tough sledding today. Solved it backwards, appropriately. Once the perps in the middle and bottom gave me enough to guess the three reveal phrases, I went back to the NW, where knowing the back asswards gnat gave me enough to keep plunking away. Never easy, but got it done in the end. Phew!

Anonymous said...

ONE man band, ONE horse town.

John Lampkin said...

What fun! Wish I had thought of it.
Rainman @ 6:22-- gnats are indeed flies, as are mosquitoes.

Big Easy said...

Hahtoolah- FAX is great if you have something in hand and want to send it verbatim to someone else. If you need a copy of something that someone else has a 'hard' copy of, FAX is the way to transmit it.

And in complete government nonsense, even though you are encouraged to file your income tax electronically, it is technically illegal for a preparer to email your return to you.

Ergo said...

Thank you Jacob and Lemon.

Very nice construction. The clueing? Well so-so.

This puzzle was an example where the discovery of the reveal(s) made it possible to complete even the most obscure fill.

'90s runner. Gets me every time. Sakes...

Ergo said...

Neglected to mention that I originally was seeing the word AGENT in the hint answers, and thought that the reveal would be 'secret' AGENT or 'agent in disguise.'

Anyway, it may make for another good theme a few years removed.

Chairman Moe said...

"puzzling thoughts":

Needed a few Googles to help along the way but I managed to get the starred clues and answer/theme without help

Couple of ink blots here and there; started with HINDU for 9a and had SEER for 29d

Don't know if any others here play Words for Friends on their phone or tablet; I do with one other person, and oddly, my last word I sent to them last night was EERILY. That game (and its original game Scrabble) is one of my faves

Not a "themed" limerick, but one for those of you who are starting their Spring cleaning:

"Odds and ends" drawer o'erflows…and what's in it,
Has become a proverbial "blivet":
It's the home for my crap,
Be it stapler or map;
The "five pound bag" holding ten pounds of $hit!

Have a good weekend all ...

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I did get the theme, I did finish but, other than that, I'll defer to Thumper.

Chickie, that is wonderful news about your hubby!

Spring has yet to make an appearance here. In fact, I think tomorrow's high is only 33 or so. Today is quite gloomy, so far.

Thanks for the expo, Lemony. Bill G, I, also, just hit publish-no problems.

Have a great day.

Yellowrocks said...

I liked this puzzle. I worked it at PT with half my attention during waiting times, using the sit down stepper, and cooling down with ice. I didn't have 55A, missing the c and the d, and forgot to go back to pick it up. Drat! "When will they (I) ever learn?"
I was looking for something spelled backward, but didn't see the TANG. I got the riddle easily.
My favorite was DATE 2/3, Feb. 3. I knew OCHS, KLEE, BEATER, DINER with one or two perps.
HG, so glad to hear your operation is reversible.
Ergo, congrats on your new position. What a relief!
I easily met all my therapy goals before I started this AM, no pain, no strain. We rescheduled Monday's PT until after I see the doctor on Tuesday, so I can begin a more rigorous regimen.
It was so helpful before knee surgery to lose weight and take up aquatic prehab, which included among other things walking in water and core strengthening, to speed healing. As soon as I am cleared for it I will sign up for aquatic rehab on my own dime again. It is worth it.

Husker Gary said...

The puzzle was fun to do but FLY = GNAT?

Musings
-We are truly ENTANGLED in the Mideast
-Colleges still use FAX machines on National Letter Of Intent Day
-Some say PEROT’s 19,743,821 votes gave Clinton the presidency, some say not
-Remember the candy that LASTS a long time?
-ONE MAN and of course ONE HORSE
-All of us parents have sacrificed SO THAT our kids could get ahead
-Epic poem about men being LED into a certain death
-Too clever by half
-It took me 10 min to see Two Broke Girls wasn’t for me. Crudity is not wit.

Yellowrocks said...

Gary, thanks for one of my favorite poems. My mother used to read that to us along with many others from "101 Famous Poems."
Cornerites complaining about getting up in the dark due to early DST reminded me of another childhood favorite by R.L. Stevenson.

In winter I get up at night,
And dress by yellow candle light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.
I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.
And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?

C6D6 Peg said...

Challenging puzzle today, especially with the cross-references. I was looking for the missing SOUP. But DH was able to see TANG and with BACKSTROKE was able to understand the theme and finish. Thanks, Jacob, for a real eye-opener.

Lemonade, great expo, especially with a difficult theme.

kazie said...

DNF for me. I appreciate the cleverness after reading the blog--Thanks Lemonade!--But I had too many unknowns to get more than 1/3 of it out before cheating by looking at the theme giveaways at the beginning of said blog. After that I was able to fill in all but the C at the OCHS/ACC crossing.

Having TWIT/DOLT, LIFTS/LASTS, FOR/FLY and MOST/DATE, and knowing too few of the names meant perps were no help. The only theme answers I had before cheating were TANGERINE--a complete wag, since I'm sure crayons didn't have anything "atomic" when I or my kids used them, and ENTANGLED.

Lemonade714 said...

John Lampkin, I am so glad you stopped by to confirm the GNAT/FLY connection.

If you want to read about it LINK

Not sure Kazie when you raised your kids, but I personally was happy when crayola made new colors in
1972

coneyro said...

Like others said, I appreciate what went into constructing this puzzle. But....It was WAY over my head.

61A..What is "ATOMIC" in reference to?

Have heard of the "FLY" Comment, but didn't get enough fill to suss it out.

Honestly, nothing for me to comment on as I am feeling like a real dummy at the moment.

Have a wonderful weekend folks,

kazie said...

Lemonade,
I really don't remember any color names but they weren't too exciting sounding or maybe I would remember them. Our sons were born in '76 and '79, but maybe I only bought them the cheap boxes without atomic shades too. It's too long ago! We did get Lea some washable ones when she was here, but I didn't even notice what they were called.

Fact Checker said...

Atomic TANGERINE

Lucina said...

Hello, friends! Thank you, Lemonade, for your detailed explanation of the theme. Saw TANG but I didn't even think of going backwards.

It was a slow slog all the way until the theme answer almost shouted at me. Still, I had to look up KEITEL as I don't know that film.

I started with ELISE, knew it was close, then EDITH popped out of my memory and that finished it. AGNI was my first fill since I am acquainted with Latin.

Dr.'s appointment. Must go.

Have a wonderful Friday, everyone! I'll read you later.

Anonymous said...

I am curious to know how "2/3, say" becomes "date".

Anonymous said...

2/3 = February 3 (or March 2 elsewhere).

Anonymous said...

I guess that should be 2 March elsewhere.

Yellowrocks said...

2/3/2015 would be Feb. 3, 2015. Sometimes we omit the year. In writing square dance caller contracts I write the following:
"Dates in 2015: 1/12, 2/3 ,3/10 4/14." etc.
At work we often used the date without the current year. I would date an informal message with 3/28 as today's date.

CrossEyedDave said...

DNF (but not for lack of trying)

I found the tangs by working my way into the center from the outside. I had no idea what it meant as the center was still white when I went to red letter.

26A On the table = At Stake blocked me in the NE.

55A Sharp = Acrid blocked me in the SW.

The grid blocked me in the NW & SE.

Having only SOTH-- blocked me in the North.

Never heard of Mean Streets blocked me in the South.

East & West? (I don't want to talk about it...)

So the gimmick was backwards fly. interesting...

Jacob Stulberg. You got me!

Lemonade714 said...

YR:

If it matters, today is actually 3/27.

Anonymous, I nejoyed your conversation with yourself.

Fact checker, thanks for helping; you linked the exact same page I did at 11:19 with the link 1972.

My brother did lots of Peter Max inspired posters and I loved all the dayglo markers and crayons.

Tinbeni said...

Saying this puzzle was a fun solve would be like saying TANG tastes like Orange Juice.
(It doesn't!!!)

DNF ... and "_ _ _ S" isn't allowed in my grid. lol

Off to enjoy the St. Petersburg Grand Prix.

Cheers!

Jayce said...

I still don't get it. I must be a SIMP today.

Anonymous said...

A question for our resident grammarians: Is the first sentence of today's write up a run-on sentence? Or a run-off-the-mouth sentence?

Bill G. said...

The theme was tricky, the puzzle was hard. (I didn't like ONE MAN/ONE HOURSE either.) If I were a paper and pen solver, I would have eventually thrown in the towel. But a few red letters saved the day and eventually made for an enjoyable experience.

It's too hot for me here yesterday and today. I hope it's OK where you are.

Anonymous said...

Man or horse would have been better as "man or vote".

I solved and STILL don't get it…I always heard the saying as " a fly in my soup".

So how does it make sense? Where's the soup? How does tang/gnat make the phrase make sense?

Anonymous Answerer said...

Instead of the fly being in the soup, the fly (in this case a GNAT) is in the ANSWER(s). Doing THE BACKSTROKE (i.e. TANG is GNAT backwards).

Anonymous said...

Do you know what the capital of Djibouti is?

Jerome said...

What was the last song played at Woodstock? I only know because I had it in a puzzle I recently made. It turned out that I had to cut it because of the crappy crossings.

And no Wiki peeking...

Jimi said...

[crickets]

Rainman said...

John Lampkin, et al,
I'm still not convinced that gnats (or mosquitoes) are "flies." After some quick research, I like the strict definition. Maybe also this is a regional thing? Yellowrocks? Anyone?

Fly = zipper opening, too, but no gnat.

Yes, I wish I had thought of this theme... not that creative, I'm afraid.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

I had all sorts of trouble with this. Figured out the TANG containers, took a swag at KLEE, but had to google a few. Set it down for a few hours and surprised myself by completing it on the 2nd try.

Saw TANG, and got off on a totally wrong track remembering the astronauts drinking it. Having FLY show up in 30 A made it hard to give up.

Finally BACK STROKE helped me suss it. Yikes!

This is a remarkable technical construction, with, in ESSENCE, two separate and related themes. My hat's off to Jacob, though he is making my brain hurt.

BEATER is very familiar. Maybe it's a mid-west thing?

One lake crossing is EERILY familiar.

I also liked ERIN crossing EIRE a couple days ago.

In the Catholic church, a CONFESSOR is a priest hearing confessions, so you can add that to the list of words with 2 opposite meanings.

Cool regards!
JzB

Jazzbumpa said...

Rainman -

If it helps, mosquito is "little fly" in Spanish.

Cheers!
JzB

Avg Joe said...

Yo Jimi! I've got an idea. But Hey, what do I know?

Anonymous T said...

Hi all!

BIll G - I'm a pen/paper (PP?) solver and IT WAS I who TITT. There were so many clues out of my bailiwick that even after 4 Googles (my limit) the center was mostly empty. I got the corners...

I saw TANG in 14a (BLUEbayou was 1st thought, but 4d was stubborn) and 17a. That helped with 61a and 66a. The theme is NASA! So, with the "M" still left from most @35d and N from HEN at 31d, the theme must have something to do with astronauts going to the mooN. Crash and burn.

NT? Really? Even if you're on XP (guilty w/ 1 box and one VM) upgrade! Win95 is way out.

No FAXing for me, scan and email.

Jerome - since Jimi chimed in, I'll guess the US National Anthem.

Cheers, -T
Did anyone watch the Ode to Joy link I finally got right last night? I thought it was stunning and want to visit at least one of those places. If you recognize the local, please share.

Yellowrocks said...

Are gnats flies? It appears they are, both by the common informal meaning of fly (#1) and the technical meaning of fly (#2, the one which John Lampkin used.
From Meriam Webster.
"1.a winged insect —usually used in combination "
Non technical and non specific. YR
"2 any of a large order (Diptera) of winged or rarely wingless insects (as the housefly, mosquito, or gnat) that have the anterior wings functional, the posterior wings reduced to halteres, and segmented often headless, eyeless, and legless larvae — compare maggot."
According to this a gnat is a fly, technically. YR

Yes, Lemonade, I have been confusing the day of the week and also the date ever since last Friday. I think the snow threw me off. I need Alan to keep me straight, but he was at work this AM.

Anonymous T said...

WHAT a DOLT I am; I forgot to thank Jacob for a stumper and Lem for the ANSWERs. C, -T

Ol' Man Keith said...

Wow.
Just Wow.
Mr. Stulberg operates on an advanced cognitive level. I solved it all very, very slowly. Like other wiser heads I still didn't understand it until reading Lemonade's explanation. I am very impressed.

I was a little shocked to learn that a gnat is a fly. Always thought they were midges. But then I never gave much thought to midges. I mean, what are they? Really.

Anonymous said...

The FAX, bettered by e-mail of JPEG's, DOC's and PDF's, is as obsolete as the PONY EXPRESS, which was rendered so by the telegraph a year-and-a-half after its introduction. Unfortunately the Post Office had no authority to shut down the FAX, as it did the Pony Express; so the FAX still exists; and numbnocks (including lawyers) still use it, with its illegible images and inordinate ("long distance telephone") expense.

Jerome said...

Avg Joe- That's funny... really funny!

PK said...

Hi Y'all! I came, I filled it, I didn't get it. I even saw the GNAT(s) and thought "nah!" This theme was too contrived and forced and backwards, I don't consider it "clever". I got the long theme reveal lines filled right away, but didn't like a lot of the fill. I liked Lemonade's write-up.

Numskull/DOLT, Fools/SIMPS: was Jacob calling us names?

I met Leroy Anderson 60+ years ago and was familiar with his music, but had to get BLUE before I remembered the TANGO. Since he wrote instrumental music, sometimes it is hard to remember titles with no lyrics that stick in one's head. "Syncopated Clock" with constant "tick tock"
and "The Typewriter" with someone typing in rhythm were easier to remember. They didn't fit in the spaces.

JFK list=ARRS? Oh, arrivals at the airport? I was thinking of a rumored list that JFK supposedly kept of political enemies who were to be snubbed or receive some type of sanction.

PK said...

Gary & Kathy, surprised to hear you both had surgery but am glad to know you are recuperating okay. And here I was worried about you both having so much snow to shovel this winter. Guess that's one way to avoid heaving the old white stuff.

Ergo, glad to hear you are gainfully employed. Good luck!

AvgJoe: I got a huge belly laugh out of your "old bat" comment the other day. So good to belong...

Avg Joe said...

I had a dedicated fax line for 19 years. Early on, it was essential to survival. Later on, not so much.

I bailed on it about 3 years ago after keeping track of all fax receipts for a year to consider the feasibility. During that year I had 2 faxes come in. With an annual cost of ~$400 for the dedicated line, it cost me ~$200 each. An easy decision.

I did get a few phone calls during the next year, asking why a fax couldn't be sent.....all from legal firms. When I asked if they had PDF and email capability, the answer was "Of course." But they didn't get that the rest of the world had moved on. In a typical year I'd guess I get at least 2,000 docs sent to me. When only one tenth of one percent are via fax, it's time to control costs, even if it ruffles the feathers of a few pterodactyls.

CrossEyedDave said...

Anon T @ 3:48 Re: Ode to Joy

I bookmarked it to watch later as Thurs/Fri are my busy days. I would love to see that waterfall around the 2 minute mark!

Anyway, clicking on everything on that Vimeo Video led me to this: Ana Rucner which states that it was a tourist video produced by the Croation National Tourist Board.

However her Vimeo page indicates she has been all over Europe.

Re: Fax Machines

Outdated Technology, but the best use of it had to be a friend of mine who had his own business. One of his customers was always late in paying, & he would send a copy of the outstanding invoice via Fax.

Being particularly late one time, late at night, before leaving the office, he Faxed the invoice copy. Except he used scotch tape to stick the ends together in a continuous circle. The resulting mess on the floor the next morning brought a prompt response...

Avg Joe said...

Jerome: glad you liked it. But we're still waiting for an answer.......:-)

PK: when I posted that, I hoped it wouldn't piss you off. It was meant in an entirely sincere tone, and I'm happy you took it that way. You do in fact belong....in a big way.....and despite your refusal to go blue, which I understand completely. But that factor did increase the fears about your absence.

And CED: Your continuos loop invoice story made me laugh harder than I have in months. Maybe years. That's genuinely hilarious!!!

Anonymous T said...

CED - I did look up who Ana was and tried to figure it out, but now that you mention Croatia I think someone at the corner liked this >18-24mo AGO. I'll have to find out where Croatia is; I'll get out my globe (or is that as passé as a FAX? :-)).

Also, I'd call shenanigans on the fax story, but since it's you CED, I'll let it FLY and take at face-value and LMFAA.

Since no one's yet linked TANGERINE trees from yesterday's album cover - a little LSD with STARR on the drums.

Cheers, -T

Jerome said...

Jimi Hendrix was the last act of the last day. The song was his cover of "Hey Joe". Oddly enough, no one knows, positively, who wrote it. And it's ironic that a festival devoted to peace and love would end on a song about a brutal murder.
By the way, the opening act was Richie Havens. I was lucky enough to have seen Hendrix and Havens at Winterland in San Francisco, circa 1967.

CrossEyedDave said...

Anonymous T @ 6:27

Shenanigans? Yes! (but true!)

My friends name is Greg, & he is the source of many colorful stories.

He likes cheese, but hates tomatoes.

We were at a restaurant with him in Cape May when his dinner came with a half tomato on his plate. He expressed his dislike by throwing the tomato in the air...

You can imagine the many possible outcomes of such a scenario, but the truth is, it hit the ceiling fan...

Suffice it to say, we are not allowed back in that restaurant...

Ask me someday about the time he took us sailing on his yacht...

Avg Joe said...

Jerome, you make a good point about "Hey Joe". No source that I've found can pin down the source definitively. Most seem to credit a no name garage band (from San Francisco, IIRC), but it's so grey that it could have been your next door neighbor Ned. Good grief, even Johnny Rivers sang it. There's prolly no more covered tune out there, with the possible exception of "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen. I guess it just proves the case that success has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan.

Anonymous T said...

CED - Friends like that let you sit cool and still have fantastic stories! I can see the tomato SEEDS FLY! :-)

I think I read somewhere years ago that Jimi tuned his guitar to his voice. Also, he was a lefty as seen here Hey Joe. C, -T

RetFizz said...

First time in ages, finished w/o any lookups. I start on my Mac and do some of the top that I know (no red letters this time), then print and finish up with pen and ink. Erasable pen, that is, and I certainly did a lot of erasing on this one.
Klee's "The Twittering Machine" is on the cover of my LP of Gunther Schuller's composition of the same name, described by Time as a "snatch of serial music in which the orchestra beeped, squeaked and rasped like a rusty hinge while the muted brasses burped out shreds of sound." I love it.
Djibouti was a brief stop on a cruise my late wife and I took in 1998. It was the most impoverished country, but home to the most beautiful people, we'd ever seen. Unfortunately, they didn't want to be photographed.

Abejo said...

Good Saturday morning, folks. Thank you, Jacob Stulberg, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, for a fine review.

Finished this at about 5:00 AM today. It was tough. However, a DNF for me because of all the errors I made. I should learn to use the IPad on late week puzzles because when I make errors I am not aware of it many times in the newspaper. I had several. Proper names, DANA, KEITEL, OSHS.

I did get the theme and thought it was very clever. great job!

I misspelled TANGERINE so I missed ENS.

I see my hometown made it again, ERIE. I have taken that Amtrak train to Erie many times. Usually $55 one way from Chicago to Erie. Pretty good deal.

I remembered NOOR. That helped a lot in then center.

PEROT was a good one took me a while to get it, but it hit me after a couple perps.

So, hopefully will see you later today. I am going to Joliet, IL, for the day and a birthday party for an old friend who is turning 80 tonight.

Abejo

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