google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday July 5, 2015 Mark Bickham

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Jul 5, 2015

Sunday July 5, 2015 Mark Bickham

Theme:  "All Together Now" - Each theme answer is a group of surnames of well-known people with the same given names hinted in the clue.

22A. Gene pool? : KELLY RODDENBERRY AUTRY. All in entertainment business.

39A. Bills piling up? : GATES MURRAY COSBY BLASS. I recall seeing  OUTSTANDING BILLS clued with a group of Bill's.

68A. Art gallery? : GARFUNKEL MONK BUCHWALD

92A. Robins' nest? : QUIVERS TUNNEY WILLIAMS. The first two might be challenging to some. Robin Quivers is with The Howard Stern Show. Robin Tunney is known for her role in The Mentalist

113A. Buddy list? : RICH EBSEN HACKETT HOLLY. All famous. Works perfectly with the clue.

In the old Tribute Media Daily puzzles, this type would be clued just as "Three Mikes", "Three Toms", "Three more Toms",  etc, regardless whether the clues are solid in-the-language phrase hinting at the collection of surnames.

Mark furthers restricted his theme entries to 21-letters, hence the omission of Carney and Linkletter for 68A, in case you wonder. Five spanners are very hard to maneuver on Sundays.

 Across:

1. National animal of Malaysia : TIGER. I know this trivia.

6. Place for a speaker : DAIS

10. Paper pieces : OP-EDS

15. Hand-off recipients: Abbr. : RBS. Running backs. Got me.

18. Tone sequence : SCALE

19. Many an Indian : HINDU

20. It doesn't happen often enough : RARE TREAT. Love the clue/answer.

25. 1989 World Champion figure skater : ITO (Midori)

 26. Plant : SOW. Not SPY.

27. Unimpressive bunch : SAD LOT

28. Beatles song with the line "And she promises the earth to me" : GIRL

29. 1898 chemical discovery : NEON. Look at this neon text message. Amazing.


31. Eye or sun : ORB

33. Chairman __ : MAO

34. Emilia's husband : IAGO.  "Othello".

38. Wedding column word : NEE

44. Jazz guitarist Montgomery : WES

45. Hammock happenings : NAPS. I could not find that picture of you solving crossword in a hammock, Dave. Where did it go?

46. Animal groups : FAUNAE. Crossing 43. Onion cousin : LEEK. So no *E or *S dilemma.

47. Rock band with the hit "Edison's Medicine" : TESLA

50. Square with roots : SOD. Nice clue.

51. Name names : SING

52. Shoulder muscle, for short : DELT

55. Come into : INHERIT

57. Map of Alaska, often : INSET

60. "Think this looks good on me?" : LIKE IT?

62. Frozen Four org. : NCAA

63. Bar entertainment : KARAOKE. Weekly actively when I lived in Tsingtao area.

65. Pool color : AQUA

67. Rain-__: bubble gum brand : BLO

72. Seer's supposed skill : ESP

73. Work with feet? : POEM. Noun "Work" here. Also 122. Type of 73-Across : ODE

74. Part of it is now a desert : ARAL SEA

75. Staging __ : AREA

76. Go back and forth : SEESAW

78. ___ Islands: Taiwan Strait archipelago : MATSU. It's spelled as Mazu in Chinese.

79. Flash drive slot : USB PORT

81. Mouth build-up : SILT. River mouth.

82. Utah city on I-15 : OREM

84. Shipping rope : TYE. Wow, have not seen this word for a long time.

86. Conditioner bottle directive : RINSE

87. (Having) come up : ARISEN

89. Hatchet relative : ADZE

91. It may be made or laid : BET

100. Member of the fam : UNC (Uncle)

101. Morales of "Caprica" : ESAI. He needs to get into a big movie to stay relevant.

102. Deadly snake : ASP

103. Toledo title: Abbr. : SRA

104. Lose it : SNAP

105. Busy : AT IT

107. Sugarcane-scraping machine : RASPER. Learning moment to me. Like this?


110. Pack animal : ASS

112. Warning from a small house : GRR

119. Showed, in a way : TELEVISED

120. Picked : CHOSE

121. Ninja Turtles' human pal April __ : O'NEIL. Stranger to me as well.

123. More than ready to go : ANTSY. Boomer got his National Senior Games credentials on Friday. Inspiring crowd. The guy behind us in the check-in line is a 91-year-old golfer from New Mexico.


124. Company with collectible trucks : HESS

125. Very small : TEENY

Down:

1. It may be accompanied by finger-wagging : TSKING

2. Arnold Palmer ingredient : ICE TEA. I still prefer Iced tea.

3. Stumblebum : GALOOT.  Also 70. Hardly dexterous : KLUTZY

4. Legal side? : ELL. Legal.

5. Husband-and-wife creators of Curious George : REYS


6. Impersonated : DID

7. Afterthoughts : ANDs

8. Brainstorming tool : IDEA MAP

9. Components of a very long month? : SUNDAYS.  Month of Sundays.

10. Milk go-with : OREO

11. Biased : PARTISAN

12. Goof : ERR

13. "N __ Say": Nelly song : DEY. Not familiar with the song. What does N Dey mean?

14. RR stop : STA

15. Eye part : RETINA

16. Dance studio aids : BARRES

17. Dos : STYLES

19. Texter's greeting : HOW R U?

21. Persian, e.g. : RUG

23. Shares a place (with) : ROOMS. Those idealistic college years.

24. Allied group : BLOC

30. Symbol of a fresh start : NEW LEAF

32. Moravian city : BRNO. Largest city there. Second largest in Czech.

35. Put __ in one's ear : A BUG

36. MD for women : GYN

37. One of the Minor Prophets : OBADIAH. Here is the list.

40. Barely burn : SEAR

41. Goodyear offering : RADIAL

42. Out __: confused : OF IT

47. Nuances : TINGES

48. Fully surrounds : ENCASES

49. Chinese dog breed : SHAR PEI. Literally "Sand skin". Cantonese.

50. Claim, with "out" : STAKE

51. Taken for : SEEN AS

53. Early upscale Chrysler : LeBARON. Another unknown to me.

54. Farm machines : TILLERS

56. "__, right?": "You said it!" : I KNOW

58. Polite refusal : NO MA'AM

59. Hybrid tennis garment : SKORT. Golf too.

60. Vader creator : LUCAS (George)

61. As of now : TO DATE

64. "Everybody Hurts" band : R. E. M.

65. Six-pack makeup : ABs

66. Netflix list : QUEUE

69. In hot water : UP A TREE

71. Forest rangers? : WAPITIS. Cute clue.

77. Pole, for one : SLAV

78. Source of many an order : MENU. Have any of you tried sesame balls before? For many years, two freshly-made sesame balls were my standard breakfast.



80. Belgian balladeer Jacques : BREL

82. Mount between Pelion and Olympus : OSSA

83. Ones out of work : RETIREES

85. Conifers yielding elastic wood : YEWS

88. Org. with complex schedules : IRS

89. Susan of "Five Easy Pieces" : ANSPACH. Another stranger to me. This puzzle is quite name-heavy.


90. __ Mode: English band : DEPECHE. What's their most famous song?

91. Great time : BLAST

92. Book size : QUARTO

93. Trip-inducing, as shoelaces : UNTIED

94. Eaves dropper? : ICICLE

95. "Candy is dandy" poet : NASH

96. Fuming : IRATE

97. "Eat Drink Man Woman" director : ANG LEE. I saw the movie ages ago. Food feast.

98. Miami athlete : MARLIN

99. With pep in one's step : SPRYLY

106. Widely read article? : THE. Indeed. I often skip THE. Chinese does not have definite article.

108. Hardy of old films : ANDY

109. Bygone theaters : RKOs

111. No longer usable : SHOT

114. Green of "Penny Dreadful" : EVA. Also the Bond Girl in Casino Royale.


115. Bargain __ : BIN

116. JFK sight, once : SST

117. It has two of itself in it : ESS. Easy in retrospect.

118. Unified : ONE


C.C.

37 comments:

  1. Greetings!

    Thanks, Mark and CC! Swell theme!

    Those that were mostly perped were: TESLA, MATSU, ONEIL, BLO, REYS and HESS. Otherwise fine. Knew all of the names in the theme. (Resent seeing cosby.) No cheats.

    CC: DEY is slang for "they" here, I suppose.

    Cheers!

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  2. Morning, all!

    Short on time this morning, heading off to breakfast and the flea market.

    Got the theme early on, but struggled to come up with all the names. The entire northern section was largely impenetrable at first, but I was able to get through it thanks to some WAGS at the end (I"m looking at you, IDEA MAP and DEY).

    Wife and I have been enjoying "Penny Dreadful" on Showtime. A little heavy on the nudity and sex at times, but very well written and acted with a rivieting plot.

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  3. Hello Puzzlers -

    WBS, except for the part about Penny Dreadful. Don't think I've heard of it.

    Morning, C.C., you were so right - Quivers and Tunney were all perps, and crossing with Anspach didn't make things easier. I've heard of Depeche Mode but haven't a clue about their work.

    Until last night, I had no idea of the professional grade fireworks still available to the public in some states. Holy cow! A friendly competition for the biggest booms among lakeside cottage owners showed us what's possible. (Gotta get me some of that...) :-)

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  4. Good morning!

    Shot my foot at the start with TSK TSK at 1d. Finally fixed that error. But two squares threw a monKey wrench into the works. I spelled it CLUTZY, resulting in Art MONC. And I could only read it as "Hammock opening" rather than "happening." That kept NAPS from showing up So I tried IDEA MAN. Bzzzzt!

    C.C., "N Dey Say" would be dialect for "And They Say." I thought it was cute the way you left the article out of the sentence in which you mentioned that the Chinese language doesn't have a definite article. That's right up there with plurable.

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  5. 117a what am I missing? There is one S in itself, please explain and thanks

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  6. C.C. To call this puzzle 'name heavy' is a mild understatement. After the first pass I was about ready to quit. Nothing was working until I somehow noticed B_CH__LD from the perps and looked at the 68A clue and it was game on, but it wasn't easy.

    This has to be the most unknowns that I have ever successfully perped in a COMPLETED puzzle. QUIVERS, TUNNEY, QUARTO, REYS, DEY, Emilia's IAGO, TESLA, BRNO, MATSU, ONEIL, REM, ( I did like the "Everybody Hurts" clue crossing KARAOKE, which is a place where everybody's ears hurt.), BREL, ANSPACH, DEPECHE, NASH, ANG LEE, EVA, and ANDY. Oliver Hardy maybe but not ANDY Hardy. Add UNC, with CLAN,SECT or BLOC, and either STN or STA, and I was not off the the races.

    IDEA MAP- is that a new term for 'flow chart'?
    Chrysler LEBARON with corinthian leather, Ricardo Montalban commercial
    A 'Square with roots" is not actually a 'square', it's a rectangle, usually 24" X 12"
    My favorite clue was "in hot water" because it didn't lead to the eventual UP A TREE.

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  7. Good Morning, C.C., and friends. I caught the theme early on, but it took a pass or two to get all the names in the group. Did you know that Gene Autry's given name was actually Orvon Grover Autry.

    H.A. and Margret REY had an interesting life.

    My first thought was Cat for Persian instead of a RUG.

    I also wanted Bounce instead of Spryly for the Pep in One's Step.

    I finally remembered the correct spelling of EDAI Morales's name. He makes frequent guest appearances in the crosswords, but I don't believe I have ever seen him in any movies or tv shows.

    I hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th of July.

    QOD: Without promotion, something terrible happins … nothing! ~ P.T. Barnum (July 5, 1810 ~ Apr. 7, 1891).

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  8. Junior- if your pronounce 'S', it is pronounced 'ESS', the TWO letters S

    BTW, do you still wear the red sock on the RIGHT FOOT so you can tell your left from your right?

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  9. REY DEY (sorry Susan) a puzzle where not only the is names but so are so many clues/fill.

    MATSU and ONEIL were unknowns and while the theme names were familiar, building the answers was hard.

    Mark Bickham always makes me work and on Sunday that is a challenge

    Thanks C.C. and Mark, good luck Boomer

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  10. Whew, a toughie today! Did not know Robin QUIVERS or TUNNEY. Nor TESLA (the band), TYE, RASPER, April O'NEIL, IDEA MAP (guessable), DEY, ANSPACH. Had Art MOss before Art MONK. Who's Art Moss? A mis-remembered Art Ross, hockey eponym. Bah! Somehow dusted off MATSU and REYS from the mental attic, and slowly got the rest of it, too.

    Thanks C.C. for a great summary, and Mr. Bickham for the challenge.

    Hope everyone had a bang-up Fourth!

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  11. The Week in Review: M 5:18 T 8:17 W 7:03 T 9:11 F 13:55 S 17:24 S 26:06

    Saturday: Unknowns KATEY Stone and REXES meant that the SW was the last to fall.

    Sunday: Oddly enough, BUCHWALD was the first theme name filled. At first I thought the completed answer would be something about him but the other theme clues fixed that. The final WAG was KELLY which opened up (or, rather, helped close) the NW. Robin TUNNEY was the only unknown theme entry.

    See y'all next week.

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  12. WEES said. Too many names - which are my downfall in crosswords, anyway. But I slogged through and finally got everything. Last to fill was a SWAG at the N crossing ANSPACH and TUNNEY.

    C.C., you mentioned sesame balls, and I had to look those up. I found out they are very common in China. And They come in different flavors and sizes. Here are some really big ones.

    Hahtoolah, you may have finally remembered the correct spelling of ESAI Morales, but your fingers belie your words. ;-)

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  13. Thanks Big Easy, by the way, on twitter last week, there was add a cajun name to a band,with some funny ones (to me) like Mais u2, Fleetwood maque choux, Bruce springsteen syrup and so on I have always known Esai from Labamba, though I don't know if I ever seen him clued as such.And yes to socks LOL

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  14. Marti! Really? Big balls? This is pg rated site!

    I was going to give Susan a pass on the EDAI typo, but it was funny.

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  15. Marti: At least I got it "write" in the puzzle!!!

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  16. Good Morning:

    This was a FIW for me due to Idea man/Idea map and tans/naps; Brto looked strange but I left it. Otherwise, it was all pretty straightforward.
    The only name I didn't know was Robin Quivers. Sunday puzzles are not really to my liking, especially if they have a simplistic theme. I do, however, admire the talent and creativity of the constructors.

    Thanks to Mark and CC for a smooth Sunday sojourn.

    Have a great day.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hello,

    Thanks, Mark. I was about ready to quit as the clock was barreling away and I have a lot to do when suddenly I noticed AUTRY in the Gene pool. Ah, ha. I was able to finish. I was missing a lot of letters in the groups thereby foiling the downs.

    Thanks C.C. for the explication, and for making this such a nice place for us to hang out.

    Enjoy the day!

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  18. Welp, no one else answered C.C., so here goes.

    DEPECHE Mode, always spoken with a exaggerated nasal Frawnch accent even though they're English, has had many hits. The album/CD "Violator" is a must have for one's collection had 2 commercial hits: "Enjoy the Silence" and my favorite,Personal Jesus.

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  19. Fictional ANDY Hardy unlocked one bad section and I was home free! A perfect Sunday mélange even with obscure ROBINS!

    Musings
    -I got yer TIGERS right here
    -In the glory days, Huskers used IB’S (I-backs) that dotted the I instead of RB’S
    -The fires in the NW have colored our ORB reddish orange
    -SOD farms are delayed because of constant rain here
    -“Think this looks good on me?” is a nuanced question husbands! Be careful!
    -Perps took care of pesky KAROAKE spelling for me
    -The most important staging AREA of the last century
    -Despite obscurity, ESAI and ONO seem to find work in our corner of the world
    -TSKING not TSKTSK?
    -Early TELEVISED shows always had someone who DID Cagney and Stewart
    -Omaha TV station KETV is renovating this old abandoned RR STA into a state of the art TV STA
    -STAKE OUT claim for Omaha concert
    -Very simple IRS form
    -Good luck Boomer!!

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  20. Not sure if the picture for RASPER is accurate. Looks like some sort of juicer to me. Not sure exactly what a rasper is either but this is a picture that keeps popping up in my searches.

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  21. It seems the purpose of the rasper is to grate the cane to powder and then press it into juice. The one C.C. pictured might be a personal size one.

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  22. Thanks, C.C. WES about the name-heavy stuff.

    What's GRR got to do with a small house? That's got me puzzled.

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  23. Steve, I think that refers to a warning to stay away, given by a dog from inside its doghouse. I think.

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  24. Anon @ 11:36 - Cute dog house and cuter dog. The dog looks like more of a yipper than a grrr-er, though. 😎

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  25. Lots of proper names, but got through them without too much damage. Loved the cluing for the theme entries. Thanks, Mark, for a nice challenge.

    Loved your write-up, C.C. Never heard of sesame balls, but they look interesting!

    Hope all had a nice 4th!

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  26. Though no source was cited, it looks like the image of the sugar cane juicer came from this 2011 blog post from Guangzhou.

    It seems that whether you call a machine that separates the juice from the pulp a "juicer" or a "RASPER" depends on whether you're doing it to obtain the juice (as in the image) or to obtain the pulp (to process into cane sugar?).

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  27. OK, "Legal side?" = ELL is the sorriest damn entry I have ever seen in what is supposed to pass for a literate crossword puzzle. "Beginning," maybe; "ending," maybe. But a legal side is PROSECUTION (or PLAINTIFF) or DEFENSE. "SIDEBAR" if you want to clue a "Conference at the bench" (a "legal aside," if you will).

    ReplyDelete
  28. Good morning C.C. and all,

    I got through this one with red letter help and lots of laughs, usually for my inaccurate answers. Took awhile to "get" some of the clues, but then highly enjoyed them.Never did understand quarto for book size. Finished up by going thru the vowels to fill in sod crossing Brno(I've already forgotten it). Thanks Mark and CC for an enjoyable hour +.

    I always get Depeche Mode confused with Tears for Fears..must have been popular at the same time.

    Enjoy your Sunday. I'm about to make a key lime pie to celebrate a hopeful win over Japan this afternoon.

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  29. Take a large sheet of paper. Print two "pages" (side by side) on one side and two "pages" on the other side. Fold in half and you've got a four-page folio edition. Print four "pages" (in a 2X2 grid) on one side and four "pages" on the other side. Fold in half, then in half again, and you've got an eight-page quarto edition.

    "The earliest known European printed book is a quarto, the Sibyllenbuch, believed to have been printed by Gutenberg in 1452–53, before the Gutenberg Bible." - Wikipedia

    Which makes this as good a time as any to post a link to this hilarious video about medieval tech support (more than 4.5 million views!).

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  30. JD - They were both around the same time...

    I think of Depeche Mode as club music (Personal Jesus is a fav too) and Tears for Fear w/ Real Genius. Then there's Simple Minds (Don't You Forget About Me) in Breakfast Club.

    Why yes, I'm a product of the '80s :-) Cheers, -T

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  31. Spent yesterday putting up then taking down flags for my Lions Club, so went to bed early and slept late. Just finished the puzzle and read the blog, so too late for any poems today.

    FIW. No ta-td, so I was forced to hit the check button. All were words that had puzzled me, but with crosses I was very sure of. I was sure of A Bee>A BUG & OBeDIAH>OBADIAH; but puzzled by FAeNeE>FAUNAE & SINe>SING. I was sure of SnA>SRA, but puzzled by InATE>IRATE.
    What I did get took several passes, and WAGs or perps for a few names (MONK, MATSU, ANGLEE, BRNO, DEY, REYS, and the spellings of ones I knew, BREL, DEPECHE and O'NEIL). GARFUNKEL was the first I recognized, which gave me the gimmick. TUNNEY I got by a mix-up, cause I was thinking of GENE TUNNEY, the boxer!

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  32. I liked this puzzle a lot. I, too, got BUCHWALD first, then RODDENBERRY, which gave me the gimmick. It was fun running names through my head to find which ones fit. The only person I didn't know was Art MONK. And because I wanted CLUMSY instead of KLUTZY, Art MONC seemed odd but okay to me. I knew YEW tree but, GALOOT that I am, I spelled it EWE. Then ADZE set me straight on both those matters. I think Robin TUNNEY is cute. I think ESAI Morales is handsome. LW and I saw Buddy RICH in concert once years ago. He is not handsome, but he was a good drummer.
    Looking forward to the USA-Japan soccer match today.
    Best wishes to you all and I trust you all still have all your fingers.

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  33. @Bluehen and @Anonymous - thanks, it seems so obvious now!

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  34. Hello, Friends!

    Late again. Usually I finish the Sunday puzzle prior to leaving for church. Not today; it was a hard slog. At first I could only see gibberish coming up on the theme answers, then GARFUNKEL and a great big light bulb turned on! I quickly went to all the themes and knew most of the names except Robin TUNNEY, and Art MONK.

    By that time I had quite a bit of the other fill and then it was finished in a SNAP. I did have to check on OBADIAH and guessed at April O'NEIL but ascertained it was right.

    Anonymous@12:35
    I think you should look at the spelling of legal, there is an ELL (l) on each side of it. It's merely a play on that. Does anyone else think so?

    Thank you, Mark Bickham for a fun challenge. I first thought I would hate this but after cracking the code, I realized it is brilliant.

    Thank you, C.C., for recapping it all. Good luck to Boomer!

    I hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  35. This was tough! But it was solvable. Took well over an hour, but got it eventually. Liked the theme, where my first fill was Cosby, giving the key away. Knew all the proper theme names, to varying degrees, except Quiver. Some of the others,such as Eva, were all perps. But despite that aspect, there were no Naticks. So, despite being among the toughest Sunday puzzles I can recall, it was satisfying once solved.

    We're having a Florida day here. 93 currently, with high humidity. Butt ugly! I despise this weather. But on the flip side, we have had adequate rainfall, so it could be a lot worse. It's far better than what the left coast is going through right now.

    ReplyDelete

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