google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday July 19, 2015 Frank Virzi

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Jul 19, 2015

Sunday July 19, 2015 Frank Virzi

Theme:  "Oh, I Get It!" - "Oh" sound is added to each theme entry, adjusting spellings as needed.

22A. Glass insulation consideration? : WINDOW CHILL FACTOR. Wind chill factor.

43A. Dessert served to waiting commuters? : DEPOT DISH APPLE PIE. Deep-dish apple pie.

98A. Skits at teatime? : PEKOE PERFORMANCES. Peak performances.

122A. Where clay letters are mailed? : PLAY-DOH POST OFFICE. Played post office. This changes a past tense verb into two words. Very unexpected.

3D. Alaskan butcher's tool? : JUNEAU CLEAVER. June Cleaver.

59D. Fruit used in a numbers game? : BINGO CHERRIES. Bing cherries. Seasonal right now.

So, six long theme entries, 6 different spellings of "Oh" sounds. This is another addition theme that needs creativity and imagination.

The grid is skillfully designed. Frank intersects two sets of the themers. This happens when you have quite a few theme entries, but Frank's choices are rather limited.
 
Across:
       
1. '80s IBM flop nicknamed "Peanut" : PCjr. PC Junior. Unknown to me.

5. "Do I need to draw you __?" : A MAP

9. Give some slack : LOOSEN

15. "Lord, is __?": Matthew : IT I

18. Shivering fit : AGUE

19. Fish-filled fare, frequently : TACO. What kind of fish do you use for fish tacos?

20. High-speed contest : AIR RACE

21. AOL rival : MSN

25. Shanty : HUT

26. Ground : EARTH

27. It may be covered by a wig : NAPE. Not HEAD or DOME.

28. Interval between mi and fa : HALF TONE. And 127. Scale note : SOL

30. Just-in-case strategy : PLAN B

32. Destroyer attacked in Aden in Oct., 2000 : USS COLE. Where were you in Oct 2000? I was in Shanghai for a project.

35. One known for high living? : TIBETAN. Nice clue. Tibetans drink Yak Butter tea every day. Their daily bread is Tsampa, made of barley flour.



36. Beats on streets : ROUTES

38. Buttonless top : TEE

39. This, in Tijuana : ESTO

41. Polite interruptions : AHEMs

42. Firm finish? : INC. Company. I was expecting a suffix.

47. Flo's workplace : MEL'S

49. Go limp : WILT

50. Minuscule time fraction: Abbr. : NSEC

51. Martinique, par exemple : ILE

52. Where Lux. is : EUR. Luxembourg.

54. __ Caesar, slain heir of Emperor Augustus : GAIUS. Drew a blank. Gaius is also Julius Caesar's first name.


56. Like some property : REAL. Only familiar with "Real estate".

58. Ground rule hits: Abbr. : DBLS (Doubles)

62. Gomer Pyle's "Well, I'll be!" : SHAZAM

65. Classic orange soda : FANTA

67. Kit Carson House site : TAOS. New trivia to me.

69. Slip in a pot : IOU.  I kept thinking of my soup pot.

70. Spread quickly online : GO VIRAL

72. Rapscallion : SCAMP

74. Musical section : STRINGS

76. With 125-Down, fictional tall-hat wearer : THE. 125. See 76-Across : CAT. The Cat in the Hat.

77. In a muddle : ASEA

79. Spanish souls : ALMAS. Learning moment to me. We've seen AME clued as "French soul".

81. Puts on : STAGES

82. Kind : SORT

84. Prefix with pad : HELI

86. Short-straw drawer : LOSER

88. Latin 101 verb : AMO

89. Kwik-E-Mart owner on "The Simpsons" : APU

91. Feminine suffix : ENNE. Or ETTE.

93. Overflow (with) : TEEM

95. Old Canadian skit show : SCTV. Second City TV.

104. Step on it, old-style : HIE

105. Start of a fitness buff's motto : USE IT. Or lose it.

106. Entre __ : NOUS

107. Steve Martin won its 2015 Life Achievement Award: Abbr. : AFI (American Film Institute)

108. Porcupine, e.g. : RODENT

110. Salon workers, at times : RINSERS

112. Recent delivery : NEONATE. Tried NEWBORN first.

115. "Phooey!" : NERTS

116. Storage closets : PANTRIES

118. Actress Penélope : CRUZ

119. Cacophonous : AROAR

121. Sugar suffix : OSE. Also 134. Prefix with -itis : OSTE

128. "Hands off!" : ALL MINE!

129. 67, for Beethoven's Fifth : OPUS. I bet Jayce nailed it.

130. Zoom : TEAR. Oh, the "move quickly" Zoom.

131. USCG rank : ENS (Ensigns)

132. Highlands legend nickname : NESSIE

133. Overtakes, in a way : LAPS. New meaning to me.

Down:

1. Dog offering : PAW

2. "Frozen" FX : CGI. FX= Effects. CGI= Computer-generated imagery

4. Household pest : RED ANT

5. Chem class abbr. : AT WT (Atomic Weight)

6. __ Picchu : MACHU

7. "Jiminy!" in Germany : ACH

8. Plants with their own national day every December 12 : POINSETTIAS. Easily guessable.

9. Lacking zip : LIFELESS

10. "... boy __ girl?" : OR A

11. Theater ticket abbr. : ORCH. Orchestra.

12. Perched on : SAT ATOP

13. Beef recall cause : ECOLI

14. "Throw it indoors" toy : NERF BALL

15. Architect of Egypt's Step Pyramid of Djoser : IMHOTEP. Can never remember this guy's name.

16. Quake consequence : TSUNAMI

17. Strong : INTENSE

20. It's for the dogs : ALPO. And 75. Brand at Petco : IAMS

23. "The full-__ moon with unchanged ray": Thoreau : ORBED

24. Like some punch : LACED

29. Tittered : TEHEED
 
30. Proper companion? : PRIM. Prim and proper.

31. Only : LONE

33. Minn. college : ST OLAF. Yay, gimme for me.

34. Surrey town where demo versions of many "White Album" songs were recorded : ESHER. Unfamiliar to me.

37. Put in stitches : SEW

40. "Be quiet," in scores : TACET

44. __ Latin : PIG. Fill in the blank clues can be tricky when you have several other choices.

45. Cable guy, e.g. : INSTALLER

46. Test episodes : PILOTS

48. "If You Knew __...": Quatro album : SUZI. I thought it's SUSIE.

53. __ avis : RARA

55. Donald, to Huey : UNCA

57. Small cells : AAs

60. Theater section : LOGE

61. Work (out) : SUSS. Suss out. Figure out.

62. Certain NCOs : SGTS

63. Twinkie relative : HO HO

64. "Glee" specialty : MASH-UP
 
66. Bullets : AMMO

68. Miss, in much of S.A. : SRTA

71. "Go Set a Watchman" author Harper : LEE. Timely.

73. Soup in "That's Amore" : PASTA FAZOOL. Unknown to me also. Pasta and beans.

78. Last Olds model : ALERO

80. "Already been to that movie" : SEEN IT

83. Lao-tzu follower : TAOIST

85. Just for kicks : IN FUN

87. __ room : REC

90. Book that begins, "All children, except one, grow up" : PETER PAN

92. Heat shield site : NOSE CONE

94. Nice view : MER. Nice the French city.

96. Sunglasses feature : TINT

97. Lab attendants : VETS. Dogs.

98. Aim : PURPOSE

99. Football's "Boomer" : ESIASON. Hi, Boomer, smile!


100. Watchers of boxers : KENNELS

101. Formally approves, formerly : ENSEALS. Not a word I use.

102. Show some spine : MAN UP. And 114. Enjoy thoroughly : EAT UP. Tiny UP dupe.

103. Ben, in Hebrew names : SON OF.  Ibn in Arab names.

109. Ignoring : DEAF TO

111. Lunar valley : RILLE. I only know RILL.

113. "What's Hecuba to him, __ to Hecuba": Hamlet : OR HE

117. Sylvia of jazz : SYMS. Another stranger to me. Update: Thank you, HowardW. (Argyle)



120. Eponymous sea discoverer : ROSS. Ross Sea.

123. 20% of MMDX : DII. 5/1 of 2,510= 502. (Correction: 1/5. Thanks, D-Otto.)

124. Place for sweaters : SPA. Or GYM. Sweat-ers.

126. Afore : ERE


I'd like to introduce you to Hayley Gold's Across and Down, a weekly webcomic about the New York Times crosswords. Hayley's intelligent comments & fun visuals are often more  entertaining than the puzzles themselves. I hope you all subscribe to her site. Enter your email address under "Subscribe".  You'll get a notification when she has a new post out.

C.C.

41 comments:

OwenKL said...

FIW. :-(
Filled everything, but several were WAGs, (3 in PASTA FAZOOL alone, whatever the SHAZAM that is!) so I really didn't expect a ta-da. Reds revealed only one error tho: ESsO+sACET.

A baby will take what is offered and EAT UP.
A toddler will moosh his food, forming a MASH UP.
We never thought it was wild,
What we ate when a child,
But to face new cuisine, as adults we must MAN UP!

There once was an Egyptian who had a new concept.
"A pyramid I'll build," declared Imanhotep.
"A tomb it shall be
To set the soul free.
And to keep wheelchairs out, we'll build it with steps!"

Lemonade714 said...

This is the ultimate CSO as my wife's nickname is Oo. It really was impressive that Frank Virzi managed so many different ways to add the sound.

Other than that a couple of unknowns, RILLE and SYMS and the usual Sunday work.

Thanks Frank and C.C.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

I got the theme very early on, which let me throw down BINGO CHERRIES based solely on the clue, but I still struggled with some of the themes. PLAY-DOH POST OFFICE, in particular, was tough to SUSS out.

In addition to MAN UP and EAT UP, we also had MASH UP (although the latter is a noun instead of a verb).

ESHER was a complete unknown that I had to hope was correct based on the perps.

Tried TOP CAT before THE CAT.

Also tried spelling it PASTA FAZULI before PASTA FAZUL. Not sure why...

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

I struggled in places on this one. My RED ANT started out as a RODENT. He showed up later. ALL MINE was IT'S MINE and NESSIE was DANNIE (I guess they only spell it DANNY). IN FUN? That was INANE. On the other hand, I knew PC JR immediately -- that crummy little toy with the chicklet keyboard. TAOS was a gimme, been there, SEEN IT.

Learning moment #1: ESHER -- with ES____ in place, I confidently inked in ESSEX. D'oh!

Learning moment #2: PASTA FAZOOL is a soup. With "Pasta" in the name, I figured it was, well, like pasta. I do remember the song, though.

Learning moment #3: ESIASON is a sports announcer. I figured he was a player.

IMHOTEP reminds me of The Mummy with Brendan Frazer. That was the mummy's name, and folks were wandering around like zombies intoning, "Imhotep, Imhotep."

Tin should've been happy when Beethoven's Fifth showed up.

C.C., thanx for the writeup. I think you meant 1/5. But I could have gone all day without hearing of "yak butter tea" -- yuk!

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, C.C., and friends. Interesting Sunday Puzzle. DEPOT DISH APPLE PIE was my first theme fill.

My favorite clue was One Known for High Living = TIBETAN.

Firm Finish = INC was another good clue.

In Louisiana law, the term for Real Property is Immovable Property.

Hand up for -ETTE before -ENNE.

Anyone reading Harper LEE's new book yet?

Stay cool, everyone. It hit 100F here yesterday and promises to do the same today.

QOD: No man should advocate a course in private that he’s ashamed to admit in public. ~ George McGovern (July 19, 1922 ~ Oct. 12, 2012)

HowardW said...

Very clever theme, which made this a lot of fun. Got the theme with BINGO CHERRIES, which helped a lot with the other thematic entries. Looked for PASTA E FAGIOLI for 73D, eventually tried PASTA FAGIOL when the OL turned up...but it was PASTA FAZOOL. Dubious about THE CAT, but it panned out. Same with TEHEED -- is that even a word? (M-W has TEEHEE, and as a noun only. Dictionary.com has TEHEED.) Some missteps: PATE for NAPE, ATNO for ATWT, BFI for AFI, HALF NOTE for HALF TONE, ING for INC. Didn't know ESHER or Sylvia SYMS, but had heard of the other proper names, although some (ST. OLAF, IMHOTEP) didn't come to mind quickly. The website I used (Yahoo games) messed up the clue for 123D as "20of MMDX" which stumped me until the D appeared in the answer, which allowed me to infer the missing % sign.

Misled by "Lab attendants" for VETS and "Nice view" for MER, although both tricks have been used before.

Anyway, excellent puzzle! And nice write-up, C.C. I learned a bit about Tibet!

Unknown said...

The Week in Review: M 4:51 T 6:38 W 7:48 T 10:41 F 20:05 S 13:08 S 34:04

Friday: This looked like it was going to be a DNF as the starred fills weren't making any sense. Getting the NINE HOLES theme was essential to figuring this one out.

Saturday: For the second day in a row I was facing a DNF. The triple stack grid-spanners looked daunting but once they fell into place it ended up being a quicker than average completion.

Sunday: An enjoyable puzzle with a clever theme, though the last one took a while to dawn on me. I was stumped with P____OHPOSTOFFICE. Then I WAGged SYMS and the V8 can hit me.

Today will be the warmest day of the summer (so far) here in the hazy, hot, and humid mid-Hudson valley. Temps in the 90s and a heat index in the 100s.

See y'all next weekend.

Husker Gary said...

Frank’s fun theme was also helpful. I went through the top like Sherman went through Atlanta, but the bottom was more like Grant’s siege of Petersburg. Got ‘er done.

Musings
-I couldn’t do this to win an AIR RACE
-Mom had this SHANTY song in this old format
-Crime seems to go down when cops walk a beat/ROUTE (rhymes with bout here)
-Keep cut flowers from WILTING? Here’s some suggestions
-GO VIRAL - A friend posted wrong info last week and she felt horrible
-How Hollywood does a HELIPAD scene
-We would have liked to have known - …boy OR A girl? Some don’t
-TEHEE/TEEHEE, TEPEE/TEEPEE – whatever works
-NBC brass hated the Seinfeld PILOT but went ahead anyway. How’d that turn out?
-Hostess declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2012 but 8 months later were back making Twinkies and HOHO’s
-Lovely MASH-UP of two songs (4:13)
-Can you find pasta fazool in these lyrics?
-Apollo astronauts worried this heat shield on reentry not the NOSE CONE
-Boomer Esiason lost his office when the World Trade Center got destroyed

Yellowrocks said...

Clever theme. I agree, HG, that the top was much faster than the bottom.
Glee seems to appear here often. I will have to get in tune with it instead of waiting for perps.
Finally, APU was a gimme.
I wanted PASTA E FAGIOLI as my recipe calls it. My version calls for sweet Italian sausage. Yummy. There is a large Italian influence here so this delicious soup, as well as Italian wedding soup, is sold in many restaurants. I don't like the spelling PASTA FAZOOL, although I guess it's legit and is in the song.
I knew ESIASON, but needed to move the I before the A.
Does anyone call it a REC room these days? I haven't heard it in years.
I intend to read Harper Lee's new book soon.
I have a nit with 134A. OSTE is the stem or base word, not the prefix. -itis is listed in the dictionary as a suffix to be added to base words. A prefix is not just the first syllable of a word but is a part added before a stem. LA Times puzzles make this mistake frequenty.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was a FIW for me due to Sims/Syms and the unca/almas crossing. Caught the theme early on which helped getting some of the theme answers. To be honest, though, Sundays are not my favorite puzzles. I think they're too big and require too much time and, sometimes, offer little challenge or reward. I much prefer a Saturday Silkie, even if I end up pulling my hair out! End of rant. 😈

Kudos to Mr. Virzi and CC for keeping us entertained and informed.

Very hot and humid here with heavy storms later in the day.

Have a great day.

Lucina said...

Hello, friends!

Last week this puzzle was printed in my newspaper and I recall having fun with it. Today I wanted to see how much I remembered and so filled it quickly. For some reason I can recall Boomer ESIASON's name.

My Natick was at ESHER/TACET. I wanted to spell it TACiT. REAL corrected me.

Thank you, C.C. and Frank. I just wish my paper wouldn't err like that.

Hahtoolah:
I have Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman and plan to read it soon. Likely on my next plane trip which is coming up soon. All the Light We Cannot See is also waiting for me.

Have a wonderful Sunday, everyone!



Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning!

A little cooler and less humid today. Good for the air quality sensitive among us.

Thanks, Frank. I found the theme at JUNEAU CLEAVER. Did a double take at the spelling of clever, and I was on it. Most unusual for me. I laughed at lab attendants! I also had the suss the 20% in the Chicago Tribune. Otherwise, pretty much WES.

Thanks, C.C., and congrats on being "celebrated" in Across and Down. My husband cannot even believe that crossword puzzle blogs exist (he's a quasi Luddite), so I'm not even going to tell him there's a crossword-centric comic strip!!!

Fagioli, ah yes. Most Italians who came to America were from the south of Italy, where the official Tuscan Italian is rife with elision. Fagioli is correctly pronounced "fah-jolie", but most of us who grew up in southern Italian immigrant homes are very familiar with "fa-zool" with a VERY slight, fading "eh" at the end, in my house. For sure, however, it all tastes good! Ciao!

Anonymous said...

"Overflow (with)": TEEM. Finally, a constructor who knows the meaning of the word.

"Lao-Tzu follower" is a TAOIST, confirming that the TAO is not exactly a Confucian concept as was suggested in last Monday's puzzle.

Norman Julius "Boomer" ESIASON was a football player – a quarterback, longest with the Cincinnati Bengals. He led the Bagels to one of their only two Super Bowl appearances (both losses). One of his receivers was Cris Collinsworth, another football commentator today.

OwenKL said...

Bonus limerick:

Some things are a lie, completely untrue;
"I'm from the government, here to help you."
I just can't excuse it:
"USE IT or lose it" --
I don't use my fat, but it still will accrue!

YR: at first I agreed with you about OSTE-, but if it's serving as a prefix, and -itis is the suffix, then what's the stem? OSTEitis is a real word, a bone inflammation (I looked it up because I didn't think it was)!

Lucina said...

Anonymous@11:07
No wonder I remember Boomer Esiason. He played with the Bagels!! (I'm sorry, I can't help myself and know it was just a typo.)

Anonymous said...

The biggest problem with the Cincinnati Bagels was the hole in their defense. And the endless kvetching. And the schmear tactics.

TTP said...

Hi all. Hope everyone has been doing well.

Read some of the write ups from the last few days.

Gary, congratulations on your hole in one ! Nice 9 iron shot. Callaway ? 2nd hole ? You are mostly facing east as you are kneeling by the hole ? The camera was an Apple iPhone ? I was fairly close to the Lincoln Highway on the far side of the 4th state to the east of you.

Steve, I see you threw out a little bit of Nirvana Wednesday with your "Smells Like Teen Spirit" theme, and no one seemed to have noticed. "Here we are now, entertain us..."

80s IBM Flop - had one. Bought it in the fire sale. Still have some new-in-box PCJR options downstairs in a closet. DW bought one too. 3 years before we met. Serendipitous.

Yup. Ran out of spaces spelling PASTAFAGIOLI. Have never seen it spelled FAZOOL in a restaurant. A staple of meatless Fridays for many of my Italian heritage Catholic friends. What say you Dash Tea ?

cont..

TTP said...

IMHO 34D "Surrey town where demo versions of many "White Album" songs were recorded" should have been clued with "written", not recorded, although I'm confident it was probably fact checked, and "demo versions" most likely makes it true. I was confident The Beatles White Album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios.... Tough clue either way...

Suzi Quatro... Joan Jett... Pat Benatar... Still rings no bells ? You remember Suzi from this show ?

We're off shortly to Olive Garden for lunch. I want to try their Chicken Parmigiana Breadstick sandwich. Maybe some Pasta Fagioli w/it.

C6D6 Peg said...

Pretty smooth solve today. Thanks, Frank, for your fun theme and puzzle! Last to suss out was the PLAYDOHPOSTOFFICE.

Thanks, C.C. Agree with D-O about the tea, although the bread does look good!

Big Easy said...

So many unknowns that I had to carefully read C.C.'s write up to know if I did it correctly. ESHER, ST OLAF, the correct spelling ofTACET, ESIASON, IMHOTEP, and especially Louis Prima's PASTA FAZOOL, ALMAS, OSTE, GAIUS, ORBED, AFI, SON OF,SYMS - ALL very hard fills that were mostly perps.

KENNELS- didn't like clue; they are places not people.
HALF NOTES- I would call it out of tune but in some modes they are notes
Never watched Glee so MASHUP was all perps
UNCA or UNCU? AS FIT or USE IT? IT'S MINE or ALL MINE? Way too many false starts but I did complete.

I am glad that I was watching the British Open while doing this puzzle.

Steve said...

I loved Suzi Quatro growing up - I was a teenager with raging hormones and she a girl in black leather pants playing bass guitar - wow! Where's that Teen Spirit?

I didn't know the soup as written in the song. C.C. - I use tilapia for fish tacos, it holds the flavors well.

Pitching in on the White Album/Esher ponderings - George Harrison and John Lennon both had homes in or nearby Esher, and George had a recording studio in his house. The demo versions of songs on the White Album were recorded at George's house, the final mix was recorded at Abbey Road.

My English English let me down briefly for DEPOT DISH APPLE PIE - I tend to pronounce it DEPP-OH, not DEEP-OH.

SwampCat said...

This one defeated me in spite of knowing many of the shorter fill. There were lots of clever clues, too. So thanks, frank and C.C. for the entertainment .

Owen, I loved the limericks. I noticed you spelled the pyramid builder "Imanhotep." That's the way I've always seen it and that didn't fit. Alas....

SwampCat said...

BIG learning moment for me! Imhotep is NOT the same as Imenhotep, (also spelled Amenhotep). Who knew? Will I remember this? Who knows?!

Avg Joe said...

Started out well. I remember the PC Jr. It made a great paperweight. But things slowed down a lot after that and it took a long time to grasp the theme. Once that dawned, though, it was very helpful.

Lots of unknowns, but no true Naticks, so it all worked out...but I do have to admit that I was fully prepared for Imhotep to be flat out wrong.

Steve, I had your same problem with depot. I normally do pronounce it Dee Poh when talking about a train or bus facility, and go with Depp Oh when it's a munitions storage facility., but for some reason my mind went with Depp today. In that vein, I also usually pronounce Gray as Grey.

desper-otto said...

OK, I'll bite. What's the difference in pronunciation between Gray and Grey? Was that a red hair ring?

Anonymous said...

Can someone post the photo of Sylvia Syms, the jazz singer. The photo posted is for the British actress.

Avg Joe said...

Pick a cod. Any cod. And stop carping. I just thought I'd trout that one out there. Have you got a haddock yet.

And here I thought subtlety was my strong suit.

Jayce said...

Fun puzzle today; I enjoyed solving it. Don't know why I wanted MANGO CHERRIES at 59D. WINDOW CHILL FACTOR was my Rosetta Stone (as Hahtoolah likes to say.) Nope, I didn't nail OPUS 67 until I had the OP. Did nail ESIASON, TIBETAN, and IMHOTEP, though, the latter of which also reminded me, as it did desper-otto, of those scenes in The Mummy. Oh, and I also nailed PASTA FAZOOL because of the song made famous by Dean Martin. Having watched and enjoyed many episodes of Inspector Montalbano on the MhZ network, which is set in Sicily, I became intrigued with the dialect spoken there, and my studies eventually led me to the FAZOOL pronunciation. Every language, when spoken quickly, has colloquialisms, such as "gimme," "gonna," and "squeet" in English. We used to derive amusement from the fast pronunciation of the word for "we" in Chinese: "Wum."

Yellowrocks said...

Link medical root words and suffixes
This source lists OS or OSTE as a root or base word meaning bone and ITIS as a suffix meaning inflammation. Also, this seems more logical than having ITIS be the root and OSTE be the prefix.
Yes, this constructor has the meaning of TEEM correct, however there are multiple meanings and the other constructors are not incorrect.
I have found many. many references to TEEMing rain.
The molten metal teemed into the mold.
The prairie is teeming with grasshoppers.
My brain is teeming with ideas.
the teeming inner cities
etc. etc. etc.
I pronounce grey and gray just the same. Also colour and color. British spellings.

Jayce said...

Cod.

Anonymous T said...

Fish puns? Dr. Demento (MA only). C, -T

Mr. Reid said...

I pronounce "read" like "red" and "read" like "reed".

What bugs me is when people pronounce "long-lived" with a long "i".

Bill G. said...

Hi everybody. Nothing new to add. Thanks for the splendid puzzle and writeup; Frank and CC.

The weather here seems brutal today, warm and humid (unusual for this area). It reminds me of summer weather back in Virginia though that was much worse. I don't know how I survived, probably cause I didn't know any better. My parents had central AC installed just after I moved out west. Didn't seem fair.

Fun animal video

Avg Joe said...

Thanks for playing with the fishy attempt at humor all.

Bill G, same deal with me. Within a year of my moving out, AC was installed. Equally curious, we had roughly 2 acres of lawn. I mowed it with a push mower (self-propelled the last few years, but still..). The rider showed up in that first year too.

Thought of you today. An American President was on great flick!

Better get to it. We're Thai-ing one on for supper. Duty calls.

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks, Frank and CC!

Fun theme!

Got stuck in corner with ESIASON and cheated. Otherwise OK.

Unbelievable as it was, it RAINED yesterday in Northridge. New leak in roof close to iMac. Close one.

Cheers!

HowardW said...

Anon (3:46 PM) Well spotted.

Here's the singer Sylvia Syms. And another.

Bill G. said...

AC, riding mowers, etc. What were they trying to tell us?

An American President. Very enjoyable I thought. Did you remember that I liked it? I liked "Dave" too. Similar in some ways.

Avg Joe said...

"What were they trying to tell us?" In our absence, they could afford luxuries not previously within reach. At least that's my take.

Of course I remembered you liked the movie. That's why I mentioned it. And yes. Dave is similar in subject. The thing I was most amazed by today, when watching An American President, was that how things remain the same 20 years later. The same battles are being fought, but it's intractable. You'd think we'd learn. We're forked.

Argyle said...

HowardW, I updated the blog, thank you.

Argyle said...

♫Sylvia Syms♫...All My Tomorrows...orchestra conducted by Frank Sinatra.
Song(4:40)

Anonymous said...

Worst inane puzzle in a long time. u can do better!