Theme: It is all about that GROSS not the NET. (MUSIC plays in the background).
Well hot on the heels of her latest Sunday, MM makes her Friday debut with an 'add a three letter word' puzzle, where NET is added to in the language phrases. Melanie who has become a bit of a Sunday specialist, here provides a Monday looking grid, with lots of blocks and short average word length, but some very hard clue/fill to make this a challenge. She did begin her publications at the LAT with Argyle blogging her work. Some of the cluing really slowed me down, not knowing if it was her clue or Rich's, makes it hard to tell her intentions. Not much in the way of non-theme long fill, but we do have : ANKLES, DANGER, IF ONLY, MORE SO, ENWRAPS, I MEAN IT, TACTFUL, TOPPLES, MANNERISM, TOTEM POLE.
L
I do like the theme consistency where 1/4 take a single word and by adding NET you get two words, while 2/3 are two word phrases to begin with. Well lets get our Friday feet a movin'g
16A. Sign posted on an office computer? : NETWORK OUT (10). I remember when network only referred to TV companies.
22A. Attractive legumes? : MAGNETIC BEANS (13). I guess they have great personalities. Magic beans was hard to suss.
50A. Dark-haired brigade? : BRUNETTE FORCE (13). Brutus was the alternate name for the big guy in Popeye; I like the clue/fill very much. Is MM a brunette?
60A. Blaze at a hat factory? : BONNET FIRE (10). A slightly sexist view but I like this one as well.
And the reveal,
36A. Taxable amount ... and a hint to the four longest puzzle answers : NET GAIN (7).
Across:
1. Unit of volume : LITER. QUART fit, so this was a slow start.
6. One of the Twelve Olympians : ARES. Also hard, as both GREEK and ROMAN deity are considered OLYMPIANS. We have ZEUS, HERA as other Greek gods, JOVE, JUNO and MARS in the Roman pantheon. Then we have a four letter god from Scandinavia 18A. Ruler of the Valkyries : ODIN. With 17D. Russo who plays Frigga in "Thor" : RENE.
10. Factory container : VAT. Okay maybe the downs will be easy.
13. Inexpensive opening? : ECONOlodge?
14. Bering Sea port : NOME. Just south of the Bering Strait.
19. Venison source : DEER. Cool! A 100% easy fill!!!!!
20. End of basketball? : ELS. Oh the the deception!
21. Exasperated : IRKED. Don't let it get to you.
26. Overthrows : TOPPLES. Like governments.
28. Omegas, to a physicist : OHMS. A quick PRIMER.
29. Sprang (from) : AROSE. An A word that actually gets used.
30. Train station stat : ETA. Arrival.
31. Its national anthem is "Peace to the Sultan" : OMAN. All perps. LINK.
35. Chum : PAL. I do not believe either of these words are in popular usage any more
40. Diamond standout : ACE. baseball diamond.
41. Winter vehicle : SLED. No Tin, golf cart only works in Florida.
43. Find, with "up" : DIG. What 'journalists' do these days generally bad things about people..
44. Italian white wines : ETNAS. Never heard this term and since the Mountain is in Sicily, are the grapes from Italy or Sicily? QUESTION?
46. Deuce follower : AD IN. Tennis.
48. Unequivocal statement : I MEAN IT. Confusing letters to parse, but nice fill when done.
54. Thigh-toning exercise : LUNGE.
55. Stick : ROD. careful now; juxtaposition is tricky. It could be a ...
56. Decoy : TRAP.
59. Pot enhancer : ANTE. Glad this was not a drug reference. It might cause a...
63. Furor : STIR.
64. Labor long hours : TOIL.
65. Turns red, maybe : RUSTS. Is rust really red? I asked this man...LINK.
66. Frostbite victim : TOE.
67. Cheese manufacturing byproduct : WHEY. Showing you the WAY.
68. Wes Craven film locale: Abbr. : ELM ST. If you saw these letters without the clue, you could go elmst meaning the most elm?
Down:
1. Allow to use : LEND.
2. Arctic Blast maker : ICEE. BBT's Sheldon and the ICEE vs. Slurpee.
3. Tlingit feature of Seattle's Pioneer Square : TOTEM POLE. Just an educated guess.
4. Completely surrounds : ENWRAPS.
5. Joey of fiction : ROO. Kanga's kid is back.
6. Places for electronic monitors : ANKLES. To keep tabs on people.
7. Chick bar? : ROOST. Nice literal clue/fill, not a pick up bar.
8. Grounded Aussie : EMU. Flightless birds, why?
9. Unbendable : SET. As, set in your ways.
10. Bloody Mary ingredient : VODKA. Along with Screwdrivers, my introduction to Vodka.
11. "The War of the Worlds" character : ALIEN. How cool, coming so soon after Jeffrey Wechsler's Orson Welles tribute puzzle in the NYT Wednesday.
12. Minds : TENDS. Like a flock.
15. To a larger extent : MORE SO. Good two word fill. Also, 48D. Wishful words : IF ONLY. 51D. Eagerly head for : RUN TO.
21. Lenovo acquired its PC business in 2005 : IBM. The DETAILS.
23. Rural valley : GLEN.
24. Smidgen : IOTA.
25. Beverage flavored with cinnamon and cardamom : CHAI. Actually it is black tea that is flavored to make Chai tea.
26. Bugs : TAPS. Listening devices.
27. Like film narration : ORAL. Why film? All narration by its nature is oral?
30. Person, slangily : EGG. really? I know a good egg is an accepted phrase, but egg by itself? Is this a yolk?
32. Individual way : MANNERISM. Like Johnny Carson and David Letterman playing with pencils? Crossword puzzle no no. 49D. Manner : MODE.
33. Popular palm fruit : ACAI. All you ever wanted to know about this wonder FRUIT.
34. Hornet hangout : NEST. Alliteration always welcome.
37. Doctor, perhaps : EDIT.
38. Color variant : TINT.
39. "What, will these hands __ be clean?": Lady Macbeth : NE'ER. Nope, sorry they never will be.
42. Jeopardy : DANGER. Knowing this to be true, did you ever wonder why Merv named the game show?
45. Aptly sensitive : TACTFUL.
47. Welsh/English border river : DEE. It is also in both countries.
50. Verbally assault : BLAST.
52. Remove, as a cravat : UNTIE.
53. Bath-loving Muppet : ERNIE. Does he love the bath or his rubber ducky?
57. Culinary pursuits : ARTS.
58. Unwelcome garden visitor : PEST.
60. Texter's "I almost forgot" : BTW. My phone has taken to translating my texts to the full words.
61. Wowed one's word : OOH. One who is wowed often goes....
62. "I __ Piccoli Porcellini" : TRE. I am sure marti knew but I was unaware of the highbrow music for the Three Little Pigs.
I am very curious what you all think; recently if the puzzles are easy not many comments and if they are hard lots of complaints. Enjoy. Lemonade out.
Note from C.C.:
D-Otto (Tom Uttormark) and I made today's puzzle for the Chronicle of Higher Education. You can click here (the very first puzzle) for the puz file. Click here to solve online. Click here to read pannonica's writeup.
Brad
Wilber, crossword editor for CHE,
came up with the fantastic "Waffles, Anyone?" title and greatly improved
our fill & clues. Brad is a total pro and another unsung hero behind so many puzzles.
This is the very first puzzle Tom & I made. Just like he is on the blog, Tom is super fun to work with. Extremely efficient. Congratulations on your CHE debut, Tom!
58 comments:
The trapeze artist was a long-haired brunette
Who hadn't made a proper catch yet.
His vision was blocked
By his fluttering locks,
Still he firmly refused to work with a NET!
Morning, all!
I made slow but steady progress through this entire puzzle today. I figured out the theme early on, which helped immensely since it let me get most of the theme answers with only a little perp help.
I was sure that I had made some mistakes down in the SE corner when the perps gave me both ETNA (as clued) and TRE (completely unknown), so I was a bit shocked to get the *TADA* at the end. Go figure...
Good Morning, Lemonade and friends Fun theme. I needed the unifier, though, to help with some of the theme answers.
Many opera houses throughout the country are presenting The Ring Cycle (a series of 4 operas) in honor of anniversary of Richard Wagner's 200th birthday (1813 ~ 1888). The Valkyries is the second opera of the series, which the Houston Opera performed this season.
An interesting article about TOTEM POLES and the Tlingit appeared in the New Yorker recently.
I have heard of someone being referred to as a Good EGG or a Bad EGG, but never just an Egg.
QOD: Avant-garde music is sort of research music. You’re glad someone’s done it but you don’t necessarily want to listen to it. ~ Brian Eno (b. May 15, 1948)
Good morning!
Melanie's puzzle was suitably sticky for a Friday -- none of the answers leaped out, but once you got 'em, they all made sense. I liked it.
TOPPLES immediately evokes the image of the Saddam Hussein statue coming down.
I grew up in cheeseland and in my ute there were little, rural cheese factories throughout the countryside. After the cheese curds had formed, the WHEY would be drained off, usually into an outside ditch. People referred to the aroma as "that good ole country air." You always knew when there was a cheese factory nearby.
On our morning march we've been feeding a couple of cats who've been living outside a for-rent house. One had a litter of kittens on Monday -- only one of them survived. That one, on day three, looked just like Lemon's pic of the MOLE -- a little bigger than your thumb and barely able to raise its head.
Good morning everyone!
What a fun puzzle from Melanie today. I filled in the first two theme entires and noticed the addition of "Net" to common phrases, so that helped nail the others.
I read the clue to ETA as "Train station staRt," so that one took a while. Good thing it only took up t letters. ;-)
Thanks for the fun write-up today, Lemony. The TRE almost eluded me because I was thinking of the mushrooms (porcini) instead of the pigs (porcellini). And I never heard of ETNAs as an Italian wine, so I was trying to jam Friuli or Pinot Grigio in there.
Congrats to d-otto on your CHE debut!! It was a total DNF for me because I didn't catch onto the gimmick. But very cleverly done, you two!
Congrats DO on your CHE debut.
Discovering that NET was added to the theme clues helped move this along. Great fun! Lemonade once remarked that Fridays frequently have add a word or letter(s). Thanks.
TRE and ELMST were the last to fill. Oh! The Three Little Pigs! It took a while to parse ELMST.
A narration can be written as well as ORAL, according to the second meaning in the dictionary.
NARRATION:a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program
Synonyms:
narrative, story, tale
marti my son is a wine buyer for Whole Foods, dealing with Italian vintners regularly, and he is unfamiliar with the term as used. You were my last hope.
"Etna is a Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC) for wine from the Etna region in Italy." There are five varieties of ETNAS.
Good Morning:
Fun Friday fare. Needed the unifier to get the theme. Southeast corner gave me fits for awhile. Took me forever to come up with mannerism, don't know why.
Thanks Melanie and Lemony for ending the week on a high note.
Congrats to DO on the CHE publication and kudos to CC, Master Mentor!
Have a great day.
D N F ...
I got to 10-d, Bloody Mary ingredient, VODKA and decided that sounded like a better diversion than filling in the rest of this Friday puzzle.
Oh well, I did finish the Bloody Mary ...
and VODKA was my fave today. Go figure. lol
Cheers!!!
Good morning everyone.
Congrats to D-Otto and C.C. on the CHE publication.
Daunting start to today's puzzle but gradually got the SW-NE diagonal and the whole NW. Seeing how the theme worked helped me get BRUNETTE FORCE and BONNET FIRE (cute), which provided the tendrils to anchor the solve in the SE. Getting MANNERISM and TACTFUL were key, also. No searches or white-out were needed.
Howdy folks,
Like others, the SE corner drove me nuts today. I had weed for 58d and Main ...... for 22D. Wouldn't let them go, couldn't suss out ELM ST, RUSTS TRE or MANNERISM, so in the end a big fat DNF.
I was sure ACAI was wrong, but it "weren't." Despite my failure, I did enjoy giving it a try.
See you on Monday.
But fact checker, does it mean white wine to anyone?
Hi Gang -
Congrats, Tom!
C.C. is amazing. Of course, you all knew that.
Had to google the Olympians, sadly. Otherwise sussed it, though with great difficulty. Very clever theme, and a bit opaque.
Not getting SET for unbendable. "Very unfond of End of basketball." OTOH, TOTEM POLE and MANNERISM are top notch.
Schoolcraft college, where I play in the jazz band, has an excellent cullinary ARTS dept.
Symphony concert tonight. We're playing the 1812 Overture, Russian Sailor's Dance from the Red Poppy, Tableau de Provence - a saxophone feature (!), and the gorgeous Merrymount Suite by grossly under-appreciated American composer Howard Hanson.
Here is the overture. All low brass at the beginning.
Cool regards!
JzB
Lemony, your 8:07a comment ruined the CHE puzzle for me. You exposed the reveal before I had a chance to discover it on my own. And the pissy comment re: Pannonica left a sour taste in my mouth. Shame on you, again. [sigh]
I really enjoyed watching the Three Little Pigs in Italain.
Hey, Chum, can you knock it off with the neon green letters? They're very hard to read, especially on phones.
TGIF everyone.
A real workout today. Really needed the unifier for assistance. After seeing NET in BRUNETTE. it clicked.
WEES about the SE. Last to fall. LURE/TRAP? Looked for a specific PEST for the garden. RUST is orange, isn't it?
ELMST brought back memories. When my son was a teenager, he dragged me to all the Freddie/Jason/Michael movies. Good times then, but nowadays these types of films are too strong for my system. I have mellowed with age.
Do you think if a " WAR of the WORLDS" broadcast came on today, people would be so gullible? Considering that the "Enquirer" news rag is considered by many to be gospel truth, who knows?
And another week comes to an end. Have a lovely weekend. The weather should be beautiful(at least in Florida, that is). Lucky me and Tinbeni.
Greetings,
Busy time here, DH's 83 year-old Aunt is in to see his 92 year-old Mom. I didn't wan to miss my daily fix, which not only includes the puzzle, but learning from all the brilliance here.
In response to Lemonade's query about tougher/frustrating puzzles: I like them all. I always learn something for another time. I like being fooled so I can get some use out of the V-8 can. I've said before that every morning I wake up to a puzzle is a good day. I love being retired, and puzzles are part of the fun. In particular, thanks for today's explication--as always, top quality.
Thanks for the workout, Melanie. I sussed TRE when I realized the clue was Italian, but not musical. The theme entries came to me with BRUNETTE FORCE. The unifying clue went right over my head until then. Is that "duh" or "doh"? ;)
Congrats to all our puzzle architects; I am ever impressed.
Have a great day, all.
yes i'd also like to thank lenmonade for ruining what might have been a great puzzle.I won't even bother with it because of the spoilers. Thanks alot
Tough outing today. First theme fill was Magnetic Beans, which made NO sense. But kept at it and the reveal made it all come to light. Helped a lot with the final 2 theme answers.
Congratulations D.O. and C.C. It really is amazing how many here are published!
Sad to hear about B.B. King. The thrill really is gone RIP BB
I got it, I got it, I got a Friday puzzle! The whole thing! Hurray! After my first run-through I had almost nothing, so it was a slow slog. But in the end, it slowly filled in, although I too had trouble both in the NW and in the SE corners (ANKLES took me forever, for some reason, and TRE was a guess in the end). But thank you, thank you, Melanie, for a fun Friday challenge! And you too, Lemonade for a fun write-up.
Congratulations, C.C. and D-Otto! Exciting!
Have a great weekend, everybody!
I found this puzzle appropriate for a Friday. I got bonnet fire and the theme quickly. But I was held up on etnas and ne'er, tre and rusts.
I found the puzzles harder this week. I recall being surprised by Monday's. All doable but pleasantly challenged.
I'm also disappointed with Lemonade for revealing the puzzle. What a shame! Can someone delete the post? Congrats C.C. to you!
Hi Y'all! Melanie's puzzle was more to my taste. Fun! It took me 14 minutes less time than yesterday's struggle. Getting the theme early helped with the last two. Having done bookwork since high school, NET was right down my alley.
Chick bar = ROOST came easy too, although chicks (the fluffy yellow kind) tend to hunker down together, preferably around/under the hen/mom. They don't ROOST until they're adult.
I bought a miniature TOTEM POLE in Seattle's Pioneer Square. On display in my home with other Tlingit art from that trip.
Unit of volume stayed blank awhile. I was thinking "sound" or "decibel" which didn't fit.
My bro has always called his son "PAL" which for some reason grated on my ears.
I experienced great pain watching that LUNGE link. And I didn't move from my chair. The closest I come to that LUNGE sequence is trying to get out of the chair.
D-Otto & C.C., Good on ya'! Keep up the good work.
Lightning chased me off the golf course and I barely got the lawn mowed before the rains came and then to Melanie’s lovely puzzle.
Musings
-NETWORK OUT?
-Teenage hunters at one school where I sub keep me in DEER jerky!
-Every baseball team wants an ACE they can count on for a win every fourth day
-I did LEND my neighbor my tiller and it came back cleaner than I gave it to him
-A high school girl here in town got caught with dope and had to wear an ANKLE monitor. The choir director tried to get her out of the musical but she got a restraining order and made all three performances with an obvious adornment.
-RUN TO Him
-Would you BUG your house like this?
-Menards TINTED the deck paint using a spectroscope until it exactly matched the color of our house
-Competitive cooking shows and their rudeness on TV leave me cold. I’ll take this show every time!
-Congrats Tom!
First off, thanks for the responses to my question yesterday about the theme being listed. Appreciated!
Coneyro, you wonder about "The War of the Worlds" response today? Take a look at the idiots in Texas who think a military training exercise is a Federal plot to take over that state. Still wondering?
I thought today's puzzle was a good one, a little sticky but perfect for a Friday. Although ETNAS as a white wine was a new one for me.
I realize lemony's question about ETNAS is just him trolling for posts but I'll bite.
From the magic of Google, Wiki and common sense:
Mt. Etna is an active volcano on the island of Sicily. Sicily is an autonomous region of the country of Italy. White grapes are grown on the slopes of Etna for thousands of years. wiki for Etna DOC
Imagine a similar clue such as:
American wine valley : Sonoma
Wait, that is in California! Anyone know if that makes those wines American or Californian?
MM,
This was a fine Friday feast of a puzzle! I had very few acrosses on the first pass. But most of the fills slowly gave way, except for EGG AND TRE.
I have always adored the Omega sign for OHMS and the upside down Omega sign and reverse spelling of mhos for conductance, the reciprocal of resistance.
I had never seen side lunges like those. It is really just squats. The book Surviving Exercise suggests that lunges be done slowly, with no bouncing, and never going past a 90 degree bend so that the knees are not damaged.
I skipped over the comments on the CHE puzzle so I can still try it and be surprised.
"puzzling thoughts":
I had to cheat a few times to finish today's entry, so Ms Miller definitely kicked my butt
Ink blots: let's see; ENCASES before ENWRAPS - NETWORKING before NETWORK OUT - WEED before PEST - and a few more. Oddly, I got the "theme" rather quickly when I solved MAGNETIC BEANS. NET GAIN was solving via perps anyway, so no issues on the theme spanners. I also misread a clue (55a - thought it said "slick") which caused a Natick in 55a/49d
ETNAS was a new one to me, and I may be one of the more geeky wine'os here at the Corner (just ask Lemony)
Not sure there was a "favorite" clue/solve today; I knew 21d immediately as my PC is a Lenovo, but not a former IBM Think Pad. Lenovo's are pretty good except I dislike their keypad as I am always hitting the NUM LOCK key when I seek the Backspace
No "themed" limerick today, but here is one I thought you might enjoy:
At buffet, while on their second date,
The gourmands were just wondering if fate
Brought them there for a meal,
Or to prove love is real;
Looks like they've got a lot on their plate!
"Just the facts, ma'am"
DRAGNET LINE
Jerome that DRAGNET LINE caused an ENLARGED TIN.
Whoooa! Easy on that drink there, Tin-man!
OENOPHILE
Snark, snark. You should try a more mellow wine.
I gave this puzzle 3 put it down & pick it up laters, & 2 audible groans when I saw on the Blog where I went wrong...
Entraps before enwraps, (& LLS? instead of Els on the 1st pass.
Believe it or not, 49D mode for manner allowed me to get to the theme on the 2nd pass. (One thing led to another...)
& the 3rd pass was just filling in the blanks wrong... 46A tennis never occurred to me, so when my alphabet run came to "W", A Win might follow a duece in Acey Duecy card game? (I can imagine anything...) & 47D Welsh English border river could be Wee considering all the beer they consume...
62D T blank E? (If it aint French, it's Italian) Hmm, 65A turns red maybe? Of Course! Lusts!
Aw nuts!
Excellent write up today Lemon, you were on a roll!
Best response ever had to be Jerome's 3:54 Pee formation to Bill g's post yesterday!
Also, Yesterday, Anon-T I watched all 8:14, it was a thing of beauty!
Off to piano lessons, L8r!
Why it's called Jeopardy.
A very satisfying pzl today. The first time through, the only answer I got was at the very end, ELM ST. Everything else came the old fashioned way. I earned it.
When you are right you are right. Removed.
Isn't the clue/fill more akin to
California white wines: SONOMAN?
BTW, Owen that was one my favorite of your limericks; also if Moe who is in the wine business did not know the clue/fill, I know my comment was legitimate.
No.
It's more akin to American white wines: SONOMAN
And then someone complaining that Sonoman white wines are not American, they are Californian because Sonoma is in California.
Easy...lately, the crosswords have been easy because of the lack of obscure surnames.
Lemony said:
"Never heard this term and since the Mountain is in Sicily, are the grapes from Italy or Sicily?"
Both. Clue/answer are valid. Once again constructor/Rich is correct. Nitpickers not.
When you are wrong, you're wrong.
To all of those picking nits over the wine clue and solve . . .
I am a wine geek for many years, and have been in the business, too. While I do not profess to know EVERY wine-producing region and/or grape varietal in the world, let alone Italy, the cluing for 44a, to get the response: ETNAS, was a bit obscure. When I think of Italian white wines, Pinot Grigio, Roero Arneis, Gavi di Gavi (which is actually made from the Cortese grape), Soave, Orvieto, and Verdicchio are the ones that first come to mind - not discounting Asti and Moscato from the Sparkling Wine category. And I could bet you dollars to donuts that the number of casual wine drinkers who've heard of "ETNA" as a DOC in Italy are less than 1%.
Who knows, maybe the editor and/or constructor just wanted to use a misdirection for that space, and make us think about it, rather than use something easy such as "lab devices for heating liquids"
But at any rate, it's not worth arguing over. My response stays the same, "it's a new one to me."
Of course, I will predict that the next time a clue such as "Italian White Wine" comes up, several of us will pencil in "ETNA" and then realize after the perps fall, that they wanted "ASTI"! ;^)
To add further, if it wasn't enough that we had ETNA(s) as the solve for Italian white wines, we had its root name used as an anagram in 59a (pot enhancer = ANTE). Wonder if THAT was on porpoise??!! (pun intended)
I am with you, Chairman Moe
HG,
Minor correction. It's every fifth day now, ACE or not.
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Melanie Miller, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, for a fine review.
I bounced all over this puzzle getting a word here and there.
Finally got the theme with NET WAGE. Even though that was wrong it helped me in the four long answers. Eventually changed WAGE to GAIN.
I also had NETWORKING for 16A. ROOST fixed that to NETWORK OUT.
ANKLES was a good one.
As was EMU.
DID not know the IBM RENOVO deal. OK, now I know.
I did this while riding down Illinois to Alto Pass, IL. A six hour trek. Attending an Scension Day Service tomorrow at Bald Knob. It is a large cross on a mountaintop.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Hey Puzzle PALs!
The north was easy, the south was a WORKOUT. I ended in a DNF w/ the xing of 46a and 47d and 43a was ?IO (I had EGo for 30d). Oh well, it was a fun puzzle MM and I loved the theme. Thanks too for the write-up Lem.
W/os ENGULFS b/f ENWRAPS, ELL b/f plural, ODeN (I can't spell), Astis for far to long, IF ONLY...
Fav: VODKA, just 'cuz it reminded me of New Orleans at The Old Coffee Pot. Their Bloody Mary is stuff'd w/ little snacks - pickled olives, pickled celery, pickled green BEANS. After two, I was pickled and set to watch DW shop. It was MAGIC.
Runner up - TOIL. O'MAN, this was one tough week; I'm boNE-Tired. (boi red? Got anything, I don't. - wine clue? :-))
JzB - it wasn't until your 10:31 post the penny dropped - 57a's clue was not purist as I continuously read it. I kept thinking vegan, palio, ??? ARTS made no sense... Thanks.
CED - glad you enjoyed STS-1's landing too. Right on ETA...
I was listening to B.B. King's interview on Fresh Air while I was reading the comments. B.B. King inspired every rock-guitar god we gots. RIP.
Cheers, -T
BTW:
Sorry Bill G. I did it again - "Fresh Air" above is the link to the B.B. King interview if you didn't see it / want to hear it.
C, -T
We just had a nice lunch of fish tacos and shrimp tacos. Yum!
I'm not a fan of cliffhangers; in fact, it would be more accurate to say I'm an anti-fan. NCIS, Scandal, etc. did it to me again. I much prefer a reasonable resolution of the immediate dramatic plot scenarios and then start up again afresh next season. Downton Abbey pulled it off quite well this year I thought.
I'm of the opinion that constructors and Rich use fill like ETNAS when they are boxed into a corner with the theme and can't find a better alternative without redoing the whole section of the grid. So I forgive them for it.
I got fussed at once for posting the identity of the next day's constructor. So I was surprised to see the CHE gimmick reveal today. However, it didn't bother me and I would have given up on the puzzle without that hint. For me, no harm done. Congrats Tom and CC.
Some nice late season rain yesterday and last night. The sun is out again beckoning me toward a bike ride along the roiling ocean. Then espresso and Louis L'Amour.
(Hi AnonT!)
Speaking of Jeopardy as we often do, I wonder how much Alex Trebek spends on suits? The material is always beautiful and they fit like a handmade glove.
Here's one man singing all four parts of an acapella version of one of my favorite hymns. The Old Rugged Cross
I finally had enough time to print out and solve the puzzle from CHE and enjoyed it quite a lot. Tough, so a good warmup for a Saturday stumper. My only gripe is that it was hard shifting between clues on the two pages it printed on, but that's on me since I pretty much refuse to do it electronically. Oh....and then there's that one answer for "parched" (22d). Ugly, but it looked like you'd been painted into that corner. Overall, it was fun. Good job.
On the Jeapordy matter, I go to bed around 9:00 PM. So I didn't see any of the questions from yesterday until this morning. BillG answered them, and it was nothing more than that. I'll leave the night shift to you nightsiders and left coasters. I'm too old for that stuff.
Bill G. I doubt Alex pays one IOTA for those suits - it's advertised in the credits (or used to be - suits are something 500 as I recall). Sponsors ANTE-up.
Here's a 5min behind the scenes I heard on Market Place that even discusses the impact of winning a NET GAIN.
Cheers, -T
Not only was this a really tough puzzle, but I had a really tough time finding funny links for it. I must have tossed a lot of links, but here are a few worthy mentions I found along the way...
Net work out. (The computer ones were not all that funny...)
Magnetic Beans. Sadly they do exist! & while looking for something some kid wasn't going to swallow & end up in the emergency room, I found this!
Brunette Force. (I had to go thru a lot of dumb blonde jokes to find this...)
Bonnet Fire! We had a discussion about British Cars recently, so Bonnet Fire should be no surprise. However, instead of posting a Mini Cooper on fire, I thought this Public Service Message might be in order...
Which brings me to net gain... Forgive me, but I am exhausted from looking for funny things caught in nets. They are just not funny, So again, forgive me if I take a short cut...
Anont beat me to it!. Alex pays absolutely nothing for his suits. Or his haircuts, food on set or his shoes etc.
Remeber this kerfuffle? (fast forward to 1:50)
Husker: Whyever would the choir director want to expel a young woman from a musical? Is this a choir director at a church? That hardly seems like a compassionate and forgiving act that churches are supposed to be about. Shouldn't she have been forgiven despite having been caught with pot?
-Atheist, I made no judgment in my post but only related a story about an ankle bracelet. I merely told you that she broke the law and the HIGH SCHOOL student code of conduct, which she and her parents had signed, which stated she was disqualified from participating in extra-curricular activities if she engaged in illegal activities. Her parents got a lawyer and by the time the injunction was dismissed, she had played her part and it became a moot point and she abandoned the legal action and took her punishment. The choir director at that school also produces and directs the HIGH SCHOOL musical and so your church rant has no relevance here.
-Hondo, yeah, I know, it four days of rest and pitch every 5th day.
I recall! Botany 500 Suits are (were) the sponsor in Merv's game shows.
Whew, glad I can forget that again...
My mind is like a steel TRAP slowly RUSTing shut :-)
Cheers, -T
Lemonade, your apology was heartfelt and most appreciated.
Don't get me going on Jeopardy, the cheapest game show ever. You come in second or third and get a default amount of cash instead of what you won, while the show makes piles of cash a with no real expenses except for Mr. Trebek's salary.
Contrast with Wheel of Fortune, a much easier game, that lets everyone keep what they have won. I'm betting Mr. Sajak would be a nicer dinner companion than Mr. Trebek.
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