Words: 70 (missing F,J,Q)
Blocks: 30
A pleasant challenge from Mr. Silk this week - in fact, I was not
expecting a Silkie, but there it was~! A smooth blend of phrases,
common and not so common, with a smattering of proper names and a touch
of the obscure to make it just a little tougher than last week's
puzzle - speaking of "Z"s, we have 7 in today's grid, and three "X"s, as well. Triple
9- and 10-letter corners, with a pair of nine's in the middle;
20a. Positive : ABOVE ZERO - ah, like temperatures, not emotions
51a. Mythological boundary : RIVER STYX
ACROSS:
1. "60 Minutes" symbol : STOPWATCH
- well, I knew it was a something "watch", but I thought it was more of
a pocket one than this type; can you tell I don't 'watch' the show~?
10. "Private Practice" star Kate : WALSH - I recognize her from a Law & Order episode, but that's all
15. "Whatever!" : "LIKE I CARE"
16. Its southeasternmost county is Bear Lake : IDAHO - tried MAINE first
16. Its southeasternmost county is Bear Lake : IDAHO - tried MAINE first
18. Centrifuge component : ROTOR
19. Effectiveness : TEETH - mostly perps, but a clever clue/ answer
22. Purpose : AIM
24. Castle and others : IRENEs - tried DRAMAS, because I like the show "Castle"
25. "Live Well" retail chain : GNC - General Nutrition Centers
28. Steering system parts : TIE RODS - I have been through several tie rods during the 273,500 miles of driving my Dodge Stratus; in fact, the front wheel came off two Sundays ago; had my friend Ed help me put it back on. Sheared the lug bolts.
32. Special treatment : TLC - I try to give my car all the Tender Loving Care I can; has to last me about 4 more months
33. Parent : REAR - the verb. Lost my dad two years ago, BarryG. My condolences. Today is one year since the passing of a waitress who worked at A Lure; she was 20. Must be tough on her parents; her younger sister works at aMano.
35. Smooth coat : GLAZE
36. Current: Pref. : RHEO - as in Rheostat - literally, a device for setting the flow of current - e.g. the volume knob on a stereo or guitar - the Wiki
37. When Tony sings "Maria" : ACT I
38. Muppet rat named for a movie character : RIZZO - dah~! I put in RATzo, which can't be right with "RAT" in the clue; oh well.
39. With 2-Down, twice-monthly phenomenon : NEAP and 2d. See 39-Across : TIDE- nailed it, even getting the words in the right positions
40. It investigates RR accidents : NTSB - National Transportation Safety Board
41. __ Era: old name for Earth's pre-life period : AZOIC - well, I had the --OIC part, but crossing ELIZA, I pretty much had to WAG
42. Goalie's goal : SAVE - how true this is~! I played a stellar game for 52mins last week, only to have my defense flag in the heat and humidity, and we ended up losing. I love making the "glove save"
43. Who __ Nation: New Orleans Saints fans : DAT
44. Eye : STARE AT
46. French possessive : TES - aww, Frawnche
47. It became the TV Guide Channel in 1999 : PREVUE
49. Big mouth : MAW
55. Like some French vowels : NASAL - aww, more Frawnche
59. Sluggish : INERT - eh. At least you're moving when you're sluggish. Inert to me means hungover & bedridden
60. Underlying layers : SUBSTRATA
62. Where Rudolf of Ruritania was imprisoned : ZENDA - perps & WAG; more here
63. Get around bigtime : GLOBETROT - I would like to do this
64. Lake Placid's county : ESSEX
44. Eye : STARE AT
46. French possessive : TES - aww, Frawnche
47. It became the TV Guide Channel in 1999 : PREVUE
49. Big mouth : MAW
55. Like some French vowels : NASAL - aww, more Frawnche
59. Sluggish : INERT - eh. At least you're moving when you're sluggish. Inert to me means hungover & bedridden
60. Underlying layers : SUBSTRATA
62. Where Rudolf of Ruritania was imprisoned : ZENDA - perps & WAG; more here
63. Get around bigtime : GLOBETROT - I would like to do this
64. Lake Placid's county : ESSEX
65. Large, to some Southwesterners : TEXAS SIZE
DOWN:
1. Blind piece : SLAT - as in Venetian blinds
3. Dust Bowl victim : OKIE
4. Gram lead-in : PENTA - pentagram; these guys worked the "Satanic" heavy metal image
DOWN:
1. Blind piece : SLAT - as in Venetian blinds
3. Dust Bowl victim : OKIE
4. Gram lead-in : PENTA - pentagram; these guys worked the "Satanic" heavy metal image
5. Hip : WITH IT - or is it "WIT HIT"~?
6. Whiz : ACE
7. Johnny's partner in the 2014 Olympic figure skating telecasts : TARA - WAG; Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski - hello, Legs~
6. Whiz : ACE
7. Johnny's partner in the 2014 Olympic figure skating telecasts : TARA - WAG; Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski - hello, Legs~
8. Nursery item : CRIB - oops, went with the other kind of nursery, and tried TREE
9. Circulation prefix : HEMO - blood circulation; semi-clecho with;
10. Circuit creators : WIRERS - those who wire
11. Napping : ADOZE - a 'meh' "A" word
12. Thermodynamics topic : LATENT HEAT
13. Liberty : SHORE LEAVE
14. Charts featuring houses : HOROSCOPES - I had a feeling HOME SCAPES was not right
21. Picture taker : VIDEOCAM - moving pictures, that is
23. Moves periodically : MIGRATES
25. Winner's reward : GRAND PRIZE
26. Peach mutations : NECTARINES
27. "Moonshadow" singer : CAT STEVENS
29. Broadway role for Julie : ELIZA - ah. Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle
30. Cutting device : RAZOR
31. Former White Sox manager Guillén : OZZIE - Baseball for C.C.
34. Needle : RIB
36. ER workers : RNs
44. Unpopular Vietnam War-financing vehicle : SURTAX - is any tax popular~?
45. Nice relatives : TANTES - aww, more more Frawnche - sounds close to its English translation of aunts
48. Mesa __ National Park : VERDE
50. Partner of all? : WARTS - I pondered "end all, be all" and "Once and for All" - ah - the phrase "I'll take it as is, warts and all"
52. USAF E-6 : T-SGT - A wordless clue/answer. I just found out that the hostess I talked about last year is ROTC, and will graduate with the rank of second lieutenant - she's got er, um, three years to go....
53. Festive time : YULE
54. Wii alternative : XBOX - home video game computers
56. Indian wrap : SARI
57. All-inclusive : A TO Z - popular lately
58. Behind : LATE
61. Entrepreneur-aiding org. : SBA - Small Business Administration
9. Circulation prefix : HEMO - blood circulation; semi-clecho with;
10. Circuit creators : WIRERS - those who wire
11. Napping : ADOZE - a 'meh' "A" word
12. Thermodynamics topic : LATENT HEAT
13. Liberty : SHORE LEAVE
14. Charts featuring houses : HOROSCOPES - I had a feeling HOME SCAPES was not right
21. Picture taker : VIDEOCAM - moving pictures, that is
23. Moves periodically : MIGRATES
25. Winner's reward : GRAND PRIZE
26. Peach mutations : NECTARINES
27. "Moonshadow" singer : CAT STEVENS
29. Broadway role for Julie : ELIZA - ah. Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle
30. Cutting device : RAZOR
31. Former White Sox manager Guillén : OZZIE - Baseball for C.C.
34. Needle : RIB
36. ER workers : RNs
44. Unpopular Vietnam War-financing vehicle : SURTAX - is any tax popular~?
45. Nice relatives : TANTES - aww, more more Frawnche - sounds close to its English translation of aunts
48. Mesa __ National Park : VERDE
50. Partner of all? : WARTS - I pondered "end all, be all" and "Once and for All" - ah - the phrase "I'll take it as is, warts and all"
52. USAF E-6 : T-SGT - A wordless clue/answer. I just found out that the hostess I talked about last year is ROTC, and will graduate with the rank of second lieutenant - she's got er, um, three years to go....
53. Festive time : YULE
54. Wii alternative : XBOX - home video game computers
56. Indian wrap : SARI
57. All-inclusive : A TO Z - popular lately
58. Behind : LATE
61. Entrepreneur-aiding org. : SBA - Small Business Administration
Splynter
41 comments:
Perps and persistence carried the day! It took a while, but in the end I done good.
Seven ZZZZZZZ's and 3 XXX's if I count right! Mr.S is trying to set us ADOZE with a high-proof puzzle, methinks!
Looked up XXX to be sure of the meaning, and got
Noun 1. XXX - the cardinal number that is the product of ten and three
Adj. 1. XXX - being ten more than twenty
Uh, yeah, whatever you say, Dictionary.
ARB (after reading blog) AZOIC A- without, as in Amoral for UNscrupulous + zoon "animal," here used in the sense "life."
Those who read the poem I linked to a couple days ago remember the lines,
"So [Solomon] leaned on his EBONY staff
Sealed with the seal of the PENTEgraph."
There once were some wire-haired terriers
Determined to break species barriers.
They went to tech schools
And learned to use tools --
Now electricians, they're terrier-haired WIRERS!
The youth's attitude was "LIKE I CARE."
It gave his PARENT cause for despair.
Said his MAW to his TANTES,
"It puts a knot in my panties,
That I gave T.L.C. to that bear!"
There once was a rube from the STYX
Who found himself in a bad fyx.
He could win a PRIZE
For his manly SIZE,
But no wrapper would fit round his wyx.
Morning, all!
Barely made it through this one. I actually threw down the NW and SE corners without much effort, but that's when everything started going down hill. I eventually managed to get the NE, but only after guessing that LATENT HEAT might be a thing and that WIRERS might be an actual term to describe people. Had I known WALSH, I might have had an easier time in that section. And the less said about ADOZE, the better.
The SW was the next to fall, after much effort. Again, I had to imagine that SURTAX was some specific thing related to the Vietnam war and not just the general term I've always known it as in order to get the job done. Never heard of PREVUE, not familiar with Who DAT Nation, and certainly didn't know that NECTARINES were "mutations". Live and learn.
The center section was where I nearly gave up. I had TIE RODS and VIDEO CAM, and that was about it. DIdn't know OZZIE, didn't realize that Julie Andrews played ELIZA Doolittle on the stage, never heard of AZOIC, not up on my Muppet characters, etc. I finally guessed at AZOIC, however, and that let me get a little traction. I also guessed ROSCO for the rat for no particular reason, and that held me up until I finally got rid of it.
Ah, well. Got 'er done in the end without assistance, so that was nice. Still not happy that I had to put up with stuff like WIRERS and ADOZE to get there, though.
Good morning!
I enjoyed Mr. Silk's softball -- finished in about half my normal Saturday time. Hand up for RATZO. Hmmmm. What could a 3-letter health-related company be? CVS! Not! Otherwise, it was smooth sailing.
We visited Mesa VERDE many years ago. Interesting place. Kinda puny, though. The park's not particularly small, but the area you can visit is.
Gotta share this non-puzzle related story. We've got a very nice Harbor Breeze ceiling fan in the family room, but one of the sockets in the light kit is damaged. Yesterday, I started with Lowes, and three phone calls later wound up talking to the manufacturer. Their parts guy didn't recognize the model "name." I had to get out the step ladder to read the model number off the motor housing. Then the guy said, "Yup, I see the socket you're talking about. We've got them in stock." He took my name and address, and said he'd send it out to me. I started to give him my credit card information when he said, "It's not priced in our parts list. No charge." That doesn't happen very often! Impressive.
Started out with easy 1A- STOPWATCH and 15a- LIKE I CARE. Then tripped myself with WISE TO instead of WITH IT for 5D. AD INTERIM was unknown and was my last fill, 100% perps.
The rest of the puzzle fell surprisingly fast for a Saturday with the usual unknowns filled by perps and WAGS. I wanted RATZO (Dustin Hoffman) but rat was in the clue; became RIZZO. ELIZA and OZZIE were guesses. WAR TAX became SURTAX. GNC, ZEVDA, PREVUE, ACT I, and ESSEX in the SW were not known but easy to fill. WHO DAT was a gimme.
For some strange reason the right side fell like a Monday, even though I didn't know WALSH, IDAHO, or TES.
Splynter- Wheel fell off? I should be so lucky. My wife's new Mercedes got hit by a hit-and-run driver yesterday. Not hurt. Witnesses called into the State police with the tractor-trailer's name, description, and license. Mr. Ed's Trucking, truck number 6838, license A089027, Red cab, flatbed trailer. State police ran the plates and it's not a registered vehicle. I can't find a company named 'Mr. Ed's Trucking' and I'm sure that State Farm won't pursue it either. The truck driver probably had no insurance or license.
Hurray, a Saturday Silkie! Like DO, I found this one to be a softball, finishing in about half my usual Saturday time. Fortunately, ADOZE was all perps so it didn't irk me much. ESP for TANTES as well. Never heard of the word. Nice CSO to Splynter with SAVE. Great job, both of you gentlemen.
The temperature dropped out of the nineties yesterday so officially our heat wave is over, but it was still in the upper eighties and very humid. I liked to died yesterday doing yard work, and my hay fever today is just awful. It seems the older I get the worse my hay fever gets, but I'll take it, considering the alterative.
That's all for now. Cya.
It must have been the Valet.
Good morning all. Thank you Barry and thank you Splynter.
38A Could've been clued "Cubs first baseman Anthony" and then we would have had an intersection of Chicago MLB sports figures.
I had Gonzo as the Muppet, but that had to change as TIERODS led to MIGRATES and RAZOR. Besides, "He (Gonzo) is an odd looking, unclassifiable (sic) creature with blue fur, bug eyes, and a long crooked nose."
My command for my avatar to go on alert is "WHO DAT!"
Why anyone (other than locals) might know that Lake Placid is in ESSEX county is beyond me, but it was easily perped and wagable, especial after having ESSE-, and 44D ending in ---TAX. For some reason I initially wanted WAR TAX for 44D.
Thought of Spitzboov and Desper-otto at SHORE LEAVE.
Ohms Law states that I=V/R. Given that V=IR, a RHEOstat can be used as a light dimmer by changing (reducing) the voltage (V). You can get a similar dimming effect by changing (increasing) the resistance (R) using a variable resistor, which would reduce current (I) but not change V. A rheostat, better known now as a potentiometer, is often more flexible in circuit design than is the variable resistor, but both have applications where one is more appropriate than the other.
Did that last paragraph catch you ADOZE ?
I better go walk my boy.
Have a great day.
La plume de ma tante.
Let's all sing along. La la la la la.
Wow! This was a Wednesday-easy puzzle for me, except for 4 cells in the northeast. Then I laid the puzzle aside and went out for coffee and to run errands. When I returned the 4 cells fell easily. It was ADOZE that had me stymied. I am quite a supporter of A words, but this one seems more unusual than most. Yes, TTP, your paragraph is doze worthy.
Bluehen, I sympathize with your allergy problems. Mine were awful, too, during my teens, 20's and 30's. I took regular allergy shots. At middle age the allergy lightened up and is minor now.
I think an electrician is a WIRER when he makes circuits. Good clue.
We've had WHO DAT before in relation to the New Orleans Saints.
There were enough perps to make wags easy.
I liked Julie as ELIZA. Such a lovely voice.
The NASAL tones of French put me off.
I just noticed that the NY Times today is also Barry Silk. I know this has happened before, I think more than once, which makes me think he must hold the record for simultaneous appearances. Fun puzzle today.
Also I wanted to mention here some very sad news: Merl Reagle passed away today in Tampa, Florida at the age of 65. I don't know if Merl ever published in the LA Times, but he did a regular Sunday puzzle for a San Fransisco paper and was widely regarded as one of the very best of the profession. More about him: http://www.sundaycrosswords.com/index.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merl_Reagle.
Found this puzzle to be a fast solve as well. Must have been on Barry's wave length.... it sure helps to get STOPWATCH and CATSTEVENS right off the bat! Thanks, Barry, for a great puzzle. Enjoyed all the Z's and X's.
Splynter, nice write-up. Hope your car makes it!
With apologies to Michael Corleone - “Just when I think I am out, Barry keeps pulling me back.” As usual, a fun Saturday exercise well summed up by Splynter.
Musings
-60 Minutes nightmare - Mike Wallace walking into your office
-A common centrifuge use
-Some think the Iran Nuclear Treaty lacks TEETH
-This event occurred just a few hours after a NEAP TIDE
-Pronouncing Caen requires a non-English NASAL sound at the end
-Finding SUBSTRATA issues like these termites on HGTV’s Flip Or Flop
-Motley Crue – then and now
-When in San Diego, my Uncle showed me the female companionship that was awaiting the sailors on SHORE LEAVE
-“When the Moon is in the seventh HOUSE…”
-It’s Yusuf Islam today
-Jack Warner decided Audrey Hepburn had more name recognition than Julie and so she was not offered the movie role of LIZA
-Toughie - What movie contained this Alec Baldwine dialogue – “First (GRAND) prize is a Cadillac El Dorado, second place is a set of steak knives and third prize is ‘You’re fired’”?
Good Morning:
I finished w/o help in normal Saturday Silkie time but did hit some speed bumps. For some strange reason, Kate Walsh's surname will not stick in my brain, so that held me up for awhile. Also, I mistakenly entered Maria (Sound of Music) for Eliza (My Fair Lady); should have known better as Mary Martin was Maria on Broadway. I also had First Prize before Grand Prize but, as TTP pointed out, Essex was a gimme for us Upstaters. I thought parts of the puzzle were typical Silkie but other areas fell quickly.
Thanks Mr. Silk and Mr. Splynter for a satisfying Saturday sojourn.
Have a great day.
Haven't posted here in some time, but I'm always lurking in the background and checking up on all you regulars. This Saturday's Silkie was a joy. I needed this. As with a lot of others, I seemed to sail through until I fell adoze! I'm on to laundry chores and all the work that seems to wait for weekends. Not a pleasant day here in the Black Hills, as the high winds are bringing in a lot of smoke. Such tragic situations in all sorts of places. TTFN
Fun puzzle today. The NE was last to fall, because I didn't have a clue about WALSH, and was really, really, really unwilling to put in ADOZE...<sigh>
HG, I had forgotten all about that line about the first, second and third prizes. But this morning I was watching the news and they did a segment about annual job reviews. It included that line as one of the bullet points!
We read Nikki Sixx's "The Heroin Diaries" for book club. My suggestion to anyone who wants to read all about Motley Crue:
1.) Read entry # 1 about him waking up in a drug-induced haze.
2.) Repeat 365 times.
Good morning everyone.
Great intro and summary from Splynter. Thank you.
Another Silkie special. Remembered to not overthink it and was successful.
Got the W and SE first and gradually cobbled together the rest of it. Had tillers before TIE RODS, and thus laser before RAZOR. Lake Placid's ESSEX was a gimme for an upstate New Yorker.
TANTE - La plume de ma tante. TANTE is also German, perhaps a borrowing from the French. The te is sounded as a second syllable with a schwa.
SHORE LEAVE for liberty - TTP, thanks for the SO. As an officer, one had 'open gangway' privileges. No chits needed. If not in the Watch section, notifying your dept. head or XO of your intentions was usually sufficient.
"Puzzling thoughts":
WEES, this Saturday Silkie was very doable despite a few "meh" clues/solves. Unlike some of his recently, I got STOPWATCH right off the bat, and while it wasn't "off to the races", I did manage to finish this in well under a half hour.
Owen, despite the non-rhyming fifth line, your first "limerick" was very clever
Looks like our fourth tropical storm (Dan) of the year is starting to strengthen in the east Atlantic; it's been a quiet start to the Hurricane Season this year but we still have 2 more months and a week to go. Can't be complacent, but El Niño is definitely having an effect on the tropical storms. And not to bring up a sore reminder to those in Louisiana, Mississippi, et al, but next week marks the 10th anniversary of Katrina ...
So far, we've had Ana, Bill and Claudette.
And the season? It ain't half over, yet!
Do you have a plan
For Hurricane Dan?
Or like the others, will it pose no threat?
It was a tale of two puzzles for me. Started out easy and I worked my way counter-clockwise around the edge blocks from Washington to Florida. Then it came to a halt. A complete halt. And the center block just stared at me too. I could almost hear it sayin: "Nanner Nanner boo boo". I did finally muddle through to a save, but the first 60% took maybe 5 minutes and the remainder took an hour or more. I made the Ratso error ((with an S), and that gave me Ossie, but that was corrected to give me glaze then Eliza. Up in, well, Maine, I knew it had to be ME or ID at 16a, but the only help I had was Irenes, so that had to wait. Finally started wagging, and it eventually came together. Didn't look pretty for a long time, but it worked out.
Well, sometimes one just happens to be on a constructor's wavelength. I was today. First off, knowing 1A and 1B was an auspicious start. I liked the terrific fill in this puzzle, except perhaps for ADOZE, which is not pretty, but is forgivable. Had to figure out 12D before knowing whether the French pronoun was going to be MES, TES, or CES. An excellent Barry Silk Saturday puzzle, as usual.
I've always considered a rheostat to be different from a potentiometer, the former having 2 places to connect to it (a variable resistor) and the latter having 3 places to connect to it (a fixed resistor with a sliding tap). A rheostat cannot really be used as a volume control, for example, but a potentiometer can behave like a rheostat when the tap is connected to one end. Ha ha, made you snore!
Big Easy.. have the police run the license plate as a TRAILER # not as a vehicle.
Good luck
Merl Reagle will be missed
Hello, friends!
Unlike most of you, this took me double my ordinary time and I had to look for Kate WALSH as I didn't WATCH the program. Corner by corner it filled with the SW falling first with CATSTEVENS and NECTARINES in place. Though I never saw it, heard of the Prisoner of ZENDA. Fun name, even if sad.
SE went next because who wouldn't know TEXAS SIZE and I like to GLOBE TROT myself.
Up in the NE, the basement filled, MES soon changed to TES and when IDAHO fit, so do the rest.
Thought of Spitzboov at SHORELEAVE.
For some reason, STOPWATCH took way too long, but chuckled when the light bulb went on. Good clue for TEETH. And, amazingly, I knew TIE RODS! Didn't know RIZZO the muppet, so looked for it and OZZIE seems like an odd name to accompany Guillen.
Great workout, thank you, Barry! And lively analysis, Splynter, thank you as well.
Have a beautiful Saturday, everyone! R.I.P. Merl Reagle. You gave us some entertaining puzzles.
Shame about ADOZE; otherwise a pleasant, surprisingly scientific, fill.
I don't recall seeing LATENT HEAT in a crossword before. Definitely an ICE-BREAKER.
A NECTARINE (17th Century) is a natural variant of a PEACH; you might call it a (natural) MUTANT, I suppose; but "MUTATION" suggests (man-made) genetic modification.
Owen
Nice set of Lims, except I must tell you that TANTES rhymes with AUNT, not PANTIES.
NC
Thank you SJSJ for relaying the sad news.
I really liked the movie "Wordplay" and tried to link it but the Youtube full length version has been removed and anothe "free" version on another site didn't seem very safe to me. So here is a short trailer.
C.C. had a great interview with Merl back in 2009.
Here is a nice tribute to Merl on another blog.
And finally, here is appearance on CBS This Morning from December of 2013.
""MUTATION" suggests (man-made) genetic modification."
Hmm...
Genes mutate all by themselves all the time without the "help" of humans, as in meiosis, for starters.
A silkie Silkie today. Nice challenge for a Saturday.
Boy, am I going to miss Meryl Reagle. His puzzles were a Sunday afternoon treat for me.
I'm not a fan of Saturday puzzles as a rule but I kinda enjoyed this one. Like Jayce, I seemed to be on his wavelength. Easier than usual? Dunno...
Odds and ends:
I agree about mutations. Many are naturally-occurring and are a big part of evolution.
I used to enjoy Merl Reagle puzzles. They were in the LA Times calendar section, a different puzzle than the one blogged about here.
I agree with Marti and others about ADOZE.
Owen, Terrier-haired wirers. Excellent!
I came across an old movie on cable; "The Outlaw" from Howard Hughes (1943), starring Jane Russell and some other people I didn't know. None of them could act very well but Jane was pleasant to look at. The movie was weak, unable to make up its mind between drama and poor comedy. People were making jokes when people were about to get shot. And, the music was very obtrusive. Weak movie....
A new restaurant opened up locally called Whisky and Steak. I haven't been there but I've read a review. The food is ambitious and good with big, well-aged steaks in the $36 to $130 range. Whoa! I'm sure I would like it if somebody else was treating...
It took a few tries, and a couple of look-ups, but I did a fair job of cracking this Silkie. The hardest to crack today was the most obvious - STOP WATCH at 1A. I had WATCH, but wanted to change it to FACE, and only came back to WATCH when HAND also failed. Still and all, I enjoyed it-- and learned AZOIC from it.
Bill G and Anon, I agree that mutations are naturally occurring and are a big part of evolution. I just looked for a close relative of the peach. I buy peaches and nectarines weekly.
RIP Merl Reagle.
I am almost home free. I walked up and down all the supermarket aisles today without pain. I alternate feet going upstairs, but doing that going down is impossible. Also exiting the driver's seat is very difficult, but doable. Soon I will do it ! Why do trainers push too hard?
I am sorry for all of your troubles with auto accidents. I had an at fault accident yesterday, but I stopped to take responsibility. Someone from a seldom used road had the right of way. I glanced away for a sec and didn't see her. Minor damage for both of us. Body shop will jury rig a new headlight early Monday because moisture would short out exposed light. On a late Friday afternoon my dealer scouted other dealerships for a headlight assembly which I picked up today. Another advantage of not living in the Boonies.
It seems we're having our share of life's little "gotchas"! I was informed earlier today that my a/c needs replacing. Today's service charge was $360.00 (Saturday surcharge) but that may be deducted from the cost of a new one. I'll see how things work out when I meet with the sales person.
Big Easy, I'm glad your wife wasn't hurt and YR, glad the damage was minor and no injuries.
Anonymous: thank you for those Merl Reagle related links, especially CC's nice interview.
Hi All!
My best Sat in a long time! Thanks Berry. W(most)EES - NW was easy, SW fell with only RIVER SYTX hanging out there. Hand up for CVS which slowed my down.
Great write-up Splynter. Sorry to hear about your TIE RODS.
Also, not knowing any pop-culture / Hollywood stuff (LIKE I CARE), I put in Upton at 10a. I heard of her, but I don't know why (I Googled her later and now know she's a super model). Google had to save me on WALSH (who to me is prettier than Upton) and that let the NE fall.
Alas, a DNF at 45d xing 49 &55a.
I was a field medical lab Tech. I had a hand-cranked ROTOR for spinning down blood for testing.
IM, I hope your arm is better. YR, glad you're healing well. Big Easy, that sucks. D-O, if more companies provided that kind of service, they'd have lifetime loyal customers.
Cheers, -T
@Karma - Now THAT was funny. For sure it was the VALET!
Well, I went right through this, but the middle was sticky. This surprised me as I was woken up by my smoke detectors going off at 4 AM. They are interconnected so they all go off. You have to see the one flashing red to know that is the one that was triggered. But as there was no fire or smoke I had to find it quickly. But it kept resetting, so I would be able to get to one or two before it reset. Go back to bed and wait for it to go off again. Of course it was (1) the last one I checked and (2) the one 12 feet off the ground on the vaulted ceiling. So I got the ladder from the garage and proceeded to take it down. It's an AC unit w/ battery backup so I unplugged it and took out the battery. Then I went back to bed.
When I got up I put just the battery back in after vacuuming it. It went off again so I know it's hosed. Still under warranty so we'll see.
My little cat is freaked out, the big one doesn't care and I'm tired. But I did the puzzle!
Well, it was lunchtime. But no $130 steak. I had fish tacos instead. I LIKE good fish tacos.
There is double dose of Silk today as he also scripted the NYT. They were both challenging BUT not impossible. I had no idea what RHEO meant despite using the word rheostat for years and AD INTERIM is a Latin phrase I never heard
Sunny here again despite all the forecasts go rain
Enjoy all
Anon@1:22p - Thanks for those links. Your're right, those are some sketchy looking URLS leading to the film. I'll wait 'till the kids are done w/ NetFlix and see if I can pull up the move.
I'm amazed by folks that can do xwords so quickly. I see/hear folks talking of sub 5 min times and think, "Did I even read all the clues that fast?"
Cheers, -T
I didn't find Wordplay on NetFlix, HBO, nor on-demand, but Apple TV had it for $10. It was worth it. Thanks again @1:22p Anon. Cheers, -T
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