google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday, Oct 18, 2015 Kathleen Fay O'Brien

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Oct 18, 2015

Sunday, Oct 18, 2015 Kathleen Fay O'Brien

Theme: "Ch-Ching!" - CH is added to the start of each theme answer. All entries go through a spelling change.

23A. Part of a dairy's financial statement? : CHURNINGS REPORT. Earnings report.

46A. Doesn't eat with one's mouth closed? : CHEWS AND AAHS. Oohs and aahs.

71A. Vacant seat you only thought you saw? : CHAIR APPARENT. Heir apparent.

95A. Spread for Sunday morning coffee hour? : CHAPEL BUTTER. Apple butter.

122A. Glance at the blackboard? : CHALKWARD MOMENT. Awkward moment.

16D. What Alice's adventures began with? : CHASE IN THE HOLE. Ace in the hole.

52D. Pizza scraps? : CHEESY PICKINGS. Easy pickings.

Much easier than last Sunday's puzzle.  I caught onto the theme immediately and filled in all the free CH's.

It's a great follow up to Donna Levin/Bruce Venzke's "Th-, Th-, That's All, Folks" puzzle we had in July. I think I've seen SH addition also.

This type of spelling change theme is more challenging than the simple letter addition gimmick. You really need to be creative in coming up with a workable set.

Across:
  
1. Old story : MYTH. I had LORE first.

5. They're often exposed in ski lodges : BEAMS. Never been to a ski lodge, this looks lovely.


10. Radio option : AM FM

14. Religious factions : SECTS

19. River in the Bernese Alps : AARE. Easy crosses, even if you don't know the river.

20. Started anew at the campsite : RE-LIT

21. Pump, for one : SHOE

22. Summer gripe : I'M HOT

26. Tropical vine : LIANA. Or Liane. Like this.



27. Truckers' competition : ROADEO

28. 2013 Masters champ Scott : ADAM. I met him and Justin Rose long time ago.

29. Whom Dennis often menaced : MR. WILSON. Nailed it.

31. Bass ending : OON

32. __ factor : ICK

34. Paper punditry : OP-EDS

37. Common Market letters : EEC

38. Slim fish : EEL. Hmm, roasted eel, the best food ever. Then fresh Lychee.

39. Retired boomer : SST

40. Karmann __: sports car : GHIA. Got via crosses.

42. Hardly handy : INEPT

44. Dry-eyes solution : SALINE

49. German finale : ENDE. German for "End".

50. Dash devices : TACHS

53. Doctrinal suffix : ISM

54. Strings for Orpheus : LYRE

55. Wash. setting : PST. I noticed the . mark.

56. Onetime Ritz competitor : HI HO

57. Smidge : IOTA

60. "That's what they tell me" : SO I GATHER. I wanted So I'VE HEARD. Not enough space.

64. Double Stuf treats : OREOS

66. Astronauts' gear : G-SUITS

68. Cab cousin : ZIN. Cabernet. 

69. Running bird : EMU

70. Take advantage of : USE

75. Right-to-left lang. : HEB (Hebrew). Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong/Macau/Taiwan are written from right-to-left also. Hard to read, esp since they still use traditional Chinese characters, while mainland China use simplified version. Can you tell the differences?

76. Some light bulbs : GEs

77. Capek's robot play : R.U.R.

78. Competed in a regatta, perhaps : SAILED

79. Future moss : SPORE

81. Settings for Monet : HAYFIELDS. I thought of gardens and water lilies when I think of Monet.

85. Genetic chains : RNAS. Plural again.

86. Actor Ken : OLIN

87. Spot on a card : PIP

88. City east of Wichita : IOLA. No idea. This crosses another unknown SLADE (84D. "Same Time, Next Year" playwright Bernard) and stumped me. My last-to-fill area.

90. Former telecom company : MCI

92. Seasonal tunes : NOELS

93. Gung-ho : AVID

99. Louis XV furniture style : ROCOCO. Nailed it.

102. Hacienda brick : ADOBE

103. Bounce in a cave : ECHO

104. Passenger vehicle : CAR. Thought of CAB first.

107. Antlered animal : ELK

108. The law has a long one : ARM

110. Horace poem : EPODE

112. "__ So Shy": Pointer Sisters hit : HE'S

113. Suffix with lact- : OSE

114. Jefferson Airplane genre : ACID ROCK. Easy crosses as well.

117. Dinghy movers : OARS

119. Put sows below cows? : RHYMED. The answer presented itself.

121. Like horses : MANED

126. Journalistic slant : ANGLE

127. Twelve __: neighbor of Tara : OAKS

128. Houston athlete : ASTRO. Do you believe in jinks?


129. Thing south of the border : COSA. Just Spanish for "Thing", right?

130. Asked : POSED

131. Like some audiobooks : ON CD

132. Dublin-born poet : YEATS

133. Uncommon blood type: Abbr. : A NEG
  
Down:

1. Users' shortcuts : MACROS. Can you give me an example, TTP/D-Otto?

2. Bumpkins : YAHOOS

3. One forging a doctor's note, maybe : TRUANT

4. Driven drove : HERD. Nice clue.

5. Eggy pastry : BRIOCHE. Are you a good baker, Steve?


6. Dusk, to Donne : EEN

7. Minuscule lake plant : ALGA

8. Make a mess of : MISDO

9. Secure for the trip : STRAP IN

10. Poisonous slitherer : ASP

11. Old reciprocal electrical unit : MHO

12. Thing to fill out : FORM

13. Dover distance : METRE

14. Mineral used in glassmaking : SILICA

15. Mickey Mouse enemy __ Eagle : EMIL. Never heard of it.

17. Constantly : TO NO END

18. Marvel Comics superhero? : STAN LEE. Wow, he's still alive. 

24. Stable sounds : NEIGHS

25. Fix text : EMEND

30. "Scream" director Craven : WES. Passed away a few weeks ago.

33. New Zealand bird : KIWI

35. Agreement : DEAL

36. Fixes : SPAYS

41. St. Francis' home : ASSISI

43. Via, à la Burns : THRO

45. "__ we forget" : LEST

46. Polite sneeze : CHOO. Why is it "Polite"?

47. Pepé Le Pew's pursuit : AMOUR

48. Appropriated : SEIZED

50. "His house is in the village __": Frost : THOUGH

51. With 74-Down, dramatic Navy mission : AIR SEA. And 74. See 51-Down : RESCUE

55. Slacks : PANTS

58. Reunión attendees : TIAs

59. How some stock is sold : AT PAR

61. Sling spirits : GIN. Oh, Singapore Sling.

62. "Kicked-Up Sandwiches" author : EMERIL. Obtainable if you know Emeril and his signature "kick up a notch".

63. Knighted Flemish painter : RUBENS

65. Rx : SCRIP. Not a word I use.

66. Spaghetti sauce staple : GARLIC

67. Quick ride : SPIN

72. Nuanced color : HUE

73. "Democracy is two wolves and __ voting on what to have for lunch": Franklin : A LAMB. Nice clue for a partial.

80. In need : POOR

82. Stereotypical pooch : FIDO

83. Qatar's capital : DOHA

89. Each : A POP

91. Rash symptom : ITCH

92. Arkansas River tributary : NEOSHO. Another unknown. Wiki says "The name "Neosho" is generally accepted to be of Native American (most likely Osage) derivation, meaning "clear, cold water", referring to local freshwater springs."

93. Visitors center handout : AREA MAP

94. Mount Rainier, e.g. : VOLCANO

96. You don't have to turn its pages : E-BOOK. We just had "Real page-turner?" for AVID READER yesterday.

97. Took out in cuffs, say : LED AWAY. We also have 111. Take out : ERASE. And 115. Take out : DELE

98. Hot drink holder : THERMOS

100. Checked the ID of : CARDED

101. Guatemala gold : ORO

104. Singles bar lure : COME ON. All's quiet in Splyner's "Blue-eyed Girl" front.

105. Sort of, with "in" : A SENSE. A rare 6-letter partial.

106. Sale indicator : RED TAG

109. "Wedding Bell Blues" soloist Marilyn : MCCOO. Got via crosses.


116. "Star Trek" villain : KHAN

118. Monterrey miss: Abbr. : SRTA

120. Song with arm motions : YMCA

123. "Best in Show" org. : AKC

124. '60s hallucinogen : LSD

125. Gere title gynecologist : DR. T. Guilty of putting it in my own puzzle.


Montana updates:

She has settled down her son's estate and has been volunteering to help local senior citizens review their Part D plans. She drives a long way to the office most of the days and enjoys her work.

C.C.

43 comments:

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks, Kathleen and CC!

Nice puzzle. Cute theme!

No cheats. NEOSHO was all perps.

Cheers!

OwenKL said...

DNF today, done in by a small cluster in the SE. Didn't knoe NEOSHO or COSA, couldn't be sure of OSE/ASE, A/B/O NEG, and didn't catch the catches for COME ON or YMCA(which started out as HULA)! A lot of other false starts that got corrected before the red letters were turned on -- I'm sure they'll be WEE(Will)S.

When drinking hard liquor, the bottle is GIN.
In more refined settings, the wine's a sweet ZIN.
But sharing sociable booze
When it's just us YAHOOS,
Why beer will do, straight out of the tin!

When ASTROnauts head out again for the moon
They'll need their G-SUITS and sleeping cocoons.
But the air in space
Is hard to replace,
So it's not at all likely they'll bring a BASSOON!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Got through this mostly unscathed. I got the theme early on, and that at least let me stick CH at the beginning of every theme answer, which helpd at times.

NEOSHO and EMIL were complete unknowns that required all the perps to get, but get them I did. I really didn't think NEOSHO was correct, but there perps insisted.

The crossing of MCCOO/OAKS nearly did me in, since I knew neither answer, but OAKS seemed like a reasonable guess and MCCOO looked like it cold be a real name.

The crossing OF IOLA/SLADE didn't go as smoothly, alas. I initially tried IOWA/SWADE thinking there might be an IOWA City somewhere, but when I didn't get the *TADA* I switched it to IOLA. Ah well, missed it by that much...

Big Easy said...

Well, Ch.Ch., I also filled in the CHEESY PICKINGS immediately. Cute theme was a relief after Saturday's disaster with just a few unknowns that were easily filled by crosses: ROADEO, ROCOCO, NEOSHO river, KHAN, & COSA but I blew it on the cross of IOLA and SLADE. Filled IONA and had no knowledge of Bernard SLADE.

Misreading the 55D clue as 'Stacks' instead of Slacks caused me to write over a little as I originally wrote PILES instead of PANTS. Filling CHEWS AND AAHS sounded good but I don't see how it fit the clue.

C.C. Your Chinese characters are all 'Greek' to me. I have enough trouble writing 26 letters of our alphabet (times 4 with capitals & cursive). I would have flunked 1st grade in any Chinese school. Marilyn MCCOO was married to Billy Davis, Jr. and their group was The Fifth Dimension.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

This was much better than yesterday's fiasco. It was a nice, smooth ride all the way down. Thought the "Stereotypical pooch" was FIFI at first.

C.C., I thought you'd have a comment about the "Retired boomer" clue. Some simple MACROS are CTRL-C (copy), CTRL-X (cut), CTRL-V (paste or insert) and CTRL-P (print).

A- blood isn't all that uncommon -- much more prevalent than AB-. The percentages vary by ethnicity.

Lots of states have an IOLA -- I grew up not far from one. On the other hand, I know of only one IOWA City. Guess what, Barry? It's in Iowa. And it's home to the University of Iowa.

Jerome said...

I plan on attending my local Baptist church this morning. I'm a super uber fan of gospel music. You could say I'm a CHOIR NUT. I find the music electrifying.

Argyle said...

The following video is at the hest of Irish Miss: 1:00 (cute)

Lemonade714 said...

I guess I am getting old because this had so many unknowns for me. The theme was fun and the change of spelling yet preserving the sound was very impressive. I never knew there were five cities named IOLA but I did know SNADE did not seem right. Now to see if I remember any of them.

Argyle, the Amazon ad seemed cruel to me.

Avg Joe said...

Fun puzzle, much better than yesterday. Like many, the L in Iola was last. I've been to Wichita a few time, but don't know of that city.

D-O, it's worth mentioning that Iowa City was the original Capitol. I didn't know that until last year.

The Amazon dog commercial is perhaps a little cruel, but I like that they used the original version of "Wandering Star". And the dog does get a ride in the end.

The Subaru dog commercial series released a new one in the past few days that's really funny. Convenience store stop

Yellowrocks said...

Lotsa fun. The few unknowns were perpable, but the L in IOLA/SLADE did me in. I see I have several other solvers in my cohort.
Re: page turner. I read both ebooks and paper books. Sometimes I try to turn the page in my Kindle and sometimes I swipe the page in the paper book, so engrossed in the story I forget what I am holding.
Using the word PANT for a pair of pants grates on my ear. The clerk says, "Here is a cute PANT you might want to try on."
I was CARDED until in my late thirties with two kids. I didn't have a driver's license at that time. My husband was so incensed I was refused wine on our 10th anniversary that the management gave us a free round of wine and desserts.
Speaking of wine, I prefer red zin, drier and more like cab, to white zin, too sweet for me.
YEA, METS! Let's go METS. I hope you take it all.

HowardW said...

Narrowly avoided a FIW by guessing correctly at the SLADE/IOLA Natick. Other unknowns were NEOSHO, ADAM Scott, and EMIL Eagle. I thought the theme was clever, and catching it early helped to speed up the solution. Favorites were SO I GATHER and MR. WILSON. Thanks Kathleen for a pleasant Sunday puzzle, and CC as always!

Pulling for the Cubs, empathy from a Red Sox fan for the long dry spell.

Anonymous said...

"Karmann __: sports car : GHIA"

Sure, as long as sports cars include those that go from 0 to 60 in 60 seconds.

Anonymous said...

"Put sows below cows? : RHYMED"

Huh?

Anonymous said...

"Users' shortcuts : MACROS. Can you give me an example, TTP/D-Otto?"

Hear hear.

Anonymous said...

"Polite sneeze : CHOO. Why is it "Polite""

Hear hear.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was an enjoyable Sunday offering, but a DNF due to the rhymed/YMCA crossing. Just couldn't see the forest for the trees, I guess.
Thanks, Kathleen and CC, for a fun puzzle and expo.

Glad to hear Montana is well; I hope she'll drop in now and then to say hi.

Argyle, thanks for linking the Amazon ad. Every time I see it on TV, that sad beginning is surpassed by the happy ending, particularly by the look on the owner's face.

Have a great day.

Anonymous said...

To Anonymous: Perhaps the constructor was thinking of a stifled sneeze as opposed to a hearty "achoo" or "kerchoo." "Shoemaker Jimmy" might have been under consideration, also.
I, too, had to guess "Slade" and "Iola."
Have a lovely day, everyone.
















Yellowrocks said...

ANON @ 9:46, DO @7:07 gave examples.
A polite sneeze is a curtailed quiet little sneeze, a meek CHOO, as opposed to an ACHOO which is more drawn out and noticeable.
With SOWS at the end of one line of verse and COWS at the end of another line you have a rhyme.

Husker Gary said...

As C.C. says in her lovely write-up, the theme jumped out and gave some free CH fill. I wanted CHURNING PROFITS first for some reason

Musings
-Now, about that MYTH…
-In the 70’s it was a fad to put fake BEAMS on your house’s ceiling
-Some SECTS want to judge your SEX life
-I would feel INEPT and uneasy if this needed to be RELIT
-COME ON – “Is it HOT in here or is it just you?”
-Australian ADAM Scott took on KIWI Steve Williams after Tiger fired him
-C.C. you live with a retired Boomer, don’t you?
-This EMU did run from his farm five miles from here last month
-That long ARM of the law even gets COSA Nostra (our thing)
-Funny TRUANT notes
-Test pilots STRAP IN while in a G-SUIT
-Clerks don’t CARD ME but wonder if I want a senior discount. They could offend by asking or not asking.
-In what movie, did Paulie slice his GARLIC with a razor blade

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, C.C., and friends. I didn't find this to be as easy as some of you. CHAIR APPARENT was my first theme clue, but that did lead me to enter CH in the appropriate spots in the other theme answers.

Marilyn McCoo and the 5th Dimension are probably best known for the Age of Aquarius from Hair.

There is an Iowa, Louisiana. It is pronounced I-O-WAY. I-Ten (a frequent crossword answer) passes through the town, which is between Lafayette and Lake Charles, Louisiana.

QOD: Success isn’t permanent and failure isn’t fatal. ~ Mike Ditka (Oct. 19, 1939)

Lucina said...

Hello, friends!

A nice and somewhat easy sashay this Sunday morning. Thank you, Kathleen and C.C. My Natick, too, at IOLA/SLADE. Didn't get the L, had IONA/SNADE. Should have studied it longer.

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Bill G. said...

Fun puzzle and appropriately challenging for me. Clever theme. Thanks Kathleen and CC.

BTW, I was one of those making mild complaints about yesterday's struggle. Please don't misunderstand. It wasn't a criticism of the constructor or editor; rather just an observation that the puzzle was a little beyond my meager abilities. I don't like most themeless Saturday puzzles. I guess I keep doing them in the hope that I get better and so I feel as if I can participate in the discussion.

Avg Joe and Irish Miss, I liked both dog commercials.

YR doesn't like PANT. Agreed. There's a new commercial for a local lending outfit called LOANME. Dunno why exactly but that sets my teeth on edge, at least in my brain.

CHOO sounds a little more stifled and daintier then ACHOO!

Anonymous said...

My secretary is so polite she goes "CHEE," not even "CHOO." She SQUEAZES (SNEAKS her sneezes).

Steve said...

Also Naticked at IOLA/SLADE. Like Barry I went with IOWA/SWADE.


I'm not a great baker, C.C. - I'm usually too imprecise with the measurements. I tend to cook by eye, not weights and measures, and that doesn't fly when you're baking.

@Anon 9:46am - macros are used in programs like Excel where you want to create a quick way of doing something repetitive - let's say that you always format a spreadsheet with a gray background, solid grid lines and particular font and point size, you can combine all those commands together in what's called a macro and assign it a shortcut keystroke (e.g. Alt+F). When you type Alt+F, all the formatting is carried out in one fell swoop.

Spitzboov said...

Good afternoon everyone.

Fortunately I didn't MISDO today's puzzle; it was reasonably easy for a Sunday. Liked the theme fill including the long vertical.
CHEESY PICKINGS is funny when the meaning of 'shabby' or 'cheap' is applied to cheesy.
92 d - NEOSHO. At least 3 tankers named Neosho.
USS NEOSHO (AO-143) was a fleet oiler. I vaguely remember us getting a "drink" from her in the early 60's.
49a - ENDE - Movie quote:
"Das ist das Ende... Das Ende." in the movie "Patton" as the Germans were about to lose WW II.

Thanks C.C. for the update on Montana.

Anonymous said...

You have macros in Microsoft Word also: Ctrl-I for italics, ctrl-U for underscoring, ctrl-P for printing, alt-E for edit menu, alt-F for file menu, shift-ctrl-right or -left to highlight whole words, and many others. And in both Excel and Word you can create your own custom options. (No doubt there are parallels in other operating systems, which I don't use.)

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Really fun puzzle, Kathleen, and chuckle worthy! I seemed to be on your wave length. However, I had trouble getting the NW corner which was the last to fill. I caught on to the theme with CHEWS & AAHS which helped with the rest.

C.C., Your comments are always educational as well as enjoyable. Hands up for thinking your Boomer long before SST showed up.

YAHOOS, not "yocals" or "rurals" or "hicks". CHAncEL before CHAPEL.

Forgot Rainier was a VOLCANO. When I was on it, it was "clouded".

IOLA: lots of towns east of Wichita. A few perps showed the one. Neosho River likewise.

Couldn't believe cute little Mickey Mouse had any enemies. EMIL all perps.

CHASEing rabbit didn't work, SO I GATHER.

Never heard of Bernard SLADE.

Jayce said...

Lucina said it well: "My Natick, too, at IOLA/SLADE. Didn't get the L, had IONA/SNADE." Interesting that "Iola" would be a "Natick."
Took me too long to catch on to how the "CH" gimmick worked, so it didn't help me much.
I can't tell if I liked or disliked this puzzle. I guess I liked parts of it and felt neutral about other parts of it.
C.C., I learned the traditional Chinese writing, and still have a hard time reading simplified characters. I can never remember Pinyin spelling, either. Oh, and thanks for explaining last night that you removed the reference to the Porsche picture; glad to know I was not going crazy :)
Owen, terrific poems today. Thank you.
Das Ende.

Freond said...

Cute theme/gimmick, which was helpful. Got everything except the SLADE/IOLA Natick, like so many others. Kicking myself for that, because SLADE is probably the most likely option for a name. Names are tough, but they are not entirely random. Had to Google the play to figure out the L. But there were other toughies in that area. I thought DOHA and EPODE were correct, but while trying to find what was wrong, I did look those up. Is checking "cheating"?

Yellowrocks said...

We spoke of helicopter parenting some time ago. In the affluent community where I taught helicopter parents produced very bright neurotic children with "sick headaches or migraines." On test days they were always in the nurse's office. They took difficult assignments home so their parents could do them. One brilliant nervous kid wrote out his assignments on the computer at home, went to bed, and his mother improved them. He couldn't cope without her. That was 15 years ago. Finally the folly of this is being recognized.
Link helicopter parents

Jayce, I had much trouble with the characters when I studied Japanese. CC's traditional character for horse I knew as the Japanese character for horse, but the characters more than anything else held me back.

Misty said...

Delightful Sunday puzzle, Kathleen, challenging but with lots of fun rewards when things fell into place. I really enjoyed it, and also C.C.'s write-up, always.

Have a lovely Sunday, everybody!

Bill G. said...

As many of you know, I'm a big fan of CBS's Sunday Morning television magazine. It's not often that one of their stories bothers me but it happened today. It was the story about maximum security prisoners and their yearly prison rodeo at Angola penitentiary in Louisiana. I didn't mind the prisoners POV. It gave them a chance to escape from their doldrums. But the spectators and the warden made me uncomfortable. Oh well...

Another pretty volcano up near near Mt. Rainier is Mt. Hood. And then there used to be Mt. St. Helens...

Anonymous T said...

Just Lurkin' says:

C.C. Gov. Abbott was Thumb'd-Down in yesterday's OP-EDs for pre-Tweeting the win and jinx'n the 'Stros. I'm sure some mid-level staffer will be sac'd w/ a CTRL-ALT-G(ood-bye) MACRO.

Hope y'all have having a great Sunday!

Cheers, -T

desper-otto said...

The Astros lost? When did this happen? And Greg Abbot is governor? I've gotta pay more attention to the local news.

inanehiker said...

Finally got around to the puzzle today after out of town company had left.
Enjoyed the combo theme.

I wondered if Kathleen was from my part of the country - I was raised in Kansas/MO and had a lot of relatives in Oklahoma - so we always stopped on the drive down in either IOLA or Chanute. Both are small towns and the NEOSHO river doesn't get the play that the Osage does in crosswords, so no one should feel bad about not knowing them, though they were gimmes for me.
In Kansas, the Arkansas river and Arkansas City are both prounounced ar-KAN'-sas like the state of Kansas and not like the state of Arkansas (are-kan- SAW)

Thanks, CC for the write-up and Kathleen for the puzzle.

Lucina said...

BillG:
The prison rodeo sounds fantastic! I watched it and thought it a wonderful idea for prisoners' morale and it raises money as well. I'm not sure I understand your problems with the warden and spectators.

Anonymous T said...

Something completely unrelated said...

As my brother (in CHI) and I chatted on the phone watching the Cub's drop game two... (Aaaaarrrrgggg!)

During the 8th inning pitching change, he asked if I recalled Two Hangmen by Mason Proffit. It took a few bars, but yeah I do. He heard it on the radio on his way back from SPI today. We both knew all the words, the melody, etc. though I'm sure it's been 30+ years since we heard it last (KSHE 95 in STL had it on rotation in the early '80s).

Does anyone recall this song and why it was made? I like the story / morale but I don't know what it was a response to. It seems a response to Orwellian group think, but I was just a wee lad then.

Cheers, -T

Bill G. said...

Lucina, I completely agree. I think the prisoners like it for all the reasons you said. I probably shouldn't have made my knee-jerk comment. It just made me uncomfortable as an observer to see a crowd yelling and cheering at seeing life-long prisoners with no training getting bucked off bulls and horses and running the risk of serious injury from being gored by a bull's horns. Even if the prisoners volunteer, I felt awkward seeing their position with a crowd screaming when they were in harm's way. The warden seemed like a hard-nosed guy too; the epitome of wardens in prison movies. However, all this is just my quick reaction to an uncomfortable situation and I probably should have kept my uninformed mouth shut. As you say, the prisoners like the chance to get outdoors and change their routine and the warden may be a wonderful fellow; a Sunday School teacher beloved by all of the inmates. :>)

Lucina said...

Well, Bill, there may be a kernel of truth in your observations. We don't know the complete story or what goes on behind closed doors although the Warden did say participation is strictly voluntary. As we know, there's 'voluntary' and then there's "voluntary."

Bill G. said...

Right. I probably shouldn't have expressed such a poorly-considered opinion. I usually think things through and try to be logical but my post was just a quick emotional reaction.

Did you see the middle segment on 60 Minutes about Make A Wish? Geez. I was in tears most of way through and then at the end...

PK said...

BillG: Have you ever met a real rodeo rider? My husband's cousin rodeoed all over the world. He had more broken bones and teeth than anyone I ever saw. He loved what he did and went back to it in his 50's after his kids were raised. Different mind set than us wimps. Didn't seem to have normal feelings of pain. He's in his nineties now and he'd go back on a bull in a minute, if someone would boost him up. I suspect those prisoners are rough men who like the danger and excitement and people yelling for them. Don't fear the consequences.

Bill G. said...

OK, one more time into the breech. I'm sorry I made the post and am also sorry that I didn't seem to explain myself well. I didn't feel bad for the prisoners. I felt bad for them being used as entertainment. I felt a bit of resentment toward the crowd enjoying seeing the prisoners getting thrown and gored even if they volunteered. I don't care for blood 'sports' like cock fighting, bear baiting, mixed martial arts, etc. No one has to explain to me why I'm not being logical or consistent; it was just an off-the-cuff reaction I had. And I didn't like the warden though he might be a swell fellow. My brain just quickly pigeon-holed him as a tough guy who didn't have much compassion. Logically, I'm not making much sense. It was just a quick knee-jerk reaction. I should have resisted the urge to post something until my normally logical, thoughtful self regained control. On the other hand, maybe I was just plain wrong...

Over and out.

Abejo said...

Good Monday morning, folks. Thank you, Kathleen Fay O'Brien, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for a fine review.

I could not finish this last night. Worked on it for a good part of the day, off and on. This morning I was more wide awake, I think, and figured out my stuck area. It was 46A, 35D, 36D, 54A, and 48D. Finally got LYRE and that opened up the rest. Phew!

Liked the theme. Except for 46A. OK.

Lots of inkblots for me. Had SEN for 39A. Thinking of SENIOR. SST won that battle after some perps and deep thinking on my part. Had EVIL for 15D. EMIL appeared. Never heard of that one. Had CHASING for 16D. Corrected that to CHASE IN. Tried HARP for 54A. LYRE made more sense after thinking about it for about 26 hours. Misspelled ASSISI as ASISSI. IOTA fixed that.

The official name of a vacuum bottle, AKA THERMOS, is a STANLEY. Used those all my working life when I was a coffee drinker. Now I am a tea drinker and I do not need to carry a STANLEY anymore, since I am home.

See you on Tuesday.

Abejo

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