google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, Jul 18th, 2015, Roland Huget

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Jul 18, 2015

Saturday, Jul 18th, 2015, Roland Huget

Theme: None

Words: 72 (missing J,Q,W,X,Z)

Blocks: 32

  Ta-DA~!!!  I can once again claim success on a Saturday, with no cheating, no Googling, and no red-letters~!  It was not looking that way to start, though, and then I hit the center, with the triple-stack spanners, and thought - ugh.  However, triple-stacks usually mean shorter crossings, and so I was hoping to catch a break there [not].  Way too many proper names*, and one or two fun-sponges, but ultimately a satisfying solve - even if I'm biased just for finishing it~!  The triple stack spanners;

33. Best Picture of 1965 : THE SOUND OF MUSIC - the hills are alive....

40*. Mario Lanza classic : ARRIVEDERCI ROMA - with about half the perps, this made as much sense as anything else - despite not knowing the artist nor the song

41. Winner : LAST ONE STANDING

Aaaaaahn - ward~!

ACROSS:

1. Hot tub feature : EDDY - I can personally verify this, because I'm in my hot tub right now~!  Having this as the first clue of the day - on my vacation - seemed so appropriate~!

5. Air carrier : DUCT - I was thinking airplanes first

9. Bargain : STEAL

14. Clamors : BROUHAHAS

16*. Eponymous WWII flying ace Edward : O'HARE - more airplanes

17. High muck-a-muck : BIG KAHUNA - I'll refrain from a video clip; just an image


18*. One of Johnny's two final "Tonight Show" guests : BETTE - Midler; his other guest was the late Robin Williams

19. Reel kin : SPOOL - think movies, not fishing

20. Garden grower : HERB - we made an herb garden at the front of restaurant aMano

22. In the thick of : AMID - my first fill, 10 clues in

23. Spoiler of a perfect GPA : ONE B - I got "one B" in manual drafting, which annoyed me

25. Military group with an insect in its logo : SEABEES - "CBs"; Construction Battalions


27. Swing voter: Abbr. : INDependent - eh

29. Pacific landing handout : LEI

32. Mag wheels? : EDs - I was going to throw this in - editors - because we've seen it before; but I was thinking it might be something a little more clever

42. Familia member : TIO - OK, no immediate ta-DA~!, because I had tiA

43. Disdainful click : TSK

44. Golf club part : TOE



45. "Yup, sorry to say" : " 'FRAID SO" - did you hear the one about the rope that went into the bar~?

49. Some Ivy Leaguers : ELIs

52. "... where was __ Urania / When Adonais died?": Shelley : LORN - perps & WAG

53. Additions, perhaps : ELLS - elis and ells

56. __ directed : USE AS


59. As much as you like, '60s-style : A GO-GO

61*. Augustine St. Clare's daughter, in an 1852 classic : LITTLE EVA - not that I knew this proper noun, but it has appeared in a Saturday puzzle before

63*. Prince Ramiro in Rossini's "La Cenerentola," e.g. : TENOR - um, OK

64. Volunteer's declaration : "I'M YOUR MAN~!"

65*. "Goosebumps" series author : STINE - hey, I knew this name~!

66*. Irving Bacheller's "__ Holden" : EBEN - but not this one

67. Latin 101 verb : ESSE - dah~! not AMAS

DOWN:

1. Subsides : EBBS - crossing EDDY is quaint

2. __-dry : DRIP

3. Many social reformers : DO-GOODERS

4. 3,185-kilometer river : YUKON - no guess until --K-N

5. Code word : DAH - I filled in the "D", and waited; this is MY code word for the head-slap V-8 can moment

6. "No way!" : "UH-UH~!"

7. Raspberry stem : CANE - new one to me

8. Medieval Bulgarian rulers : TSARs

9. Blubber : SOB - dah - not "FAT"

10*. Theater for Beckett? : "THE ABSURD" - "The Wiki"

11. Invitation Alice accepted : EAT ME

12*. Wheelchair-bound "Glee" character : ARTIE - never seen it

13. West Yorkshire city : LEEDS

15. Sound : HALE

21. Some pinups : BEEFCAKE - one for the ladies; or is this more to your liking~?


24. Prude : BLUENOSE - I knew it was BLUE - something

26. Running group, informally : ADMINistration

27. Underlining alternative: Abbr. : ITALics; don't know why I was thinking underWIRE


28. Funny Car org. : NHRA - Hot Rods ; I'm starting the NHTA - the National HOT TUB Association

30*. "The Neverending Story" author : ENDE

31. Words usually abbreviated : ID EST - that is, i.e.

34. Withholding : SITTING ON

35. Roundish : OVOID

36. Remnants : ORTS - ah, not LEES

37. "By all appearances" : "SO IT SEEMS"

38. Mae West's "__ Angel" : I'M NO

39. Imprison : CAGE - nailed it

45. Broken glass dangers : FLATS - meh.  I wanted SHARDS, but not enough space.  Glass doesn't threaten my tires, nails and screws are the real problem

46. Wordsmith's reference : ROGET - his thesaurus, that is

47. "The San Francisco Treat" suffix : A-RONI

48. One-toothed dragon of '50s TV : OLLIE - I thought it was this guy
Gumby & Prickle

50. Beaut : LULU

51. Grenoble's river : ISERE

54. Danger metaphor : LIMB - as in "out on one"

55. Bump on a lid : STYE - dah~! I went with SEAL; hey, it's the bump on a lid of jelly

57. Audio/visual production awards : AVAs - BTW, not the Adult Video Awards


58. Levelheaded : SANE - made me change my "AMAS" @ 67a.

60. Celestite, e.g. : ORE

62. Workload hyperbole : TON - these days, it's a s**t-load

Splynter

48 comments:

OwenKL said...

I can hardly believe it! Finished both Friday and Saturday this week without needing reds nor look-ups! Yahoo!
True, a lot of mis-starts, JETS>EDDY, VENT>DUCT, ENDS>EBBS, BLOW>DRIP, DIT>DAH, and that was just the NW! But perps corrected all.
Put in ADMINistrators, but that needed an S for plural so took it out, perps restored it to ADMINistration, a collective noun.
An awful lot of cultural clues, which is one of my stronger categories, tho I didn't know ENDE, LORN, AVAS, NHRA, EBEN, ISERE.

Three Lime Ricks on Parsing

There once was a fellow named EBEN,
Who said nothing that one could believe in.
If he said, with a shout,
"The tide's going out."
We'd say that's EB B.S. as it flowed in!

Though he had a 3-point-9 GPA,
Only a single grade just shy of A,
He still lacked the luster
Of any true Husker
When the state song, O NEB., would play!

There once were three magazine heads
Who had the same nickname, they were EDS.
Edwin and Theodore
Hailed from Yorkshire shore,
To Parisian Édouard they're "LE EDS"!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Got through this on unscathed, except for the very end where I stared at the crossing of F_ATS and _ORN and couldn't come up with anything that made sense. I finally stuck in an L simply because FLATS was a word, even though it had nothing to do with broken glass as far as I was aware. Got the *TADA* as a result. Yay. Total hollow victory with no sense of accomplishment, since it really was just a wild guess and I still don't get the answer.

The rest of the puzzle was challenging overall but doable. I am not familiar with any of Becket's plays except for "Waiting for Godot", so it took a lot of perps to come up with THE ABSURD. The central triple stack ended up not being so bad once I had some perps in place to get me started. EBEN, ENDE, AVAS and CANE were all perps, on the other hand. At least I finally have NHRA committed to memory...

Barry G. said...

All right, wait...

Is FLATS referring to flat tires, which can (theoretically, at least) be caused by broken glass? Ugh.

Argyle said...

And aren't reels and spools both fishing related; just two different types of reels? One is used more for casting and one for spinning. HELP! I need a fisherman.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

This one was slow to appear, but appear it did. My only real stumble was my absolute certainty that the "Garden grower" must be contrary MARY, but no, it was her brother HERB.

I could only think of two Mario Lanza songs: Be My Love (too short) and The Loveliest Night Of The Year (too long). Both were from the early 50's. My older sister thought he was "the living end" when The Student Prince came out, even though it was only his voice that "appeared" in the film.

Odd, that The NeverENDing Story should be written by a guy named ENDE. And I suppose O'HARE is the reason that Orchard Field (ORD) in Chicago got renamed.

Argyle, I agree that "Reel kin" could refer to fishing -- you wind fishing line (or film) onto a reel; you wind thread onto a spool.

Big Easy said...

FLATS-LORN cross was my undoing. I somehow managed to claw my way though the rest. On the first pass I had BETTE, A-RONI, NHRA, & EAT ME. Some bad mistakes were SUDS for EDDY, TOP BANANA for BIG KAHUNA, SANE for HALE, CECIL for OLLIE. And initially thinking SANE for 15D didn't help after I got to 58D and realized that it was also there. I got a foothold when I guessed DO GOODERS and was sure (not) that the winner would start with FASTEST instead of LAST. For 'Bump on a lid' I was thinking a DENT on a can that was swelling before STYE came around.

CANE was new to me, as were EBEN, STINE ENDE, ARTIE, AVAS. Misspelling ARRIVEDERCI as ARREVEDERCI caused my brain to hurt because SETTING ON just didn't sound correct for witholding but I had a V8 and corrected it.

Made a valiant effort but a DNF for me today.

HeartRx said...

Finished in half my usual Saturday time, so I figured others would find it easy, too. I got a good start by entering EDDY EBBS DRIP DOGOODERS and YUKON right away. I did slow down in the NE because I couldn't remember if the Glee character was ARnIE or ARTIE. BETTE took care of that for me, though.

Same slow down in the SW as BG. But after staring at F*ATS for a while, I finally figured out that it was referring to tires. Yay!

Anonymous said...

A one-toothed dragon named "Ollie" refers to Kukla, Fran & Ollie, an early 50s kids TV show. If I remember correctly, they were live action sock puppets and had nothing to do with Gumby.
I did it in 21:57. Is that fast, slow or average?

Lucina said...

Hello, friends!

This was certainly quick for a Saturday! My first pass didn't yield much, but a fill here and there soon connected enough letters that the long fill emerged. Remembered BETTE but not Robin and luckily that clinched it. ARTIE just appeared as I've never watched Glee.

I also was in love with Mario Lanza and saddened when he died so young.

EBEN? Pure guesswork. STINE is one of middle graders favorite authors. OVATE before OVOID.

Have a lovely day, everyone!

Husker Gary said...

I too will take a victory lap on this Saturday offering. LIMB was the last to fall although I thought it was “risking life and LIMB”. Like having your computer in the hot tub!

Musings
-The three very “gettable” spanners were a boon to me. THE SOUND OF MUSIC was a 6 inch tap in.
-LUNG was my first air carrier
-43% will vote for Hillary and 43% for any Republican. IND’s carry the day
-A jerry-rigged tank in John Wayne’s The Fighting SEABEES
-Go placidly AMID the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence
-When your town gets fiber optics, you’ll see a lot of these SPOOLS
-Didn’t LITTLE EVA later have a hit with Loco Motion?
-My neighbor’s raspberry CANES are right outside my window
-Leave it to Splynter to have pix to upset male and female BLUENOSES ;-)
-You’re SITTING ON a gold mine if you have farm ground on the edge of a city around here
-Levelheaded – With a little effort you can find an email address of “lvlhedded@yahoo.com” among our friends here
-What a riot, Owen! A 3.9 GPA would occur when the porkers at Hormel get airborne!
-BTW, Here is the Nebraska state song honoring Johnny Carson. It still gives me goosebumps!

Avg Joe said...

Yep. That L in flats and lorn was the last to fill. Did a full mental alpha run on f_ats and the only two options seemed to be L and E. Took a good minute for that dime to drop. I guess I've had bicycle flats from glass shards, but never on a car that I remember.

Elsewhere it was a slow go all the way. Wondered what in the hell Dog _oders could be. Wanted Cecil instead of Ollie. Tried Last man standing. Spelled Stine Styne. The wrong end of the Ticonderoga got a workout today, but it ended up a victory.

Ergo said...

Hello puzzlers.

A little off topic but perhaps of interest to a few. I've started writing my 4th book "The Vending Machine Man." It's a story about a man who operates a vending route and discovers a new product that his machines can dispense; one that is highly profitable, yet highly illegal.

I'm writing the story online so readers can follow along as the story unfolds and get a little insight through authors notes. The work will ultimately be available for Kindle and traditional paperback format. If you'd like to take a peek, here's the website: http://cgstepanek.wix.com/chuck-stepanek I'll be adding chapter 3 later today.

Thank you. You may now resume puzzling.

Respectfully,
Chuck Stepanek (aka Ergo)

Madame Defarge said...

Hello!

Thanks Roland. This one was fun for me since I haven't done a puzzle all week, and often the lack of oil on the brain cogs slows down a Saturday.

I think the long fills helped me out the most. The sound of Music was a breeze. Remember seeing it, and this is the 50th anniversary. Lanza was on those 78's in my house all the time. My dad loved opera and any Italian songs. Loved Kukla, Fran and Ollie as a kid. The puppets seem so prehistoric now.

Argyle, I thought the spool was part of the reel apparatus, so it made sense to me.

Students no longer have to underline to signal italics. Just change the font. Easy. Underlining used to be a typesetter's signal to change to the italics.

Thanks Splynter. Be careful with that computer in the hot tub!!

I'm off to deadhead my day lilies. They have certainly enjoyed the rain. Have a good day!

HeartRx said...

Anon @ 7:51, that would depend on whether 21:57 is faster or slower than your normal Saturday time. ;-)

HG, yep, I'd say the level headed people here are above Average...

Yellowrocks said...

After my return from a week's vacation yesterday I was thrilled to find 2 doable puzzles this Friday and Saturday.I missed the Corner and all of you. Nice to start off with success. Yesterday's was relatively quick, but today's took quite a while.
The L in FLATS and LORN was one of the last to fall. I had a holdup in the NW. I didn't know hot tubs had eddies. YUKON finally was my Rosetta stone there.
STINE, ROGET, ARONI were gimmes in the SW with LITTLE EVA in the SE and STEAL, BETTE and SEA BEES in the NE.
The three longest answers occurred to me with three or four perps.
Have a great weekend.

Yellowrocks said...

Back from a week of camping in a rustic cabin in the Endless Mountains of PA. We had no cell service and WiFi spots were few and far between, but we did spend many hours reading and relaxing on a big wonderful stone porch overlooking a burbling stream and lovely woods. The porch had a fireplace where we had a blazing fire every evening rain or shine. What a lovely relaxing back-to-nature vacation. It reminded me of an old camp song.

If there were witchcraft,
I'd make two wishes
A winding trail that beckons me to roam.
And then I'd wish for a blazing campfire
To welcome me when I'm returning home.
But in this real world, there is no witchcraft
And golden wishes never grow on trees.
Our fondest daydreams must be the magic
To bring us back happy memories
Mem'ries that linger, constant and true
Mem'ries we cherish, Camp Brule friends, of you.

There were winding trails beckoning and the blazing campfire, but with my healing knees we roamed the park’s roads. Still satisfying.

HowardW said...

I've never read Uncle Tom's Cabin, but I did remember Little Eva from The King and I. Of course, as Gary said, it would be an easier clue to refer to Loco-motion -- but it's Saturday, after all. [According to Wikipedia, her stage name did not come from Uncle Tom's Cabin.]

Puzzle was a good challenge for a Saturday. NW was the hardest for me, although I also got stuck at FLATS in the SW, having put SENOR rather than TENOR, which made 45D "broken glass dangers" end as -LASS. BIG CHEESE instead of BIG KAHUNA was my other big mistake. Liked the music undercurrent to this one: including long ones THE SOUND OF MUSIC and ARRIVEDERCI ROMA, as well as LITTLE EVA (well, the other one, anyway), BETTE Midler, A-GO-GO, Glee (ARTIE).

Thanks Splynter. Loved the "USE AS" link especially.

HowardW said...

oops..SENOR made 45D look like F-ASS, which stumped me until I fixed 63A to TENOR.

C6D6 Peg said...

Started out really slow, but worked through until "Ta-Da". Thanks, Roland, for a challenging Sat am.

Nice write-up, Splynter. Like Madame Defarge, be careful of that computer/pad in the hot tub! :)

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed doing this puzzle.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I was most certainly on Mr. Huget's wave length today as I finished in record time for a Saturday. There wasn't much misdirection and the cluing was pretty straightforward. However, I must have a bad memory because I would never associate Arrivederci Roma with Mario Lanza. The Sound of Music was a gimme as I took 6 little nieces to see it (what was I thinking?đŸ‘­đŸ‘­đŸ‘­). On another occasion, I took my musically-trained mother who, ten minutes into the movie, fell sound asleep.

Thanks, Roland, for a fun and satisfying romp and thanks, Splynter, for a neato expo.

HG, is that quote from the Desiderata?

YR, glad you and Alan enjoyed your vacation. You both so deserve a rest and relaxation after the challenging times you've had over the past several months.

Have a great day.

coneyro said...

Started off well, so I had hope. Got all the way to 33A, all filled in at first go around, and then my brain tuned to jelly. Tried for some down clues to help...not so much. Too many literary, artsy references for me.

Would you believe last year was the first time I ever watched the film "SOUND OF MUSIC" all the way through. Never saw it in the movies. I saw the live TV version several months ago. I'm very sensitive to the underlying theme, and sometimes movies based on this upset me too much.

I used to watch Kukla, Fran & Ollie as a kid. Looking back at all the shows from "Howdy Doody", "Bozo", Shari Lewis and her puppets("Shariland") as well as all the wonderful westerns we kids watched, makes me nostalgic for the simpler times. The electronic age has robbed our children of many importants facets of life. Among the top of the list is the ability to use their imagination, and to communicate verbally, and with the written word. Everything is so "in your face" and readily available at the push of a button. No need to ASK anyone. People aren't learning how to spell, as LOL and IMO replace actual sentences. Sorry for the rant, but I'd love to pull the plug for one day and see what happens. Kids probably wouldn't know what to do with themselves.
Oh, well.....

I guess I'm not the LAST ONE STANDING. Gave it a good try, but in the end, it got me.

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Husker Gary said...

-Yes, Irish, that is the first line from the Desiderata. That prose states my philosophy of life about as well as any words I know.

Paul in Montebello said...

Me too on the L for Lorn! Fun one today.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

First pass was bleak because the top looked impenetrable, but the bottom went quickly and propped up everything else. Stacked grid spanners must take forever to piece together!

A good friend of mine was a Navy SeaBee in the 50's, mostly tasked with getting LORAN antenna sites set up on improbable slivers of rock around the wide Pacific. Wow, does he have good stories! I'd like to be about 23 and in charge of mounds of explosives, with orders to use 'em...

I was slow to figure out Flats today. Nearby we have a pioneering bike path which was paved with asphalt mixed up with broken glass. It's pretty enough when the sun is low, but there were lots of flats in those skinny tires. The object was, apparently, to stretch the expensive blacktop with a cheap volume-filling material; well intended, but ill advised.

Howdy Splynter, thanks for the underwire sample! Call me old fashioned, but I still prefer a more natural bustline to a push up.

Ol' Man Keith said...

I really got stuck on the Mario Lanza clue. The perps gave me what I believed were C_R_S_ for the final six letters (the "S" in error), so naturally I kept trying to fill it with THE GREAT CARUSO. How could that be wrong? Except that it was a letter shy of the allotted spaces...
To top it off, the folly of cheating caught me. I tried just one lookup--just one, I swear! I googled the "Best Picture of 1965," and the first response I got was MY FAIR LADY. No way could that fit. Paranoia kicked in. I began to feel someone had got hold of my newspaper's press and was gas-lighting me!
It all worked out in the end. But it really made me wonder: how many brain freeze strokes or heart attacks could be generated by a mad press operator? What if the editors had been bribed to publish an intentionally impossible Xwd?!! Arrrgh!

Irish Miss said...

HG @ 11:48 - Thank you for that link. I, too, have always loved that piece but haven't read it in many years. I had a framed copy of it in my office during my working years.

Coneyro @ 11:40 - Your mention of Howdy Doody reminds my of my HD ring that lit up. I showed it to my teacher, Sister St. Martin, who reacted in fright and promptly took it away from me. (She was the same nun who called me Miss Pale Face. Some of those nuns were scary back then.)

coneyro said...

Started off well, so I had hope. Got all the way to 33A, all filled in at first go around, and then my brain tuned to jelly. Tried for some down clues to help...not so much. Too many literary, artsy references for me.

Would you believe last year was the first time I ever watched the film "SOUND OF MUSIC" all the way through. Never saw it in the movies. I saw the live TV version several months ago. I'm very sensitive to the underlying theme, and sometimes movies based on this upset me too much.

I used to watch Kukla, Fran & Ollie as a kid. Looking back at all the shows from "Howdy Doody", "Bozo", Shari Lewis and her puppets("Shariland") as well as all the wonderful westerns we kids watched, makes me nostalgic for the simpler times. The electronic age has robbed our children of many importants facets of life. Among the top of the list is the ability to use their imagination, and to communicate verbally, and with the written word. Everything is so "in your face" and readily available at the push of a button. No need to ASK anyone. People aren't learning how to spell, as LOL and IMO replace actual sentences. Sorry for the rant, but I'd love to pull the plug for one day and see what happens. Kids probably wouldn't know what to do with themselves.
Oh, well.....

I guess I'm not the LAST ONE STANDING. Gave it a good try, but in the end, it got me.

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Beach Bum said...

Ugh. DNF today. Not that I didn't enjoy the challenge, mind you. Some stuff I've never heard of and some vague cluing made for a slow start, but with lots of perps things began to fall into place. Then came that F_ATS/_ORN crossing and I couldn't conceive of anything that made sense. Sure, I considered L, but what the hell is a LORN? So I left it blank and conceded defeat because in my book a guess -- even a correct one -- is the same as a loss.

I think We recently had DIT similarly clued as 5D.

Just a few days ago we had ELI as a plural answer, but without an S on the end.

Bill G. said...

In about 1952 or so, our family couldn't afford a TV yet but my friend's family could. I would go over to his house to play and at 5:15, we'd amuse ourselves watching the test pattern. At 5:30, we'd watch Howdy Doody. Also at about that same time, my father and I would walk across the street to my aunt's house and watch Captain Video followed by an old oater on Frontier Theater. Those old westerns would feature semi-stars like Johnny Mack Brown and Bob Steele. Later on when our family got a console TV, my favorite puppet show was Time for Beanie with Stan Freeberg.

Jayce said...

Man oh man, this puzzle defeated me. Even after looking up an answer, it didn't help getting any other answers. So I ended up looking up about 12 things in all. I still couldn't finish. Only by turning on red letters and doing a couple of alphabet runs could I fill in all the squares. By then, that's all they were to me: just squares with letters in them.
ARRIVEDERCI ROMA is a Mario Lanza classic? Sure, he sang that song, as did other singers, such as Dean Martin and Connie Francis, but it was not a signature song for him as Be My Love was. I would not even call that song a Dean Martin classic (as That's Amore is) nor a Connie Francis classic (as Where the Boys Are is.) Anyway, it was cluing like that that did me in.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Well, I can claim a victory in the NW, NC, and some of the NE (12&13d & 18a unfinished). I thought I could get this with another few hours of inking away at it. Nope. Too many names in the south. Plus I shot myself in the foot big-time...

With the C from BEEFCAKE and the R from ABSURD, I filled in CaRuso and backfilled "the great"... 1 square more??? 'FRAID SO. Darn, that's the only thing I know about Mario Lanza and that was going to be today's fav!

Thanks for a fun challenge Mr. Huget. Thanks for the bottom fill Splynter and another great Sat write-up. I'll join the NHTA later this eve.

Fav- TENOR and Lanza in the same puzzle. (OK, I know two things about him).

D-O, Mary-Mary's bro HERB - funny.
OKL - liked #2
Welcome back YR. Glad you had some time to recoup.

HG - In Desert Storm, when designing LANs for [REDACTED], we used Fiber SPOOLs that big - it was kevlar coated and could withstand a tank rolling over it. W/o kevlar the spool would have fit on the corner of your desk.

Cheers, -T

CrossEyedDave said...

I had no idea that Kukla, Fran & Ollie were into the Sound of Music...

Anonymous T said...

Correction - I just did my math... it was post-Desert Storm support in '94.

OMK - Looks like we both had the same issues. I consulted the Google for 33a too and My Fair Lady pop'd up. WTFrog? By then it didn't matter, I'd made a mess of the central-spanners anyway.

C, -T

AnonymousPVX said...

Lots of space in the middle but not much of a problem across the top and bottom. Then it just filled in, almost easy for a Saturday.

I said ALMOST, LOL.

Bill G. said...

How can "My Fair Lady" and "The Sound of Music" both win Best Picture in 1965?

Very scarey images on the local news last night. A big brush fire was burning on both sides of Interstate 15, the busy corridor between LA and Las Vegas. Traffic was all jammed up. Several cars and trucks were set on fire. Everybody was stuck...

Very unusual weather here right now. Intermittent rain and thunder. Common other places but unusual near the coast.

I just picked up a hot meatball sandwich from Subway. Meatballs, marinara sauce, Provolone cheese, green peppers toasted on Italian bread. Very tasty.

Mr. Google said...

The Academy Award for the best picture of 1965 (THE SOUND OF MUSIC) was awarded in 1966.

The Academy Award for the best picture of 1964 (My Fair Lady) was awarded in 1965.

Avg Joe said...

I'm going to violate blog policy to address an elephant in the room left over from last night.

The evening news notes that a fifth Marine has died from the attack in Chattanooga. There's no way to describe this other than an attack by a zealot motivated by religious fervor, if all reports are true. There's no excuse for that, and it is an atrocity. But it's not something that idle chatter on a crosword blog will in any way heal.

The post by Patriot last night chastised this community for not acknowledging this attack. OK. Fair enough. It wasn't acknowledged and it wasn't discussed. But I cannot make the connection to "political leanings". The only connection I can make is that Patriot was siezing the moral high ground and claiming superiority by seeming to care, when no one else here did.

We all care. We're all damaged by an attack like this. But the only purpose served by a post of that nature is to further divide, rather than unite. If anyone should be ashamed, it's the self proclaimed "Patriot". Lurk all you want, Patriot. But don't pretend to know the most heartfelt thoughts of people you've never met.

Sorry for the breach of protocol, but I felt it needed saying.

Out.

Anonymous said...

Avg Joe, the 'fifth marine' was actually a sailor.

I also disagree with Patriot. This blog is obviously well left of center, but I don't sense any lack of regard for American deaths.

Lucina said...

coneyro@2:08:
One of my friends has two young boys, 5 & 8 yrs., and she tells me they have no electronic toys; she also has stories and anecdotes of the many creative things they do, especially the 5 yr. old. He takes things apart and reassembles them and makes interesting and complicated objects from materials available in the home.

AvgJoe:
Thank you. That was well phrased. We can't really express the heartbreak we feel when we learn of those terrible events and especially the loss of innocent lives. Our military men and women give up so much and it is just tragic that they die on home soil at the hands of one of their own countrymen.

Yellowrocks said...

Avg Joe and Lucina, my sentiments exactly. We care.

Bill G. said...

Avg Joe, Lucina, YR et al., count me in. I was so irritated by Mr. Patriot's post last night that I thought better to keep quiet. I'm always amazed when somebody takes us to task anonymously. If we're so offensive, why not go elsewhere for online companionship?

We had a loud thunderclap an hour or so ago. Back east, it was so common and easily ignored. Not so on the coast of southern California. When it would occasionally happen while I was teaching, I might as well declare a holiday for the rest of the period.

No bike ride today for sure. My Nook, an umbrella and I did venture out for a macchiato though.

Big Easy said...

I usually try to look over other comments well after I have written mine, so I missed what Patriot said, and I don't care one way or another about the 'left or right' leanings of other commenters on this blog, but I do have a problem with POTUS and the rest of his administration's intentional non-use of the two words "ISLAMIC terrorist". I also have a low tolerance for stupid people who try to tell other people what to say or how to think.

Anonymous said...

Big Easy, I agree with you about POTUS, but you won't find much support here.

Anonymous T said...

Mmmm, Gyros for dinner. There's a place here in Sugar Land that has "best gyros in town" as their slogan. I told the proprietor he needs to expand to "best gyros in Houston." He also imports Russian beer - thems real good.

My eldest's education is nearly complete. We just watched Young Frankenstein. I think she had more fun watching me giggle at it. Blazing Saddles will be next (when DW is out of town - I'm not stupid...)

Ave Joe - you said elephant - so I guess we know your political leanings :-)

Seriously, anyone who thinks this anyone on this blog is left or right is not thinking. Or maybe not thinking for oneself is considered left by some folks and right by others. Pick and issue and there's dogma spouted by both sides. Think IND of either and you're the wrong-side/party in some minds.

Was the act Thursday terrorism? Yes, by definition. Is it something to mourn? Yes. Orchestrated terrorism? Who knows yet...

Is it something to worry about for every Muslim you meet? No! To Muslim readers, I hope you had a wonderful Eid.

Cheers, -T

Anonymous T said...

Anon@10:19... So, Tim McVeigh, Dylann Roof, and Eric Rudolf are Chirstian Terrorists? Just follows, no? Don't get my wrong, I'm not keen on POTUS, but be consistant.

Mr. Google @5:52 - thanks for cleaing that up. I was as confused as OMK.

Cheers, -T

Bill G. said...

"Do you ever get the feeling that the world is a tuxedo and you're a pair of old, brown shoes?"

~ George Gobel

Anonymous said...

Anonymous T, do keep your head in the sand. That's a pretty lame argument.