google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, March 4, 2015 Don Gagliardo

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Mar 4, 2015

Wednesday, March 4, 2015 Don Gagliardo

Theme:  SECRET SUPPORT.  The cheering word "RAH!," presumed to be shouted by the fans - e.g. SUPPORTers - of a sports team, is hidden in three theme entries.  So maybe in this instance RAH is whispered, not shouted.

17 A. Seeking lodging : LOOKING FOR A HOME.   I was thinking of overnight lodging, but this is more permanent.  In this answer RAH is divided, or SECTIONED twice.

27 A. Pulling away : FURTHER AHEAD.  Figuratively increasing the gap between the leader and the also-rans.  If it were literal, it would be FARTHER AHEAD.

45 A. More at dinner : EXTRA HELPING.  Refilling your plate, as if one plateful weren't enough.  I do this all too often. 

And the unifier -- 60 A.  Stadium supporters, and a hint to their cry hidden in 17-, 27- and 45-Across : CHEERING SECTION.   Not the architectural elements that buttress the arena's structure.  Instead, this is an area of the grandstand reserved for the SUPPORTers of one of the teams in an athletic contest.  And it also indicates that the cheering word RAH has been SECTIONed, or divided, across two or more words in the theme fill.  The ever-meticulous Don G has made sure that the word RAH has been sectioned in every possible way.  In a different sense, an athletic supporter is any sports professional with a family.

Hi gang.  JazzBumpa here to cheer you on through this excellent puzzle.  Don has taken the rather simple idea of a hidden word, and executed it in a most elegant fashion.  Also, the first theme answer and the unifier are both are grid spanners.  The average word length is hefty 5.25 letters, way above the 4.91 typical of a Wednesday.  Plus, it's only a Q and V short of a pangram.

Across

1. Thin streaks : WISPS.  As smoke or snow in the air.  

6. Influenced by, recipe-wise : A LA.  in the manner of  .  .  .

9. Ones who deal with dealers : NARCS.   Clever clue.  NARCotic agents are concerned with drug dealers.

14. First name in furniture : ETHAN.  Allen.


15. Editor's job : REDACTION.  Broadly, REDACTION is simply editing.  More specifically, it is removing or obscuring sensitive text in a document prior to publication.   Despite Monday's BLUE PENCIL, editing can be done with a red pen, so this can also be parsed as RED ACTION.

19. Unidentified Jane : DOE.  John Doe's female equivalent.  These are placeholder names for a party whose true identity is unknown or must be withheld in a legal action, case, or discussion.

20. Tugboat sound : TOOT.   The relatively high pitched sound of its horn or whistle.

21. Commodities dealer : TRADER.    A partial clecho with 9 A.

22. Summit meeting goal : PACT.  A strategic agreement of some sort between or among governments.

24. 18-Down, with "down" : JOT.   Write something for future reference.

26. Rearing place : NEST.  It's for the birds.

31. This and that : OLIO.  A miscellaneous collection of things - what you might find in your junk drawer.   Or, perhaps, this.




32. Deep gulf : ABYSS.





33. Global financial org. : IMFInternational Monetary Fund.

36. Mexican supermodel Elsa : BENITEZ

39. Hardly transitory : ETERNAL.  For ever and ever.

41. Gig session : SET.  A group of songs played between breaks.

42. Venetian island : ISOLA.  Any Italian Island

44. 1998 Sarah McLachlan hit : ADIA.





48. Suffix with school : MARM.   A lady teaching in a one room schoolhouse, stereotypically prim and strict.

51. CIA predecessor : O.S.SOffice of Strategic Services.

52. London home of Constables and Sargents : TATE.  Not Scotland Yard.  Outstanding misdirection to the museum where you can finds works by John Constable and John Singer Sargent.

53. Block deliverers of yesteryear : ICE MEN. Here they cometh.

55. Powerful lobby for seniors : A.A.R.P.    American Association of Retired Persons.

57. Cape Canaveral's st. : FLA.   Florida.

63. Self-control : RESTRAINT

64. Felt poorly : AILED.

65. "Golden Boy" playwright : ODETS.  Clifford (July 18, 1906 – August 14, 1963.)

66. "Hello, ewe!" : BAA.   Sheep talk.

67. Mausoleums : TOMBS.  Dead spaces.

Down

1. Metalworking union : WELD.   Another great misdirection - not a trade or labor union, but a technique for fastening metal pieces. Very important in vehicle construction.

2. "Was __ hard on her?" : I TOO.   I'm not going to answer this question

3. Crime scene clue : SHOE PRINT.  Finger and toe don't fit.  But if the SHOE fits  .  .  .

4. K2 is on its border: Abbr. : PAKistan.   Per Wikipedia: "K2, also known as Chhogori/Qogir, Ketu/Kechu, and Mount Godwin-Austen (Urdu:شاہ گوری), is the second highest mountain in the world at 8,611 metres (28,251 ft), after Mount Everest. It is located on the border[2] between Baltistan, in the Gilgit–Baltistan region of northern Pakistan, and the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang, China.[3] With a peak elevation of 8,611 m (28,251 feet), K2 is the highest point of the Karakoram Range and the highest point in Pakistan."

5. State secrets? : SNITCH.  Sing like a canary. One more great misdirection.  Here, state is a verb.

6. Cornstarch brand : ARGO.  Nothing about golden fleece?



7. Right hook setup : LEFT JAB.  Boxing maneuvers.

8. Noisy scene : ADO.

9. "Mayberry R.F.D." setting : N. CAR.   North Carolina.

10. Nearby : AT HAND.

11. __ la Plata : RIO DE.  "River of Silver" - located between Uruguay and Argentina along the Atlantic Ocean, this is the the estuary of the Paraná and Uruguay rivers.

12. Attends : COMES.  As to a meeting or church service.

13. Dik Browne pooch : SNERT.   Hägar's Hound.


16. Evaluation for creative types : ART TEST.


18. Make a memo of : NOTE.  Or JOT it down, as per 24A.

23. Yours, to Yvette : A TOI.   French possessive pronoun.

25. "Now I remember!" : OH YEAH.

27. Watch chains : FOBS.


28. Peter Fonda's beekeeper : ULEE.  From the movie

29. Medicine cabinet items : RAZORS.   Close shave

30. Suffix with malt : ASE.  -ASE makes it an enzyme;  -OSE makes it a sugar; -ESE makes it a Falcon.

33. Low-budget pic, usually : INDIE FILM.  For Independent - not produced by a major studio,

34. Chief : MAIN.  Most important in a list of items.

35. Coach's challenge indicator : FLAG.  Pro Football - If the coach disputes a referee's call, the challenge causes a video replay review.  There have been so many missed calls of goalie interference in the NHL this year that a similar challenge is being considered [or at least wished for] in hockey.

37. StubHub offerings, briefly : TIX.   Tickets to arena events

38. Latvia neighbor : ESTONIA.  Baltic Sea countries.

40. Spellbound : RAPT.  Having one's attention tightly held, as if by magic.

43. Baked, layered entrée : LASAGNA.   Sauce, Noodles, Meat, Cheese, Repeat.

45. Clown Kelly : EMMETT.



46. French I infinitive : ETRE.  To be French

47. Purring snuggler : LAP CAT.  Furry pet.



48. Extremely tiny : MICRO.  Adjective or prefix?

49. Needed liniment : ACHED.  Muscle soreness.

50. Creator of many pieces? : REESE.  Candy, not musical compositions.



54. Writes the wrong zip code, say : ERRS.  Makes any sort of mistake

56. Pooch in whodunits : ASTA.  Nick and Nora's hound.


58. Award-winning comic book writer Jeph : LOEB.


59. Additions : ANDS.  Afterthoughts, maybe.

61. Pointed end : NIB.  of a calligraphy pen.

62. South-of-the-border uncle : TIO.   Mexican relative.

Nit free, with musical interludes, and despite having gone to the dogs a couple times, then even to the sheep, I'm still willing to cheer for this puzzle.  RAH!  What do you think?

Cool Regards!
JzB  [who will play a set including OLEO later this Spring]

55 comments:

OwenKL said...

FIW. Needed one red letter, the natick at ATO?+BEN?TEZ. My first wag was E, but when I finished with no ta-da, and the check button told me that was my only error, my next WAG was the correct I.

I had started with LOOKING FOR AN INN, which while a nice themish-like pun, not only messed up the NE corner, but also hid the theme until the reveal and all other theme entries were uncovered.

The CHEERING SECTION from Aurora
Will spur on our team with our RAH-RAH!
Our lungs labor more
Every time that they score,
Till at last all our dry throats are raw, raw!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

I really, really enjoyed all the tricky cluing today, right from the start with "Metalworking union" for WELD. Didn't enjoy some of the obscure answers as much, however . LOEB, BENITEZ, RIO DE, ISOLA and even ESTONIA (as clued) really slowed me down. The crosses were fair, however (fortunately, I remembered ATOI from past puzzles) and, as I said, I loved those tricky clues, so it was all good fun in the end.

Gotta go shovel more ^%$@!-ing snow...

Lime Rickey said...

Since 1999, AARP is no longer an abbreviation.

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Jazzbumpa and friends. Good Wednesday puzzle with lots of misdirections. I thought we might have a pangram, so was looking for the missing Q.

I particularly liked Creator of Many Pieces = REESE.

StubHub appeared recently, so I knew TIX.

QOD: Anytime anybody is rude, it makes me double-check my own behavior to make sure I don’t do that to other people. ~ Patricia Heaton (b. Mar. 4, 1958)

HeartRx said...

WBS. Except that I knew A TOI.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Only one misstep on a Wednesday -- that's pretty good for me. My tug was CHUGgin' before it was TOOTin'. Otherwise this one came together pretty fast. Unknowns were filled by friendly perps. Thanx, Don Hard-G.

JzB, enjoyed your Ase, Ose, Ese expo.

Anybody else think of this song when "Looking For A Home" appeared?

Lemonade714 said...

The elegance of splitting RAH all three possible ways, the great cluing and wonderful JzB write up made this a great start to the day.

I grew up in a house with lots of Ethan Allen furniture.

Did others think of this SCENE ?

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

WMS.

Big Easy said...

I found this Wed. puzzle tougher than usual and if not for the 60A clue I would not have finished this one. I knew, but couldn't remember ODETS and EMMETT Kelly and only came out with RESTRAINT after those fills. Along with school MARM and ICEMEN, those answers would have never happened if not for CHEERING. RAH! RAH! RAH!

Didn't know BENITEZ, misspelled RAZZOR (don't know why), and had TKS for TIX. That combo gave me KSZLA and I knew something was wrong and I finially got it right.

1D- That clue threw me off at the beginning and SNITCH also had a great clue. Other unknowns were LAPCAT, LOEB, and ADIA.

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning! Nice puzzle, Don. Thanks.

This retired schoolMARM has only one nit: pulling away should be farther ahead. Farther is distance; further is depth. "I can walk farther when there is no snow." "I need to research global warming further." ;)

Super links, JazzB, I think the reason I hate clowns is that Emmett Kelly was so SAD!! Remember how he swept away the spotlight and disappeared? :(

desper-otto said...

Madame Defarge, my dictionary says things have changed: "usage: Traditionally, farther and farthest were used in referring to physical distance: the falls were still two or three miles farther up the path. Further and furthest were restricted to figurative or abstract senses: we decided to consider the matter further. Although farther and farthest are still restricted to measurable distances, further and furthest are now common in both senses: put those plants the furthest from the window."

Although Emmett Kelly had many schticks, sweeping the spotlight was the one which immediately popped to mind for me, also.

CrossEyedDave said...

Hand up for the 30A inkblot, Maltese changed to "ase".

Learning moment: Schoolmarm is one word?

I only finished the puzzle by the successful WAGs of the Naticks atoI/benItez & aTre/Tate

NE corner was last to fall, it just gave me a hard time, but very satisfying when completed...

20A unfortunately Little Toot is not available on YouTube. This will have to suffice...

I am not familiar with Emmet Kelly, Researching now, 8:16

Hmm, I was going to post funny cheerleaders, but there are just way too many videos to choose from, & I do not find them funny. I just don't have the patience for that kind of redaction...

Oh wait! Here's one...

kazie said...

Due to both Jazz's and Mme Defarge's clarification, I finally know the difference between farther and further--we don't use farther at all in Oz.

This one did seem a bit crunchy for quite a while, but I finally did conquer it. I didn't know these people: BENITEZ, ODETS, EMMETT, SNERT (humanoid) or LOEB. FLA confused me too: I wasn't here very long when the 3-letter abbreviations were still used, and since WI was WIS then, I assumed FLO at first for FLA.

Also I was trying to remember the actual name of one of Venice's islands before perps showed that it was the generic ISOLA. Had to change ROOM to HOME and MATE to MARM as well. I would have been insulted had anyone ever called me a school marm!

All my newsletter editing is done onscreen enlarged to 150% with the delete button or rewording to make it fit.

Madame Defarge said...

D-Otto (7:55) and CED (8:34),

Yes, I am the first to admit that language evolves--especially in spoken form. However, some rules die harder than others for us schoolmarms, particularly in these days of Textese. ;-)

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Enjoyed this "cheerful" offering from Don G. Fun misdirection and fresh fill. Benitez and Adia were unknowns but perps were fair and square.

Thanks, Don G for a fun romp and thanks, JzB, for your witty write-up.

Have a great day.

Lucina said...

Greetings, puzzling friends. Nice to see you, Jazzbumpa, and I, too, thank you for the MALT suffixes explanation.

This was a very nice sashay from Don G. Even the unknowns were easily guessed, BENITEZ, ISOLA, ADIA for which all perps were needed.

Yes, I remembered ATOI.

I didn't look for the theme answers but thought that brilliant when reading the explanation.

Great fun, thank you, Don and Jazzb.

Have a lovely Wednesday, everyone!

Steve said...

Nice one Don! Thanks for the expo, JzB.

Just one note - AARP isn't clued as an abbreviation (nor should it be).

Lime Rickey said...

But the write-up (expo?) suggests it's an abbreviation.

Misty said...


Well, I have to be honest and say this felt more like a Friday than a Wednesday puzzle to me, a real toughie. But I plugged and plugged away at it, and with a little luck I got the whole thing! Yay! Many thanks, Don. And JazzB, what a great set of pics you posted this morning! I especially liked the SNERT cartoon and the ART TEST image.

Our poor Dusty still whines any time he's left in a room alone. We had no idea he was so dependent on his sister for security and comfort. The things we sometimes don't realize about our pets.

Have a great day, everybody!

Bill G. said...

Hi everybody. I really enjoyed the puzzle. Tricky in places. Thanks Hard G and JzB.

Re. farther/further, I come down on the side of Madame Defarge. Many of these usage rules have evolved (devolved?) over time; often because people don't understand the rule, use a word incorrectly and it eventually becomes accepted as part of the language. I prefer to stick with the original usage rules if I can remember them.

Sallie said...

Good afternoon everyone.

Bill G.: I totally agree with you about sticking with the "correct" usage in words. As a retired SCHOOLMARM I hate hearing and seeing the language misused.

DNF today's puzzle. Too hard for me.

Cheers



















coneyro said...

RAH, RAH...Cool theme. The split of the word was done very well.

Liked this puzzle. The long answers were no problem and I put in 60A with only the first letter "C" in.

ETHAN was a no-brainer. One of my favorite brands of funiture and have had many.

A little easy for a Wednesday, but I'm not complaining.

I didn't know BENITEZ or ADIA, but perps filled it in.

That's all from me today.

HAPPY HUMP DAY!

coneyro said...

Sorry FURNITURE...typo..

Tinbeni said...

Jazz: Another outstanding write-up with numerous links. Good job !!!

Don G. Thank you for a FUN Wednesday puzzle and solving experience.

Needed ESP to get BENITEZ and Loeb. Never heard of either of them ...
Then again, they probably never heard of me either ... lol

Well I'm stuck here with sunny skies and 80+ degrees ... and a NY Yankee Spring Training game on the MLB channel.
Life is sooooooooo tough in Florida at this time of the year.
Cheers!!!

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

Yep, I indicated AARP as an abrv. Sad to say, despite all my effort, I still am not perfect.

Excellent puzzle by Don G, lots of fun to work and to blog.

I tend to be a bit of a grammar stickler, except when I goof it up, of course. I think the important thing to remember is that the purpose of language is communication. If that succeeds, then it's all good.

Grammar rules are just reflections of common usage at some time in the past. That's why they are mutable.

Cool regards!
JzB

Anonymous said...

Lots of white space but all filled in thanks to nice clueing.

81° here in Summerville (best name ever for a town)! Changing into shorts. Don't really miss the NE weather.

Lime Rickey said...

No one expects perfection but if it were my blog post I'd correct the error (assuming blog posts can be edited). Removing the periods and inserting the word "formerly" would to the trick.

desper-otto said...

OK, you language arbiters: To take things a bit FURTHER, have we literally broken the English language?

Jazzbumpa said...

Lime -

Yes, the posts can be edited. You cannot imagine what sort of a mess mine would be if they were not.

But I'll let the error stand as a tribute to my fallibility.

Cheers!
JzB

Bill G. said...

In general, I would prefer know the correct usage or pronunciation or spelling rather than be ignorant. And if I know it, I would generally prefer to use that knowledge (without going to the overly-pedantic side of things).

I would choose to spell 'judgment' without the extra 'e', use 'lend' as a verb rather than 'loan,' to avoid using 'literally' incorrectly, to say 'different from' rather than 'different than' now that my daughter has pointed out my previous mistakes, etc. I hope never to say "I feel so badly about that." I will also avoid "Do you want to go out to lunch with my wife and I?" I still have trouble with lie vs lay in some instances but I try. I could make mistakes with all of those but I try not to even though I would still be communicating OK in either case.

As I said, I still find lie/lay/laid confusing some of the time. Also, who/whom once in a while. A teacher friend asked me, "I'll give the leftover candy to whoever/whomever wants it." My principal, a former English teacher, had trouble with that one.

Still, everything else being equal, I'd prefer to know the correct word and then, try to use it in my speaking and writing.

Jazzbumpa said...

Timing!

Today is national grammar day.

grammar is sometime inscrutable
with norms that are not irrefutable
some rules come and go
though the changes are slow
over time you’ll find language is mutable


Cheers!
JzB

kazie said...

Bill G.,
It is hard to know what to use in the who/whom example you gave, because it depends on whether it is seen as the object in the first clause, or the subject of the second. But since most people don't ever use whom anyway, you're probably safe with whoever in most circles.

Lie/lay is most confusing, because while the verb 'to lie' is intransitive and 'to lay' is transitive and should always have an object either following or implied, the past tense form of 'lie' is 'lay'. The past form of 'to lay' is 'laid'. Compare:
'As I lay dying' (past tense) with 'As I lay me down to sleep' (present tense).

Now you should be completely confused!

Abejo said...

Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Don Gagliardo, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Jazzbumpa, for a fine review.

Got through this slowly, but it is a Wednesday.

I pretty much headed South and started there. Worked my way up.

Theme was fine. Got it before I finished and it did help me with an answer.

WELD was a good one. That is one reason I started down south.

Did not know ETRE. Perps.

EMMETT Kelly was easy. Remember him well.

Thought JOT for 24A was clever, tying it to 18D NOTE.

Did not know BENITEZ. Perps and a wag.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Burrito34 said...

Who ever uses "RAH" when cheering anymore?

OwenKL said...

Jazz: Great limerick! Post it to Mad K's blog, too!

Oh, but when you do, each line needs to be capitalized, and commas at the ends of lines 1 & 3, and periods on lines 2 & 5. I'm not sure if the word in line 1 should be sometime or sometimes.

Γ卐
[signature of a Gamma Natsi.]

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, A DNF for me today, as I goofed on the first theme answer. I put in Looking for a room, then Looking for rooms and an inn. Home didn't even come into my head. Thanks Jazz for the great write-up today and explaining everything.

I did like some of the mis-directions--Weld and Reese were two.

How many people followed the ice truck down the street to get a few ice chips to suck on? This was a treat for my sister and me.
However, I got into big trouble if I forgot to empty the pan under the ice chest and it overflowed on the kitchen floor!!

Have a great day, everyone.

Jayce said...

Nifty puzzle. Nifty write-up, too. Liked the misdirection of the clues, misleading but fair.

Jazzbumpa said...

Owen -

The Mad K post is from last year, and comments are closed.

I did put it on her face Book Page.

I've been writing a lot of haiku and follow a protocol of no grammar and no punctuation. I carried that over into the limerick, perhaps inappropriately.

Limes are a very rigid structure, though, so I respect your point.

But, hey - I'm a rebel, so who knows what will happen.

Cheers!
JzB

Jazzbumpa said...

Otto -

It should have been "sometimes."

I'm a poor typist and worse proof reader.

Cheers!
JzB

SwampCat said...

Late to the party...but I had to add how much I liked this one! Thanks, Don and JazzB. Good misdirection, but fair.

As a schoolmarm I've enjoyed the grammar discussion. I'm afraid I like to know the rules and follow them....as long as they dont get in the way of communication. And thanks, Bill G, for Not splitting your infinitive!

desper-otto said...

JzB, I think you meant that comment for OwenKL. I had no problem with your limerick.

Spitzboov said...

Good evening everyone.

I decided to weigh in on the whoever brouhaha commencing at Bill G's 1440 post:
Take a similar sentence: I'll give this old car tp whoever will take it.
In this case, 'whoever' is the subject of the objective clause 'whoever will take it' and is properly nominative.
Mission accomplished.

Oh, by the way, I thoroughly enjoyed Don hard G's puzzle today. I agree with Jayce's summation. Rah!

Lucina said...

Spitz:
As a retired school MARM and notorious grammarian, I agree with you in your example.

Needless to say, I deplore and lament the misuse of language but changes will be made and adapted. I can only police myself.

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks, Don and Jazz! Nice puzzle.

Perps for LOEB and BENITEZ. Otherwise very smooth. No cheats.

Gorgeous weather here. Cheers me up. Swam longer than usual (upsetting caregiver).

Cheers!

I have coulrophobia ! said...


One small correction. 45 Down is a picture of Emmett Kelly Jr.

Martin said...

I had WISKS instead of WISPS, DIODE instead of RIODE, FODS instead of FOBS, MARN instead of MARM and ODEAS instead of ODETS but I had everything else (except obviously the perps). Jeph LOEB was a gimme: he started out as a comics writer but then he became a writer / producer on Smallville and Heroes and now he seems to be mainly a producer. (He is an executive producer on Agents of SHIELD.)

Rainman said...

Maybe solving the puzzle in late afternoon has its advantages... I sailed through this one, and enjoyed it despite not getting the theme until the write-up.

Lemony, we didn't have Ethan Allen furniture in my house. Actually, I hate to admit this, but for a long time my childhood bathroom was truthfully "early Oklahoman outhouse." Yeah, I hated it more than being poor. (Anyone else have an outhouse growing up? Now?)

BarryG, when you have RIODE for fill, how would you clue it? And 'Latvia neighbor' for ESTONIA, what would you have suggested, 'Lithuania neighbor'? Nice work, Don. Like BarryG, I appreciated the tricky clueing. Snow fooling. Thanks.

JzB, your mention of hound vs. terrier (ASTA) made me check and, surprise, there was indeed a mention of a "terrier hound." Never woulda thunk, and I still question it as being correct, especially when referring to official dog groups. Good write-up. Enjoyed the links. Kudos again for your nomination.

Yellowrocks said...

Interesting puzzle, fun write up.
The rules so staunchly upheld by grammarians today were yesterday’s avant-garde innovations, corruptions of the “pure” English language. As English grew and evolved over the centuries each change was decried as an abasement of the true language. Jazz, I loved your poem at 2:34.
I returned from the hospital today from my Monday operation. Fortunately I did not need to have the quad reattached to the bone, but it needed stitching up internally. So it could have been worse. I have an immobilizing brace on the knee with no driving allowed, but I can walk. Yesterday I had a lot of pain, but today the pain is moderate. So from here on - FORWARD! as Splynter says.

Rainman said...

OwenKL,
I would have appreciated any help you could have offered me on my lame limerick, but alas.

I did indeed get high marks for a Shakespearean sonnet once. Those types require perhaps even more attention to rules, just because of their sheer 14-line length.

Burrito34,
RAH is a cheering 'section,' not a cheer in itself. What do they say in OK these days? Clap, Thunder? Spin, Tornado?

Bill G. said...

It's interesting, I think, that we have differing opinions about grammar and usage and how important they are. Yet, almost without exception, people here write very clearly with almost no grammatical errors. That's not surprising since we crossword puzzle enjoyers are spending some of our time and energy figuring out puzzles about words. We argue a little bit about how important the rules of grammar are; yet we all seem to follow them very well.

Montana said...

Rai man,
You would still need to use an outhouse if you visited my farm! (I live in town.)

Montana

Lucina said...

Rainman:
My grandmothers each had an outhouse on their rural property and since I lived there for one year at age 7 I'm quite familiar with its use.

They are both gone now and an uncle who now lives in the town has modern facilities.

Sallie said...

Late to the party!

But an easy way to remember who/whom is to think he/him. I will give it to whomever wants it. ( I will give it to him.)

Cheers

Argyle said...

Cheers indeed! Here's an old one.

"Rah, Rah, Ree,
Kick 'em in the knee!

Rah, Rah, Ras,
Kick 'em in the other knee!"

Anonymous T said...

Later to the party said...

Hi all! I almost got through unscathed, but 65a stayed at ODESS, so DNF.

I had a false start w/ CarES @12d and SNoRT @13d. Oh, LOOKING FOR A Hero! Wait, what was the clue? Bzt. I thought about leaving it and having JzB 'splain how lodging == hero :-)

WEES w/ fun c/a pairs. I TOO enjoyed them. Thanks Don Hard-G and JzB.

I've been corrected my whole life on spelling and language rules and still don't get them write/rite/right :-) Dr. DW says Shakespeare made up words and spelling wasn't even codified - so have fun it with. Like Bill G. the lain, laid, lay, and half-truths are beyond me (and DW's filled me in literally a 101 times).*

Now give me an artificial language and I rock that automaton.

Cheers, -T
1,000x would be figuratively :-)