google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, November 13, 2015, Jeffrey Wechsler

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Nov 13, 2015

Friday, November 13, 2015, Jeffrey Wechsler

Theme: You do what in your spare time?

Jeffrey is back with a very fun puzzle which recognizes the great possibilities of our language by taking famous people who have a first name that is the ending of a profession and mashing them into an answer. I would guess the seed fill was APOTHECARY GRANT, but they all are so cool.  I find this one of his wittiest creations to date.  I thought of one more profession that worked  and immediately forgot. Jeffrey uses two authors and two performers. We also get two "7 space 7" as top and bottom to the grid. There are also many nice 7 letter fill like ACTUATE, ATTUNES, BENEFIT, BORSCHT, CHICHEN, ETCHERS, I'LL STOP,  IT'S BEST, OCEANIA,  and VW JETTA.  We get some odd abbreviations, some very fun cluing and a Friday workout that was not a hair-puller. Another Friday the 13th so be careful out there.

17A. Classic leading man who moonlighted at a pharmacy? : APOTHECARY GRANT (15). Unlike Nathan Fillion this is ruggedly HANDSOME.

25A. Pulitzer-winning writer who moonlighted in a nightly news studio?: WEATHERMAN  WOUK (14).  He wrote so many great BOOKS.

44A. Actor who moonlighted in a brass band? : TRUMPETER BOYLE (14). An actors ACTOR.

57A. English author who moonlighted at LensCrafters? : OPTICIAN FLEMING (15).  New glasses? Try, Bond, CARTER BOND.

Across:
1. Set into motion : ACTUATE. A Friday word to start.

8. Golf alternative, briefly : VW JETTA. Funny but a stretch as the answer JETTA by itself is more accurate.

15. Red bowlful : BORSCHT. Not many northern Jewish families did not make beet  borscht when I was a kid. Served cold with hot potato was yummy.

16. __ Itzá: Mayan ruins : CHICHEN. Mexican Pyramids
19. Second of 24 : BETA.  Greek has 24 letters in their Alphabet.

20. L.A. Kings' org. : NHLNational Hockey League.

21. Management : SUITS.

22. Fiji's region : OCEANIA. Did you KNOW?

32. Saying that often goes without saying : AXIOM.

33. Breaks down : SOBS.

34. One with a handbook : USER.

36. Tony winner Huffman : CADY. Loved The Producers. Do not know her name.
37. Bolshoi outfit : TUTU. We have  a ballet studio in our back yard, fun.

38. Kitchen bar : OLEO.

39. "I'd strike the sun if it insulted me" speaker : AHAB. The Captain's reply when Starbuck tells him how stupid it is to seek vengeance from a animal acting on instinct.  "Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I’d strike the sun if it insulted me." Interesting inclusion as Wouk wrote the Caine Mutiny.

43. Folklore threats : OGRES.

47. Makes complementary (to) : ATTUNES.

48. "Here Come the __": 1945 college comedy : COEDS.
52. Actor Stephen : REA. The Crying Game

53. 18-Down competitor : AVIS. Car rentals.

61. Enhances in the kitchen : SEASONS.

62. "That's my recommendation" : IT'S BEST. After many many Fridays, I am now looking for JW's multi word fill; it really helps.

63. Reply to "That's enough!" : I'LL STOP. See.

64. Pool workers : TYPISTS. Tricky, old fashioned and not true anymore.

Down:

1. Rhyme scheme in many sonnets : AB AB. Is this all the Shakespeare we get today? First four lines...
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date

2. Bear up : COPE.

3. Moderate pace : TROT.

4. Open org. : USTA. United States Tennis Association.

5. "__ du lieber!" : ACH.

6. From that place : THENCE. A word very important in surveys, and legal descriptions which are metes and bounds.

7. Rembrandt and Picasso, at times : ETCHERS. I knew nothing of their etchings.
8. Obsolescent family room fixture : VCR. Someday I will get all the tapes of my kids on DVD....

9. Justification : WHY. And the equally famous why not?

10. Puzzle sometimes framed : JIGSAW. Loved the clue, I know very serious jigsaw people.

11. Hose shade : ECRU.

12. Southeast Asian language : THAI. A CSO to my sweet wife who had her birthday yesterday.

13. Garden party protection : TENT. And the clecho...

14. Garden party intruders : ANTS.

18. 53-Across competitor : ALAMO. More rental car; I use Enterprise.

22. Resistance unit : OHM.
23. Collar : NAB.

24. A-listers : INS. And the outs.

25. City SSW of Dallas : WACO. Home of Baylor University.

26. Praise to the heavens : EXALT.

27. To help, to Henri : AIDER. The French looks like English, sorta. Pronounce AY-DAY

28. Piece of toast? : TO YOU. E.G. Happy Birthday...

29. Expenditure : OUTGO.

30. Activity of great interest? : USURY. A good one. Too much interest, in most states there are laws; Florida 18 or 25% but you can read the LIST to see where your state sits..

31. __ One: vodka brand : KETEL.
35. Scam : RUSE. I think of ruse an element in a scam.

39. Proper : APT.

40. In a lather, with "up" : HET. Is this three times this month?

41. Words with take or lose : A TURN.

42. Fund-raiser : BENEFIT.

43. Like "fain": Abbr. : OBSolete. Archaic. But also OBScure.

45. Poe of the Baltimore Ravens, for one : MASCOT.

46. Certain agent's area : REALTY. Big money here; 6% of a million dollar sale is $60,000.00.

48. Mozart title starter : COSI Fan Tutti.

49. General Motors subsidiary : OPEL. German automobile manufacturer headquartered in Rüsselsheim, Hesse, Germany.

50. Substitute in a list : ETAL.

51. Ph.D. hurdle : DISSertation.

53. Both, at the start : AMBIvalent about this clue?

54. Contests : VIES.

55. Smithsonian, e.g.: Abbr. : INST. Home for Bones.
56. PD ranks : SGTS. Like Joe Friday.

58. Italian diminutive suffix : INO.

59. Venom transmitter : ASP. Meh.

60. Arguable ability : ESP. Extra Sensory Perception.

Thanks for the ride Jeffrey and thank all of you who came along for the write up.  Lemonade out.

Harper at 6 weeks


1
A
2
C
3
T
4
U
5
A
6
T
7
E
8
V
9
W
10
J
11
E
12
T
13
T
14
A
15
B
O
R
S
C
H
T
16
C
H
I
C
H
E
N
17
A
P
O
T
H
E
C
18
A
R
Y
G
R
A
N
T
19
B
E
T
A
20
N
H
L
21
S
U
I
T
S
22
O
C
E
A
23
N
24
I
A
25
W
26
E
27
A
28
T
H
E
R
M
A
N
W
29
O
30
U
31
K
32
A
X
I
O
M
33
S
O
B
S
34
U
S
E
35
R
36
C
A
D
Y
37
T
U
T
U
38
O
L
E
O
39
A
40
H
41
A
42
B
43
O
G
R
E
S
44
T
R
U
45
M
P
E
T
E
46
R
B
O
Y
L
E
47
A
T
T
U
N
E
S
48
C
49
O
50
E
51
D
S
52
R
E
A
53
A
54
V
55
I
56
S
57
O
P
T
I
C
58
I
59
A
N
F
L
60
E
M
I
N
G
61
S
E
A
S
O
N
S
62
I
T
S
B
E
S
T
63
I
L
L
S
T
O
P
64
T
Y
P
I
S
T
S

52 comments:

OwenKL said...

Finished today's correctly! Before I saw any of the theme entries, I put 17a as "REXALL HARRISON". Ah, well.

He bought a used JETTA from ALAMO Rental,
They assured him its previous use had been gentle,
A premise he doubted
No matter how touted,
As he'd once owned an OPEL, from AVIS Car Rental!

(This next is with apologies to BillG, fermat', and the rest of the mathies here--)

An AXIOM's a postulate that math nerds agree on
From lofty actuaries to school COED peon.
Like two and two becomes four,
Nothing less, nothing more --
Except Sir McKellen, 'cause a TUTU becomes IAN!

(--also fans of Gandalf, Magneto, and especially Freddie Thornhill!)

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks, Jeffrey and Lemon!

Lemonade: Bones is at the "Jeffersonian."

Really cute theme!

Was not fond of DISS. KETEL and CADY were perped.

Cheers!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Well, I almost got through this one unscathed. I struggled mightily in the SW corner due to putting in INI instead of INO at 58D and ORAL instead of DISS at 51D. Plus, I really, really resisted putting in ASP at 59D, despite the fact that I knew it was probably the answer. "Meh" is definitely correct for the "Venom transmitter" clue. Regardless, I finally took out ORAL, which was enough to get me I'LL STOP and INO.

The little section in the center west, however, did me in. I can never remember whether its OLIO or OLEO and always have to rely on the perps. This time, however, the crucial perp was part of an unknown French word that itself crossed an unknown name. CADY? Not a chance. I finally decided to go with OLEO, but I still needed to run the alphabet to get the TADA at the CADY/AIDER crossing.

Ah well, at least the theme was fun and some of the other cluing was delightful.

Lemonade714 said...

Fermat

I understand they call it the Jeffersonian, but it is a description of the Smithsonian. This show mixes lots of odd realities like Billy as Angela's father and the ZZ Top guitarist, so I assume they just could not get permission to call it the Smithsonian.

HowardW said...

I like the theme a lot, and it emerged quickly with APOTHE-CARY GRANT. Had the most trouble in the SW, where I had EINE for the Mozart title starter and ORAL as the Ph.D. hurdle. Eventually cleared those away, and completed in slightly longer than usual time. Only unknowns were CADY Huffman and KETEL One. "Piece of toast?" was my favorite clue.

Another possible theme entry: STONEMASON WILLIAMS.

Thanks Jeffrey for an excellent puzzle, and Lemonade for a super writeup.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

I was motoring along until I drove into L.A. Those freeways are murder! EINE and ORAL caused a major traffic jam until they were towed away. Once the wreckage was cleared, traffic started flowing normally. DISS? Really? That's an ugly stretch. Still, it was fun and very cleverly done.

Herman Wouk's The Winds of War and War and Remembrance made for some addictive TV watching back in the 80's. Robert Mitchum made a memorable "Pug" Henry (even though he was too old for the part) and Ralph Bellamy was perfectly cast as FDR. I just finished reading Wouk's Glory a couple of months back.

OwenKL said...

http://etymonline.com/index.php?search=mayday
mayday (interj.)
distress call, 1923, apparently an Englished spelling of French m'aider, shortening of venez m'aider "come help me!" But possibly a random coinage with coincidental resemblance:

"May Day" Is Airplane SOS
ENGLISH aviators who use radio telephone transmitting sets on their planes, instead of telegraph sets, have been puzzling over the problem of choosing a distress call for transmission by voice. The letters SOS wouldn't do, and just plain "help!" was not liked, and so "May Day" was chosen. This was thought particularly fitting since it sounds very much like the French m'aidez, which means "help me." ["The Wireless Age," June 1923]

TTP said...

Thank you Jeffrey and Lemonade.

It wasn't the SW for me. It was the CADY (who ?) AIDER (ok, if you say so) intersection, and the TRUMPETER before BOYLE.

Got it all except that intersecting D. I guessed a V because there seems to be a lot of words in French that have a V in them somewhere.

The rest of the puzzle was fairly easy and fast for a FRIDAY.

Favorite clue was "Area of great interest."

Lemon, you have a ballet studio in your back yard...

My sister's neighbor taught teenage boys bull riding in his "back yard." I'd walk across her back yard and pasture to get over to the fence line, climb up and get a seat on the top fence rail. It was always entertaining and reinforced my belief that you'd have to be at least partly crazy to want to ride one of those beasts.

Montana said...

I'm not a master solver, and I have red-letter help turned on since it's Friday, but I completed this puzzle with only vowel runs--no alphabet runs necessary.

Have a fun Friday the 13th, all.

Montana

SwampCat said...


I got most of it, and loved all of it! Fun theme and some good clues. I can never remember how to spell BORSCHT or CHICHEN ITZA. How weird that they were right next to each other. Thanks, Jeff and Lemonade, for a good start to the day.

Owen today's offering was wonderful! Almost as good as yesterday's. Thanks!

Happy Friday the 13th. Be careful out there.

Avg Joe said...

Tough outing today. The top was slow going, but most of it did fill, and I was able to guess the first theme fill with about 75% of it filled by perps. That was a huge help. It slowed further as I descended. The final theme was really tough because I couldn't think of a name like Cian. Finally Ian dawned, and that came together.

But it was a FIW at the end due to Cady. Had no clue on the French phrase, so I did an ABC run (complete with the tune) for the missing D. Decided that D, L, S and T were the most likely, and went with T. Bzzzt. Oh well, it was a fun ride.

Agree on "Thence", Lemon. We're lucky here in the plains since nearly every legal is platted out as lot and block. But I do encounter a metes and bounds description about once a year that I have to manually type out. A very tedious process to get it right.

Thanks for the write up, and thanks for the puzzle Jeffrey.

Lemonade714 said...

Howard W

The problem with theme answers is that they must be 15 letters or shorter and yours is 18 letter...now if you were building a Sunday Puzzle.

TTP, I exaggerated. The ballet studio with the big plate glass windows is in the shopping center in back of our condo about 200 feet from our place. Watching young people learn and perform is cool. They have all ages and the 5 and 6 year old ones are precious and the teenagers are very good.

Husker Gary said...

I loved this puzzle and second Lemon’s assessment! BTW, I do not have triskaidekaphobia.

Musings
-Interesting that CARY was the only name that sounded the same in both words
-Lemon on BORSCHT, Not many… did not make… double negative? ☺
-I chose the wrong one. If you think VCR’s are obsolete…
-Fiendishly clever TO YOU finished CADY for me
-Our COED Granddaughter lives in a dorm with both genders
-Very memorable AVIS ad campaign
-Teacher, “That’s enough!” 8th grader response, “It’s not my fault”
-Dang Lemon, that’s the same sonnet I thought of also
¬-I went with USGA who chose this course the golfers hated for their Open. Can you find a golf course in this picture?
-Everyone gets A TURN
-Does any other pro team have a nickname as literary as The Ravens?
-I’m a substitute in a list but I turned down 6 jobs this morning because golf weather will wane next week!
-HBD, Mrs. Lemon!

Anonymous said...

Golf - VW Jetta - what am I missing?

Hungry Mother said...

Just got this one after a lot of thinking.

Lemonade714 said...

The VW Golf is a very SUCCESSFUL brand of car.

Anonymous said...

how 'bout TEACHER or COOK D LANG? ;)

Anonymous said...

BALLERINA GARTEN

Lemonade714 said...

BALLERINA GARTEN is a winner!!!

Tinbeni said...

D N F ...
Was never on the Constructor's Wave-Length ...
But I'm not going into a long dissertation about not getting a "tada" since I solve these puzzles "On-Newsprint, In Black Ink" (without "Red-Letter-Help") ...

Oh well, it is 80 degrees, Clear Blue Sky ... heading to a Beautiful Sunset.
Toasts-to-All will be made ...
Cheers!

Anonymous said...

The puzzle was too tough and therefore not enjoyable.

Irish Miss said...

Good Afternoon:

Did the puzzle much earlier but had a doctor's appointment, so here I am, finally. This was a fun puzzle for me as Cary Grant has been my McDreamy forever, Herman Wouk is one of my favorite authors, and who could forget Peter Boyle in The Dream Team, let alone Everybody Loves Raymond. Not a fan of Ian Fleming but he fit in the theme very nicely. However, it was a FIW due to Cady and my inability to make sense of t _ y o u, as Piece of toast. 🍳. Oh well, I still enjoyed the solve, so no complaints.

DO @ 6:55 ~ TWOW and WAR were two of my favorite books and the min-series were good, also. I agree that Robert Mitchum was miscast as Pug because of his age, but the most egregious mis-casting was Ali McGraw as Natalie. I now defer to Thumper. 🐰

Thanks, JW, for an enjoyable challenge and thanks, Lemony, for filling in the blanks. A belated Happy Birthday to Mrs. Lemony 🎂 and also to Mrs. Husker! 🎂

I'm pleased to say that I drove my car this morning for the first time in 8 weeks. My hand is still healing but I felt I could manage and I did.

It's gloomy, cold, and very windy here: a good day to curl up with a good book! 📚

Have a great day!

TX Ms said...

Bit of interesting trivia for Peter Boyle: John Lennon was the best man at Boyle's wedding to Loraine Alterman in 1977. Through Alterman and her friend Yoko Ono, Boyle became friends with John Lennon

Anonymous said...

Meant "Boyle had become friends..."

Jayce said...

Whoo! Hard but fun puzzle. Damn clever theme. Had to look up CADY but knew AIDER. Without CADY I had IDIOM, which obviously didn't work but I couldn't figure out why. Also had PACIFIC and WHENCE which screwed me up in that area. Knowing OHM had to be right and guessing that NAB was most likely right eventually straightened me out.
Windows 10 has been downloading a boatload of gigabytes; so far about 9 hours of steady downloading on our slow DSL connection. Sheesh.
Best wishes to you all.

Misty said...

Well, I never thought I'd get anywhere with this Friday puzzle when I saw those two grid-spanners. But starting with TUTU, things slowly filled in, and by the time I got APOTHECARYGRANT,I was hooked. I did have to cheat twice and never figured out TO YOU, but had a lot of fun along the way--so, many thanks, Jeffrey. Enjoyed all the literary references (e.g. AHAB and HERMAN WOUK) and thanks for the Shakespeare, Lemonade.

Tinbeni, you don't like KETEL ONE? Made me think of you right away.

Irish Miss, how great that you're driving again! Yay!

Have a good weekend, everybody!

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Very clever, Jeffrey! Great expo, Lemony!

I caught on to the theme at the first one and filled the top tier rather easily. Like AvgJoe I thought it got harder as it descended. CIAN kept me frustrated a while. The east 2/3 of the bottom tier was mostly white until I broke down and did red-letter alphabet runs which got me moving again.

PETER BOYLE's name wasn't familiar, but his face sure was. Had forgotten he died. We have a lot of Raymond reruns so he lives on, grumpy as ever.

I have one property with six THENCEs in the description. Boy, is that a bugger to type and proofread! It's the smallest acreage I have, but the longest description.

CADY? WHO?

Avg Joe said...

Just in case anyone would be interested in a metes and bounds legal description that has never seen one, here's a cut and paste of the last one I ran into. The actual name of the subdivision has been changed to protect the innocent, but everything else is accurate. This one is relatively simple as it's just a small rectangular lot, and doesn't include any mention of degrees, but it's still a brute to type without error.

A portion of Block 1, Blathering Hills First Addition, Lincoln, Lancaster County, Nebraska, said portion more particularly described as follows: Commencing at a point on the Northwest line of said Block 1, said point lying 100.0 feet Northeast of the most Westerly corner of said Block 1, thence in a Southeasterly direction along a line perpendicular to the Northwest line of said Block 1, a distance of 90.0 feet, thence 90 degrees to the left and in a Northeasterly direction a distance of 46.75 feet, thence 90 degrees to the left and in a Northwesterly direction a distance of 90.0 feet to a point of intersection with the Northwest line of said Block 1, thence Southwesterly along the Northwest line of said Block 1, a distance of 46.75 feet to the Point of Beginning.

Doesn't that make your head hurt? Now if they had only platted the block into lots up front, it could have been described as: "Lot 16, Block 1, Blathering Hills Sub, LLCN". I like the second one better.

Big Easy said...

Due to the SW, I had to give up on this puzzle. Initially I had trouble in the NE with the 'Golf alternative' and the spelling of CHICHEN Itza, but after getting GRANT, guessing CARY, the theme was easy. HET for the third time recently but I don't think it will become a commonly used word any time soon. CADY & AIDER were unknowns and I figured since aide-de-camp sounded French, so I filled the D.

The SW was a struggle, not knowing COEDS, COSI (wanted EINE), INO, or DISS (ugh). SEASONS just wouldn't pop into my head even with OPEL, ET AL, MASCOT & ASP in place. And then there was the cross of TRUMPETER_OYLE and OBS. I didn't know 'weather' it would be HOYLE, DOYLE, or BOYLE and the clue for OBS sucked. Maybe 'modern day storks, abbr' for obstetricians but fain? Did somebody go back to Chaucer to get a crossword clue?

'That's enough' for today. I'LL STOP.

Big Easy said...

Avg Joe- come to Louisiana where there are measurements in BOTH French and English. Feet, tenths of feet, arpents- 191.831 feet. And some are in Spanish-VARAS-33 inches- and English in Texas. I have property in both extreme NW Louisiana and right across the state line in Texas. I did have some in extreme SW Arkansas but I let it go for taxes- a 50X100' lot against a railroad track in a town that doesn't exist any longer.

Lemonade714 said...

Legal descriptions are all public records so I am not sure why I took out some of the most recent Deed I prepared but here it is: Our format does not like the degree marks

Beginning at the Southwest Corner of Lot 5, Block 4, Section one, Phase one of the “ABCDEF” according to the Plat thereof as recorded in Plat Book xx, Page yy, of the Public Records of Broward County, Florida, run thence N. 89̊07'56" W. along the south line of Parcel G-6, a distance of 12.54 feet, thence N. 0̊52'04" E. a distance of 125.80 feet, thence N. 51̊40'52" E. a distance of 16.19 feet to the southwest corner of Lot 4, of said Block 4, thence S. 68̊17'10" E. a distance of 45.65 feet, thence S. 89̊07'56" E. a distance of 71.34 feet to a point in the west line of zzzzzzz Drive; thence S. 0̊52'04" W. along the west line of zzzzzzz Drive a distance of 34.77 feet to the northeast corner of said Lot 5, thence N. 63̊08'05" W. a distance of 79.36 feet, thence S. 51̊40'52" W. a distance of 55.05 feet; thence S. 0̊52'04" W. a distance of 85 feet to the point of beginning.

Jerome said...

Mayan comedy duo? CHICHEN CHONG

Madame Defarge said...

Hello, everyone.

Thanks Jeffrey for a fun Friday. I found the theme at OPTICIANFLEMING on the first pass, which opened the Puzzle for me. The rest was back and four but having the long fills really helped out. Liked AHAB and the Raven(s) in the same puzzle. Two of my favorites to teach.

Nice walk through, Lemonade. Thank you.

Have a fine weekend.

Avg Joe said...

I agree we're fortunate here. Since the rectangular survey system was in use when Nebraska was carved up, it's quite uncommon to see a metes and bounds description. Even for ag land. And we're even more fortunate in that I've never seen one that cites a large boulder, or worse yet, a tree, as a POB. That has to drive people crazy.

BTW, I did notice that I lied earlier. The description does mention degrees, but only as an angle of deflection. What I was really talking about was what Lemon called "degree marks"' or put otherwise, compass reading.

Anonymous T said...

Happy Friday All!!!

Well, not for me pzl-wise - Jeffrey beat me up today, badly. It took me ~1h to get everything N. of OCEANIA and I couldn't break up the SW w/o two cheats. Uncle!, DNF! Thanks for the puzzle anyway; I did have fun getting pummeled :-)

Anatomy of a solve: OHM, SOBS, NABS,.... JIGSAW, VW JETTA, VCR, WHY, TENTS, ANTS, APOTHECARY GRANT. Wait 30m. Finally the NE.

So, stuck on 48a (I wanted judge, but sure that was a song (it is)), I consulted the Google. COEDS got me DISS, OPEL, ET. AL. (literally, that's the list. i.e. not all of it).

45d. I have M_St_T... 1st I thought, "That's APT, Ravens have a player named Poe, I wonder if it's one of those crazy football names. MoStat Poe or something..." Google - V-8 - Ouch!

The central east and SE are still mostly blank (I so wanted bookie for 64a) but I stopped the fight before the 64oz V-8 cans hit. Thanks for ref'ing Lem. I enjoyed the write-up and the links (and of course Harper is a cutie).

OKL - I've been remiss in thanking you. I've enjoyed your return & witty limericks.

Swamp - I gave up on trying to "remember" _Itza / Mayan and think of a messed up CHIC-HEN (he has no point).

HG- I heard Sony will stop BETA tape production next year. Stock up like pop did on incandescents :-)

Cheers, -T

CrossEyedDave said...

This one made me go red letter early, I thought piece of toast? was "slice."
Not knowing Cady made my last entry in this puzzle the "y" in "to you."
& an excellent V8 can to the head moment...

That "Here Come The Coeds" clip makes me want to see the movie!

A belated Happy Birthday to your Wife, Lemon.

HowardW @ 6:51, I enjoyed your link, Stone Mason Williams.
However having forgotten how to play Classical Gas on the guitar I opted this sidebar link hoping to see Mason
actually fingering the guitar on the Smother Brothers Show. (which is where I first saw it...) I had no idea he worked for the show! Check out the second half for a parody of
the Smother Bros. cancellation...

Jerome, good one! :)

HG, @ 9:30 Re; everyone gets a turn. What does a desk fairy do?

TTP said...

Lemonade, I knew you were speaking figuratively.

Husker Gary, good decision. This has been bonus weather for golfing, though not here for the last couple of days. Here's my take. It's better to be teed up than teed off.

PK, about those Sycamore leaves you were missing the other day.... Did you find them ? I think they may be in my yard.

Speaking of Kansas, and an answer from the other day, Apercu was also the name of a song on Kansas' self-titled debut album. That's their album with the depiction of John Brown on it.

BALLERINA GARTEN would have been APT for this puzzle. Nice one Anon.

Jayce, I too had WHENCE at first, but ACTUA_E demanded that T. Was wondering if anyone was going to say they had whence. I haven't opted for WIN 10 on any of mu 'puters yet, but it is inevitable. I have noted that there have been a lot of security updates for Win 7 these last few days.

Realized after the fact why some of you thought of eine. Eine kleine Nachtmusik. Could have been me as well, but today my first thought was the common puzzle fill COSI fan tutti. Funny how it goes...

WACO was easy for this (half) central-Texan.

Enough of a respite. Daylight's burning, and either have to work on more of PK's leaves or walk my boy. See all y'all later.

Lucina said...

Greetings, friends!
Very late today because it's a busy Friday and insomnia drove me back to sleep at 6:00 A.M.

Had to check the calendar to ascertain that today was not Saturday as the grid really looked that way. I worked my way around until the NE corner filled and there was that dreamboat, CARYGRANT. The rest was hit and miss with little joy for me. I couldn't find the rhythm or momentum. Finally had to look up CADY to finish.

I must commend Jeffrey Wechsler on another clever construction. And Lemonade, too, you made this fun.

I hope you're having a wonderful day, everyone! It's glorious autumn here at 79 degrees.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

Like others I stumbled at CADY / TO YOU. Couldn't parse the vertical, which is sadly typical. Having EXULT for EXALT didn't help, either. Hence, a DNF.

COEDS was a pure swag. Great clip Lemon - I shared it with my granddaughter who is a dancing COED herself. So TUTU was right in my wheelhouse

Got the the Theme with CARY GRANT. Though I read most all of the Bond books many decades ago, and I had 57 A completely filled in, I couldn't suss IAN FLEMING. Theme is clever, but the famous name to fill relationship is all over the place phonetically.

Somehow mistook FIJI for Mt. FUJI and wanted a region in Japan.

Happy weekend everyone.

Cool regards!
JzB

Argyle said...

Survey notes: Throw in links, chains, and rods, hand written in flowing script. I had one starting point that was so many links from the schoolhouse door. Another lot went to a hemlock sapling. The next time it was surveyed, it went to a hemlock tree and a third time, to a hemlock stump. No hint of anything when I looked for the point.

Then throw in the fact that the magnetic north kept changing, it's a wonder there weren't more border disputes.

AnonymousPVX said...

There is the obvious NATIK at CAdY/ AIdER whitch made the solve impossible.

I did have everything else so the NATIK really steamed me. Ah well…

Anonymous T said...

Argyle - LOL sapling->tree->stump and the schoolhouse isn't even (my a. for 53d) there! An absurd system we have... Thanks, I needed a giggle b/f nap time. C, -T

Anonymous said...

I don't not miss the good ol' days.
Here's TO YOU, Early Birds. You know who you are.

Cheers!

Spitzboov said...

Good evening everyone.

Took a few runs at it but got it w/o lookups. Jeffrey's clues are always fun to unravel. Favorite was for OLEO - kitchen bar.
TROT - In Harness Racing the horse's gait is either a trot or a pace,.

Avg Joe said...

Yep, Argyle. That's what I'm talking about. Trees may last a long time, but they're nonetheless transient. I can't imagine the difficulties dealing with that when surveying. Boulders are at least pretty much permanent, but they're also portable given enough equipment. Chains, links and rods might be Greek to many, but at least they are definable....kinda like leagues from yesterday.

More or less related, I've got a friend in W Kansas. There aren't a lot of trees in W KS, as PK knows. The local rural landmark that most old timers cite when giving directions is "The Tree". E.g. "Go 3 1/2 miles north and 2 west of the tree. You can't miss it." The problem is, the tree died in the 50's and it rotted to sawdust sometime in the 70's. But nevermind that. It lives on in the local "you are here" maps.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Do you remember this great movie where the character is following landmarks to a tin box?
-Yeah, Dave, I wonder what a Desk Fairy would do. Check for contents and orderliness?
-TTP, I did make a good decision, the day was full sunlight, no wind and temp near 60 ˚F. That weather would have tormented me from inside a schoolroom. Maybe a Desk Fairy could have gotten me out!

Yellowrocks said...

Irish Miss, I am SO happy you are driving. After three surgeries my happiest moment in each recovery was being able to go where and when I pleased without being dependent and leaning on the well appreciated generosity of friends.
I loved this puzzle's theme. I caught on early with CARY GRANT.Thanks for the neat puzzle and interesting expo.
As a teacher I never had the services of a desk fairy.
CADY was the only semi-unknown. It did ring a bell.
I loved the toast, TO YOU. Here's to you, you wonderful person.
I had to give up ACTIVATE for ACTUATE.
I have heard of the explanation, m'aider for MAYDAY. I like it.
Today I bought a small washer/dryer stackable suitable for small places. My 10 year old equipment was beyond repair. I took a ten year insurance policy because I doubted the quality of the new models. I have to be vigilant of Alan leaving quarters in his pockets. Drain failure due to that is not covered.
Speaking of Alan, he is in terrible pain. Solving this problem is terribly frustrating and has me going around in circles after 50 years of handling this type of thing. It is much more complicated than usual. M'aider! MAYDAY!

Abejo said...

Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Jeffrey Wechsler, for a fine puzzle. The you, Lemonade, for a fine review.

Well, I worked on this on and off all day between meetings. Finally got it. It was not easy, at all.

Really liked the theme. That was clever.

BORSCHT came slowly, then it hit me in the head. I guess Red may refer to two different things that point to borscht.

Thought JIGSAW was great. Good clue/answer.

ALAMO and AVIS stumped me for a while. Finally got them with a couple perps and deep thinking.

Heading back to Illinois in the morning. Going to try Über or Lyft to the airport. We will see how that works.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Bill G. said...

Barbara used Uber about a week ago and it worked really well.

YR, has Alan's doctor given a prescription for Vicodin, Norco or something similar? I would do whatever is necessary to relieve "terrible pain."

What a tragedy in Paris! Good wishes for the victims and bad wishes for the perpetrators.

Here's a really cute video of a baby meeting the family dog for the first time. BABY AND DOG

PK said...

AvgJoe, Funny you mentioned school house. My aforementioned parcel has a jog cut out for a one-room school house & yard and another for a gas pipeline booster pump station. The schoolhouse is now torn down. I enquired 20 yrs. ago who the school yard belonged to and the school district wouldn't sell it to me because they were storing stuff in the school. I maybe should enquire again since it's gone. My surveyor was in the middle of the adjoining road digging down through about six inches of asphalt trying to find a metal plate that they used to mark section corners. Some guy comes barreling around the corner in a semi pulling a loaded grain trailer, sees the squatting surveyor, takes the ditch and rolls the rig on its side scattering grain. I saw the wreck then went in to see my lawyer about something unrelated. The Cuban trucker was on the phone with my lawyer swearing so loud I could hear him across the room. Since we only had one Cuban in the area, I guessed what he was cussing. I passed a little note to my lawyer to enlighten him and he started soothing the guy. I didn't get sued.

Then I have a parcel that has a point starting in the middle of a narrow river. We've seen the river change course slightly twice since we've had the property. It cut out the bank on the other side of the river which enlarged my place.

TTP, you are so welcome to those big orange honkin' leaves!

Lemonade714 said...

CED, thank you for the cake for my wife. She says ขอขอบคุณ.

Thanks for all the interesting posts all



Unknown said...

Just finished. I thought piece of toast and OBS were a real stretch!