google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, May 26, 2015 Gareth Bain

Advertisements

May 26, 2015

Tuesday, May 26, 2015 Gareth Bain

Theme: Redundancies - Redundancies.

17A. Cash source, redundantly : ATM MACHINE. (automatic teller machine)

28A. 17-Across access code, redundantly : PIN NUMBER. (personal identification number)

38A. College entrance exam, redundantly : SAT TEST. (Originally, Scholastic Aptitude Test)

47A. Adobe file spec, redundantly : PDF FORMAT. (portable document format)

63A. PC linking system, redundantly : LAN NETWORK. (local area network)

Argyle here. This should make some Cornerites happy. They have complained about some of these redundancies before. I felt the fill was the right step-up in crunchiness from yesterday.

Across:

1. "Shake a leg!" : C'MON

5. Deprive of one's nerve : UNMAN

10. __ noire: dreaded thing : BÊTE

14. Sharpen : HONE

15. Herman's Hermits frontman Peter : NOONE

16. Skip over : OMIT

19. Gull relative : TERN

20. Sweet-talk : WHEEDLE

21. Ethiopia neighbor : ERITREA


23. Refine, as ore : SMELT

25. Flirtatiously shy : COY Miss Piggy 7D. "Little ol' me?" : "MOI?"

26. Half of sechs : DREI. German 6/3

33. Speaks too well of oneself : BOASTS

35. Sign before Virgo : LEO

36. Spanish explorer Hernando de __ : SOTO

37. Compact submachine gun : UZI

41. "I thought so!" : "A-HA!"

42. Tennis great Lacoste : RENÉ. Jean René Lacoste was a French tennis player and businessman. He was nicknamed "the Crocodile" by fans because of his tenacity on the court; he is also known worldwide as the creator of the Lacoste tennis shirt, which he introduced in 1929.~ Wikipedia

44. Apt. coolers : ACs

45. Large __ Collider: particle accelerator : HADRON. Brief background from Wiki.

50. Empties (of) : RIDS

51. Frequently, in poems : OFT

52. Drivel : TRIPE

54. Dickens miser : SCROOGE

58. Gracious : AMIABLE

62. Berth place : PIER. For the berthing of boats.

65. Los Angeles-to-Phoenix direction : EAST

66. Novelist Jong : ERICA

67. Lip balm additive : ALOE

68. Things to connect : DOTS

69. First name in TV talk : ELLEN DeGeneres

70. Longings : YENS

Down:

1. Wad of tobacco : CHAW

2. Clothes closet pest : MOTH

3. "You can count __" : ON ME

4. Luthor and Zod, to Superman : NEMESES. Individually, each is a nemesis.

5. Ben or Sam : UNCLE

6. Like vague hints, usually : NO HELP

8. Author Rice : ANNE. No relation to Uncle Ben's Rice.

9. __-do-well : NE'ER

10. Bell-__: flared pants : BOTTOMS



11. Manicurist's buffer : EMERY BOARD

12. Run out of gas : TIRE

13. Sicilian volcano : ETNA

18. Opens the door to : ADMITS

22. Post-op setting : ICU

24. Attacks, knight-style : TILTS AT

26. Slept for a bit : DOZED

27. Amazonian ecosystem : RAIN FOREST

29. Alumna bio word : NÉE

30. Small snack : NOSH

31. Cultural values of a group : ETHOS

32. Colorful horse : ROAN. Did anybody ride a roan on the Ponderosa?

33. Tupperware sound : BURP

34. German coal region : SAAR


39. Film buff's sta. : TCM

40. Mammoth-preserving locale : TAR PIT. La Brea Tar Pits, bonus entry.

43. Serious attempts : EFFORTS

46. Wane : DIE AWAY

48. Oklahoma native : OTO or Otoe.

49. Hypnotic state : TRANCE

53. "In other words ..." : "I MEAN ..."

54. Risked a ticket : SPED

55. Florentine farewell : CIAO. Italian “hello, goodbye”.

56. TV musical comedy that ended in 2015 : "GLEE"

57. British peer : EARL

59. Tree trunk : BOLE

60. Dianetics creator __ Hubbard : L. RON. Dianetics is a set of ideas and practices regarding the metaphysical relationship between the mind and body which was created by L. Ron Hubbard and is practiced by followers of Scientology and separate independent Dianeticist groups.~ Wikipedia

61. Endures hardship to make, with "out" : EKEs

64. Zero, in soccer : NIL

I'd like to thank Wikipedia for their help in writing this piece.


Argyle


63 comments:

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

The fist theme answer I got was the last one (LAN NETWORK), and I thought it was pretty annoying. But then I realized that it *WAS* a theme answer and the redundancy was part of the theme, at which point all was forgiven...

Minor hesitations at ERITREA and SOTO, but everything else was smooth sailing today.

Oh -- I'm traveling on business today and tomorrow, so I won't be posting tomorrow...

George Barany said...

Let me congratulate Gareth Bain today for achieving the relatively rare feat of having two puzzles published the same day, one each in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

The redundancies demonstrated in the puzzle under discussion today have a name: "pleonasms." To the best of my knowledge, William Johnston was the first to build a puzzle around this theme, as published in the NYT on July 12, 2001. The following four entries were arranged in a pinwheel fashion: ABS_SYSTEM, ATM_MACHINE, LCD_DISPLAY, and PIN_NUMBER, and the "reveal" PLEONASMS went across dead center. Fred Piscop, in a December 23, 2012 NYT diagram less, reused ATM_MACHINE but found four more examples: IRA_ACCOUNT, SALT_TALKS, VIN_NUMBER, and UPC_CODE. A friend of mine sent me his own version of the theme for beta testing a while back, and I'm reasonably sure that it included both PDF_FORMAT and SAT_TEST. It was long enough ago that I don't remember whether it was ever submitted, but for sure our advice was that the theme had already been done.

The issue of theme duplication has been discussed previously, and my favorite example involves Crossword Corner's own Marti. Click here for Marti's puzzle, and here for the discussion.

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Argyle and friends. Fun Tuesday puzzle. I loved the redundancies ~ Phrases we all use, but complain about.

Things to Connect = DOTS was my favorite clue.

Hand up for wanting Oprah before ELLEN.

There is a fellow in my agency who always has a CHAW (Chew) of tobacco. He carries around a little cup to spit in. It's pretty gross and I don't like to sit next to him in meetings.

Violent storms passed through last night, which was rather scary, especially after we lost power.

QOD: All adventures, especially into new territory, are scary. ~ Sally Ride (May 26, 1951 ~ July 23, 2012)

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Nice puzzle, Gareth. Argyle, enjoyed your "Were you listening?" comment about ROAN. Got the theme immediately and never lost my footing on the slalom to the bottom.

ERITREA is easy to remember, probably because it's right nextdoor to Djibouti. If Djibouti were ruled by a sheikh (hell, maybe it is) would he be Sheikh Djibouti?

unclefred said...

A fun romp today, ran right through it. Even picked up the theme with "ATMMACHINE", the very first clue. Usually, I finish the puzzle and STILL don't see the theme until I read the write up here, then slap my forehead. Anyway, I really liked Gareth's effort today. Thanks for the nice write-up, too, Argyle, well done!!

Argyle said...

Trust the NYT to use a "reveal" : PLEONASMS that most people wouldn't know. 250,000 Google hits ain't much.

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning, Cornerites.

Thanks Gareth for a pretty smooth run. Generally themes escape my brain function, but after I saw the redundant theme clues during the first run, ATM MACHINE was the first find, and the rest were easy-peasy. I liked UNCLE as it gave me UNMAN and NOONE--couldn't remember Peter's last name.

Thanks for the walk through, Argyle. Have a good day, everyone.

kazie said...

This bottom comment box is right across my whole screen today. Same for others too?

As previously remarked, this was an easy solve, and for once, I too got the theme quickly. I agree that it's a reasonable step up from the Monday level. My only hesitations were the W in CHAW and the A in HADRON. I couldn't remember if it should be E until TAR PIT appeared.

Avg Joe said...

Yep! Nice step up in difficulty for a Tuesday, and the theme was worth a good chuckle....as well at the oblique mention of La Brea. That had to be intentional., with tongue in cheek.

Not sure, Argyle, but maybe Adam? Not Hoss.

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling thoughts":

Thanks Gareth and Argyle for the puzzle and recap. I hesitated putting ON ME in 3d as I saw the double M coming, but as I continued down and across I could quickly see the theme develop; no other hiccups except my hesitation on ERITREA. World Geography is not my strongest subject; odd, too, as I've probably visited or worked in about 20-25 countries outside the US

Missed commenting on yesterday's puzzle as Memorial Day plans took precedent over solving clues. But when I saw EIFFEL as a solve it brought back this ditty:

A sniper in Paris did stifle
His AK Four-Seven type rifle.
We all thought him insane
To sit high o'er the Seine,
But from there he got quite an EIFFEL

Today I am using the few computer-esque references to write:

A young carpenter living in Niles,
Gave a job to a tech geek named Miles.
He said, "find out the pox
That infects my toolbox.
It appears it's deleted my files!"

CrossEyedDave said...

Puzzle was easier than trying to fix my PC.


Thanks to the latest automatic windows update, I have no keyboard, mouse, screen, or a way to reboot it into safe mode.

This may take a couple of days.

Hope to post silly stuff soon...

Jerome said...

In all the years that I've commented at The Corner never once have I been critical of anything about a fellow constructor's puzzle... never. I think to do so is supremely declass. But I'm afraid I'm going to have to be declass for a moment and hope the Crossword Gods forgive me. UNMAN. Say it ain't so...please, anything but UNMAN. It's impossible that using it couldn't have been avoided. The word makes SLEEKENS look like a sparkling, snappy, fun jewel of a word. You can live with certain things in a puzzle. They all have a bit of imperfection. Sometimes like Lots of partials, SOTO, HADRON, OTO, SAAR, and NEER. Throw in UNMAN and it doesn't matter that the theme is fine because now the avoidable junk has kicked dents in the Mercedes and it comes out having the feel of the Clampett's family car.

So, I've soiled my soul by being a critic of a good and prolific constructor. It feels like I've been unmanned.

Horsefeathers said...

Ben' horse was a buckskin.
Adam's horse was a chestnut.
Hoss' horse was dark brown (looks black in some pictures).
Litle Joe's horse was a Paint (see Paint vs. pinto).

[source]

C6D6 Peg said...

Pretty easy solve today. Got the theme answers right away. Needed perps for ERETRIA and some others. Thanks, Gareth, for a quick puzzle.

Nice write-up, as usual, Argyle.

Only 3-1/2 inches of rain last night! ENOUGH!

thehondohurricane said...

Howdy folks,

What Jerome said about 5A. Didn't like it at all. The rest of the puzzle was fine even though I wasn't crazy about the theme. ATM MACHINE gave me the theme and the rest of the clues were sussed easily,

Large HADRON Collider was a newbie and likely soon to be forgotten.

Nothing else to comment about, straight forward Tuesday offering, but pleasurable after last Fri && Sat.

Sounds like the long hot summer will be introduced this week. Time to hibernate.

Tinbeni said...

Argyle: Nice write-up. I especially enjoyed the HADRON Wiki link. Interesting information.

Gareth: Thank You for a FUN Tuesday puzzle.
(C.C. I also enjoyed your MEMORIAL DAY puzzle with a timely theme!)

Fave today, of course, was my CSO at NE'ER-do-well. lol

Also liked, that if you are going to have a "directional" clue, such as the one at 65-a, Los Angeler-to-Phoenix, that the answer was a word EAST.
(Yeah, I guess that was a CSO to Lucina).

A "Toast-to-ALL" at Sunset.
Cheers!

Googlefighter said...

UNMAN vs. SLEEKEN

Sorry Jerome.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I always enjoy GB's offerings. Caught the theme early which made the solve quick and easy.

As Hondo said, we're in for some hot and humid weather. We need rain, also, although we're nowhere near as needful as California.

Going to a birthday party tonight making it my third straight night out. I'm getting too old for all this partying!

Have a great day. (Yes, Kazie, my comment section spans the entire screen.)

Irish Miss said...

Oops, did it again! Sorry. A big thank you to Gareth and Argyle for a fun Tuesday.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Kazie, My comment box spans the bottom too, now. Guess we've been 'upgraded'

Easy solve as Peg said. Needed perps for HADRON and TARPIT. Wanted tundra first for Mammoth locale.
UNMAN - Don't see what the flap is about. Clue coincides almost exactly with Merriam dict. definition.
SAAR - is the easiest spelt German Land (state). Fought over with France through the years. Plebiscite made
it German in 1957.

Have a great day.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Jerome.

Qli said...

Thanks to Gareth and Argyle for a nice experience today. I knew the answer to ERETRIA, but needed perps to get the I and Es in the right place. BOLE also needed perps, but it rang a tiny little bell when it got it via perps.

Off to the grocery store of the stuff that wasn't on the bare shelf yesterday; must have given the stockers the holiday off. I'll try a different store today, just in case.

GrannyAnny said...

Re: UNMAN

Jerome and Hondo: I don't get it. Am I missing a joke of some kind? Is "unman" by some stretch of the imagination sexist or racist? Seems to me it's a straightforward clue and answer. What's the nit you're picking?

I enjoyed this one. Solving moved along smoothly but misspelled NEMESiS which gave me DRIi for 26A which I wouldn't have caught anyway.

JJM said...

I do the Puzzle thru the MENSA site and it hasn't updated since SAT. Has this happened to anyone else or has the License Agreement between LAT and MENSA just run out and I'm unaware of it?

Lucina said...

Hello, friends!

How odd to have the comment box at the bottom and across.
Argyle, I'm still laughing at your ANNE Rice/UNCLE Ben comment!!

Thanks to Dan Brown I knew HADRON, spelled with E first until TARPIT appeared. In the past I had many students from ERITREA. They fled the 30 years civil war in their country and are very sweet people.

Yay! I remembered DREI.

Thank you, Gareth Bain, for a clever and easy workout today. And Argyle for a really deep chuckle.

Tin, thank you for the CSO.

Have a lovely day, everyone!

Bill G. said...

Hi everybody. It's overcast here which isn't pretty but it's cool and pleasant.

Yes, my comment box is across the bottom. Like most changes, I don't like it much.

Except for UNMAN, this was an enjoyable solve. I didn't know BOLE or ERETRIA.

I have no problem with themes that have been repeated. I didn't do many of them earlier and wouldn't remember them anyway. If it's a good-quality puzzle and isn't just copied from someone else, I'm OK with that. Clever ideas can occur to more than one person.

Misty said...

What a clever theme, Gareth--thank you so much! I loved not only the redundancies in the answers but in their end/beginning letters, MM, NN, TT, FF, NN again--redundancies upon redundancies. Lots of fun, and enjoyable expo, Argyle, as always.

Great way to start a Tuesday--have a wonderful day, everybody!

Anonymous T said...

HI All!

Paper didn't drop 'till after 8 thanks to the floods so I had to print the puzzle from a link provided by Barry G. yesterday - perfect timing since MENSA didn't work either. Thanks Berry. Thanks too to Argyle not being redundant this day today.

W/os: EMoRY b/f TERN fixed it; TRItE b/f the La Brea (cute GB).

Let's see if I can pull this off... I scored well on the SAT so I could study LANs and get into security where I read a PDF on how to steal PINs at ATMs.

Constructors - next time x goDparticle w/ HADRON :-)

Fav: he who SMELT it (dealt it...)

And since CED is having computer issues Redundancy Poster.

Cheers, -T

coneyro said...

Lost all my comments. Darn...Will try again.

Interesting puzzle. Noticed double letters..THAT'S how I got the answers. Didn't even think of redundancy until all done.

Who says TV is a mental wasteland...Knew HADRON Collider because it featured prominently on an episode of "Big Bang Theory".

Speaking of SUPERMAN..Am I the only one who is annoyed that the writers of DC comics have set the hero universe on its ear by changing or cancelling out just about every origin story. Earth One, Earth Two? Who cares? Took all my childhood memories and just erased them. It wasn't broken, why fix it?

Doing the crossword the old fashioned way is more satisfying, IMO, than online. No red letter help; you're on your own. Who else on the blog thinks so?
The dependency on computers is really getting scary. Kids can't spell or do cursive writing. Reading from actual books is becoming the exception. Don't know what the future holds, but it doesn't bode well. What will happen if the main frame of data crashes? Everyone would be like lost sheep.Reminds me of a famous TV show episode years ago; Twilight Zone, perhaps, or "Outer Limits".

Well, let me press "publish" and hope for the best.

Until tomorrow, then....

Jayce said...

Nifty puzzle today. I enjoyed it. I also enjoyed your comments, Argyle.

Online Guy said...

coneyro@12:44:

I do the puzzle online without red-letter help and without Googling. There are several advantages: no need to erase or white-out. No need to suffer with (my) horrendous penmanship. You get positive reinforcement (the musical "TaDa!") when it's completed properly. You get better at solving puzzles (thanks to the aforementioned positive reinforcement).

Secondary advantages: No need to subscribe to a newspaper, hope it arrives, hope the right puzzle is printed, and hope you can read it. You save a tree and the gas necessary to deliver your newspaper (if it's delivered).

You're going online anyway (to read this blog) so why not start online?

I would suggest trying it online for a week or two. If you don't like it you can always go back to paper.

Online Guy said...

JJM@10:41:

Alternatives to the frozen-in-time Mensa site were posted in yesterday's comments. It's happened before and is usually back to normal within a week.

Chairman Moe said...

coneyro@12:44:

I am an old-fashioned puzzle-solver; pen with no eraser; occasional "ink blots" but they usually happen when I forget to check the perps; I've done a puzzle on the computer but to me it was "meh"; but as the "online guy" states, try it and see.

There are four puzzles in our newspaper to get me kick-started each morning: The LAT Crossword, a Sudoku, Jumble, and Celebrity Cryptoquips. With any luck I am finished with them before I need a second cup of coffee!! ;^)

And to add to the redundancy, the comment box is at the bottom of the page, just like the rest of you have noticed! Not sure why the change but we'll go with it. What choice do we have??!!

Anonymous T said...

corneyro:

I agree - I like a puzzle on paper, I like non-reference books bound (reference books on computer are searchably nice ), and the last good DC reboot was Frank Miller's Dark Knight.

But, C'MON, I need a computer to help w/ my dyslexic spelling so I only come off as a partial moron.

Actually, only a huge solar flare or other biblical event could wipe out the world's data. Most providers (Google, Amazon, Microsoft, et.al.) have multiple UN-MAN'd* data-centers around the word. Talk about redundancy.

I'll remove myself from your lawn now...

Cheers, -T
*Take that Jerome :-)

Online Guy said...

I should have noted that I'm using an "old-fashioned" desktop computer with a real monitor and a real (full-size) keyboard. I have no experience with, and no interest in, solving on a tablet or a smartphone.

Bill G. said...

I came to crosswords late in life; maybe six or seven years ago. I started doing doing one of the Universal puzzles on the NBC news page, edited by Timothy Parker. I stumbled upon this blog, switched to LAT crosswords and the rest is history. I have tried doing easier CWs (Mon thru Wed) on paper and I do OK, maybe faster than online. But I continue to do the LAT puzzles online every day because of the possibility (probability?) of getting stuck on some of the harder puzzles (Friday and Saturday). I can't imagine working them on paper and just giving up at some point when I've made a mistake or can't figure out an answer. Online, I turn on red letters and get the necessary hints to finish. I don't like using red-letter help but I much prefer it to giving up with a DNF. (Yes, I am on a desktop iMac. I have never gotten used to a touchpad or or my wife's iPad.)

(PLEASE bring back the old comment box at the top!)

Bluehen said...

Very enjoyable puzzles these last two days. Thanks CC and Gareth, and to you, Argyle for your entertaining expos. So much nicer an experience than Friday and Saturday. Saturday was a rare DNF even with red letter help. Give me a Saturday Silkie any time.

Saturday wasn't a total loss around here. About two years ago we adopted a pit bull/boxer cross from the SPCA. 6 mos. later she slipped away and wandered off.
We couldn't find hide nor hair of her, despite alerting all the pounds in the area and local veterinarians (she was chipped). Low and behold, she shows up Saturday!
She had been adopted by another family in the neighborhood. After a year gone, the neighbor hears through the grapevine that we lost a dog a year ago, and showed up at our front porch to see if she was the one. You can't imagine our happiness. Wonders will never cease.

That's all for now. Cya!

Online Guy said...

Bill G.@1:52: "PLEASE bring back the old comment box at the top!"

The comment box is where it's always been (at least on my computer; I can't speak for tablets and smartphones), it's just wider (as others have noted).

Its new size is actually closer to what the comment will look like when published. If the box was originally this wide and then narrowed, everyone would be asking why they shrunk the comment box.

I'd say it's either (a) an improvement or (b) doesn't matter.

CrossEyedDave said...

Anonymous-T,

Finding these daily links is an art form, you have to be in the right frame of mind...

Curiously, I took my desktop mainframe to the PC repair store, who claimed it would take 3 days to fix it. An hour later I got a call, they plugged it in and nothing is wrong with it?

(The Universe is messing with my head...)

CrossEyedDave said...

Hmm, should I post more redundancy pics?

Online Guy said...

CED@2:18:

Your desktop computer is not a mainframe computer.

Here, thanks to Wikipedia, is a humorous guide:

You can throw a laptop
You can lift a workstation
You can tilt a minicomputer
You cannot move a mainframe

CrossEyedDave said...

Online Guy @ 2:27

I stand corrected,

but you didn't see me trying to lug the dang thing from the parking lot...

Irish Miss said...

Bluehen - You made my day! What a happy family you must be to have your pooch back.

The comment section has always been at the bottom on my iPad, but it was a much smaller box than it is now.

I have been doing crosswords for almost 40 years beginning with the Sunday New York Times. What I knew then would fit on the head of a pin and it wasn't unusual to spend days trying to at least complete part of each puzzle. Before I got my iPad, I was a paper and pen solver which entailed cutting out the puzzle and putting it on my clipboard. (I still solve the Sunday NYT in pen as I don't have a subscription and it is printed in my local paper.) I prefer the IPad for ease and neatness. I do not use red letter help or Google; if I don't know an answer and I have hit a brick wall, then it's a DNF and I come to the Corner for answers. I have learned a lot in the 3+ years I've spent here and expect to keep learning, even if it's only how diverse we are in our preferences, e.g., _ _ _ or neat, eh, Tin? 😉

Lemonade714 said...

I enjoyed the puzzle and do often cringe at not only redundancy but what I was taught in school are illiteracies. I find it especially fascinating to read the comments of George Barany (initials GB) about the the theme used today by Gareht Bain (GB).

I do not get the message; should GB have looked and seen that the theme was used before? Is it an inside joke that a reused but modified theme is in itself a redundancy? Since all of the puzzles are gridded very differently, is the existence of duplicate fill or duplicate clues a crime? How many times have clues been reused? Fill?

Did you have a good time?

Finally, UNMAN is just clued weirdly, suggesting a loss of manhood, but was that GB? Rich?


Beach Bum said...

I started doing crosswords about 7 or 8 years ago with the NYT puzzles in the Pensacola News Journal. It took me a few years before I could consistently complete the Friday and Saturday ones. I doubt I became any smarter during that interim, so I guess crossword puzzle solving is a learned skill. We moved to Clearwater a few years ago and now I do the LA Times puzzles merely because that's what the Tampa Bay Times runs. I tried doing some other ones on line but it didn't do much for me. I like paper, pencil and coffee.

Beach Bum said...

Oh, also ... been lurking here for about a year.

Casey said...

L714@2:52: "UNMAN is just clued weirdly, suggesting a loss of manhood"

But that's what it means. You could look it up.

Jerome said...

Lemon- Different constructors come up with the same themes all the time. I've been told numerous times by an editor that they liked my puzzle but it duplicated a themed puzzle that they had previously published. However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't, or can't, send that puzzle to a different editor. Actually, it's the same with any puzzle an editor rejects for any reason. You might be very surprised to know how many times you've solved an LAT puzzle that the NYT rejected... or vice versa. Many constructors send their rejects down the line until someone accepts it or everyone says "No thanks." Then we pout and tell ourselves, "What the heck do they know"
If your a guy, it is a very unmanning experience.

Occasional Lurker said...

The puzzle was very nice and the blog by Argyle was as always, delightful. Unman and Bole, are unusual words, but I can accept them with equinanimity.

OnLine Guy - your humorous comment, on various computer sizes, from Wiki was absolutely deightful. I have noted it down in my diary. Very, very, very CUTE !!! Thank you.

I have simple demands and expectations on crossword puzzles - if I can solve most of the puzzle without being totally confused then I dont care if the theme has been done a thousand times before. (I can barely remember my own wife's name - most of the time, anyway.)

Chiao.

Anonymous said...

UNMAN is a perfectly fine fill clued accurately. I really don't understand the nit.

Some people are simply destined to be friggin' unhappy. Sheesh.

Thank you, Gareth, for starting my day with 2 fine puzzles.

SwampCat said...

Anon T and Hahtoolah, the same storm must have roared through here last night, too. Tornados and 110 mph winds, but no deaths as are being reported in Texas.

I enjoyed the puzzle, loved the expo, and had no problems with the theme or UNMAN. I've heard that enough not to be surprised by it. It really is a real word. Maybe after last weekend I'm happy with anything!

Coneyro, I'm a pen and paper person, too. I work across and down at the same time to check out the perps, and I like to look at the whole puzzle. Different strokes...!

Bluehen said...

Irish Miss, we are indeed. When we first adopted her, some in the family were concerned about bringing a pit bull mix into the house. She turned out to be the most affectionate, submissive dog we've ever had. She "adopted" our youngest who has a natural way with animals, and stuck by his side so completely, we renamed her "Shadow". He couldn't move without her "dogging" his footsteps. what a sweetheart. Life is good.

Lucina said...

We've had this conversation many times so those with a history on the Corner know that I started doing crosswords at age 10 in fourth grade and have been happily hooked for 67 years. In the convent I did biblical puzzles. Paper, pencil, clipboard and coffee are my preferred "tools."

I tried doing it on-line once and was completely frustrated, but then I'm not electronically oriented.

Let's just be happy with what we do. It's all about the solve, after all.

Jerome, at the risk of being redundant I have to say, you're funny!!

Yellowrocks said...

I filled in UNMANNED immediately without a care. It seems normal to me, meaning emasculated or robbed of manhood. Just now in my novel a teen doubting his manhood was asked to set up a toy bunny indicating the bathroom was in use. He said, "It humiliated me or something. UNMANNED me. I took it very personally."
I prefer solving on paper, even though I have solved online many times. Rather than not finishing , when I get stuck on paper I type in the questionable places online using red letters. Then switch back to Masters to see it I can get more correct without help. I switch back and forth checking. After I finish, whether I am online or not, I check my answers on the blog and Google many of them, even the right ones.If i find any mistakes it's a DNF. I always learn a lot, even on things I thought I knew. The best thing about online is that I can use it in Masters mode to resolve a huge inkblot.

Confucius almost said...

Man is not rational. Man is rationalizing.

Anonymous T said...

CED - If I could do that w/ 4 beers... Thanks for your art.

Beach Bum - don't just lurk, play!

SwampCat - yeah, the storm was something (you guys in S. LA got it too, no?) - 8" in 5 hours. Pool overflowed, school was closed, Mayor Parker said @4p there's still >750 abandoned vehicles on the freeway to tow. Being a NET-geek, I just VPN'd from home and carried on. We may be in for another wallop tonight if I'm reading the radar correctly.

I started "doing" xwords w/ grandpa -T when I was 10 or so. It was fun to watch him curse the clues (Damn it, Mae, what the [redacted] is a sech? :-)) and pencil new words into his xword dictionary. I began in earnest about 9 years ago when insomnia and boredom after finishing the paper set in. I'm hooked but still feel lucky to get >80% of a LAT Friday w/ just pen & paper. Sat LATs are way out unless I tax the Great Google.

My favorite part is learning words that look like fun to say... WHEEeeeeeeDLE.

NO ONE isn't NO HELP in complaining about that xing //ducks

Cheers, -T

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Cool puzzle, Gareth. Nice expo, Santa.

Liked the theme.

NOONE was perps. No cheats.

Just got home from rheumatologist. Took 7 tries to get my blood pressure taken.

Cheers!

Irish Miss said...

Bluehen @ 5:22 - I can relate to your naming the dog Shadow. My favorite nickname for our Bichon, who was unduly (IMHO) attached to my husband, was Velcro! (Perhaps I was a little jealous, no?). Anyway, glad for your happy ending! ☺️

Jerome said...

Yellow- It would have been impossible for you to fill in UNMANNED with or without a care.

OwenKL said...

Comment box is in the same place as always for me, but it is longer. Thank goodness! Word wrapping is a demon to poetry! Especially concrete poetry, such as my UP limerick last week, or maybe IDYLS by Theocritus.

UNMAN is sexist, like fireman or policeman, implying that bravery is a purely masculine trait; but it is still a word, and so fair game for a non-PC puzzle that's not restricted to firefighter or police officer. (BTW, why are all police officers? are there police privates?)

I always do the first pass at the master (non-red-letter) setting, but Fri & Sat usually switch after that. Sun thru Thur I stay on master till the bloody end!

Do you all know that the LAT appears in THREE formats online? It's too late today, but tomorrow, which is your favorite for which feature?
Across Lite .puz format, such as @ http://www.cruciverb.com/
UClick format, such as @ http://www.us.mensa.org/play/games/games/la-times-crossword/
Arkadium format, such as @ http://cdn.arenaconnect.arkadiumhosted.com/games-storage/daily-crossword/game/daily-crossword.swf

Yellowrocks said...

Please do not call me Yellow.
YR
You missed the point. This was not about bravery. It was about the young teen's angst about gender identity. According to my studies this a normal developmental task. PC or not the lad felt unmanned.

Bill G. said...

CED, I LOVED your rabbit photo picture! I think it's one of the cleverest I've seen in a while.

Owen, I much prefer the UClick format, maybe because that's what I'm most used to. Next is Across Lite .puz and last is Arkadium. Across Lite is OK except for their insistence about putting little black or red triangles when you've made a mistake. Annoying.

"I asked God for a bike but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness."

Anonymous T said...

OwenKL - I prefer MENSA likely because I've memorized every click to get the darn thing printed. I'm not keen on computer solving because I can't see enough at once.

Bill G. Funny.

To you fiction readers who didn't know HADRON, I think it was in a Dan Book (OK, I looked at Argyle's wiki-link and confirmed). CERN is looking for the Higgs Boson aka God Particle. When I googled biggest machine for pix of HADRON, the Smithsonian said biggest machine is the US Power Grid. Like our data, it too is subject to a solar flare.

I really tried, no really, to top CED's bunny-ears cartoon and this is the best I have that's the best. It pales...

RAS syndrome - Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome.

Cheers, -T