We get our third Mike Buckley effort of 2015 with this one a sound-alike pun effort. Puns are based on humor which is such a subjective area I would guess some of you will really enjoy the theme while other will be meh. I enjoyed the theme and appreciate the extra challenge of having both parts of the theme changed to sound alike. The rest of the puzzle has some real sparkle like ASSISI, DEANNA, I RAISE, MAZDAS, PINDAR, PRAWNS, SINKER, TICTAC, YTTRIA, DEPECHE, MIAMIAN, SURGEON, AS EASY AS, NEPOTIST, PECOS BILL, SAWHORSES and some very difficult places. The three across two down pattern also was fun.
18A. Composer Dvorák in hiding? : CACHED CZECH (11). This cashed check transforms into a musical clue. LINK.
38A. Demands for quiet from the downstairs tenant? : CEILING WHACKS (13). Sealing wax is not commonly used anymore, but the clue does bring back this SONG (3:00).
58A. Wildebeests slowing down? : BRAKING GNUS (11). My favorite mental picture comes from this breaking news.
3D. Walked by a campsite? : PASSED TENTS (11). Walked is whimsically past tense.
26D. Poor jousters? : WEAK KNIGHTS (11). Can you watch them on week nights on ESPN?
Let's see what we have.
Across:
1. Spot : PIP. Like on a die.
4. "My Name Is Asher Lev" author : POTOK. Chaim Potok has written many wonderful books and appeared in puzzles often.
9. Normandy beachhead : OMAHA. No Nebraska clue on a Friday; will the next generation remember?
14. Rollover __ : IRA. This has become on of the most common of fills.
15. Send packing : EVICT.
16. Jazz section : SAXES. Your choice, this, or the music below?
17. "Hip Hop Is Dead" artist : NAS.
20. Misrepresent : DISTORT.
22. Main part : LEAD. In a play, or movie.
23. No harder than : AS EASY AS. An odd looking stretch of letters, which is good but it is a partial which I was told was bad, so ?!?
25. Edible decapods : PRAWNS. Meaning having 10 legs: Steve and Nice Cuppa can explain this more but DIFFERENCE.
29. Provide new audio for : REDUB. My son tried to get me to appreciate dubstep music.
30. More than square : CUBE. Cute.
32. Council position : SEAT.
33. Adjust, as sails : TRIM. I watched a You tube on how to sail by yourself.
35. Mythical elephant carriers : ROCS. You want to read about it? HERE.
37. "Aladdin" monkey : ABU.
41. Your Moment of __: Jon Stewart's show ender : ZEN. Obama ordered him to stay.
42. Spike : LACE. As in "lace the punch"; this was very tricky 4 letter fill.
43. Fuzzy Endor native : EWOK. Star Wars VII is coming!
44. They're often smashed : SOTS. No Tinbeni comments here, please.
46. Ellington's "__ Indigo" : MOOD. The Duke.
48. Nearby : HANDY.
51. Umbria tourist town : ASSISI. This is the landlocked part of Italy, unlike 66A. Resort off the Sorrentine Peninsula : CAPRI. This is an island.
53. One who keeps it in the family : NEPOTIST. WE all have heard of nepotism, so I guess this word exists.
55. Sports gp. with three divisions : NCAA.
57. "The Kids Are __": 1979 The Who documentary : ALRIGHT.
62. One of Kramden's hardy followers? : HAR.
63. Staff symbol : C CLEF. Music notation. 8D. "Hooked on Classics" co. : K TEL. 49D. Note in the key of B major : D SHARP. A mini-theme ?
64. Singer's asset : RANGE.
65. Ode opener? : TRI. Triode.
67. Gather together : AMASS.
68. Post-workout destination : SPA.
Down:
1. "The test of any man lies in action" odist : PINDAR. From Thebes in Ancient Greece.
2. Game challenge : I RAISE. Betting games.
4. Lover of Slue-Foot Sue : PECOS BILL. This romantic STORY.
5. Subject for Italian anatomist Fallopius : OVARY. He also invented the English subway, hence its name- the Fallopian Tube.
6. Certs alternative : TICTAC. Paddy whack...
7. "Alas!" from a lass : OCH. How is your Gaelic?
9. Grouch in a can : OSCAR. Sesame Street lives on.
10. Protegés, e.g. : MAZDAS. This took a long time to remember with the last one in the model year 2003.
11. Fire : AXE.
12. Crime-solver Ramsey of 1970s TV : HEC. The second incarnation of Richard Boone, more famous as Paladin.
13. Krakatoa output : ASH.
19. "Exciter" band __ Mode : DEPECHE. Lots of MUSIC if you are bored.
21. Alpha __, star in the Bull constellation : TAURI. This huge ORANGE star, known as Alderbarran is not related to the more familiar Alpha Centauri.
24. Cutting-edge professional? : SURGEON. Really sharp humor.
27. Snares : NABS.
28. Former Beatle Sutcliffe : STU. He left the band to pursue his work as a painter, but died at 22.
34. Dolphin, e.g. : MIAMIAN. A bit tricky but not down here in SoFla.
36. Cutting supports : SAWHORSES.
38. Co. VIPs : CEOS. Chief Executive Officers. Next to...
39. Sgt. maj., e.g. : NCO. Non-Commissioned Officer.
40. Tropical raccoon kin : COATI. You want to know more? READ.
41. Half a Gabor? : ZSA. Better than half a fly.
45. Angling aid : SINKER.
47. Counselor in Jean-Luc's command : DEANNA. Ms. Troi gets more ink than Jean-Luc.
50. Oxide in incandescent gas mantles : YTTRIA. I do not even know what a gas mantle is, but this was interesting to READ.
52. Space opera genre : SCI-FI.
54. Promotions : PLUGS. Once you see it this is easy, but it took a while.
56. Uttar Pradesh tourist city : AGRA.
58. Discreet email letters : BCC. The B is for blind, meaning you are not telling them to whom you are sending it to.
59. Nipper's label : RCA. Radio Corporation of America.
60. High peak : ALP. Another marti CSO.
61. Moll's leg : GAM. A great word from all the pulp and detective fiction I have read. Do you recognizes these gams from this old TV show where the actresses face never appeared?
Lemonade out.
FIW. POTaK+aCH was my downfall. And here I was thinking I was doing a good job getting it all finished.
ReplyDeleteBeams from Superman's oculars?
Bags a perp named Ezra?
View white scenery in Dover?
What actress Sandra is playing in heaven?
Many people here read the postings from the night before. I don't know if it's 20% or 80%, but I'm sure it's not everyone, so here is a poem I posted late yesterday:
It's called the Crossword Corner, but it's really more than that.
It's where like-minded people come to have a pleasant chat.
Oh sure, the crossword puzzle is our raison d'être
But it's far from being only that, for friends who come this way!
We share our fails and triumphs, our blessings and our fears,
With others who are on this blog, some going on for years.
We all love words and wordplay, be it puns or picture memes,
But when our words are said and done, still friendship's lantern gleams.
As Thumper says, say nothing if you've nothing good to say.
For harmony is found right here, and here we'll let it stay!
Oh, those questions I asked above? Eye rays, sacks Ez, see cliff, and Dee's harp. They're a pinwheel in the puzzle grid.
Morning, all!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a challenge for me today. As always, I love a good pun, but these were harder to suss out this time around and required a lot more perp help. Which is to say the base phrases were fairly well known, but the cluing and the puns themselves were a bit on the tortured side.
I really enjoyed some of the cluing for the rest of the fill. "One of Kramden's hardy followers" for HAR was fantastic, for example. I'm still scratching my head over "more than square" for CUBE, however. I get where it's going, but shouldn't it be CUBIC?
Learning moment of the day was discovering that the very well known Aldebaran is also known as Alpha TAURI.
Hello Puzzlers -
ReplyDeleteThis thing looked bleak at first, but a few anchors found their way in. I was glad we had Depeche Mode recently, otherwise that would have been unknown.
Barry G - I see it as verb. You can square a digit, or cube a digit.
Morning Lemon, that was an interesting arrangement of Mood Indigo.
Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. I loved these puns, but this puzzle did present a challenge. My first theme answer was the CACHED CZECH.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite clue was More than Square = CUBE. It's a mathematical reference. 3 squared is 9 (3x3); 3 Cubed is 27 (3x3x3).
ZSA ZSA is still kicking at 98. She was born in 1917 and has been married 3 squared times.
I also liked the Grouch in a Can = OSCAR.
My first thought for Nearby was Close not HANDY.
Chaim POTOK (1929 ~ 2002) is one of my favorite authors.
Still reeling over the shooting at the movie theater in Lafayette, LA last night. Several of my co-workers live in that city.
QOD: No one can lie, no one can hide anything, when he looks directly into someone’s eyes. ~ Paulo Coelho (b. July 24, 1947)
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteI am enjoying Lemon's Dvorak link as I write this. I really liked this puzzle, though it seemed tougher than your average Friday offering. Saturday solvers beware!
Nice CSO to Husker with OMAHA.
The first week of my retirement I rolled over my Fidelity 401K to a Vanguard IRA. It's easier to manage when all of the accounts are in the same place.
Dudley, thanks for the CUBE explanation. I had the same thoughts as Barry.
Owen, enjoyed your poem, but you should be aware that "raison d'être" doesn't rhyme with "way." It sounds like this.
Instead of "Nearby" 48a could have been clued as "A W.C." -- that would've been fiendish.
Lemon, a "gas mantle" is that cotton-like mesh bag in a gas lantern.
Fun, but very difficult puzzle. Had the most trouble in the NNW, but it all came together. Theme breaker was Braking Gnus, but didn't really grasp the double pun until passed tents. Favorite clue was half a Gabor. Easy, but so whimsical you just had to laugh.
ReplyDeleteI loved this puzzle today - thanks for the fun write-up, Lemony! My favorite entry was CEILING WHACKS.
ReplyDeleteNice math on Zsa Zsa's marriage history, Hahtoolah!
Good Friday morning all.
ReplyDeleteTough puzzle, but fun once solved. I liked the puns.
Had more than a fair amount of first pass fill, but having shrimp in lieu of PRAWNS, REmix instead of REDUB, and close for nearby did not help. Finally worked out DEPECHE Mode. That was my Rosetta stone for unlocking the northeast corner.
That NE corner was strange for me. I served with a DVORAK while in Mannheim. He was from OMAHA. He traveled across the border from Germany into CZECHoslovakia to visit relatives. That took some nerve in the 70s.
SURGEON and HANDY were clever misdirections. MIAMIAN would be pretty tough for folks that don't follow sports. Ditto NCAA.
Daily DOH! moment was Kramden's hardy follower.
I'd better get hoppin'. Have outdoor task to complete, and it's going to be in the upper 80s today.
PJE from last evening. Thanks. I will find fun things to do in retirement, but today I'll finish filling in the cracks in the driveway.
See all y'all later n'at!
OOPS, Had to come back for a few minutes. Thank you to Mike Buckley and Lemonade.
ReplyDeleteHahtoolah, I'm with you. Another senseless act in Lafayette, LA. Here Lafayette, IN is also in the news this morning as 5 people died in a crash on I-65.
Also, I loved how you connected the clue for CUBE to ZSA ZSA.
This homophone-homonym-pun puzzle was way too tough for me today. BRAKING GNUS was the only one I correctly filled. The SW was the only part I filled. Too many unknowns for me. Who knew that YTTRIA was ytrium oxide. I thought it might be plural yttriums. HAR! HAR! ( which I didn't fill either).
ReplyDeletePOTAK, ZEN, ROCS, MOOD, EWOK, ALRIGHT, NAS, PECOS BILL, HEC,DEANNA (or Jean-Luc), DEPECHE, TAURI, YTTRIA- not knowing any of these doomed me from the start. Couldn't get a foothold. It didn't help that I misspelled COATI as KOATI and ASSISI as ASISSI. Opened 'Ode' with TO A instead OF TRI and 'more than square as COOL instead of CUBE.
Good misdirecting clues for NEPOTIST, SURGEON, & NEPOTIST. But I don't want to DISTORT the facts; for me, this puzzle was about AS EASY AS landing a rocket on an asteroid.
I surrender.
Easy YTTRIA is the plural; Latin words which end in UM are made plural by replacing the UM with A such as BACTERIUM - BACTERIA.
ReplyDeleteHahtoolah has raved about Chaim Potok's books everytime he is mentioned; his name has two Os just as hers does.
ReplyDeleteWaaaaay over my head today! But fun to try . I was pleased ...and surprised... I got as many as I did. Thanks, Mike. And Lemonade, the critique was magnifique! Merci!
Owen, I'm so glad you reposted last night's poem. Loved it!
Hatoolah, I was appalled by the shooting in Lafayette. I haven't seen many details yet, but it sounds just awful.
Lemon: Nice write-up explaining my D N F ... FIW ... Ink Blot ...
ReplyDeleteFave today, of course, was SOTS ... though I am rarely smashed. lol
Beautiful day for ducks here in the Tampa Bay Area.
Wish I could send some of this rain to California.
Cheers!
One-trick pony.
ReplyDeleteReally, really loved the puzzle today. Thanks, Mike, for the romp! Although FIW (POTAK vs. POTOK), enjoyed the puns and interesting fill.
ReplyDeleteVery nice write-up, Lemonade.
OwenKL - Thanks for the tribute to the blog! Very nice.
Good Morning.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike. I had a pretty good run as I was able to suss CACHED CZECH. Then I rather knew what I was looking for along the way. I liked being challenged on the obvious, like choosing close for Nearby also. The puns made me chuckle instead of groan, as I know they are supposed to do.
Thanks for your usual thoughtful write-up, Lemonade. I'm glad I finished this morning as I have lots of running around to do. A local fish market here in the Chicago area is have a sale on all the fixings for lobster rolls. I'll run over so tonight we can pretend we are in Maine since we didn't make it this summer. October, instead. Nice.
Enjoy the day!
One of my greatest discoveries in New York City two years ago was a lobster roll. I didn't know what I was getting, but I know that anything with lobster in it would be wonderful. I was right!
DeleteACH! Here I was all proud of myself for completing this challenging puzzle, only to come here and find, like some others, I DNFed at POTaK/aCH.
ReplyDeleteOh, well. I still enjoyed it greatly.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteThis was a toughie but with perps and patience, I finished w/o help, finally. Took me awhile to understand ceiling whacks but then the aha moment came.
Thanks, Mike and Lemony, for a fun Friday workout.
Have a great day.
Owen KL, I loved your poem about The Corner last night and was hoping you would repeat it today. Thanks. pje, CED, inanehiker and others, thanks for the encouragement. I returned to aquatic exercising at the Y three weeks ago with my doctor's blessing. My camping vacation cut a week out of that. I think I will drop PT when the Medicaid benefits run out. That will free up time for me to go back to my aquatic trainer.
ReplyDeleteToday's puzzle was real crunchy but I got it w/o help. I was worried about YTTRIA. I loved the theme.
I thought of Hahtoolah at POTOK.
We are having our summer birthdays get together at my older son's place tomorrow. I have an apple pie in the oven and will make Greek pasta salad, too.
I am back into Jodi Picoult's novels. One blogger misnamed her Jody Peacoat.
Have any of you read her Sing You Home. My younger sis and I just finished it last week and enjoyed it very much. Yesterday I finIshed Jodi's Vanishing aCT.
What a horrible puzzle. Didn't like it at all.
ReplyDeleteAs usual, Lemon’s summation (and Mood Indigo link) works for me. I had a great time! 88˚F and climbing after I finished 18 holes at 10 a.m.
ReplyDeleteMusings
-Lovely poem last night (redux today) Owen!
-High-strung boy scouts can be found to be IN TENTS
-Around 2,000 brave men were casualties on OMAHA beach.
-Filling young heads with HIP HOP violence and vulgarities can’t help but DISTORT their reality
--The beautiful view of the Umbrian countryside from St. Francis’s Cathedral in Assisi
-A NEPOTIST superintendent forced an idiot nephew on my principal friend. It took two years to AXE him.
-A very interesting vocal RANGE chart
-Saying I RAISE with a busted hand only works so long
-My doctor sent me to a SURGEON in OMAHA because he’s the best around here
-STU turned down the Beatles, John Travolta passed on Forest Gump
-Two fav SCI FI’s – Close Encounters & 2001
-When a big star appears on a hack talk show, he/she’s PLUGGING something
-Those GAMS starred later with Dick Van Dyke
-1. In what song did “Sister helped to TRIM the sails”
-2. What mythical being got “strings and SEALING wax and other fancy stuff”?
1. is from "C'mon, Michael, are you rowing or are you sailing?"
ReplyDelete2. is named Puff, not to be confused with the beloved Dick, Jane, Spot, Puff characters.
TGIF everyone.
ReplyDeleteIt is a miserable rainy day here in Central Florida, and this puzzle didn't lift my spirits much.
After getting WEAKKNIGHTS. I figured I was looking for puns or play on words. The answers were definitely not easy in sussing out. Did not get PASSEDTENTS or CEILINGWHACKS even with several letters in.
The NW corner was a blank for me, so I was doomed from the start. The bottom half was completely filled in. I loved the visual of BRAKINGGNUS. If it weren't for perps CACHEDCZECH wouldn't have seen daylight.
YTTRIA, PINDAR. TAURI, NAS were unknowns but crosses helped, eventually.
In all, this made up for the ease of the rest of the week. For me, an extremely challenging workout. Three quarters done, but no cigar. Proud of myself, though, for getting as far as I did.
The rain isn't letting up at all. Finished all my other puzzles. What to do?
I wish everyone a pleasant dry weekend.
This puzzle beat me up, took my lunch money and left me crying in the corner. A DNF even with red-letter help. The nine block CUBE in the extreme northwest corner was my downfall. I have no idea who NAS is, but judging by the potty-mouth lyrics his full name must be NAS T.
ReplyDeleteI loved the double puns. Thanks, Mike. And thanks for an excellent expo, Lemony. I have heard that the GAMS in question belong to MTM.
As much as I like puns, most of my attempts come off as only 2/3 of a pun. . . PU.
Cya.
Thanks Lemonade. Fabulous links.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike Buckley. Fabulous Crossword.
1. Better start with the PEDANT'S CORNER: Note that a CUBE is larger than a SQUARE for POSITIVE numbers, but smaller for NEGATIVE numbers.
2..As pointed out in Lemonade's link, "Shrimp" is rarely used in the U.K. & Commonwealth, probably because of its connotation (still used derogatively but supported by etymology) of something small and weak. JUMBO SHRIMP thus becomes a splendid oxymoron.
3. The small town of Ytterby in Sweden gives its name to no less than 3 elements, none of which are in daily use:
Ytterbium, Terbium, and Erbium. I guess they couldn't shorten it any further. What a b(i)ummer.
4. OWEN: I see you slipped in a little cryptology. And Y-Knot?
END OF PEDANTRY
SEALING-WAX: The Rolling Stones also famously sang about Sealing-Wax in "19th Nervous Breakdown". But of course, the classic link is to "The Walrus and the Carpenter" in [Alice] "Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll.
"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax
Of cabbages and kings
And why the sea is boiling hot
And whether pigs have wings."
NC
Springsteen more range than Orbison? Preposterous!
ReplyDeleteNC, thanks for stopping by; HG I knew you would know the legs and I am glad you linked the vocal range. Thanks
ReplyDeleteAnon at 11:30...why did n't you like it? Because it was hard? You do not like puns?
Enjoyable and fiendishly clever puzzle today. I really really really really liked it. Last to fill was the K crossing POTOK and KTEL. Second last to fill was the A in NAS. The clue for HAR was genius. Well done!
ReplyDeleteGreetings!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mike and Lemon.
Difficult puzzle took lots of time, but no cheats!
Loved the theme, especially CACHED CZECH.
YTTRIA was all perps. Had "close" for "nearby" at first.Up way to early. Remote to turn off phone didn't work. Hate this phone.
Does anyone have a good, talking phone?
Cheers!
Any graph that discusses vocal range but that doesn't include Harry Nilsson is missing the point. Lies, damn lies and statistics. Bah!
ReplyDeleteRichard Diamond was the show with David Janssen, the legs were MaryTyler Moore's, at least at first.
ReplyDeleteThis was a bit of a toughy, but I found it enjoyable. Predictably, I liked the puns.
Good afternoon everyone.
ReplyDeleteGreat puzzle today. Loved the CACHED CZECH and BRAKING GNUS, My Rosetta. Much great cluing. Wanted Thorium for 50d, b ut it wouldn't fit. Got YTTRIA from the perps.
21d - αTAURI - Thanks Lemon, for pointing out it is commonly known as Aldebaran. It is one of the 58 stars selected for celestial navigation.
And where is Minnie Ripperton from Rotary Connection? Incredible voice and range.
ReplyDeleteThat vocal range chart must be incomplete. I agree with Argyle that they gave short shrift to Roy Orbison. C'mon, just listen to him sing "Running Scared" at the end of which he hit the final high A naturally, without falsetto. His song "Crying" also displays a huge range.
ReplyDeleteThat was a good Friday puzzle; hard but enjoyable. Thanks Mike and Lemon.
ReplyDeleteNice Cuppa: Yes, I thought of that too, also for numbers between 0 and 1. But, I think the clue was referring to the number of multiplications, not the end result. A cube has three factors, a square has two. Hard to know what was intended exactly but it made enough sense to me that I finally filled in the answer OK.
Phoebe Snow is also MIA on the range graph. Far too many omissions and errors for it to have any credibility.
ReplyDeleteBut on that topic, it has Justin Bieber, so I guess credibility wasn't a consideration.
Gary (and everybody); I enjoy your trivia questions. I recognized the lyrics to those two songs right away. Here is one for you.
ReplyDeleteWhere is there confusion with the name 'Ambrose'? Is it a person or a place? There are a couple of hints below if you want them.
----------
Hints:
1) It's in a movie, one of my favorites.
2) The place is a chapel.
A most enjoyable pzl.
ReplyDeleteSAXES reminded me of the night I got to hear John Coltrane right up front in a tiny San Francisco club. When I came across MOOD Indigo later, I was inspired to check whether "Trane" had ever recorded "Mood Indigo." If he did, I couldn't find it, but I did stumble across this fine selection from the fabulous Duo!
OCH. TDNF...
ReplyDelete1st pass 1a - bar, dog(?), 9d OSCAR, 9a, OMAHA (yes Lem, 3rd generation remembers), 14a IRA(?), 16a SAXES(?), 17a dre (bzzt) 19d DEPECHE Mode....41a ZEN, 41d, 43a, 48a close(?) 52d SCI FI, 61d GAM and rest of area....
'Total dweeb' didn't fit in 30a. Oh, ^2 -> ^3. Like Cuppa & Bill G. said, ain't "more than" for x <=1 except in the exponent.
And that was that until Googles of 4a & 1d. Then things started coming slowly together, but still a DNF.
Mike - I loved it! And I got the fun-puns (I would link some KNIGHTS, but I'm sure y'all are tired of Python). However, the puzzle was too much for me. Thanks Lem for the COATI, YTTRIA, et.al. and letting me know that arCS didn't carry the elephants (I was thinking Noah) and kept trying to fit some type of editor (film, magazine?) into 24d.
Trying to stay w/in the no-politics rules made the search hard, but here it is,Your Moment of ZEN.
Cheers, -T
OwenKL, Excellent poetry. Now if only CC could squeeze it into the Blog Header
ReplyDeleteso that it becomes our preamble...
Re: puzzle
ACK!
I got the theme at weak knights, which gave me braking Gnus.
I eventually inked in the entire bottom half, & was was ecstatic at
correctly WAGing Hardy har har, & the fiendishly difficult TRIode.
Not to mention nearby = handy = yttria? (Ouch! but I got it! Yay!)
The top half?
Perps,,, my kingdom for some perps...
1A spot = pip ( I would be cursing if this were not so clever...)
14A The only rollover I know is Beethoven, & he didn't fit...
17A Hip Hop (eyes glazed over... pass this clue/fill till the end...)
I am still kicking myself for not getting passed tents (3D)
(I did get Pecos Bill, but only in retrospect...)
POTOK! If this was clued as a misspelled Klingon curse, I might have had a chance...
6D was my undoing, I was thinking Mentos. Which made me look for more than square starting with an "S"?
31D defer = bow? (I still don't get it...)
DEPECHE IS NOT A WORD! (^$#&^%%$@#&*)
Which left me looking at 38A Demands for quiet from a downstairs tenant?
I had ceiling--acks, & try as I might, I was stuck with the thought of
ceiling CRacks even though it did not fit the theme...
AARRRGG!
Oh, & by the way, Anon at 11:30, because of Thumper, I have to say Thank You for your input...
CED - Defer = BOW out, BOW to, That's my best guess anyway. So glad I didn't think of menTos; I gently inked TICTAC when I was thinking AS EASY AS(?)... If Mentos went in, 30a would have been slob :-)
ReplyDeleteCheers, -T
Hahtoolah's QOD today was - No one can lie, no one can hide anything, when he looks directly into someone's eyes. - Paul Coelho.
ReplyDeleteObviously Paul hasn't seen me talking to my wife, or my psychoanalyst talking to me ....
Ya just gotta practice at it.
Talking about a Cached Czech ... A Czech and a certain ethnic were hunting in a forest, when they were attacked by two bears, one male and the other female. The ethnic climbed up a tree. (!) The bears then attacked the czech and one of them ate him up. (!) ... the ethnic remained safe. Soon, a big group of other hunters came to his assistance. He told them, 'Kill the male bear, the czech's in the male, the czech's in the male ...'.
But the hunters chose to ignore his advice, and killed the female bear. Sure enough, when they cut her open, the remains of the czech were found inside of her.
As the leader of the hunters explained,' Never trust a certain ethnic when he says, the check's in the mail.'
A silly, stupid, contrived, racist joke - which somehow seemed apropos to today's crossword answer.
Thank you Desper-Otto for the pronunciation of Raison D'etre.
ReplyDeleteIt apparently rhymes with 'Who dat, who dat'... (a)Ray-zo(n) dat.
I'm so glad my frawnch is limited to crosswords.
I've been reading the news, today, where the agricultural farm workers in northern France, have loaded trash and blocked certain highways to north-eastern tourist spots, - to protest low farm prices.
And the Channel ferry operators union personnel have burnt tyres and blocked another, the only major highway to the port city of Calais - totally paralysing all auto and train travel, between the two countries, through the channel - to protest certain (expected ) job reductions. This is just the news.
Since, trying to explain all this would involve politics, I will not even try.
Que sera, sera.
Has anything or anyone sounded smoother, sweeter than Ella’s MOOD INDIGO?
ReplyDeleteWrong-tracked by the Nipper clue, 'cos in England he's mostly associated with the HMV (His Master's Voice) label, but Google tells me that the image was used by a large number of different record labels all over the world. Who knew?
ReplyDeleteYet another Anon @ 3:56, Hmm, I am beginning to see the advantages of being Anonymous....
ReplyDelete(Maybe I should change my avatar before posting the following...)
A bicycle can’t stand on its own because it is two-tired.
Show me a piano falling down a mineshaft and I’ll show you A-flat minor.
When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
You feel stuck with your debt if you can’t budge it.
Those who jump off a Paris bridge are in Seine.
Once you’ve seen one shopping center you’ve seen a mall.
Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.
When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she’d dye.
Police were called to a day care where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.
When fish are in schools they sometimes take debate.
When the smog lifts in Los Angeles, U.C.L.A.
I hope I haven't offended anyone...
If your neck hurts tomorrow, don't blame me...
I am sure Yellowrocks would agree...
Pendant The Brit:
ReplyDeleteInteresting, but when I went looking for images, one of the
1st things that came up was RCA's "Little Nipper" radio
I wonder if that was what this archaic clue meant?
Anon (4:25), aren't you the clever fellow (gal?). Did you remember or did you look it up? I'm watching it right now and enjoying it all over again. The suspense surrounding the orchestra scene is breathtaking!
ReplyDeleteCED, really good/terrible ones. I enjoyed them! (People have gotten in a bad habit of groaning (or worse) at puns. If they're clever, I think they should reveled in. (They are puns in which we should revel?)
CED, ha ha.You got me. Funny, I can spot errors by students like lightning. I reread my own material as I intend, instead of what is there. Can I hire you? Enjoyed your puns.
ReplyDeleteOK, I was a little bored...
ReplyDelete(A very dangerous thing...)
& went looking for funny theme pics.
I started with the hardest one, weak knight,
& of course this was the best I could find...
Second hardest, ceiling whacks... I couldn't find anything funny from the man downstairs,
but the man upstairs had some possibilities...
Passed tents? Hmm, went thru a lot of wigwams & teepees, but could not pass up a chance to annoy Yellowrocks...
Cached Czech? Just be glad you don't have to read the whole thing like I did...
Which brings me to "breaking News."
Here I found a treasure trove of links that if posted once a day would last for a year. (You have been warned...)
Breaking News...
Breaking News...
Breaking News!
Breaking News?
Sorry Yellowrocks, I did not mean to step on your post.
ReplyDeleteI was halfway thru when I lost half of it in an editing error
(You half to believe me...)
Anyway that last post took 45 minutes to compose...
Fun one! Got it. I knew Potok...
ReplyDeleteSo sorry for overposting, I promise to underpost tomorrow.
ReplyDelete(What the hell, it's Saturday, I am already screwed...)
But I found something that I thought might appeal to Anonymous T,
& Trekkies in general...
I have reviewed SciFi before, & given 3 thumbs up....
But in this case, two of them are up my ass...
I have watched this 1 and a half hour film, (& you don't have to...)
But there is something about this film that requires closer examination...
1) Popular actors past their prime...
(Don't get me wrong, they were awesome...)
2) Some of the actors will drive you crazy trying to figure out who they were...
(Ensign Kim Etc...)
3) The green girl in communications with the push up bra, 3 thumbs up!!!
4) CGI was terrible, except, towards the end, it got really good...
(OK, maybe the popcorn had an effect...)
5) The number one reason to watch this, (with apologies to Ensign Chekov, you get the runner up award...) is Grandma Uhura!
Holy crap!, I would watch anything that had Grandma Uhura! I just love her!
(Even if she had Vulcan Grandkids... Go suck an Egg you racist bastards!...)
Anywho, if you want to see what prompted this outburst,
One & a Half Hours of your Trekie lives lost. (Not counting alternate universes...)
Oh, & be sure to watch the Bloopers at the end... (Does the 5 second rule apply in alternate universes?)
The posts today have been especially interesting says I. (Just imagine if we were constrained to writing about crossword puzzles?)
ReplyDeleteD-O: Thanks for trying. But a link to an audio-pronunciation doesn't help a deaf man with an old 'puter that can't run flash videos. :-(
ReplyDeleteAnon@4:25 Your clarification helped, but didn't solve the problem for me. If it rhymes with "dat", then I could just turn the line around to
But for friends who come this way, it's far from being only that!
Although that gives two successive couplets with the same rhyme.
So I asked Google to find a rhyme, and it didn't do well. Most sites seemed to ignore that it was a foreign phrase, and gave it ridiculous rhymes ("basement"?) or unhelpful ones (fête, champêtre).
I finally found a discussion on Wikionary which seemed to indicate it has a range of pronunciations from true French to Americanized English, and "-ay" was at the latter end. ::shrug::