google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, September 25, 2015, Amy Johnson

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Sep 25, 2015

Friday, September 25, 2015, Amy Johnson

Theme: That joke went over like a lead balloon.

Amy J. comes to Friday after many Sunday and Monday LAT appearances. A conventional Friday with humorous clue/fill combinations based on the nature of certain professions. All are witty, but not laugh out loud for me. The puzzle also had some unknowns, and some very difficult cluing in places as well lots of longish fill like HOFFMAN, KODIAKS, RETORTS,  UP TO PAR, PRISTINE, STEAMERS, FULLY GROWN, IN THE STARS. I will be interested to see what you all thought of this puzzle with no gimmicks, just challenges; so let's go.

20A. The joke at the audiologists' convention __ : FELL ON DEAF EARS (14). Is this insensitive?

26A. The joke at the chemists' convention __ : GOT NO REACTION (13). My favorite.

44A. The joke at the firefighters' convention __ : WENT UP IN SMOKE (13). This burned me up.

52A. The joke at the cashiers' convention __ : DID NOT REGISTER (14). Cash registers really do not exist in most stores.

Across :

1. Better protected : SAFER.

6. "Poppycock!" : PISH. I was surprised to learn this term came from the 1500s, with so many modern versions (pish posh, pish tosh, pish and tish etc.)

10. Badlands Natl. Park site : SDAK. Be careful of all the outlaws in South Dakota.

14. Coarse : CRUDE.

15. Suspicious of : ON TO. I think of suspicious as not knowing for sure, and onto as being sure.

16. Pup follower? : TENT.  The HISTORY. Apparently the Civil War soldiers who used them thought when set up they looked like a kennel.

17. Up for grabs, in a way : UNLET. Really tenuous tenant connection, very hard for short fill.

18. Lit. intro : PREFace.

19. "Willard" antagonists : RATS. I thought they were the stars?

23. Solo, say : FLY. All pilots look for their first solo flight.

24. Indian author Santha Rama __ : RAU. I have never been aware of this WRITER.

25. Century-starting year : MMCI. In her NYT debut, Amy commented she did not like using Roman numerals; random answers like this are the problem.

32. Not treat lightly : STRESS.

34. Normandy river : ORNE. Just one the many four letter European rivers you need to know to do puzzles.

35. "Defending Our Nation. Securing The Future" org. : NSA. They not only protect but they create puzzles for BILL G and others. LINK.

36. __ swings : MOOD.

37. "POV" airer : PBS. My TV watching is way down but THIS has promise.

38. Extreme degrees : NTHS.

39. "The Trumpet of the Swan" monogram : EBW.
Not as famous as Stuart Little perhaps but an E.B. White children's book which is also a movie.

40. Boxed dozen : JURY. Really nice Friday misdirection as no doughnuts or bagels here and juror do sit in the box.

42. Vail topper : SKI HAT. One of the many Colorado resorts. CSO our missing miss m.

47. Part of a friskiness metaphor : OATS. All you wanted to know about sowing WILD ones.

48. Jersey's chew : CUD. Very cute cow clue, not an old Soprano's reference

49. "The Simpsons" leisure suit wearer : STU.

56. Not even close : COLD. From the old, am I getting closer game.

57. Lightest meson : PION. Someone please explain to me as my knowledge is just from wiki.  In particle physics, a pion (or a pi meson, denoted with the Greek letter pi: π) is any of three subatomic particles: π0, π+, and π−. Each pion consists of a quark and an antiquark and is therefore a meson

58. Ex-TV host Stewart : ALANA. Married to Rod and George Hamilton

59. Kick back : LOLL.

60. Required bet : ANTE.

61. "R.U.R." writer Capek : KAREL. With JzB's write up Wednesday, everyone should know this author and his famous play which introduced the word ROBOT.

62. Language that gave us "bard" : ERSE. If you want the 'simple' answer, wiki says Erse can be: an alternative name for any Goidelic language, especially Irish, from Erische. a 16th-19th Century Scots name for Scottish Gaelic.

63. Old Royale 8's : REOS. An impressive looking car.


64. Gambling aids: Abbr. : SYSTSems. I know many a poor man who designed a 'perfect' blackjack system.

Down

1. Shining target : SCUFF. My mind went to the movies, not my shoes.

2. Journey frontman Pineda : ARNEL. How do you replace Steve Perry? Apparently with a 5'4" Filipino singer. LINK.

3. Mature : FULLY GROWN. I like this fill even if Arnel and I never got very tall.

4. Henry James biographer : EDEL. This multi-volume work was Leon's career. LINK. Having this name and Arnel crossing made getting the first theme fill very tricky.

5. Backtalk : RETORTS.

6. The Carpenters, e.g. : POP DUO. Her life was so tragic.


7. Regarding : IN RE. Latin.

8. Mississippi travelers : STEAMERS. The river, not the state. Not sure I have heard the term used this way.

9. "Meet the Fockers" co-star : HOFFMAN. Dustin and Barbra were pretty entertaining.
10. Channel relative : STRAIT.

11. Word John doesn't want to see? : DEAR. The kiss off letter.

12. They're seen in columns : ANTS. This old trick did not fool me this time.

13. Lapidary's meas. : KTS. A lapidary is a person who cuts, polishes, or engraves gemstones and KT is the abbreviation for the purity of gold (karat) not the weight of gems (carat). Hmmm.

21. Some flatbreads : NANS.

22. Nero's "Behold!" : ECCE. Latin.

27. Ref. shelf filler : OEDOxford English Dictionary.

28. Singer Rihanna's first name : ROBYN. No idea. This Barbados born GIRL has been awesomely successful.

29. Where a love story may be written : IN THE STARS. Star-crossed lovers, the Fault in Our Stars...all too sad.

30. Workers' rights org. : OSHA,  Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

31. Tweed lampooner : NAST. The political cartoonist. READ.

32. Drake, maybe : SMEW. We have had this duck before, though many might of thought about Serena Williams' boyfriend who started on Degrassi.


33. Start of a dramatic question : TO BE or not to be. A small does of WS.

37. Like new snow : PRISTINE. Such clean perfect fill.

38. End to peace? : NIK. Beat...Neat...This suffix comes from the Eastern European word meaning "one who" but some credit its popularity to the launch of the Sputnik.

40. Evita's man : JUAN. Peron...they liked poodles.

41. As expected : UP TO PAR. As opposed to over par, par value and other reasons why English is so hard to learn.

42. Complacent : SMUG. I like this word.

43. Grizzly Alaskans? : KODIAKS. Can you bear these clues?

45. Walk wearing Luvs : TODDLE.

46. Dramatic units : SCENES.

50. Principle : TENET.

51. Dividing range : URALS. They divide Europe and Asia, but my mind went to Australia first.

52. When one __ closes ... : DOOR. Another hits you in the....on your way out.

53. Hardly blessed events : ILLS. meh.

54. Till opener : ROTO. A motorized way to turn your soil.

55. Crack up : SLAY. The reactions when the jokes are funny.

56. NFL team with a home field bleachers section called the Dawg Pound : CLEveland Browns. The second generation, they often wear dog masks.

Welcome to Friday Amy, look forward to more. Thanks everyone and I hope you are enjoying fall.

51 comments:

OwenKL said...

FIW. No ta-da, even after I'd double checked, but I did have a lot of WAGs, so gave up and hit the check button. Three cells x-ed out. One was the natick ReBYN+eRNE, the other two were in a word I was sure of: "[Napoleon] Solo, say" had to be SPY! Though I had had HAN first, and considered CUP.

The crossword convention was in town
I thought with them I'd be a clown.
It was laughter
I was after,
But the jokes I told just wouldn't go down!

I tried to think, but was at a loss
No golden words, but only dross.
The crossword crowd
Just couldn't be wowed--
My jokes I couldn't get across!

I guess my comedy will not do,
My chance to entertain I blew.
No answer hid
Within the grid --
To make folks laugh, I haven't a clue!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Took awhile, but I managed to get through this in one piece. What saved my bacon was the fact that I grokked the theme at the outset and was able to throw down each of the theme answers based solely on the clues with no perp help. If not for that, I don't think I would have gotten through this one, what with PION, SYSTS, EDEL, ORNE, ARNEL, ROBYN, etc.

HowardW said...

I found this very hard, despite getting the theme. Longest Friday solve over the 6 months I've been logging my times. Too many unknown names: ARNEL Pineda, Leon EDEL, ALANA Stewart, Santha Rama RAU, ROBYN Rihanna. In the south, I went wrong in the south with muON rather than PION (my excuse is that muons were formerly known as mu mesons), and the ROTO/REOS crossing was very tough. NW was hard due to the unknowns. And north central -- couldn't recall HOFFMAN in that movie, had AS TO rather than IN RE, and POP DUO wasn't obvious either. OisE before ORNE -- the Oise is in the north of France but does not enter Normandy. I also didn't know that E.B.White wrote "Trumpet of the Swan". So lots of learning this morning!

Thanks Lemon for an excellent discussion.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Got through this one in normal Friday time. Didn't understand PREF until Lemon's expo. Had I been solving on paper, I'd probably still be looking at it. But on my tablet I suddenly got the "Finished" message, so I knew it had to be right. Cluing for UNLET was a bit obscure.

Toilet paper at this motel is labeled 500J --I'm guessing that's the "grit" rating. Not in jail, so the trip is a success so far.

Bronx Boy said...

"Cash registers really do not exist in most stores."

That's news to me. I was in three stores yesterday and they all had cash registers.

Avg Joe said...

This was 9 miles of hard road. And right squarely in the middle was a Natick that I couldn't overcome. Didn't know Orne, so I went with Arne. And Even though Robyn sounded more like the correct name, Arne won out. DNF. But it was still enjoyable and the theme answers were pretty easy to get.

D-O, if it's 500J that sounds like code. Probably more like 50 grit.

Bloom County is picking up where the Oxford Comma left off. Opus and Bill are running for president, and the central plank of their platform is bringing back the use of 2 spaces after a period. One of today's commenters even asked for the Oxford Comma. :-) The gift that keeps on giving.

Oh, and GO CUBS!

Yellowrocks said...

Very difficult today. Getting the jokes did help. I thought it was ARLEN Pineda, but it didn't fit, so I red lettered. I missed the N in UNLET (odd clue and answer)) and the L in FLY. I should have known FLY SOLO.
We read Trumpet of the Swan in our 4th or 5th grade classes.
I knew STEAMERS on the MISSISSIPPI.
OISE before ORNE, MUON before PION, which was new to me.
Bronx Boy @8:09, me, too.

Klilly and Lucina, I appreciated your book suggestions last night. I will look them up. I have read Girl with the Pearl earring twice. It’s one of my favorites. I have also read Tracy’s Fallen Angels and the Last Runaway.

TTP said...

Thank you Amy and Lemonade !

As I was working the NW corner, FELL ON DEAF EARS was my very first answer. So I looked at the other ones and WENT UP IN SMOKE was my second answer. Didn't even bother to prove them at that point. Took a lot of perp help to get the other two, which although funny, don't recall having heard before.

Eggs went in and came right out because I had PBS, and new fallen snow word wasn't going to start with PG something. JURY was good. As an aside, I'm a fan of POV, although I don't watch all of them. We have 3 PBS stations in the Chicagoland area. WTTW has 4 channels, WYCC and WLPR have 1 each That's a lot of PBS. WTTW Create and Prime are favorites.

TTP said...

Part II

NW corner wouldn't fall. HAD SAFER, FULLER, and RETORTS, along with FELL ON, but SCUFF and FLY never came to me. Got a mental block with SHOES for "Shining target" and ditto with ROUGH where CRUDE belonged. Neither could possibly be correct.

ARNEL and EDEL ? Really ? Did anyone possibly get BOTH of those without perps ? RAU ? Got that one with perps.

Also had trouble in the SE. Which Stewart ? JOHN, MARTHA ? Despite having R.U.R's author in the clue a couple of days ago, I still uncertainly typed in ANTON as his first name. Took it out and later got URALS and TENET, but never got the L in ALANA (who ?) and the LAY in SLAY.

Lemonade, read Proving Einstein's theory of special relativity

DAWG Pound bleachers. Don't wear your Steelers emblems there.

Today is National One-Hit Wonder Day. We often get "Who Let The Dogs Out?" band ____ Men.

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning!

Thanks Amy for an interesting challenge. Like Barry, I worked hard but finally got there. I personally could not move away from the cash register for till opener. Spent a lot of time in front of one in the "olden" days. Lemonade, I still didn't see how ROTO worked until I took your tour! Thanks.

I can highly recommend Atonement by Ian Mc Ewan. It's a rich piece set between the two World Wars. The narration is interesting, and the outcome is quite unpredictable. I taught it for several years to my AP Lit class. It always brought strong plot discussions and varied reactions to the symbolism, which further enriches the telling. I was a Socratic teacher, so following the students' discoveries and interpretations was always exciting for me.

Two of my grands have arrived for the day, so DH and I are off for some tomfoolery! Have a great day!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Maybe it was brain fog from the anesthesia, but this was a real slog for me. I finished w/o help but it took an inordinate amount of time for a Thursday. I can't say I enjoyed it but that could be because I was feeling loopy and not quite grounded. I dozed on and off most of the day. Every simple task is a chore and takes 2-3 times longer to accomplish. Oh well, better days are coming. 😎

Thanks, Amy and Lemony, for a Friday challenge and review.

Have a great day.

oc4beach said...


My local newspaper has switched from the LA Times CW to a "UNIVERSAL" CW. This is annoying because the new CW is rather ordinary and it forces me to do the LA Times on-line. I like to try it in the paper before going on-line for red letter help. Plus printing the grid and filling it in is not the same as doing it in the newspaper. Oh, if all of our troubles were so minor.

I felt pretty good when I started and filled in the first 6 words. But then it got tougher. I did get the first theme clue right away, but had to work for the rest of them with perps until they became obvious. A good challenging Friday puzzle. It was technically a DNF because I used red letters.

I agree with Bronx Boy that cash registers still exist. They are no longer the mechanical adding machines that they once were. They are mostly computer terminals with a cash drawer. Gone are the days when a cashier would ring up your purchase and figure out the change that they would give you in their head. Most cashiers today can't do that and are lost if the register doesn't provide them with the correct change amount.

It's a beautiful day in Central PA, I hope it is nice where everyone is.

Avg Joe said...

TTP, in my mind, the most played and enduring one hit wonder is Spirit in the Sky But one of the lesser known tunes that deserves a seat at the table is Little Green Bag

A: Baha

Duty calls.....

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

Thought this would be a huge DNF, but it was only a medium DNF. Getting EARS from the NE perps was all the hint I needed for the first theme fill, then the others were easy guesses.

Sadly though, 17A gave me a natick cluster. Didn't suss SCUFF, and ARNEL and EDEL are total unknowns.

SE corner is half blank. Another pair of obscure names. RUR came up in my blog Wed, but didn't remember Capek's name. Took a swag at KAROL, which didn't help.

At least my DNF is symmetric.

Cool regards!
JzB

kazie said...

On my count, there are a total of 15 clues that needed detailed knowledge of people's /characters'/ teams' NAMES to do this successfully. I did not succeed, despite getting ORNE, POP DUO, STEAMERS, ECCE, ORNE, and KODIAKS. In addition to missing most of the names, I thought REF. was short for refrigerator in 27D, had EGGS for JURY, and was thinking of the TILL that preceded the computerized cash registers in stores, so never got ROTO, which crossed with PION, since I had absolutely no idea what a MESON is either.

I also had no idea of how to solve the theme answers, since I thought they would actually be the joke, not the phrase to complete the clue.

O well, it is Friday...See you all Monday!

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Good write-up Lemon. Thank you.

Had the same problems as many others. Too many answers based on detailed knowledge of arcane material. The theme fills came easily, though, once a few perps were sussed. But I bulled ahead and looked up complete unknowns to try to add to my knowledge repertory in solving future challenges.
Favorite clue/fill was JURY.

KAREL - Believe it is the Slavic form of Charles or Carl.

Have a nice day.

TTP said...

Hmmm, perhaps I should have said, "...typed in Anton with uncertainty" rather than "...I still uncertainly typed in ANTON..."


True, as OC4BEACH said that we don't seem many of the old NCR type mechanical marvels.

I would think that what most of us would see now are the Point Of Sale terminals and systems, as well as the Self-service Checkout terminals.

The POS terminals still have a cash register and drawer / till function, but it is only one component of the overall system. I don't think anyone in the industry has referred to them as cash registers for perhaps the last 20 years or so.

Lemonade714 said...

Thank you oc4beach for understanding my point about cash registers.

TTP I read the piece you linked and found it fascinating but unfulfilling. I am just not cut out for physics of any sort

Bill G. said...

Thanks Amy and Lemon.

All of the jokey answers kinda made sense and were a little bit funny except for the one at a firefighters convention; GOING UP IN SMOKE. I get it but it seems especially forced. Still, the puzzle as a whole worked OK and was challenging and enjoyable. I also agree with the nit about suspicious and ONTO. And based on Lemon's comment, KTS seems wrong instead of CTS. If so, it seems that Amy and Rich made a mistake.

I agree about gambling systems not working except for counting cards at Blackjack. It definitely works in the long run (though is hard to implement). In fact there was a bestselling book written years ago about card counting called "Beat the Dealer."

Still too hot here. I've got a dreaded dentist appt. to get started on a bridge. It will probably end up being not a big deal but the negative anticipation is wearing me down.

Big Easy said...

A complete crsh and burn this morning. I had the East, that's it. I couldn't get a toehold in the Left or Middle. PISH, SMEW, RAU, EBW, PION, Ole Royale 8's, ARNEL, EDEL, ROBYN- absolute no knowledge about any of them. I correctly guessed EARS, REACTION, SMOKE, & REGISTER but the lead up words were not coming. ALANA was all perps. Gave up after 25 minutes.

The few guesses I made were wrong WADDLE for TODDLE, WAShington for CLEveland, MUON for PION, MALE for SMEW, HAN for FLY, AGEE for EDEL- I just couldn't get started. UP TO PAR is usually heard as 'NOT up to par' for being sick but I guess someone's work could be considered 'up to par'; I'm usually OVER PAR on the course but I wasn't UP TO PAR on this puzzle.

This was way above my pay scale today. Hopefully I'll be able to do Saturday's.

Freond said...

A puzzle for experts only. WAY too many obscure names for my tastes or skill level. I'd rate it an F for that crime of excess. Rest was hard but OK. Got everything that wasn't a proper name, but couldn't finish NW corner without lookups. I'll take Roman numerals over names any day. At least with those you stand a chance.

VirginiaSycamore said...

Slow. But got the Cleveland Browns Dawg Pound! We actually won the home opener last week, the first time in many years ! Here are 2 famous rants by our fan spokesperson, Mike Polk.
3 years ago: FACTORY_OF_SADNESS
and later 2_YEARS_LATER

I was able to get all the theme answers after I looked up Dustin HOFFMANN was a costar in Meet the Fockers. This was some consolation. Once I got REGISTER, the rest of the themes fell into place and actually helped with the downs.

It was a slow slog. I cheated and looked up EDEL for Henry James’ biographer but still had trouble in the NW. I wanted TRY for FLY and TO LET for UNLET which screwed up SCRUFF totally. Although early on, I was thinking SHOE but that flew away with SAFER and FELL ON DEAF EARS. I also had ARNE for ORNE. So it was finished with errors. But a nice theme.


VS.

Husker Gary said...

Dang! UNL_T/ED_L got me for one bad cell. I went with UNLIT (meh) and EDIL (who knew?). The theme fills were clever and helpful.

Musings
-Subbing for 8th grade math again and solving and blogging when I can
-This sports position had to get SAFER
-__u__ had to be ROUGH, didn’t it? Nope.
-BRIT. Lit. made SIB(ling) DUO look clever but not right!
-The Ranville Bridge over the ORNE was a major allied objective on D-Day
-MOOD swings – my friend is chatty when his golf game is going well and a sphinx when it isn’t
-A dozen doughnuts in the teachers’ lounge don’t last over a minute
-Great scene with LOLLygaggers. I hope the link works as I can’t get to youtube at this school.
-Las Vegas thrives on sucker SYSTEMS
-Rotten Tomatoes gave Meet The Fockers a 38%. I would have not been so generous
-This CHANNEL has many relatives in Nebraska
-NAN or NAAN? Oh, it’s plural so…
-My 20 yr. old ROTOtiller won’t die~
-SE was the hardest for me and SLAY finally got me through
-CLE’s draft of Johnny Manziel is still being debated
-Where did Dean Martin sing that people are “Happy as a cow, chewin’ on a CUD”.

VirginiaSycamore said...

Husker Gary,

"It's a treat to beat your feet on the Mississippi Mud!"

They don't need no band, they keep the beat by clapping their hands, etc.

Don't know why I know it so well.

VS

john28man said...

oc4beach

I did a little exploring and found that you can go to the Mensa Home Page, then Play the click on the LA Times Icon. If you print that you have the grid but will need to use the site to get the clues.

Hope this helps.

C6D6 Peg said...

Cute puzzle, Amy. Got the theme answers way before wagging the rest. Nice challenge and a completion!

Thanks, Lemonade, for the great write-up.

Wishes to all for a good weekend!

Misty said...

Great limericks, Owen. Glad you're home, Irish Miss--hope you feel better soon.

coneyro said...

A mini Saturday level puzzle. Too much for my brain. Too many specific, arcane entries, for my taste. I even started questioning myself when I knew my answer was correct. At least I was not alone today. Other seasoned players agreed with me.

I need something for my headache. Let me out of here.

My best for a good weekend all.

AnonymousPVX said...

Wow. The whole NE seemed like a giant natik to me. Probably should have gotten 14A, but 17A was a nasty clue, 1D completely escaped me, no idea of 2D or 4D, I have never seen 24A in 30+ years of solving. So no joy for me today.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Yeah, too hard for me. I started with BOSH instead of PISH. The easier fills were S.DAKota, PBS, NSA, NTHS, CUD, STU, and DOOR, the shorties known to most of us. Then I knew KAREL (alternate for KARL) from my theater background.
Then everything got hard - because, as Lemon eloquently points out, the incentive is slight when the laughs are tight. Some fills were awkward, questionable, none particularly clever. Still, I do appreciate Ms. Johnson's skill. Lord knows I can't construct more than four crossed words w/o a clinker!

Bluehen said...

I think that I may have a small nit. The clue indicates that Kodiak bears are grizzlies. I have always understood them to be brown bears.

Lucina said...

Greetings, friends!

So late to the party am I (channeling Yoda). First, I overslept due to my being riveted by Sandra Brown's new book, Friction, until 2:00 A.M. Then in a rare event for me, watching morning TV because of the Pope and other amazing news today.

The bottom two thirds was easily, though slowly, filled and momentarily blocked by TSA then NSA. Many years ago, I watched ALANA Stewart's and George Hamilton's talk show and learned at that time she had been married to both Rod and George.

Terms I've learned from crosswords: PION, KAREL, STU, and that tiny workers or a column can be ANTS.

Up to then the grid was almost entirely covered until the Natick of ARNEL/EDEL appeared. I had to research them and only then was able to finish.

Thank you so much, Amy Johnson for an intriguing and challenging puzzle and of course, Lemonade, for an illuminating analysis. You make it look easy.

I hope you are all having a beautiful autumn day! It's still summer here at 100 degs.

Lucina said...

I failed to mention that in fourth grade my students read The Trumpet of the Swan, a wonderful story by E. B. White.

Yr:
I hope some of those suggestions bear fruit in enjoyable reading for you.

Lucina said...

Oops.
Owen, I really liked today's poem. Well done!

SwampCat said...


Waaay over my head today! But thanks for being our tour guide, Lemonade.

I laughed at your poems today, Owen, but then I usually do. Today was especially apt.

Good luck and speedy recovery, Irish Miss.

Mr. Google said...

Bluehen: Grizzly bears

Paul in Montebello said...

That was fun. The southwest corner was my favorite. Great Friday.

Anonymous T said...

Hi all!

Back from Sin City where all your senses are sapped. I worked at the crosswords each day (MGM had LAT at the newsstand) but never got back to my room until very late so DID NOT bother posting (and didn't finish Thurs).

Thanks Lem & Amy. I got the theme answers but had to cheat my butt off for the corners (even looked at Lem's grid for the SE). Big fat DNF.

Fav - JURY. The haha was worth it.

Ave Joe - Wait. What? No two spaces? Really? I've seen one space after punctuation on internal docs and added the second space thinking I was doing a "good thing."

My SYST for Blackjack - get more beer for my losings that I would have paid for them at the bar. One night this wasn't working out as I was loosing with only one beer in belly. The dealer asked why I was sitting out. Tipping my empty bottle, "No ANTE until the waitress comes about. This beer cost me $90."*

Cheers, -T
*OK, I really didn't say ANTE, but 60a demands it today.

Jayce said...

I had pretty much the same experience that HowardW did.

Yellowrocks said...

Oc4beach, I agree that many young clerks today cannot calculate without electronic gadgets In a power failure or computer glitch they are totally lost. Presumably they were taught in school, but have become utterly dependent on these crutches. Dear Abby featured a letter about this today.
At our square dance we frequently run short of $1 bills. A couple owes $8, so they pay with a twenty and three ones. The kids would hand back the $3, saying you overpaid and then fret about having no ones to give $12 back. We subtract the $3 from the total bill. Now they owe just $5 and will get $15 change from the $20.

Yellowrocks said...

After the fact I ususally try to place myself into the minds of Rich and the constructor to figure out why they allowed clues which we pan.

Grizzly and Kodiak are two subspecies of the Brown bear. Kodiak bears are often called Alaskan grizzlies, though not technically grizzlies..
Apparently UNLET is a real word for "not rented out". Although I found it an awkward and misleading clue, an unlet apartment is up for grabs, so I accept it now.
ONTO. "I’m ONTO you," could mean I’m sure there is something fishy going on, but I don’t know just what it is, as yet, so suspicious could fit.
KTS can be an abbreviation for KARATS. Jewelers distinguish between CARATS and KARATS
CARAT is used to describe the mass of a diamond and other gemstones, a carat is a measure of weight.
The term, KARAT, is usually used to indicate the fineness of a gold alloy. It is a measure of purity.
Some non-jewelers use the words as synonyms.
Link KTS

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks, Amy and Lemon!

Cute theme! Really liked it!

Cheated and looked up ARNEL.

Hang in there, Agnes!

Cheers!

Nice Cuppa said...

I agree with Kazie and others.

A great crossword should be defined by the quality/cleverness of its clues, not by the obscurity of its answers.

Please, please, someone try to make a great crossword.

This was very similar to last Friday. Theme was OK but then it turned into an alphabet soup of obscure names, etc.

Lucina said...

NC:
In my opinion, this was a great puzzle perhaps because I was familiar with just enough of the fill to give me a foothold and suss the unknown parts. It was by no means easy but, IMO, fair.

Manac said...

TTP
Not exactly a one hit wonder for them,
but it is theme related... Sorta.
Low Rider

Avg Joe said...

I've got a stack of 20 CDs +\- that I bought because of 1 song that I liked. Bad plan. But that doesn't diminish the quality of that one song, in any case. It just speaks to my investment acumen. It sucks. Still......

Here's one example Holding Back the Years

Unknown said...

The puzzle sucked eggs

TTP said...

Ha ! Appropriate to the puzzle Manac !

Avg Joe, Another good one. I bought more than a few albums the same way, believing that there would be other great songs on it that weren't on the radio yet. Poor decisions in a number of cases.

Some of the one hit wonders were songs I could go years without hearing again, and it would still be too soon. If "Afternoon Delight" comes on the radio, I change the station.

See all y'all tomorrow !

Husker Gary said...

-LOLLygagger scene

Argyle said...

And then there was “More Than Words(5:46)” by the one-hit-wonder band Extreme. Nothing like it was on the album.

Boo LuQuette AKA Boudreaux in Eunice, La. said...

Wow what a puzzle !!! But I wasn't up to par on this one. Best friday I ever enjoyed, but I had some white when I turned on the red letters. I thought DID NOT REGISTER was (did you register) which is a good fill in and that threw me off on the rest of the long fills. Perry or Steve Didn't fit in with the others. Donuts didn't fit. Shining as the Movie ? NADA !! Had waddle instead of toddle.

Worker rights my foot. They came on my job site and wrote 100,000 $ worth of fines for a cord plug they broke and they asked my worker to come down from the roof and fined him for stepping on the ladder wrong. Had it all on video and he didn't realize it. Other stuff didn't stick. YADA YADA Sorry about the rant.

When I saw the tiller I was hey that's mine from 25 years ago, but my greenhouse is 16 X 40. Craftsman made a good one. Also Troy made a very good HORSE !!

Bon soir from Cajun Country !!!!!