google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday, September 7, 2015 Bruce Venzke and Gail Grabowski

Gary's Blog Map

Sep 7, 2015

Monday, September 7, 2015 Bruce Venzke and Gail Grabowski

Theme: Connection - One word that works with four different words.

62A. Perform a cheerleader's feat, and a hint to what 17-, 23-, 40- and 50-Across' first words have in common : DO THE SPLITS...and the connection is SPLIT.

17A. Sensible : LEVEL HEADED. Split level, like a house.

23A. Actor's tryout : SCREEN TEST. Split screen, like this film, Woodstock(1:12).

40A. Romantic anniversary getaway : SECOND HONEYMOON. Split second.

50A. Concert memento : TICKET STUB. Split ticket, when a voter doesn't follow party lines and votes for candidates from more than one party.

Argyle here. Personally, after the last three puzzles, I was ready for a Monday.

Across:

1. __ fit: tantrum : HISSY

6. Alabama civil rights march city : SELMA

11. Muddy farm abode : STY

14. Send to seventh heaven : ELATE. Like a pig in a sty.

15. Earlier : PRIOR

16. Drain-clearing chemical : LYE

19. Alias, for short : AKA. (also known as)

20. Private school attendee : PREPPIE

21. Actor Rob of "90210" : ESTES. Rob Estes was born on July 22, 1963 in Norfolk, Virginia, USA. He appears as Harry Wilson on 90210, the fourth series of the Beverly Hills, 90210 continuity. Prior to this role, Estes starred in the franchise's second series as Kyle McBride, and appeared in the guest role of Sam Towler years earlier.

27. Padlocked fasteners : HASPS

32. Maintained, as beliefs : HELD TO. Colloquialism?

33. Extremely : EVER SO. Colloquialism?

35. Wheel tooth : COG

36. Judge's garb : ROBE

43. 1970s-'80s sketch show : SCTV. (Second City Television)

44. Letters of obligation : IOU. Sound it out.

45. Took by force : SEIZED

46. "Full House" acting twins : OLSENS. They both portrayed Michelle Tanner, the youngest daughter in the Tanner family.

49. January, to Juan : ENERO. The start of verano.

54. Irish actor Milo : O'SHEA

55. Hopi homes : PUEBLOs

61. Hard __ rock : AS A. Do not play if easily offended. Very suggestive.



66. Pester for payment : DUN

67. Bull on a glue container : ELMER


68. Assume as fact : POSIT

69. Up to now : YET

70. Curbs, with "in" : REINS

71. Sandwich cheese with ham : SWISS

Down:

1. "SOS!" : "HELP!"

2. Robert who played Anthony Soprano Jr. : ILER

3. Keep in reserve : SAVE

4. Ladder rung : STEP

5. Shrill bark : [YELP!]

6. Orator's delivery : SPEECH

7. Chapter in history : ERA

8. Jar cover : LID

9. Cohort of Curly and Larry : MOE. Not the bartender today.

10. Intensely devoted : ARDENT

11. List of candidates : SLATE. Straight ticket.

12. Tricycle riders : TYKES

13. Bread-baking need : YEAST

18. "__ Girl Friday": 1940 Cary Grant comedy : HIS

22. Enter angrily : STORM IN

24. Runner-up's demand : RECOUNT

25. North Carolina university : ELON

26. Outer margins : EDGES

27. Gas brand with collectible toy trucks : HESS. Hess has been sold to Speedway but does that make the Hess trucks even more collectible?

28. With, in France : AVEC

29. Breakaway religious group : SECT

30. Egg on : PROVOKE

31. ID on an IRS form : SSN

34. Creator of praiseful poems : ODIST

37. Move like slime : OOZE

38. Afrikaans speaker : BOER



39. Prefix with skeleton : ENDO

41. Sod-busting tools : HOEs

42. "__-haw!" : YEE. Almost done!

47. Orchestra conductor, e.g. : LEADER

48. Building custodians : SUPERs. Shortened superintendent.

50. Sycophant : TOADY

51. Magazine edition : ISSUE

52. Repeated unison rallying cry : CHANT

53. Urban transport : BUS

56. Omar of "House" : EPPS

57. Low __: cheap shot : BLOW

58. Italian actress Virna : LISI


59. Elevator pioneer : OTIS

60. Former Mach 2 fliers, briefly : SSTs

63. World Cup cry : ¡OLÉ!

64. Texter's "Keep the details to yourself" : TMI. (Too Much Information)

65. One in a coop group : HEN


Argyle

62 comments:

  1. Interesting. I guessed the theme wrong, but still got it. I thought it was going to be "on the...".
    ON THE LEVEL
    ON THE SCREEN
    ON THE SECOND,
    ON THE TICKET. Not as nice as what it turned out to be, but workable!

    He said on a SECOND HONEYMOON they should go,
    Although she was angry, she couldn't say no.
    There with romance so ARDENT
    They abandoned their argument,
    Love (and sex) healed the SPLIT, may it be EVER SO!

    The CHEERLEADER SCREEN TESTs did not turn out nice.
    Every team's pyramids fell in a trice!
    This horrid situation
    Was due to location --
    It was staged in a hockey rink out on the ice!

    The neighbors were terrorized with frights!
    Choruses rang out of the YELP of "Yikes!"
    No, not a Hell's Angel,
    But still awfully painful,
    The Terrible Twos had become TYKES on TRIKES!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Morning, all!

    LISI? On a Monday? Not to mention ESTES and ELON?

    Actually, I got through this one remarkably quickly, even for a Monday. The perps were all fair and the puzzle itself was generally very easy. I was just surprised to see one complete unknown and two barely remembers on a Monday.

    My son, btw, has been collecting HESS trucks every year since he saw a whole bunch of old ones for sale at an antique shop when he was around five years old. I think he's convinced that his will also be valuable antiques some day. I haven't had the heart to tell him that modern HESS trucks are produces in the gazillions and aren't likely to be worth anything (especially after he has taken them out of their boxes and played with them...)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Happy Labor Day!

    This was an easy romp with a theme that I couldn't fathom 'til the reveal. I agree with Argyle; we needed a respite from the humbling this past weekend.

    Anybody else think of smart bombs when STORMIN' Norman showed up? Virna LISI seems a little obscure for Monday fare. On the other hand, I had no problem filling it, so why complain? At 52d I was expecting an actual rallying cry rather than a synonym. But, a nice start to what's going to be a lazy day. Thanks, BG's.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good morning all ! Happy Labor Day. I liked the puzzle. No HISSY fits here. ¡OLÉ!

    My favorite SPLIT is banana. My least favorite SPLIT is the 7-10.
    Writers should learn to not SPLIT infinitives.

    AC/DC will be playing Wrigley Field Sept 15th.
    CSO to Chairman MOE.

    BRUCE, GAIL, and ARGYLE, IOU a debt of gratitude for not overtaxing my brain today. I'm still reeling from Saturday.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TTP - thanks; two days on a row where MOE makes an appearance in a puzzle (8d yesterday; 9d TOADY) !!

      BTW, I hope we kick Tom Brady's sorry a$$ butt on Thurs night. The guy was guilty as sin but I guess his lawyers out-trumped the NFL's.

      Delete
  5. Good morning everyone.

    Hope you all have a fine Labor Day. Canada too.

    Easy enough. Agree with others about LISI and ESTES.
    Only erasure was I had Hee before YEE. No searches were needed; the perps were adequate.

    SPLIT - In avatar, we normally SPLIT the plant when underway. That meant the port and starboard engines and their auxiliaries were isolated from each other. The electric load was also SPLIT fore and aft. This provided a good LEVEL of redundancy should there be a casualty. However, for casualty control, the split mode would be dropped on the affected system and it would be 'cross-connected'. Since the ship could do ~13 kts on one boiler, for fuel savings on long transits,main steam would be be cross-connected if conditions permitted.

    QOD - "Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go" Hermann Hesse

    ReplyDelete


  6. The crossing C for 43A SCTV & 28d AVEC was a lucky guess. I was wavering back and forth between the C and an I. The coin flip saved me again.

    Everything else went easily and only needed to rely on perps two or three times.

    Can't recall ever being called a PREPPIE when enrolled in Wilbraham. Was called a lot of other things, at and away from school.

    Big baseball week around here this week; Yankees/Blue Jays & Met/Nats. Both series will go a long way in deciding the fate of both NY teams. Not too confident as both opponents have been hot lately.

    Hope everyone has a terrific Labor Day.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great puzzle.......................hope by Friday, I can say the same.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Good Morning:

    A nice, easy-peasy start to the week from the ever-reliable Gail and Bruce, but I needed the reveal to see the theme. I knew Lisi but not Estes which I guess is age-related and Elon is an old standby. CSO to CM.

    Thanks, G and B and Argyle for giving us a relaxing Labor Day exercise.

    The family picnic yesterday was a little less celebratory as the driving force, my sister Peggy, wasn't there due to her husband's health issues. It just wasn't the same without her, but it was a picture-perfect day and the kids were in the pool until it got dark!

    90's+ today and Tuesday but cooling down by Friday. What a summer this has been!😎

    Have a great day.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I think we should coin a new abbreviation: TGIM, Thank God it's Monday! So nice to have mostly doable clues and everything solvable with perps.

    Raise your hand if you recall the time when tricycles were made of steel and did not make loud noises as the kids cycled.
    Also, one could say of 12D that they were TYKES on TRYKES umm TRIKES.

    Happy Day to All
    VS

    ReplyDelete
  10. I saw the words but needed the reveal for the theme.

    Musings
    -My friend has TICKET STUBS arranged like this under glass on his bar
    -PRIOR bad acts may or may not be used at trial
    -Right or wrong, this Ky. Woman has HELD TO her beliefs
    -He took the Cincinnati Kid’s Marker (IOU) and beat him over the head with it
    -I wonder if Lancey had to DUN the Kid
    -Mary Kate Olsen fought anorexia after the show
    -ELMER’S held my old guitar together for years
    -If D.C. REINS in their spending, I’d be shocked
    -Striaight ticket voting made easy
    -You have to really listen close to hear all the good lines in His Girl Friday
    -ELON got drubbed Saturday 41 – 3 against Wake Forest for its annual big payday
    -Are all these SECTS necessary?
    -I seem to always get TOADY when I type TOADY, I mean TODAY
    -Do you remember a TV sitcom that featured a SUPER named Dwayne F. Schneider?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Greetings, puzzlers!

    Yes, thank you to Gail, Bruce and Argyle for starting us gently this Monday morning.

    I sashayed quickly across the grid pausing momentarily at LISI and changing HEE to YEE.

    We've seen ELON before in other puzzles. Argyle, don't you mean ENERO is the middle of invierno? Or do you mean in the southern hemisphere?

    Have a splendid Labor Day, everyone!


    ReplyDelete
  12. OwenKL:
    You have been in fine form lately with really good poems.

    ReplyDelete
  13. HG:
    I do remember with Bonnie Hunt and Valerie Bertinelli but the name escapes me.

    ReplyDelete
  14. SOD-breaker = HOE ?? GOOD LUCK, MATE!!

    EVER SO is listed in the US. section of my dictionary as meaning "very" with no further comment; but in the Brit section as "informal". Brits also use "EVER SUCH" with the same meaning (but with an object and indefinite article [a]), as in: "She's ever such a nice girl" = "She a VERY NICE girl"

    "HOLD TO" is a standard [verb+"preposition used as adverb"] construction.

    Interesting origin of TOADY (this one is G-rated, unlike the origins of most words meaning "sycophant"):

    "ORIGIN early 19th cent.: said to be a contraction of toad-eater, a charlatan's assistant who ate toads; toads were regarded as poisonous, and the assistant's survival was thought to be due to the efficacy of the charlatan's remedy. "

    DUN has many meanings and origins, but the sense used in today's clue apparently originates from "DUNKIRK PRIVATEER" - those pesky Frawnche.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Husker, are you suggesting that some of them be dissected?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Correction: "She's a VERY NICE GIRL"

    Clue: Bonny French lass? = NICE GIRL

    ReplyDelete
  17. Nice, easy, ego-massaging puzzle today. Thanks, Bruce and Gail. I needed that. Great reveal as always, Argyle.

    HG, "One Day At A Time" starring Bonnie Franklin, DE native Valerie Bertinelli, and the other one (the less said the better). Lord, did I get tired of having to look up Bonnie Franklin's nose.

    We have company coming for our cookout. Gotta go.

    Cya.

    ReplyDelete
  18. D-O

    Maybe they could be driven to an INTERSECTION.

    Or maybe have a SAME SECTS marriage.

    NC

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. NC, if I may:

      Amish couple arrived in their carriage;
      The town elder was heard to disparage:
      "I'm thinking something's not right;
      His wife grew up Mennonite,
      And I only perform same SECTS marriage!"

      Delete
  19. Whew! I got it, I got it, but had a tense moment wondering if SCTV was right, since I'd never heard of a "sketch show." But I figured HESS made more sense than other words, so it worked. Yay! Great way to start a Monday, many thanks Bruce and Gail. And great pics, this morning, Argyle--many thanks for that too. I never noticed a bull on ELMER's glue.

    Fun limericks this morning, Owen.

    Irish Miss, I hope Peggy's husband gets better soon.

    Have a great Labor Day, everybody!

    ReplyDelete
  20. I agree with everybody; today was a pleasant respite from last Saturday. Thanks Bruce, Gail and Argyle.

    Another hot week coming up.

    Gary, I used to watch that show. The name "One Day at a Time" came to mind and Google seems to confirm it. His name was Pat Harrington. Funny guy.

    (Do you like the new Google logo? Not I.)

    ReplyDelete
  21. "The logo for the brand was based upon "ELMER the Bull", mate of Borden Inc.'s advertising mascot Elsie the Cow during the 20th century. In 1929 Borden purchased the Casein Company of America, the leading manufacturer of glues made from casein, a byproduct of milk." - Wikipedia.

    ReplyDelete

  22. Good Monday puzzle, but no walk in the park for me.

    I roared down to the last few lines and hit a brick wall with crossing names. Never watched House, didn't know Lisi, O'Shea hid in the back of my mind, and even TMI was no gimme. I was thinking along the lines of "don't tell what I'm about to tell you" ... FYI or something like that. I Finally won out but not as easily as some of you.

    Thanks for walking us through it, Argyle.

    Owen, you just keep getting better and better! Thanks!

    Happy Labor Day!


    ReplyDelete
  23. I can't get my link to work.But one of my favorite SCTV spin-off movies in Strange Brew which actually featured Max von Sydow as the villain in an evil plot involving a brewery.

    Scenes from this movie are included in Weird Al's parody video, Canadian Idiot at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_TfBbR6L0M. Blogger seems to say I can't use https, but that is what the link address is.

    Another comedy about Canada, Canadian Bacon, also has scenes in the music video.

    ReplyDelete
  24. I read somewhere once that the OLSENS are not identical twins. Never would have guessed that since they shared duty playing the same character in Full House.

    Alternate meaning for a theme entry:

    Post nuptial experience with Jennifer Anniston: SPLIT SECOND HONEYMOON

    ReplyDelete
  25. Enjoyable puzzle today. Didn't get the theme even after solving the reveal. I get it now, of course, due to Argyle's clear explanation.
    Wanted HAVE A fit at first. Perps made me realize it was HISSY, which is a neat-o word indeed.
    Owen, great stuff. Thank you for it.
    Bill G, I kinda like the new Google logo. More accurately, I feel pretty neutral about it.
    Desper-otto, I, too, thought of STORMIN' Norman.
    VirginiaSycamore, I raise my hand regarding the steel tricycles.
    Best wishes to you all.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Well, my memory is in worse shape than I thought! At least I got one right, Valerie Bertinelli. Oh, my. One day at a time. Thank you, BlueHen.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Chairman Moe, I hope to God a judge never says that you "probably" were guilty of something and you "must have" known about it, you are guilty, now off to jail. No proof, just "common sense", something Roger Goodell has none of. I could do just as bad a job as him and I'd do it for a lot less.

    And folks haven't heard of Virna Lisi? You missed out !

    A nice puzzle for today, especially after Saturday's disaster.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Boy, did this puzzle make me feel smart.

    Echoing the sentiments of others when I say what a great respite from the severity of the last few days. It was finished before I knew it.

    The unknowns were ELON, BOER, LISI...Perps filled it in.

    The OLSENS are a little odd to me. They have a penchant for much older men, and their sense of style is weird. Notwithstanding their idiosyncrasies, they are the richest, most successful former child stars in history. Their various film and fashion endeavors have earned them mega millions. It is said that "Full House" owed its success to them. Unfortunately, the updated version will be sans the OLSENS. Will you watch it?

    I read that Labor Day originally was not about celebrating our work force, but a tribute to unions, created by their organizers. I'm glad that It is now about all the hard workers who contribute so much to our country's economy. My thanks and gratitude to you all.

    A speedy run and more on my level. Let's see how the week progresses.

    A good day to you all. Go in health.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Really fun limericks today guys, I think this may be Moe's best.

    I personally feel bad for MACKENZIE PHILLIPS.

    WEES about the puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Happy Labo(u)r Day Puzzle Pals!

    I SEIZED on the puzzle early but got hung up at 50d xing 66a. I've heard all the c/a words PRIOR to today, but I guess never really knew what they meant.

    Thank you G&B for a doable day-off puzzle with potential for more post-play fun (Lord HELP us). We've already seen SPLIT SCREEN Woodstock (Thanks Argyle!), Bob & Doug from SCTV, One Day at a Time's SUPER (I EVER SO had a crush on Valerie B - but she opt'd for a guitarist)*.

    W/os - I put an A in SPE-CH and SCRE-N. I don't know why I think one belongs.

    ESPs - 2d, 21a, 38d, 58a.

    Fav - SCTV (not to be confused with Second City in CHI) under SECOND. Lorne Michaels poached talent (like Martin Short) for SNL.

    SCTV's Bob & Doug back-story. And their guest Geddy Lee from RUSH on their album.

    HG - That's a great idea for TICKET STUBS. Too bad my RUSH tix are just bar-codes on a smart phone.

    Hand up for my war-time commander STORMIN' Norman. I'd vote for him and/or Powell... Speaking of which...

    Straight TICKET voting is not taking the time to become informed IMHO. I've never voted straight - I always get hammer'd so I don't get depressed at the options :-)

    Cheers, -T
    *To the musicians at the corner - what do you think of Ovation guitars? I read yesterday they are re-opening their plant in New Hartford, CT. Eddie Van Halen (Val's hubby for a spell) owned one or two of 'em.

    ReplyDelete
  31. ELON has appeared 23 times since we changed to the LAT; this is the third time this year. Admittedly I had two advantages, it was the undergraduate school of a lawyer I worked with for years and a nephew applied and almost went there.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Lemonade,
    Xi'an food is very hot. Hot red peppers in almost every dish. Look at this bowl of hand-made noodles. Are you scared?

    Irish Miss,
    I have to have some sweet treats every day. I love azuki and sesame mochi.

    Jayce,
    I ate two egg tarts per day. Six in the box. I didn't want to waste the oven heat and only warmed up one. Did you get the winter melon from your local Asian store as well?

    ReplyDelete
  33. Dudley,
    Yes, Qin is close to Chin, sort of. Click here for the correct pronunciation. I'm guessing only Jayce can hear the differences as he's fluent in Mandarin.

    Type in Zhou as well, then you'll know how to pronounce my Mandarin name Zhouqin.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Don't forget Chinese has four tones. My Qin has a rising tone, but the lady in Dictionary.com pronounces it like a falling tone. Zhou has an even tone, she pronounces it like a falling tone again.

    ReplyDelete
  35. May I just say - I'm so impressed with anyone that can get subtleties of language(s). English is hard enough with where to put vowels and double up letters, but to introduce rising / falling tones, gender verbs, and clicks (Trevor Noah) (whilst adding an OC :-))... well... Tip 'o the Hat. C, -T

    ReplyDelete
  36. For some reason I never had trouble with the tones in Mandarin Chinese, and quickly learned to hear and speak them. For some reason (maybe the same reason?) I have terrible difficulty speaking the Cantonese vowel sounds, and to this day cannot pronounce my wife's surname correctly. I also had great difficulty learning Japanese; I simply could not master the pronunciation, and reading it was impossible for me because I always wanted to read their "Kanji" characters in Chinese. Almost invariably, when a native Mandarin speaker hears me speak, they compliment (I hope it's a compliment!) me by saying my speech is "biaujun" (accurate). Perhaps equivalent to complementing one's "king's English."

    ReplyDelete
  37. Chairman Moe, loved your limericks today. One of your best ever. Agree with you on

    Brady also. My favorite team every week is whoever is playing the Pats.

    IMHO,the new Google logo is much ado about nothing.

    Nice puzzle to start the week off. That Saturday one was brutal. It's not very often

    I can say the Sunday puzzle was easier.

    Anytime The Cincinnati Kid is on, I can't resist watching it again. Great cast.

    Thanks Bruce, Gail and Argyle for a fun Labor day treat

    ReplyDelete
  38. Greetings!

    Thanks to Bruce and Gail and Santa!

    Had "have a" fit at first. HESS was perped.

    Have a great day!

    ReplyDelete
  39. Jayce, knowing the kanji characters in Chinese must help you with reading Japanese even though the sound is different. Knowing some of the food characters in Japanese helped me to understand the signs in the local Chinese market, although I could not speak the unknown Chinese words. My biggest downfall in any foreign language is the pronunciation. My tin ear for musical tones must extend to languages other than English, although my ear is quite sharp for nuances in English.
    I have much admiration for the multilingual Europeans. In many big European cities and even in Asian Tokyo transit signs and signs in museums are in several languages. America's insistance on English only gives us no practice or experiences in other languages. We are the poorer for it.
    .

    ReplyDelete
  40. At 38d you posted a video of a young African girl. She is NOT a Boer!

    ReplyDelete
  41. Regardless of one's native language, it makes sense for everyone to (also) speak a common language. Anyone who thinks that is, or is going to be, Mandarin (or anything other than English) is deluding themselves.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Steve S,

    I do think the girl is speaking Afrikaans, the Boer language though.
    I went to the youTube site and this is written below the video.

    "Uploaded on Jan 23, 2012

    The story of the three little bears told by a native Afrikaans speaker.

    Help us caption & translate this video!"
    VS
    PS Thanks Spitzboov, for fixing my link to Canadian Idiot.

    ReplyDelete
  43. You make a good point, Anon @4:18. But it's helpful to remember that wasn't the case even as recently as 45 years ago. In that era, if you wanted to do business in a range of countries, you had to speak, at a minimum, French, German, Spanish and English. The dominance of English as the world's language of business is a recent advent. I'm not complaining, since it makes the lives of us in the US easier, but it is a myopic view. And this is from an EOL student (English Only Language:-)

    I agree with YR that we are the poorer for it. To put a different spin on the conversation, can you imagine having to survive exclusively on American cuisine? I don't know about you, bit I'd rather starve.

    ReplyDelete
  44. I don't know about you but I'm pretty sure you'd rather not starve.

    ReplyDelete
  45. There's nothing myopic about thinking the world would be a better place if we could all understand what we're saying. Yes, I'm glad it's English and, yes, that's probably because it's the only language I'm fluent in. But it's not a bad language and it has a rich literature and a tradition of absorbing words from other languages.

    And it's not tonal and it's alphabetic, not ideographic.

    But feel free to enjoy crossword puzzles in Mandarin.

    ReplyDelete
  46. On your point that's it's a good thing if we all understand one another, I agree completely. But don't you see it as self centered to think that language has to be English? Or more specifically, American English? Don't forget that the population of the US is ~5% of the world population. Yes, it's the worlds largest economy. But nonetheless, it's hardly a majority of the people by anyone's definition. The more you know, the better off you are.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Oh goodies, a language war...

    Perl is rich in symbolism and has the best regular expression engine available. I know purists will push C and I'm OK w/ that if you can keep track of allocs. COBOL and ADA are much too verbose and way out.

    1a clue - Pass for Fail?
    1a fill - s/F/C/g;

    Oh, yeah, that's a STEP in the right direction.

    // asbestos underpants on... :-)

    Cheers, -T

    ReplyDelete
  48. Anyone who says they care about this discussion is lying. Mostly to themselves.

    ReplyDelete
  49. I agree, English is becoming the common language of business and science throughout the world, but the US is rare in its insular "one language only" attitude. Adding other languages to our ken, giving us access to different literatures and cultures, can only enrich us and actually can help unite us.
    Multilingual European countries do have a common language, as well.
    In relatively small Switzerland I heard several different languages spoken on the train, but must could communicate in a common language and many could use English to a greater or lesser degree.
    By the second or third generation here the majority of immigrants pick up English. There is no need to suppress their first language. In my experience in this polyglot area of NJ only the very old or the stay at home first generation wives cling solely to their first tongue.

    ReplyDelete

  50. Oh my! It seems that language and football must now join Religion and Politics as no-nos on the Corner! LOL. I love a good confrontation as much as the next guy!

    Anonymousl T, you take the cake!!

    C.C., I have trouble hearing the nuances in the pronunciation of English. We are blessed in this area of having many dialects, languages, patois.....French, Cajun, Spanish, that strange Brooklyneze called Yat, street talk or Black English, and many more. We all understand each other and no one would ever consider correcting anyone else. But it does rather dull your ear to hear what's considered "right" pronunciation. I admire languages that depend on correct pronunciation!!

    ReplyDelete
  51. I've no training in veterinary medicine. But I was raised on a farm. Due that, I recognize a dead horse when I see one. Out.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Happy Labour Day from the home of SCTV and where we have two official languages -English and French!

    ReplyDelete
  53. Worked the puzzle very early this morning in about 5 minutes with the usual unknowns due to my lack of knowledge about television or motion picture personalities, all solved by perps. ESTES, OLSENS, ILER, & LISI. We went with friends on a long boat ride and BBQ'd afterwards.

    DO THE SPLITS makes me hurt just thinking about the possibility of it happening to me, but it was a nice puzzle. But after reading all 59 comments I just have to laugh about the snootiness of some of the comments. My two cents. Europeans speak multiple languages because their countries are small; multi-lingualism is necessary if they travel any distance from their small countries. The USA, China, and Russia are large countries and you can travel thousands of miles and still hear the same language. But nobody is beating the doors down to try to move to those countries.

    If you live in any country, learn and speak the LOCAL language. If not, go back to where you came from. If I moved to any country that didn't have English as the native or national language, I would certainly do my best to learn that language. That being said, the only two international languages are Spanish and English. The rest are strictly local and will stay that way. Unless you are doing business in or moving to countries that don't speak English or Spanish, learning the other foreign languages are just academic exercises.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Did not like the reveal. Not a pleasant puzzle to me. :(

    ReplyDelete
  55. Good Wednesday morning, folks. Thank you, Bruce Venzke and Gail Grabowki, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for a fine review.

    This went easy, being a monday. I had a parade Monday in Zion, IL, and did this later at night. Glad it was easy.

    Theme was easy. caught on after a couple were answered.

    Did not know 43A or 28D. Missing the last letter of one and the second letter of the other. Winged it with a C. Those french words still get me.

    Do not know how anyone can DO THE SPLITS. Just hurts to think about it.

    I have never saved TICKET STUBS. Am I missing something? Maybe they are collectable. Hmmmm.

    RECOUNT reminds me on the Bush/Gore contest. That was really something. Cleaned up our voting process if nothing else.

    Now i have to go back and enter Sunday's puzzle.

    See you Thursday, Abejo

    ( )

    ReplyDelete

For custom-made birthday, anniversary or special occasion puzzles from C.C., please email crosswordc@gmail.com

Her book "Sip & Solve Easy Mini Crosswords" is available on Amazon.

Please click on Comments Section Abbrs for some blog-specific terms.

Please limit your posts to 5 per day and cap each post length at about 20 lines in Preview mode.

No politics, no religion and no personal attacks.