Theme: "Again" - A is added to the front of the second word in each theme entry.
22A. Comedy club road sign? : CHUCKLE AHEAD. Chucklehead. The clue makes me smile.
33A. Distaste for jury duty? : TRIAL AVERSION. Trial version. I like the big transition from version to aversion.
52A. Digression to a cabbie? : PASSENGER ASIDE. Passenger side.
70A. Erase? : RUB THE WRONG AWAY. Rub the wrong way.
91A. Prize for the fastest delivery? : MATERNITY AWARD. Maternity ward. Nice change also.
107A. Drag one's feet on the gangplank? : SHUFFLE ABOARD. Shuffleboard.
123A. Doctors' agreement? : MEDICINE AMEN. Medicine man. Nice change also.
I adore this theme & theme answers, esp those entries where the new A-words share no roots with the old A-less words.
Super smooth grid also, hallmark of Melanie Miller & Gail G. They might stump you with a twisty or unfamiliar clue, not a strange entry.
Across:
Across:
1. "__ the fruited plain!" : ABOVE. "America the Beautiful".
6. "The Lion King" hero : SIMBA. No NALA today,
11. Holds : OWNS
15. Senior exec : CEO
18. Kvetch : CAVIL. I like both words.
19. Lament : BEMOAN
20. Kitchen protection : MITT. I bought a box of frozen egg tarts last week. All gone now, Jayce!
21. Type of current : AIR
24. Magnifies : ENHANCES
26. Get control of : TAME
27. Italian wine region : ASTI
28. Breakfast brand : EGGO. So I finally tried Eggo. No too bad. Egg tarts are better.
30. Two to one, for one : RATIO
31. King with fiddlers : COLE. I could only think of the fiddling NERO (46A. Emperor after Claudius)
37. Circus performers : ACROBATS
41. Four Seasons alternative : OMNI
42. Brand used in cones : EDY'S
43. Like moccasins : SLIP-ON
44. Pipe smoker's gadget : TAMP. Got via crosses.
48. Tout de suite : ASAP. I wonder if Splynter uses "Tout de suite" in his daily conversations.
55. Immoral profit : LUCRE
56. Sonnet preposition : ERE
57. White-tailed eagle : ERNE
58. First European to sail to India : DA GAMA
61. Beer seller's concern : AGE
62. Said with a pinched nose : NASAL
65. Mollusks with beaks : OCTOPI
68. Hill worker : SENATOR. And 110D. Political employees : AIDES
74. Keeper, in a big way : PACK RAT. Boomer is one.
77. Road race city : LE MANS.
Wiki says it's "the world's oldest active sports car race in endurance
racing, held annually since 1923 near the town of Le Mans, France".
78. Pre-Columbian people : INCAS
82. Conspiracy theory subj. : UFO
83. Top-drawer : CHOICE
86. Discontinued depilatory : NEET
88. Trading card stat : RBI. Be careful. Some of the old-looking cards are re-prints.
89. Party co-founded by Arafat : FATAH. So what's the difference between Fatah and PLO?
96. Worry : FRET
97. Tax __ : LOSS
99. Kid stuff : TOYS
100. Original : PRIMAL
101. Seriously injure : MAIM
103. O'Neill's "__ Christie" : ANNA
105. "Honest!" : SO HELP ME
112. Assigned amount of work : LOAD
113. Zany adventure : CAPER
114. Teller of stories : LIAR
115. Luxury Swiss watch : RADO. Belong to the Swatch Group. We also have OMEGA (11D. Arch-like letter).
117. Wine cellar item : CASK
121. Like potatoes pre-prep : UNPEELED. Here is D-Otto's Potato Dumpling recipe. He and his wife Susan make those every Christmas.
127. Opponent : FOE
128. Fully assuage : SATE
129. Electrical measure : AMPERE
130. Tell stories, in a way : WRITE
131. December purchase : FIR
132. Biggest of three '50s-'60s TV brothers : HOSS . "Bonanza". I got via crosses.
133. River through Orléans : LOIRE
134. Clothing giant Bauer : EDDIE
Down:
1. No. on a bill : ACCT
2. Island band The __ Men : BAHA. "Who Let the Dogs Out?"
3. Female gamete : OVUM
4. Squad raiders : VICE COPS
5. Caribou kin : ELK
6. Super Bowl prize? : SEAT. Got via crosses also. Nice clue.
7. Paintball cry : I'M HIT
8. Sitcom beer server : MOE. OK, "Simpsons".
9. Petting zoo call : BAA. And 60. Kitten's "Got milk?" : MEW. Can you imagine a blog post written by Dave, Irish Miss?
10. From Quito, say : ANDEAN
12. Bring around : WIN OVER
13. Unspecified power : NTH
14. Van Gogh's "The __ Night" : STARRY
15. Low-maintenance plants : CACTI
16. Three-note quintet : E I E I O
17. Bean in Hollywood : ORSON
19. Harassed : BESET
23. Fitness promoter born of French immigrants : LALANNE. My juicer is Jack LaLanne.
25. New Providence port : NASSAU
29. She put the ruby slippers on Dorothy : GLINDA. The Good Witch.
32. Slim woodwind : OBOE
34. Tomato option : ROMA
35. Little patience testers : IMPS
36. Pre-1868 Tokyo : EDO. Modern sushi was invented in Edo period. Sushi rice, though sticky, is different from sticky rice, Yellowrocks. Think of Japanese rice cake Mochi, it's made of sticky rice. Trader Joe's has this sinful Mochi Ice Cream.
37. Sun Valley alternative : ASPEN. Ski resort.
38. Nurse Barton : CLARA
39. Heads up : RISES
40. Offensive smell : STENCH
45. Knife-like ridge : ARETE. This and ESKER always remind me of Spitzboov.
47. Neurofeedback readout : EEG
49. Stray dismissal : SCAT
50. 2012 Affleck thriller : ARGO
51. Equal : PEER
53. Cave : GROTTO
54. Barking up the wrong tree, e.g. : IDIOM
55. Tropical veranda : LANAI. This one looks so nice.
59. How DVDs may be sold : AS A SET
63. Early solution for bad weather : ARK. Nice clue.
64. Reel : LURCH
66. Baby barn critter : OWLET
67. Paid leader? : PRE. Pre-pay.
69. "Who is John Galt?" writer Rand : AYN
71. Word of disapproval : BAH
72. McPhee's job, in a 2005 film : NANNY. Drew a blank. "Nanny McPhee".
73. Layered rock : GNEISS
74. Locomotive output : PUFF
75. Hardly within shouting distance : AFAR
76. Refuge for a frequent flier? : COTE. Nailed it.
79. Runner's bane : CRAMP
80. Delano : FDR :: __ : Garfield : ABRAM. Middle name. Nailed it also.
81. Move furtively : SIDLE
84. Online exchange : IMs
85. Winter melon : CASABA. In China, this kind of big gourd is called "winter melon". Cantonese love their winter melon soup
87. Pacific weather event : TYPHOON
90. Cost of bread? : ATM FEE. Another great clue.
92. Sicilian smoker : ETNA
93. Drag strip sound : ROAR
94. It may be residential : AREA
95. Joker : WILD CARD
97. Tiny, in a tiny way : LIL
98. They're folded in kitchens : OMELETS
102. In a new way : AFRESH
104. Unexceptional : NORMAL
106. Nostalgia source : OLDIE
107. Oxford mark : SCUFF. Oxford shoes.
108. Red River capital : HANOI. And 122. Mekong River language : LAO. No plural form in Lao neither. Or "the", my biggest problem.
109. Has the __ hand : UPPER
111. Less soggy : DRIER
116. Piece of farmland : ACRE
118. In an atmosphere of : AMID
119. Space exploration acronym : SETI
120. Spot for a bouncing baby boy : KNEE
124. Rock genre : EMO
125. Printer spec. : DPI. Dots Per Inch.
126. Livestock lady : EWE
I just learned that there are nine Xi'an Famous Foods restaurants in New York City. Have any of you eaten there? I pored over their menu and found their food visually authentic. Try their cold noodles and pork burgers if you happen to be there.
C.C.
41 comments:
Sunday's at the LAT are being taken over by talented females like Melanie and our own C.C. This was really a very straight foward with RADO my only unknown.
What is the difference in cooking from Xi'an C.C.?
Rainy holiday weekend here. Have fun and be safe
Morning, all!
Delightful theme today, which I grokked at TRIAL AVERSION. Knowing the theme, I was later able to throw down MATERNITY AWARD with only the WARD in place, and the rest of the theme answers didn't tame much more effort.
There were a few bumps along the way, however. RADO was unknown and looked wrong in the grid. Ditto with FATAH, which made it difficult to come up with COTE. Not sure I like the clue for COTE, to be honest. The crossing T was my final letter and I just had to cross my fingers and hope it was right.
Oh -- and I really, really wanted the answer to "Oxford mark" to be COMMA...
The coursework at the college, they say is really rough.
An A grade as an Oxford mark can vanish in a PUFF!
The mark to cause such drama
Is an unused Oxford comma!
And the dress code says that Oxfords must be shined without a SCUFF!
Good morning!
Hand up for the Oxford COMMA. Hand up for no familiarity with RADO -- sounds like something Ktel would sell. I was proud of myself for quickly writing BAHA (without the J) at 2d; not sure how I remembered that. Did any of you try ENLARGES before ENHANCES? Tried NASA before SETI became obvious. I don't think of SETI as a "space exploration" outfit. They're listeners waiting for ET to phone home.
I forgot to mention, Back in late August, a couple of days after our brouhaha here, the OXFORD COMMA showed up as an answer in the NYT. It was clued as a "Much debated grammar subject." To indicate the extent of the debate, the "Much" should have been bolded, underlined (I don't know how to do that), "quotated", and written in ALL CAPS.
A lot smoother than Saturday's disaster. I wouldn't call it a speed run but there were just a few unknowns. 'Kvetch'-CAVIL---thank heavens for perps because I didn't know either word. 'Tout de suite-ASAP--Had heard the term before but never knew what it meant. "O'Neill's ANNA Christie" was the only other unknown. I halfway knew GLINDA and DA GAMA completed it for me.
This one filled NW to SE with the only tie up at PACKRAT, UFO, and FATAH. I first filled SOOT for PUFF, and the ARK was the last fill (clever clue) because I had mistakenly placed NAH for BAH and 'RUN' THE WRONG AWAY made sense because I hadn't even read the 70A clue yet.
I see Melanie had A-FRESH crossing SHUFFLE A-BOARD. Would that be an A+ ? And BESET intersecting BEMOAN- a B+??? I'll give her an 'A' on that one too.
Before I filled EIEIO, I was thinking CHORD as a three-note quintet- five letters with three notes.
As the flying saucer RISES through the AIR
The folk below are wondering should they share?
The guys at SETI, they should know
That there had been a U.F.O.
But where was there a SENATOR who'd care?
From the CACTI he'd been smoking some peyote.
As he said he'd been instructed by Coyote.
The shaman prayed AGAIN,
"For this MEDICINE, AMEN!"
But the VICE COPS claimed he wasn't a devotee!
So many clever puns today. Loved it.
GLENDA before GLINDA.
Only completely unknown was RADO, all perps.
Yes, CC, thanks for the reminder. My DIL makes sticky rice for mochi, not for sushi. My grandson loves mochi. I still find it amazing that the Chinese used sticky rice in their mortar!
The Week in Review: M 6:08 T 6:43 W 8:08 T 9:03 F 11:54 S DNF S 23:28
Saturday: At the 60-minute mark, with two empty squares and at least as many questionable fills, I turned on the red letters. Three lit up. I had ERIC instead of ERIQ. I probably should have remembered that. I will now. The other two red letters were at the end of the what should have been the QIN DYNASTY. I was thinking that Xianyang had to be the capital of a place so I thought it was reasonable to end with "ASIA". Of course that prevented me from getting TINT (which I actually tried once but discarded). And the clue for INDY was especially devious. And I had no idea who the painter was.
Not that it would have made a difference but I question describing a city as the capital of a dynasty. Wikipedia describes Xianyang as "the capital of China in the Qin dynasty" and that, to me, seems more appropriate.
As the kids say . . . whatever.
Sunday: A clever theme and a nice way to end the week.
See y'all next Sunday.
At first, with 18 and 19 ACROSS having essentially the same cluing, I thought the theme was going to be clues repeated twice. I slowly filled in the theme answers though, and got the V8 moment. MATERNITY AWARD was the last to fall.
Did not know RADO, FATAH, OR CAVIL.
While we are discussing proper English, the correct plural for octopus is OCTOPuses. Another correct version for this Greek word is OCTOPedes.
C.C., your problem recalling the poem “Old King COLE” reminds me of a key point in the last Harry Potter book. With Ron gone Harry and Hermione can’t understand clues for the Deathly Hallows because they were raised in muggle homes and didn't get nursery tales.
Another cool synomym for LUCRE is pelf. A word I learned when I found the original version of the poem The Man in the Glass. In the original version, by Dale Winthrow,
THE_GUY_IN_THE_GLASS
The first line uses pelf, later versions changed it to self and forgot who the author was. It is often listed as anonymous.
When you get what you want in your struggle for PELF,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.
VS
MATERNITY AWARD was my fav in Melanie’s lovely Sunday exercise. Midwest side took the most time.
Musings
-Is RUB THE WRONG WAY a masseuse fault?
-Some MEDICINE MEN in Hollywood do a lot of ENHANCING
-SLIP ONS become more attractive as age progresses
-Does Budweiser still show its AGE on every bottle?
-This infamous D.C. AIDE is trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear
-_F_ = UFO conspirators not the JFK crowd
-Jerry dated a woman with all these TOYS and went straight to GI Joe
-Good employees get a big work LOAD. Competence is often punished
-A big man in UNPEELED potatoes
-Stub Hub is offering 2016 Super Bowl SEATS from $834 to $18,560
-Boiled cabbage – Joann aroma, me STENCH
-LANAI – I had never heard the word until this show
-There were lots of CRAMPS in FB games in hot weather yesterday
-What R ‘n R song sings of the RATIO of “Two girls for every boy”
Good Morning:
This offering fits my idea of a perfect puzzle: a clever theme, well executed; fair but ambiguous cluing; strong fill, and an enjoyable solve with a feeling of satisfaction. That is not to say I didn't stumble here and there: ring/seat, tsunami/typhoon, NASA/SETI, Abner/Abram, real card/wild card, as I was thinking humorous joker. I was so proud when I quickly wrote in comma but the perps just as quickly turned that to scuff.
As soon as I read 60D, Kitten's "Got Milk?"' I thought of Mr. Meow, but, alas, it was only a mew. (BTW, where is Mr. Meow these days?) Never heard of Rado or the Baha band.
Thanks, Melanie, for once "Again" providing so much pleasure on a Sunday morning and thanks, CC, for adding the frosting on the cake with your charming expo. I've come to the conclusion that you have a sweet tooth. Yes?
I'm off to a family picnic later; can't wait for some of my favorite foods. Fill ya in later! 🌽🌽🌽
Have a great and safe day.
From The Grammarist:
"Octopuses is far more common than octopi in edited writing of all kinds, including scientific writing.
Still, while the use of octopi can’t be justified on an etymological basis, it is not wrong. It is old enough and common enough to be considered an accepted variant."
Again there is formal English and informal English. When is it okay to wear jeans and when is it better to wear a business suit?
I parsed the theme as A GAIN
Greetings, friends!
Thank you, Melanie, for today's interesting puzzle. The only unknown was RADO and that's surprising in such a dense, long grid. These days it takes me quite a while to pull words out of my aging and cluttered brain but eventually it slips out.
Once the theme was identified the stage was set and I inched my way along to the finish.
At ENHANCES I thought about ENLARGES but CACTI, EIEIO and ORSON were already in place.
Thank you, C.C. for those great links and your fine review.
Have a great Sunday, everyone!
Food! I've found it takes two to make good suchi rice - one to turn the rice with the shamoji and one to fan it. My friend and I have it down to a fine art now.
Oh - nice crossword too! Thanks, Melanie and C.C.
Husker, that'd be this song.
Husker said:
"There were lots of CRAMPS in FB games in hot weather yesterday"
I'll say! And the biggest cramp of all? The 'brain cramp' suffered by the Nebraska DBs who collectively ignored their coaches pleas during the final timeout to 'get in FRONT of the receivers and knock the @#%^&^% ball down!'
For hg and Joe*
p.s. It's something how the teams from Utah both beat once-proud and storied Big10 teams to start the season. The Crimson Tide crushed another and the Hokies will shock the world and the Buckeyes tomorrow. Maybe the luck o' the Irish will have a year?
*may explain Joe's weird outburst last night re:red letters. Well, the crushing loss and...oh...nevermind.
Thanks, Melanie, for another cute them and workable offering.
C.C. Great write-up. Really chuckled at your comment to Splynter on "Tout de Suite". And all the great food references! Thanks!
Boy, what a difference a day makes.
Compared to yesterday, today was a breeze. Got the theme after SHUFFLEABOARD. Loved MATERNITYAWARD the best.
Big Easy.... Kvetch is a common word Jewish people use which means complain. How many times I've heard. "Stop KVETCHing already".
I also had "enlarges" before ENHANCES, but perps set me straight.
An interesting and fair offering. Well done.
Speaking of Dorothy, I read how Judy Garland was mistreated, such as given drugs during the making of "Wizard of Oz". Child stars were brutally handled then. Hollywood's atmosphere still leaves much to be desired.
Hope everyone is having an enjoyable Labor Day.
I liked this puzzle, for the reasons Irish Miss stated so well: "a clever theme, well executed; fair but ambiguous cluing; strong fill, and an enjoyable solve with a feeling of satisfaction."
Spelled GLENDA wrong, so that messed up my getting OMNI. Hand up for not knowing RADO. Had HAMAS instead of FATAH, which made me want HOME instead of COTE, all of which took a while to straighten out.
Egg tarts! Yum! So you ate them all in a week? That would be about 1 a day?
Coincidentally, LW made winter melon soup last week. Yum AGAIN!
That mochi stuff looks as if it would easily stick in your throat and choke you.
Food! Steve, you cook it, I'll eat it :)
LW is a PACK RAT, too. She just cannot bring herself to throw or give anything away. We wouldn't need so much storage space if we would get rid of all the junk, some of which is 30 years old or more.
Anonymous T, cut the cord!
Fun puzzle! Quite a relief from Saturday. Thanks Melanie and CC.
I was going to post exactly the same thought as Anon (10:25). I thought of the theme as adding or gaining an 'A'. "A" GAIN.
Good afternoon everyone.
Nice breezy intro, C.C.
Enjoyed the puzzle. Just took a while. Lot's of fresh fill. Liked the clue for NASSAU. Favorite clue was for 90d - Cost of bread? ATM FEE.
ARETE - Somewhat common in CW's. Along with esker. Other glacial geology terms like drumlin, moraine or kame seem to be less common in CW's, although they are physically quite common in the glaciated North-eastern US.
My favorite is moulin kame, a (somewhat) cone shaped mound or hill formed by vertically running meltwater laden with rocks and soil. Think: attributes of the Green Giant's girlfriend.
Hello Puzzlers -
Couldn't finish the last few squares without red letter help. I was sure that Tut was the disapproving word rather than Bah. That bollixed the area pretty soundly. Took too long to figure Choice. Cavil was all perps, and now I'll have to go look it up just to understand what part of speech it is.
Hello C.C., good to have you here today! From what you've written before, I gather that Qin is pronounced like Chin, more or less. Related story: I was asked to assist a student with a laboratory project. I only learned the student's name, Wanqi, via email, so naturally there was a risk I would mispronounce the name in person. I was soon sent another email with a suggestion that I say wan-chee rather than wonky, so as to avoid embarrassment.
Jayce and others - it fell to me to empty the family house and barn, after 65 years of ownership, of all the rubbish that serious Yankee depression era Pack Rats could accumulate. The LW and I are determined that whoever cleans up after us will have much less work to do. We carefully avoid the accumulation habit we know as "affluenza".
Dudley, I love your comment about avoiding "affluenza." Living in a condo after an eight room house with a huge garage has led me to the concept that there must by "output" (i.e. getting rid of something) for every "input" (i.e. acquiring something.) I have been fairly successful with this. Surprisingly, large unexpected gifts cause a huge dilemma. What precious thing(s) must I discard to make room? However, my biggest problem is culling no longer needed paperwork, so boring and time consuming. I seem to be drowning in paper. I am very conscious about leaving this mess to my older son. My computer WORD files are in as much need of culling out the no longer needed.
OTOH whenever I cut down on the clutter, paper or otherwise, there are always a few things I wish I had kept.
Virginia and Yellowrocks
Virginia, Probably just a typo on your part, but the Greek plural of OCTOPUS is OCTOPODES. PUS = FOOT; PODES = FEET.
What makes OCTOPI so annoying is that it shows ignorance, since it is mistakenly thought to be a Latin word, and pluralized as a masculine Latin noun.
Stick with OCTUPUSES and you'll be safe.
Dear Santa,
For Christmas I would like to have 2 mongeese.
*erase erase*
Please send me 2 mongooses.
*erase erase*
Please send me a mongoose, and while you're at it please send me another one.
Thank you.
Jayce
Many mistaken concepts have led to "in the language," accepted words. OCTOPI has come to be an acceptable variant. Many of the so called literary standard English formations are also misconceptions. The growing edge in the development of English is language as it is actually used. Eventually this new way is accepted as standard. If we followed the accepted rules with no exceptions there would be no growth or change.
Thanks, Melanie and C.C.
My only hangup was cove instead of cote thereby missing Fatah. That's not to say the rest of the puzzle wasn't challenging; middle and lower left had me stumped for quite some time. But what a feeling of accomplishment when the light bulb goes on!
In response to a steadily diminishing number of requests, here is our Sunday lunch report. We went to our favorite local Cuban restaurant and had our favorite meal; roast pork and onions, black beans, rice and fried plantains. Topped off with Arnold Palmers and we split a flan for dessert. Yum! I need to try one of their other Cuban specialties like the garlic chicken.
Bill G, sounds good. I love the fried plantains. Yeah, try the garlic chicken next time.
Bill- it's funny that you mention Arnold Palmers. Last week, after a tour in a golf cart of the property, we ate ate Arnie's Barn at Top Of The Rock just south of Branson, MO. His actual barn. It was disassembled by Amish workers and shipped to the resort, owned by Bass Pro Shops. We ate on the balcony overlooking the most beautiful driving range I have ever seen. Fourteen greens, at different yardages ranging from 25 yards to way out there, every on guarded by either sand traps or behind water. No Arnorld Palmers; Bourbon and beer for us.
Greetings!
Great work, Melanie and CC!
Swell theme!
My computer conked out last night, so I worked puzzle today. (SCH: Spontaneous computer healing.)
HELP: Couldn't figure out a way to work on iPad. Can this be done?
Had a nice swim!
Cheers!
Only problems were RADO and BAHA. Perped.
I got a chuckle from this easy-peasy puzzle but so help me it was the primal load that got me in "the baha!" Our weather in this "neck of the woods" has dramatically changed
from smokin'hot to damp and cold! We're heading south next week!
How far south would that be?
Did y'all know about the drink named a 'John Daly'?
It's a Arnold Palmer with a shot of vodka. :)
Thats a goodun Big EZ !
Just lurking said...
And the winner for best post of the day... "Dear Santa" by Jayce.
BTW, The HD antenna arrived yesterday. DW thinks it's hideous. I showed her the savings. Now, it's "not so bad." The other cool thing was all the "side channels" offered. We have 2 or 3 PBS-i*, Me TV (so far just Gilligan's Island), and 20 other channels. I will miss CSPAN.
Cheers, -T
*that's plural, right?
John Daly is a free spirit. Good for him. He collapses while golfing and is hospitalized. Then breaks out(with a collapsed lung) to hang out at a karaoke bar, only to sing " Knocking on heavens door" .
Good wednesday morning, folks. Thank you, Melanie Miller, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for a fine review.
Worked this while driving back from Pennsylvania on Sunday. We were at my wife's High School Alumni Reunion. They do it every year. 500 people in attendance. There are only about 2500 in the Borough of Johnsonburg.
Puzzle was not easy, but slogged through it one word at a time. Caught the theme late in the game. It helped me with a couple answers.
Liked LUCRE for 55A. Good word.
OMELETS was a tricky one. Good Clue/Answer.
GNEISS was another tricky one. Relied on Perps.
GROTTO was easy. I belong to a group known as the Grotto.
While in Johnsonburg for the weekend, a new Bypass on U S Route 219, which goes through the borough, was dedicated to the "Veterans of Johnsonburg." It was a nice ceremony, with group from the U S Army band in attendance, playing many marches. Very Patriotic and impressive.
Well, I will make this short. Have a lot to do today.
See you on Thursday.
Abejo
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