Mary Lou's lovely Thursday exercise got me with LACT_/SAM_. I didn't know SAMI but had a good feeling about LACTO. Her LOW KEY theme used the gimmick that the word KEY could be appended to the last word in the four down fills with asterisks to form a common phrase. The first word of the amended phrase was also LOW on the vertical fill and so LOW KEY!
3. *Event for A-listers, say : PRIVATE FUNCTION - Where the elite meet and FUNCTION KEY on my MacBook Pro. Any of the 11 on the top row
58. With 59-Down, subdued, and a hint to the answers to starred clues : LOW. 59. See 58. Down - KEY and there you have the reveal: LOW KEY
Marti is off in Europe sightseeing, staying with friends and helping to kick off Oktoberfest in Bavaria. I am her envious and barely adequate pinch hitter.
Across
1. Oz. sextet : TSPS - 6 TSPS per oz. abbr/abbr. Not Kazie's Oz.
5. Hamlet's foppish courtier : OSRIC - Yeah, I knew that!
10. Abba not known for singing : EBAN - ABBA Eban who held many posts in Israeli government
14. Other, in Orizaba : OTRO - Español - "On the other hand" becomes "pro OTRO lado"
15. __ Park: Knott's Berry Farm city : BUENA
16. Connecticut town for which a disease is named : LYME - Less favorable notoriety than Buena Park
17. Sinn __ : FEIN - An Irish political party. Name means "Ourselves"
18. 100-eyed guardian of Io : ARGUS - Yikes! I'm pretty sure we wouldn't see eye to eye to eye to eye...
19. Weizman of Israel : EZER - Seventh president of Israel
20. Bean used in falafel : FAVA - They were also a side dish in a grotesque meal in Silence Of The Lambs.
21. Half a comedy duo : MEARA - Part of Stiller and Meara and mother to Ben Stiller
22. Two-time MLB all-star Ron : GANT - Now host of Good Morning Atlanta, a city where he once played
23. Three-handed game : SKAT - Aggressive SKAT play
24. Wrench handle? : ALLEN - I loved this clue. My bike requires ALLEN wrenches on most bolts
25. Stats for QBs : INTS - When your number of INTerceptionS exceed your number of COMPletionS, you will probably have to seek other employment
26. "Clueless" co-star __ Dash : STACEY - I know it's lame, but I was CLUELESS about Stacey
28. Johannesburg section : SOWETO - SOWEstern Townships.
30. Salad option : CAESAR - Et tu?
31. Social calls : VISITS
33. "__ Wiedersehen" : AUF - Literally means "until we see again". AUF Wiedersehen, Marti!
34. It often says "Hello" : NAME TAG
38. FDR loan org. : NHA - National Housing Agency was part of FDR's alphabet soup
39. "Pardon me, Giuseppe" : SCUSI - Dean Martin sang "Grazie, Grazie, SCUSI, Prego"
41. CPR provider : EMT - First responders run TO danger
42. Something in your eye : GLEAM
44. Wires, e.g. : SENDS - Used mainly to transfer money today
45. Mr. Rogers : ROY
46. Dairy prefix : LACTI - LACTOse occurred to me first
47. Brown shade : CAMEL
49. "He that __ down with dogs shall rise up with fleas": Franklin : LIETH - Birds of a feather...
51. Bar made by Hershey's : KIT KAT
53. Enterprise bridge regular : MR SULU
56. "Vous êtes __": Paris map words : ICI - You are here!
57. Dog days mo. : JUL - A fairly cool July on the prairie this year
59. Kitchy-__ : KOO
60. Cartoonist Chast : ROZ - Clueless redux
61. Disney's Bob Iger, e.g. : CEO
62. Dash prefix : ODO - The ODOmeter on your car's dashboard. Can they still be turned back?
63. Frequent co-producer of U2 albums : ENO - A frequent cwd commodity
64. "__: Miami" : CSI
65. 54-year-old doll : KEN - Middle-aged KEN and Barbie
66. VCR button : REW
67. Sweet tuber : YAM - YAMS with brown sugar, marshmallows and football. Now that's Thanksgiving!
68. Bulls and bucks : HE'S - Both male
Down:
1. Farnham Fops - TOFFS - A gaggle of TOFFS
4. Piano pieces : SONATAS
5. Period since 2009 : OBAMA ERA
6. Without a doubt : SURELY - From my "funniest movie ever"
7. Courtly : REGAL
8. Hardens : INURES
9. 18th-century Italian adventurer : CASANOVA - Oh, it's called adventuring
10. Poetic laments : ELEGIES - Was I the only one who read this in high school?
12. "I'll say!" : AMEN TO THAT - Right on, brother!
13. "Darn it!" : NERTS
30. Mama known for singing : CASS - "...and everyone's getting' fat 'cept Mama CASS"
32. Scandinavian native : SAMI- Not a clue, er no idea. These are Indigenous people living in the very north of Sweden, Finland and Norway. Tundra is a SAMI word used in many other languages.
35. Jazzman Saunders : MERL - SF jazz organist/keyboard player
36. Expressive music genre : EMO
37. Texter's sign-off : TTYL - Talk To You L8r
40. Home to Pierre: Abbr. : S DAK - Where Lewis and Clark encountered Teton Sioux or Lakota tribes
43. Back muscles, briefly : LATS - Latissimus Dorsi
48. Czerny piano piece : ETUDE
50. "__ roll!" : I'M ON A
51. Bit of excitement : KICK
52. Frozen treat : ICEE
54. Shed : LOSE
55. Strong arms? : UZIS - I'll bet EZER Weizman knew his way around one
C.C. was very LOW KEY when we visited with her and Boomer but I wonder how many of my other crossword friends here. There are a lotta hot buttons out there! Who knew a comma could raise IRE?
Husker Gary
57 comments:
Deplorable, I was today. :-( Still had about a quarter of the puzzle to go when I gave in, but instead of activating the reds, I absent-mindedly hit [reveal incorrect]. That left the blanks still blank, but told me I had asiAnSAUCE>STEAKSAUCE, yoRIC>OSRIC, catholIc_>BYZANTINE, Swed>SAMI. With those cheats, the rest filled in with no more difficulty than a normal puzzle.
Even then, I had to spend a lot of time trying to figure out the theme. For once, I think the reveal was more misleading than helpful.
Modern ELEGIES
------ -------
The OBAMA ERA is now underway,
We're getting more Socialist every day!
I don't mean political
More like Facebookical
SURELY Social Media is holding sway!
Save us from Instagram and Tumblr!
Are Facebook and Twitter making us dumber?
Are blogs KEY to salvation
Of the cyberspace nation?
Or are they just making us number and number?
It once was SONATAS that set the mood,
Living musicians would play an ETUDE.
Then Edison grooved,
And his heirs have improved,
Until culture today is cats on YouTube!
Good early morning all. Thank you Mary Lou, and thank you Gary.
Well I trudged and slogged and muddled my way through this one. Seemed like there was a ton of proper nouns. 12 out of the first 17 across were names, no ? Finally turned on red letters after an hour, and managed to complete the last 10 % of it.
HG, there was an excellent PBS or NatGeo program on the ways and life of the SAMI that I saw in the last few years. Catch it if you can.
FIW due to the same Natick as HG, That is, LACTo/SAMo where I had no idea about SAMI. Lots of other unknowns including STACEY Dash, ROZ Chast, NHA, MERL Saunders. And guesses for OSRIC and EZER Weizman. Didn't suss the theme until after completion, but the long answers weren't the problem anyway.
Thanks for pinch-writing, HG!
Morning, all!
I struggled with this one, to be honest. I got the theme, but honestly couldn't make sense of FUNCTION Key until I got here and read the write up. Of course, then a V8 can smacked me in the forehead with a loud D'OH sound...
Anyway, the NE was really rough, what was EBAN, EZER, GANT and NERTS (which I thought was spelled NERTZ). But I got through it eventually.
Sadly, I got caught in the same trap as Gary with LACTO instead of LACTI. I have a vague memory of SAMI, but it certainly wasn't at the forefront of my brain and only managed to get it right after finally abandoning LACTO for LACTA and then LACTI. And I only did all that since I didn't get the *TADA* at the end, otherwise I probably would have left it at LACTO and SAMO.
Mostly what everyone else said, I like Mary Lou' s grids but this was a work out.
ENO and EMO in the same puzzle along with ABBA EBAN and EZER WEIZMAN
ARGUS STACEY oh my
Thanks ML and HG
Good morning!
Is it only Thursday? I was sweating a second DNF this week. I'd been texting TTFN -- Tata For Now. The only Mr. Rogers I could picture was that guy on PBS who had a neighborhood, but I couldn't dredge up his first name. I finally did an alphabet run to get the R in MERL. Then with RO_, I was able to suss ROY. Whew! The cowboy saved the day.
SKAT was a gimme. My father used to play SKAT on Monday nights. They'd fight tooth and nail, then take a break at 9 for one beer. They'd finish up about ten. The big winner might walk away with as much as 15 cents.
Hand up for LACTO, but I changed it to get SAMI. I recognized the name, but thought they were Finnish.
I remember when KIT KAT was made by Rowntree. Then it was made by Nestle. And now it's made by Reese's -- a part of Hershey. But I understand it's still made by Nestle outside the US.
Hello, Mary Lou. Ya almost got me. Nice job, Husker. I didn't realize it was you until the Disney Key-Card showed up.
Compared to yesterday's easy puzzle, this was a bear. I completed it in-correctly if you SCUSI my Italian because I wrote SCUSU and CANUS MAJOR instead of CANIS. Guessed wrong. Ditto for LIETH and I'M ON A roll; LAETH and AM ON A roll made just as much sense. But---wrong.
Even though it was a DNF, I feel satisfied for correctly guessing so many things that I didn't know. BYZANTINE CHURCH, EZER, GANT, TTYL, MERL, OSRIC, BUENA, ARGUS, STACEY, NHA, ROZ, TOFFS. Plus I correctly spelled SOWETO and INURES. (Seweto and enures wouldn't get out of my mind). The LOW KEY was only noticed at the end; I wasn't looking for starred clues but trying to complete the thing.
SAMI I knew for some reasons although they lived in LAPPLAND. Two writeovers were AUG to JUL and REC to REW. Can't wait for 5D to be over.
Great write up H.G. and curses on you Mary Lou Guizzo for hurting my brain so early in the morning- great puzzle.
This was a bear and most of my issues/complaints/ unknowns have already been aired by others. In the end there were three spelling errors which yielded a FIW.
1) OSReC/OSRIC eNURES/INURES. 2) OTRa/OTRO Sanatas/SONATAS & 3. LACTo/LACTI. Tough day with the vowels!
Entered Garr before 11d & 12D produced GANT. Mr. Garr was also a Brave, but his career with Atlanta was short lived.
LYME, Ct is a lovely shoreline town.
Gary, terrific write up, but must have missed something along the way recently, because your note regarding CC has left me wondering?
Did not like this Puzzle. Will take exception to 2 clues.
20A real falafel is made with Garbanzo beans(Chick Peas).Every recipe I have come across today uses Chick Peas. IMHO Fava Beans like there nasty cousins Lima beans are just plain gross.
51A KitKat is made around the world by Nestle only in the USA is it manufactured by Reeses(Hershey)but it is under a license granted from Nestle.
Good morning everyone.
Daunting at first, then not so bad. Symmetric left to right; not top to bottom. Took advantage of the plethora of 3 letter fill at the bottom to get a good start. 31a was plural, so assumed 32d started with an 's'. Sami or Swede? 4 ltr - took SAMI which GLEAM and LACTI quickly confirmed. I thought CASANOVA was a 17th century character, but the perps were solid. Interesting life; died in a castle near Prague. Got LOW KEY ok, but didn't quickly see the theme connection.
Good Thursday workout.
Husker Gary: On your "Birthday Eve" you get to do the write-up.
Good Job !!! You obviously enjoyed this puzzle more than I.
D N F Was never on the constructor's wave length.
Like Forrest Gump said: "S**t happens !!!"
Ok well, looking forward to "Toasting-You-ALL" at Sunset.
Cheers!
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Mary Lou Guizzo, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Husker Gary, for a fine review.
Started this on the train last night in Chicago. That is the only reason I am finished this early. Finished this morning.
Puzzle was a tough one. Got it with a lot of experimenting and running the alphabet a few times. Never caught the theme until I came to the blog. Then it made sense, of course.
Liked the 11D BYZANTINE CHURCH, Hagia Sophia. I had not heard of that but with a few letters it appeared in my head. The Z was key to that.
Liked the Franklin quote, but took me forever to figure he would heave said the word LIETH. CHURCH helped me with that.
ICI was slow in coming, of course.
2D STEAK SAUCE appeared after a few perps. Outback is one of my favorite places to eat. However, I never use STEAK SAUCE.
SAMI and LACTI crossing were tough. Tried a couple other vowels first. Thank goodness I had the IPad and it told me when I was finished.
Remembered SOWETO from the news over the years. Never knew what it stood for. Now I do.
Have an Almoner meeting this morning, then must cut the grass, then a band practice at church. See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Thumper and I will remain hidden under the covers, tending to our wounds!
HG, I admire your pluck and your wit.
Owen, you hit it today on the cyber world!
Whew!!
That was a workout! Thanks for the challenge, Mary Lou. WES, my favorite stumper was EBAN. I knew I'd never come up with a musician who didn't sing with the Swedish musical group. I borrowed Barry's V-8 can on that one! I had more trouble with the short entries even after having the crosses from the long ones. Nice symmetry.
Quite a nice write-up, Gary! Thanks for filling in.
Have a great day!
OOPS
And I loved Wrench handle. I keep a multiple ALLEN in my kitchen drawer with the hammer, pliers and a couple of screw drivers; I can fix about anything without going into the basement. ;)
Amen big easy on 5d
Had a tough time with this...sort of glad to see I wasn't the only one. There's tough and clever like Oz. Sextet, which cooks will eventually figure out. And then there's horribly obscure like OSRIC. I've seen every Shakespeare play, and Hamlet multiple times, but can't say I ever heard of him. Even after finishing with fair amount of help I didn't get the KEY thing. A puzzle only the constructor's mother would love. Way beyond my taste in puzzles.
Dog Days belongs to AUGUST, not July - poor clue.
Good Morning:
This was a DNF due to the crossing of Sami, lacti and NHA. I did catch the theme but, overall, it was not one of my favorite puzzles. I agree with Middletown Bomber on chick peas vs fava, and I, too, could only picture the neighborhood Mr. Rogers. CSO to Marti's hubby, Allen.
All of yesterday's comments about magic and magicians reminded me of my late husband's fascination (obsession?) with said subjects. We had a dinner party once that included a hired magician as entertainment. I must admit his sleight of hand and misdirection had everyone mesmerized. (However, He did NOT make the mess in the kitchen disappear !)
Thanks, Mary Lou, for a Thursday stumper and, thanks, HG, for pinch-hitting-you hit a home run. Great limericks, Owen, especially the third one.
Expecting rain later and cooler temps. Hooray! BTW, Hondo, Casey is handsome as can be; has his behavior improved?
Public Morals is getting better by the week.
Have a great day.
"The Old Farmer's Almanac lists the traditional period of the Dog Days as the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11, coinciding with the ancient heliacal (at sunrise) rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. " - Wikipedia
Cool! Or rather pretty hot. Crossing CANISMAJOR & JUL is rather nice. I don't mean to only post with complaints. Also liked 54 year old doll but they got my age wrong.
Hi gang -
Excellent blog, Gary!
Mixed feelings about this one. Certainly a clever and well executed theme.
The ICI - ICEE cross is nice, though I don't appreciate the French. Nor the Italian.
As has been mentioned, Dog days belong in August, not July.
Had to google OSRIC, GANT and BUENA. Is that cheating? GANT has a nice, long career from '87 through '03, making all star teams in 92 and 95, and some MVP consideration in that time frame. But I didn't know him.
Nor STACEY nor ROZ.
Had OVA and noticed CASANOVA would fit. Adventurer - is that what they call it?
LACTO before LACTI, but SAMI forced it.
Just too many meh things in this puzzle to give it a high grade. NERTS is fatal.
Regarding Barry Manilow yesterday - he's a fine pianist and an OK singer; and I have no reason to think he is anything other than a wonderful human being. I just loath his music.
Cespedes and Price are tearing it up with their new teams. I'd love to see them meet in the world series.
Cool regards!
JzB
This was a tough challenge today, and a big DNF in the NE corner. Thanks, Mary Lou, for a challenge. Appreciated the theme. Nicely done!
HG, thanks for filling in for Marti. Good job!
JzB said..."As has been mentioned, Dog days belong in August, not July."
As has been mentioned, ""The Old Farmer's Almanac lists the traditional period of the Dog Days as the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11, coinciding with the ancient heliacal (at sunrise) rising of the Dog Star, Sirius." - Wikipedia
While dog days may be technically correct for July, per teh googly, "Dog days of July" is not an in-the-language phrase. In my 68 years, I have never heard anyone say it. Substitute August and it is immediately recognizable.
Cheers!
JzB
Hello, friends!
Ditto for immediately filling AUG and was surprised when JUL appeared at LOW KEY. Of course that finished CANIS MAJOR, too. Over all this was quite doable but the NE gave me fits. I was so certain of EZRA Weizeman and finally had to look it up but then I got AMEN TO THAT which was incomplete up to that point.
Also hand up for the unknown SAMI so SAMO seemed ok with LACTO in place. I thought ICI was cleverly clued.
Thank you, Mary Lou and HGary for subbing today. You have a typo at "pro" which should be "por".
It seems that some are forgetting the "no politics" rule.
Have a lovely day, everyone!
Got the theme early - that helped with the long downs. NE was the killer. I got the word church (did not know what a "Church key" was but I know what "Church keys" are), but the Hagia Sophia has been a mosque for more than 500 years, and Byzantine crossed 2 Israeli names, 2 baseball refs, NHA alphabet soup, and needed "NERTS" to bring it together.
I had never heard the word "NERTS". As far as I can tell, it just means "NUTS", sounds pretty much the same and is used in the same context. What is the point in its existence? - A (barely disguised) euphemism I suppose - who is/was afraid to say "NUTS"?
In short, nice, helpful theme, but ODed on names (many obscure/sportsy/TV-movie), BB, and so many foreign words (at least the last were guessable).
NC
Ah so, I checked my Apple Dictionary.
Under British English, the vulgar use of "nuts" as testicles is given as definition #5, way behind its informal use as "crazy or eccentric" (from which "NUTS!" as an expression of derision or self-castigation, derives).
Under American English, the vulgar use is given under definition #1, with the "crazy" meaning as definition #3. So I guess "NUTS!" declared out of context in the U.S. sounds potentially naughtier over here than over the pond, hence the need for a euphemism.
As an aside, you may say, in Britain, with a straight face , "I AM NUTS ABOUT HER", meaning "I like her very much", with no sexual connotation implied.
NC
I think "the dog days of summer" is more common than "the dog days of August" (or "the dog days of July"). Googlefight agrees.
But that's beside the point as the clue (and fill) is not about the phrase. The fact that AUG would be a valid answer doesn't mean that JUL isn't
Hello Puzzlers -
I'm glad to see others hit the same potholes I did. (Come to think of it, some of you might not know what potholes are. Believe me, here in the Northeast, we do. They are inconvenient hazards to vehicular navigation that occur in the form of holes in pavement. They usually appear in late winter, and if unrepaired, serve as an indicator of the fiscal health of a state DOT.)
Hand up for August!
Re: NUTS - Battle of the Bulge - story:
On Dec. 22, 1944, four German couriers approached American lines under a flag of truce, carrying a message "from the German commander to the American commander."
Asserting that Bastogne was "encircled," the note gave McAuliffe, who was acting commander of the 101st in the absence of Maj. Gen. Maxwell Taylor, two hours to surrender or face "total annihilation." It offered "the privileges of the Geneva Convention" to the would-be POWs.
What came next would be one of World War II's seminal moments.
As [Vincent] Vicari, McAuliffe's personal aide, recalls it 60 years later, "General Mac read the note and said, 'Aw, nuts.' Then he asked, 'What should I tell them?' "
Lt. Col. Harry W. O. Kinnard, the division operations officer, said, "Why not tell them what you just said?"
"What did I just say?"
"You said, 'Nuts,' " Kinnard replied.
McAuliffe scribbled a reply:
"To the German commander.
Nuts!
From the American commander."
He handed the message to Lt. Col. Joseph Harper, who had escorted the couriers.
To the Germans who didn't understand the Yankee colloquialism, Harper explained: "It means the same thing as 'Go to hell.' "
While WWII historian Barry Turner says McAuliffe's one-word riposte "lost something in translation," others have speculated that "nuts" might be a sanitized version of what the tough paratroop general actually said. Not so, Vicari says.
"General Mac was the only general I ever knew who did not use profane language," he said in a telephone interview. " 'Nuts' was part of his normal vocabulary."
This was a tough puzzle for a Thursday. I managed to get through it, but sad to say many of my "gets" were result of my work constructing puzzles, dragging through the word lists and seeing words I don't like to use. Agree NE was a mess, which wasn't worth the Z (IMO). I never knew fava beans could be used for falafel (and I think they generally aren't, in fact I don't think I've ever eaten a fava bean). BTW all this didn't stop it from being enjoyable; it was a real challenge.
NC, that expression over here would mean exactly the same, with no sexual connotation implied. Now, "I'm just wild about Hairy," on the other hand...
Husker, does that Disney Key-card replace the E-Ticket? I remember you'd buy a booklet of tickets, and the good stuff was always rated for an E ticket, but there were only a couple of E-tickets included. Of course, my memories are of the original Disneyland in Anaheim, not the DisneyWorld parks that have sprung up since.
Mr Google,
Baseball players and fans also agree. The more common phrase is "dog days of August."
Is "dog days of August" more common at Googlefight, or is "dog days of July ?
Now, please go research falafel ingredients and post the results.
Dates of the Dog Days vary with source but the helical rising of Sirius in San Francisco this year was on August 8 ... I think that's later than for the ancients. It needs to be 7 degrees ahead of sun to be visible & not hidden in sun's glare. Today it's more likely to be hidden in smog & glare of city light pollution. Few today have any familiarity with astronomical events. Who here has ever watched the moon on successive nights to see how it moves against the background stars?
Spitzboov inadvertently omitted the source of his story, Associated Press reporter Richard Pyle.
I got caught on the same ending as HG - couldn't decide on the last letter of LACTO/LACTI because of the mystery of SAMI. The Finnish name for Finland is "Suomi," so I was able to zero in on "S-something" for 20D - but after that it was anybody's guess.
Alas. poor Osric, I knew him not at all...
DNF, the whole top half was brutal...
Function Keys?
Alas, with this new invention, the last possible use for the Church Key is obsolete.
Major Key?
Oh I wish I had thought of this Room Key!
Oh! So the key was low down!
Finally, Dear Mr. Google, I know of only one way to respond to the dog days of July controversy...
"Nuts!"
My sources tell me that the Dog Days immediately follow the Oxford Comma. And they also seem to involve an equal amount of pointless quibbling. [sigh!]
Mr Google May Be To Blame For Your "Know-It All" Friends
Thanks for the nice write up Gary. Sorry the puzzle was a struggle for many of you. That was not my intent. I had SANO and LACTO at the point where many Naticked.
Gary, you should do a blog write up once a week. You are obviously a natural.
Puzzle was tough for me too, but I managed to get through it pretty much unscathed with only a few write-overs.
"I had SANO and LACTO at the point where many Naticked."
Aha! It was Mr. Norris's fault! Get the pitchforks & torches, everyone!
Just kidding, of course. I didn't find the puzzle a struggle; it was perhaps a little more like a Friday difficulty rather than Thursday. But a disappointment to run afoul of the Natick and miss the ta-dah at the end. Well, have to tease it out by guessing.
Musings 2
-Back from golf on a glorious early fall/late summer day.
-I’m glad you liked the write-up Mary Lou (I was going to say “Hello Mary Lou” but you’re probably tired of that). I was looking at GLEAN/SANO and was wondering how you clued that. SANO seems to be healthy in Spanish or a current Minnesota Twins baseball player.
-Rich must have gone with what wound up being a Natick for me.
-Bill O’Reilly’s book Killng Patton has a riveting section about McCauliffe saying “Nuts” during the Battle Of The Bulge and that word is also prominent in the movie Patton
-Otto, Disney now uses these wristbands for park entrance, room keys, meals, etc. At least my kids could probably keep ‘em on for 5 days.
SANO was clued Not loco.
Anonymous at 2:40.... Thank goodness you put it all in perspective!!
Those who don't KNOW of their own knowledge, look up on questionable Internet sources. Wikipedia as a Source of All Knowledge is a joke!
Thankfully, most people here on the Corner have various information which they actually KNOW. The fun is that so many viewpoints are represented, the discussion is lively.
Spitzboov, thanks for the Batle of the Bulge story. As a WWII buff, I had heard that before, but it is good to be reminded.
T'was a struggle for me, too. Wanted DANE for Native Scandinavian but GLEAM and VISITS prohibited it. Then *click* I remembered SAMI, whom we used to call Lapplanders years ago. But then that forced LACTO to be LACTI, which made my nose wrinkle even though I am not lactose intolerant.
The only reason I had no problem with FAVA beans in falafel is because we had it at my Egyptian friend's house a few times and my LW asked his LW for the recipe. BTW, his LW makes a marvelous "Turkish" coffee, too, long-handled copper mini-pot and all. I learned why they put sugar in it!
Yep, I wanted TTFN also. In fact, I stubbornly wanted it so much I gave up trying to figure out who FOY was. One of the Seven Little Foys? Mr. Feed Rogers' secret codeword-nickname?
Best wishes to you all.
SwampCat - Here is the official Army version of what happened including how the answer to the German ultimatum was handled. Fascinating reading.
The story of the NUTS! reply written by the nephew of Gen. McAuliffe.
Big Easy, yes,some ERAs seem to last for EONs, don't they? Hope I live long enough to see the end of that one.
Big Easy, mraction and anon:
Be careful what you wish for, boys.
You won't like the next one any better.
:-)))
I'm hardly the one to claim foul. After all, I've violated the "No politics" rule a few times.
However, daily for weeks, if not months is more than a few times. This is bullshit. Evidently being a one time co-author gives license that no one else has.
Out.
Some questionable comments (and liberties taken) today.
It's a puzzle blog.
Are you ready for some football ?
I agree with TPP. I'll be more blunt.
George Simpson, otherwise known as "Big Easy", either tone it down or move on !
TTP
Spitzboov, I'm sooo grateful for this account of the Nuts reply! I have never seen the whole account, and it is fascinating! Thanks!
Re; 9/10 LAT:
Not a happy solver, esp. regarding the NE corner--yech!! Not feeling the choices of KEYS for the themers.
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