google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, November 20, 2015, Jascha Smilack

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Nov 20, 2015

Friday, November 20, 2015, Jascha Smilack

Theme: Re-imagine and laugh

It has been five years since we last saw this Harvard grad here at the corner. I did not remember much except his distinctive name. His two publications in the LAT back in 2010 were both add on themes, but this is played strictly for laughs with three phrases clued with amusing recasting of the meaning of the words. There are only three themers so there is room for some other long fill, but instead Jascha chose to create a Friday pangram. We do have fresh fill like BURQUA, QUOTABLE,  WIZARDRY ARCSIN, SPUDS, HYPOS,  JARGON. If you get the humor you will have fun.

20A. One keeping tabs on the best man? : TOASTER TIMER (12). Best man proposes a toast....the phrase sounds a bit forced.

36A. Portrait artist at a gym? : SWEATER DRAWER (13). The guy with his pad watch the people sweat and making pictures.

53A. Coach for a newspaper employee? : PRINTER TONER (12). Back in the gym getting the little printer in shape.

Across: 

1. Traditional Islamic garment : BURQA. No politics.


6. Big fish : OPAH. We had this fish in a Bruce Haight in October that I blogged.

10. Literary group? : ARTS.

14. On the bad side (of) : AFOUL. He ran afoul of his in-laws.

15. Brazos River city : WACO. Two weeks in a row.

16. Skin malady : CHAP. Half a shout out to me.

17. Primus or Helena, in a classic play : ROBOT. Another R.U.R. reference.

18. Tan relative : ECRU.

19. Cord for Ford, perhaps : TYPO. Cute and much better than an old Gerald campaign slogan.

23. Preserve, in a way : ENCASE.

26. Strict : SEVERE.

27. Feed, but not food : VERB.Really nice misdirection.

28. Ready to pick : RIPE.

32. Court period: Abbr. : SESSion.

33. Abbr. in a footnote : ET AL.

34. Of a battery terminal : ANODAL. Cathodal?

41. Tank type : SEPTIC.

42. Optimist's words : I CAN.

44. Frequent fliers : JETS.

47. Where to see decorative nails : TOES.

48. Defense choice : ZONE. This answer works both for football and basketball.

49. Biblical prophet : SAMUEL. WIKI.

51. Roma's home : ITALIA.

57. Jamaican fruit : UGLI.
58. Bucks' pursuits : DOES. A little sex for a Friday as the deer become dear.

59. Augment : ADD TO.

63. Off : DO IN.

64. Impedes, with "up" : GUMS. a four letter word!

65. Haunted house sound : CREAK.


66. Start of a run, maybe : SNAG. Nylons not exercise.

67. Big show : EXPO.

68. Sources of shots : HYPOS. Hypodermics.

Down:

1. Shut out : BAR.

2. Mars rover? : UFO.

3. Fleece : ROB. Golden?

4. Like Twain and Wilde, e.g. : QUOTABLE. Nice misdirection.

5. Chorus section : ALTOS.

6. Is short : OWES. I am short.

7. Agreement : PACT.

8. One of 640 in a square mile : ACRE. How many in a section?

9. Quite a while : HOURS. Eh.

10. Prone to heavy market trading : ACTIVE. Stock market.

11. Poet's stock-in-trade : RHYMES. Shout out to Owen and where are you Chairman?

12. Narrows : TAPERS.

13. Fern seed : SPORE.

21. Gas up? : AERATE. AIR

22. Palo Alto-based automotive company : TESLA. Go SEE.

23. First lady? : EVE. Used before but cute.

24. Has left to spend : NETS. Not gross.

25. Dad or fish preceder : CRAW. Very southern.

29. Clumsy : INEPT.

30. City south of Lisboa : PORTO.

31. Murphy who voices Donkey in "Shrek" : EDDIE.


35. Inverse trig function : ARCSIN.

37. Plus : ASSET.

38. Potter's specialty : WIZARDRY. Not ceramics but Harry.

39. Earth sci. : ECOLology.

40. Indian royal : RANI.

43. "Great Public Schools for Every Student" gp. : NEA.

44. Tongue : JARGON.

45. Victim of Iago : EMILIA. Her maid, his wife. Our Friday Shakespeare.

46. What some forks are used for : TUNING. Nice deception.

49. Taters : SPUDS.

50. Overhang : LEDGE.

52. Show : TEACH. We have many here at the Corner.

54. Béchamel base : ROUX. For all our cooks and Louisiana denizens.

55. Sub : TEMP. HG is our resident expert at working as a SUBstitute teacher.

56. Bone, to Benito : OSSO. Straight Italian

60. Bank statement abbr. : DEPosit.

61. Lao Tzu principle : TAO. We have discussed before but if you want you can READ.

62. Sanctions : OKS. The nice meaning of the word,

Sorry, still dealing with sick brother. Remember thanksgiving is coming and let's take time to thank C.C.  for the Corner and the joys of life. Lemonade out.

67 comments:

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks, Jascha and Lemon!

Best wishes for your brother's healing, Lemon.

Took quite a while but I finally won out. WIZARDRY took forever, darn! Stupid me!

DOIN took awhile to parse as DO IN, so that I could fill it in. Congrats to all of you who worked this more quickly! (Must have been 50 minutes.)

Really enjoy The Librarians! Anyone else?

(Still have darn chest cold.)

Cheers!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Well, this one was beyond me. The SW corner nearly did me in, what with DO IN and EMILIA, but for a change knowing the theme actually helped and I managed to figure everything out down there after PRINTER TONER convinced me that OTELLO couldn't be right for 45D.

Sadly, I was unable to get through the NW corner unassisted. Even with TOASTER TIMER (a non phrase in my book) in place, I could only get ALTOS and QUOTABLE, and I wasn't particularly confident about QUOTABLE. No idea who Primus and Helena were, but they sounded Greek so I went with HELOT. AWFUL seemed to fit at 14A, sort of. A UFO is a "Mars rover"? Even with the question mark in the clue, I couldn't come up with it. I finally turned on the red-letter help to eliminate my mistakes, but even then it took awhile to guess at the correct answers.

Montana said...

Hugs for your brother, Lemon.
Didn't this puzzle seem too easy for a Friday? It was a personal DNF because I had red letter help turned on, although rarely saw one. Spent the most time in the NE. When I finally thought CHAP, then all fell into place.
Best I've done on a Friday in a long time.

Have a good weekend, everybody,

Montana

OwenKL said...

FIR! Took several passes, and I concur the cluing was lame on words already mentioned. I will air a pet peeve:

Once upon a time, Q was followed by U,
In English, that's what you always must do!
But new Arabic words
Have spellings absurd,
Any K is supplanted by some un-Ued Q!

Islamic women wear niQabs and BURQAS!
Terror is spread by Al Qaeda berserkers!
What was once the Koran
Is now Qur'an (not Qoran --
That batch of translators must have been shirkers!)


Countries are named IraQ and Qatar
The spelling, I tell you, is simply bizarre!
This orthographic defiling
Is linguistic profiling,
In the Qourts of leQSography it shouldn't go far!

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

This was quick, but fun. Would've been quicker, but I stubbed my TOE in the NE. With CYST in place I somehow dyslexed (Is that a word? If not, it oughta be.) RHYMES into RYHMES. That bollixed up that whole section. Knowing SPORE finally broke the logjam. My TEMP began life as a HERO, but quickly fell from grace. The "Potter" answer was also slow in coming; my mind was stuck on this guy

BURQA is another of those odd words that doesn't have a QU in it. Like QATAR and QOM and AQABA.

Add one more note to a triad and you get a CRAWDAD, per Emmylou Harris.

Billy Walker had a CW hit with Cross the Brazos at WACO...he'd be safe when he reached San Antone. He didn't.

Lemon, I'm guessing your square mile/section question was rhetorical.

Montana, what org is sponsoring your Part D volunteering? Sounds like something I might like to do. Can't find anything similar in my neck of the woods.

HowardW said...

Wow, I must not have been on Jascha's wavelength, because this was my longest Friday solve.

Agree with Barry about disliking "Mars rover?" for UFO -- an ET might rove around Mars, but a UFO is flying on Earth. Wild guess that the play in 17A was R.U.R. turned out to be right! On the other hand, ACNE for 16A messed up the NE corner until SPORE was guessed. Liked TYPO and HYPOS in the same puzzle.

Thanks Lemonade for the walkthrough.

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning,

Whew! That was a doozie for me. Wherever I was, it wasn't on Jascha's wavelength. When Lemonade took us through, it all made sense; I was not picking up on the misdirection. I should have had "feed, but not food:" VERB. Just a little low on battery power this morning.
Thanks, Jascha.

Hang in there Lemonade. Thanks for today.

The snow's a-comin'!!

Tinbeni said...

D N F ... Not even close ... Never came close to the constructor's wave-length.

Cheers!

Yellowrocks said...

Great expo. Great puzzle. I used red letter help twice.
Lemon, I wish your brother good health.
I wanted OTELLO, too, but realized it didn't fit. 13D clue looked like Fem seed, instead of fern seed.
Favorite answer was SWEATER DRAWER. I liked TOASTER TIMER, too. Though not a common phrase, it literally describes what could occur. Did you ever notice that many speakers have a compatriot with a watch, timing their speeches? When time is up the compatriot points to his watch. More speakers should have a timer.
Owen KL, too funny! Transliteration is always a problem. Many times the exact sound is not available in English.
Although he was better but not exactly well, Alan went to work Wed. and Thur. Today he felt much worse and is at home. We have an appointment with pain management on Tuesday.

kazie said...

I too was way off the wavelength on this one. But a quick cheat by looking only at the theme reveals lemon gave at the top of the blog got me restarted, and I was then able to finish. amazing what a few extra letters to perp with can do!

Thanks to all who have the time to make this blog such a warm and friendly place to visit. I'm afraid I am getting busier as I get older--or maybe it's that I do everything more slowly and don't have the time any more.

Enjoy this weekend, and don't forget to begin thawing the turkey!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I had a few speed bumps but finished w/o help, although I spent more time doing so than normal for a Friday. I thought the theme was a little forced as was some of the cluing and fill.

Thanks, JS, for the mental workout and thanks, Lemony, for the guided tour. Best wishes to your brother.

YR, sorry to hear that Alan is still struggling. Good luck on Tuesday.

Ferm, I hope you get well soon!

It's on the chilly side but lots of sunshine and blue skies, so no complaints.

Have a great day.

Bluehen said...

I managed to slog through this doozie, but only because I gave up early and turned on red letters. Even then, I needed a few alphabet runs to finish. I just never picked up on the constructors wavelength. Well done, Mr. Smilack, you certainly stumped me.
Very good reveal, Lemony. I'm glad you could make sense of the mishmash for me.

Liked the clue for WIZARDRY, hated the clue for UFO.

OwenKL, well done.

Cya!

TTP said...

Thank you Jascha and Lemonade.

Tough puzzle for me today. Stayed up too late watching the game, then slept restlessly, so perhaps that is why it took longer. Much, much longer. 2 hours and 11 minutes unaided. Don't know if it was the lack of sleep, but I needed coffee before I got it done and heard that melodic TADA !

Some of the clues / answers seemed forced, such as ANODAL, and for some reason I can't put my finger on, CHAP. EMILIA and PORTO were ESP.

Liked Cord for Ford and Feed not food clues.

Got PRINTER TONER first, and that pretty much confirmed that the gym's portrait artist would be SWEATER something. Up top, it took longer to get the TOASTER part.

TOES ? I wanted SPAS but EDDIE wouldn't allow it.

With the G from UGLI firmly in place, I looked at 44D 'Tongue' and started to fill in lengua.

Last Saturday ESPN Gameday was broadcast from the banks of the Brazos in WACO as the then # 6 ranked Baylor Bears prepared to take on # 12 Oklahoma Sooners. This week, # 10 ranked Baylor travels to Stillwater to play the # 4 ranked Oklahoma St Cowboys. Baylor hasn't won there since 1939. My must see game will be Ohio St and Michigan State from Columbus.

WIZARDY was staring back at me, but I could only think of Sherman T Potter and that really mean and heartless Mr Potter.

NW was once again the last to fill. Robot broke it open, and that wouldn't have happened had I not read the WIKI on RUR ahile ago. Primus and classic play gave it up. Easy from there.

oc4beach said...


Not even close to solving today's puzzle. I used Red Letter help and it still took way too long to finish. After a few run throughs, The West side of the puzzle was still blank. I had to do some alphabet runs to get started in there with BAR and BURQA.

I don't think Mr. Smilack's wavelength could have been picked up even using the SETI antennas. He was way out in space. Oh well, it was a challenge.

I hope everyone has an enjoyable day.

TJB said...

30 down is incorrect, Porto is NORTH of Lisboa not SOUTH

Anonymous said...

The 67A, 68A and 2D clues all needed "for short."

SWEATER DRAWER, TOASTER TIMER and PRINTER TONER: Lame, lamer and lamest, respectively.

Argyle said...

Unknown is correct; 30-Down is incorrect.

Yellowrocks said...

LAME and LOVELY are in the eye of the beholder. IMO, PRINTER TONER, TOASTER TIMER, and SWEATER DRAWER are lovely, lovelier and loveliest.
Unknown @ 10:27, good catch. PORTO is north. I guessed that LISBOA was another name for LISBON. Now, I know. And PORTO used to be called OPORTO.
Ferm, too bad your cold is hanging on so long. Is it keeping you from swimming?

desper-otto said...

YR, I guess that's like the opossum becoming simply a possum.

Spitzboov said...

Unknown @ 1027 is correct. I believe Porto is the main city of the district for which Port wine is named. Not that many large cities in Portugal, so the solve wasn't GUMMED up.

Challenging but fun puzzle to work on. Lots of strikethroughs, but eventually got 'er done.
Some misdirection - had hero before TEMP. Took awhile to settle on SAMUEL, but that gave me JARGON, JETS, and TUNING; great fill. Also like the Q in the BURQA / QUOTABLE cross.

Have a great day.

LACW Addict said...

I hate to sound stupid, but I do not get the clue or the answer for 10 Across.

Thank you

Lucina said...

Hello, friends!

Mr. Smilack beat me to a pulp. I could not find his wave length although the center filled easily for me. Up north, SPORE and SEVERE were my only fill for a long time. As for WIZARDRY, that would not have occurred to me in an eon. CERAMICS, however was not working so went to Google and found it. Then the entire SE opened up.

SW also came easily as SAMUEL is often read in our services.

VERB and CRAW were nicely clued.

Thank you for the intense challenge, Jascha Smilack and Lemonade for guiding us through the swamp. Prayers continued for your brother.

YR, the same for Alan, he is in my prayers.

Have a delightful day, everyone!

Husker Gary said...

I am SUBBING today and so of course I put in HERO for Sub at first. ACNE instead of CHAP was of no help either Much agreement with Lemon’s assessment.

Musings
-My web access is limited here and so brevity is required.
-BURQA fact or fiction
-A CORD for an electric FORD? Not so much
-My friend pumps out SEPTIC tanks for a living. You can guess what he calls his truck
-My daughters are good singers but their ALTO voices kept them in secondary roles in musicals. Missy was a great Ado Annie!
-Not a potter sculptor or Colonel Potter.
-JARGON = Language?
-I’ve got 23 minutes for lunch!

Lucina said...

It's been 8 years since I was last in Portugal and it was called OPORTO at the time. We toured a PORT winery as well as the vineyard. The city is, indeed, the origin of port wine.

Lucina said...

After reading a bit about the origins of PORT wine I see that there is some conflict about the exact origin. There is a district called Port and also the city of OPORTO. Both claim the origin. In Oporto we were told that was the original but perhaps not. Now I'm not sure.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

BURKA had me on the wrong track right away. Got the easternmost 2/3 before the west. Finally got a few perps and sussed QUOTABLE, which corrected BURQA.

Unlike ADAM, I resisted EVE. Thought that was too straight forward for this tricky puzzle - D'OH!

GEOL before ECOL - another stumble.

Rather an odd theme. Recast meanings for these phrases - each word ending in -ER. And only three themers. Don't recall seeing that in an LAT before.

Had to look up ROUX and EMILIA. After that, things started coming together. Make it through, but with lots of difficulty.

I still really dislike self-referential clues.

TOES

Cool regards!
JzB

Yellowrocks said...

One of my more obstreperous students grew up to work for Honey Dipper Septic Services. HG, was the truck you mentioned called the Honey Wagon?

His mother could not understand why an angel like he was caused trouble in my class. I soon learned that this angel caused just as much trouble in CCD (Catholic education) classes.

VirginiaSycamore said...

WEES,
After a couple passes I switched on the red letters and still took a while to get it.

I had BURkA before BURQA. Which can also be spelled BURKHA.(ODE. Oxford Dictionary of English on my Kindle)One BURQA story. A western woman who wore a BURQA when living in a Muslim village with her anthropologist husband realized that as she waited with a dozen women for a bus the men couldn't tell which woman was their wife.

I wasn't used to using the word CHAP as a noun. But ODE has it as a noun.

Other iffy clues: Jargon for LANGUAGE, Overhang for LEDGE.

Anyway, thank you, Lemonade for explaining all the answers to us. And I will continue to pray for you and your brother.

Live Well and Prosper
VS

Jazzbumpa said...

Now that it's been mentioned, I also don't get "Literary group?" = ARTS

Can anyone help?

I was surprised to see PORTO without the initial O.

Also had BAN before BAR, and tried LINGUA for JARGON.

Many SNAGs along the way.

Cheers!
JzB

inanehiker said...

This certainly took some time to finish - WBS about the first theme answer was "Meh" the other two were amusing. Also was slow to fill out PORTO because my husband was just in Portugal last summer after finishing the Camino De Santiago and I knew PORTO was north of Lisbon as "Unknown" has said. Had a few misdirections with CERAMICS instead of WIZARDRY and GEOL instead of ECOL for earth science, and HELOT instead of ROBOT, but corrected by perps.

Thanks to Jascha, and Lemonade!

Have a wonderful preThanksgiving weekend.
Thanks to CC and all the bloggers and contributors who add to the Crossword experience!

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Barely finished. Made a lot of improper guesses, such as Salad (fork), Shrimp, and finally Tuning. Last to fall was Do In which took waaay too long to parse. Oops.

Ol' Man Keith said...

I started with HIJAB, so it was downhill from there. After several pass-throughs and almost as many corrections I brought it around to BURKA, but it still took a while before I changed the K for a Q to finish up.

TTP said...

I didn't question Literary Group = ARTS. Perhaps I should have. Maybe groups in the library ? Nah.

True, the clue was 'Tongue' rather than 'language' but it was about language.

Most of the taquerias around here have lengua (tongue - beef tongue) on the menu boards, but I still haven't tried it. I'll stick with asada, bistec, pollo, or carnitas. That's what I meant earlier when I saw the clue 'Tongue' and the G was in the right spot.

At any rate, I took tongue to mean a specialized language, an argot, a lingo or broader, such as Ebonics, but JARGON fit well.

Before you mentioned it JzB, I don't recall ever hearing lingua, or for that matter lengua, being used to mean language, but they apparently do as well according to a quick lookup. Makes sense, and probably the same root. Learned something new today.

Time to take the boy on his mile and a half trek before the storms roll in. Probably won't be able to go tomorrow. Plus have to bring that snowblower in from the shed.

Lemonade714 said...

Fermat, my brother who is sick suggested we watch Librarians so we binge watched starting on Halloween and really enjoy the show. Will Bob Newhart and Jane Curtain reappear?

I think when you consider the college of Arts and Sciences, Literature is one of the Arts,

Jayce said...

Whew, this was too hard for me. Like several of you, I eventually had to turn on red letters. HIJAB, ACNE, OTELLO, LINGAM, EAT(ing), and HERO all lit up. No wonder I wasn't getting anywhere. I resorted to simply guessing in many cases, and got black if my guess was right. At least I knew EDDIE, OSSO, and CRAW right off the bat.
Quite few years ago I asked my friend Sherif why Moammar Gadhafi's name is spelled so inconsistently (sometimes as Qadhafi or Kaddafi, first name sometimes as Muammar). He explained that the difference between Moammar and Muammar is a matter of regional dialect. He further explained to me that in Arabic there is a distinction between a more forward in the throat "K" and the more deep back in the throat "Q", but again regional dialects pronounce it in various ways. That's why, he explained, the country of Qatar is pronounced as "Cutter" by some and by others as "Gutter." Anyway, the letter Q is used to represent the guttural, back of the throat "K" sound.

Big Easy said...

An unknown, EMELIA, in the SW slayed me this morning. I filled BATS for JETS and OTELLO and then A-MELIA. Couldn't coax DO IN or SNAG out of my brain. The rest was filled correctly with many WAGS and perps. Three mis-fills that eventually correct themselves were HERO to TEMP, TENOR to ALTOS, AND HABIB to BURQA.

The NE filled quickly and working backwards I got TOASTER TIMER and the theme. Ditto for both SWEATER DRAWER and PRINTER TONER. I had complete the entire right side and DRAWER and TONER allowed me to correctly guess SWEATER and PRINTER. WI_ARD__ had me stumped as I was thinking of somebody using clay, not magic, but my brain switched gears and it filled.

But both the clutch went out and the engine died in the SW. Maybe I'll complete the Saturday stumper.

Some different words today but I knew ARCSIN, guessed QUOTABLE, but had never heard of ANODAL.

CanadianEh! said...

Well this was a Friday workout that required returning several times to try again. Thanks Jascha and Lemonade.

I had Cosine before ARCSIN (which I don't even remember from trig), SSTs before JETS, RAJA before RANI and Burka before BURQA.
I went through every Muslim garment from hijab to niqab until the B in BAN sent me to Google who gave me Bisht. It was a long way back uphill from there. (I will not comment on the niqab controversy during our recent Canadian federal election because that would be political!). (As an aside, Lemonade's commentary has a U in Burqa on line 7). LOLOwenKL.

I did not see Chorus section as plural and happily entered Tenor which was the only section that fit. I guess a section is made up of ALTOS. V8 moment when I realized 38D was referring to Harry Potter and not a ceramic maker!
Happy to see INEPT and not ept, and our old friend ET AL. Smiled at clue for SNAG - I was held up thinking of an alphabet run.
I finally learned R.U.R. here and now I have to learn the characters!

I would have preferred any other cluing for CHAP ie. "English fellow" but it is Friday.
Have a great day.

Boo LuQuette AKA Boudreaux in Eunice, La. said...

crawfish and roux 2 favorites down here. This puzzle ate my lunch, which was chicken and sausage gumbo. Made with roux ~!~!

Unknown said...

I'm sorry but this was a horrible puzzle with bad cluing and fill that I never heard of.

CrossEyedDave said...

Definitely not the puzzle to try to do in ink...

In an effort to cheat & keep going word by word,
I tried Crossword Nexus. It helped me with the NW corner
giving me 2 exact letter count possibilities for 17A Primus or Helena
which I had to figure out. But it did not help at all with the NE corner...

I find it somewhat discouraging that I left 42A, optimist's words
with 1 correct letter, 1 wrong letter, & 2 blanks...

A solution to the toaster timer problem: The kitchen light saber...

You wont catch me anywhere near a Gym, So...

Because my Gym Trainer had the same problems with me as he did with this printer...

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Jascha made everyone of us a SWEATER before this was over, I think. But I enjoyed it. WEES! Lemon, our hero!

I got the theme on the first one and had to laugh. We went to 13 weddings in one two-year period. The drunker the TOASTER, the more he said senselessly. Needed a TIMER with a gong.

The NW was the last to fill. I had BAR & ALTOS first pass but just knew there had to be an "H" in BURQA so I kept moving it around and coming up red each time. AFOUL (tried a "W") and ROBOT were not on my radar. I got most of the NE 2/3 okay. The bottom third was easier & worked back up.

ENCASE for "preserve" took red-letter runs. AERATE = gas up? You're kidding me? And I had AER___. Tried "ine", "ene" ...

ROUe before ROUX. Tried forms of "bisque" on the Potter's wheel. QUOTABLE gave me fits even though I had TABLE a long time.

Proud to have known EMILIA, EDDIE, & SAMUEL, although I was expecting a derivitive spelling of SAM.

TTP: Beef tongue is delicious if cooked right. Since we raised beef, we got one every time we had a beef butchered. I gagged a lot the first time I opened the package. I pressure cooked it with vinegar and spices, peeled it and ground it then mixed with sweet pickle relish and mayo. Kids loved the "pickle meat" which they didn't know was tongue. I also liked it sliced and used in sandwiches, but they were too suspicious to eat it that way.

640 acres = a section = a square mile.

Warm wishes to all those ailing. I've finally stopped drowning in mucous thanks to Mucinex. My granddaughter is sick & thinks she may have mono like her best friend. Sounds like the usual holiday where we all get together & exchange germs.

Avg Joe said...

This was a struggle for me, so I feel in good company with the kvetching posted today. Most of it filled without error, but with difficulty. But the NW, just about made me give up. I only lacked the first T in toaster, but I had Burka like so many others. And with that combination, I just couldn't see quotable. When I finally did see the Q for K possibility, it fell into place. But still didn't like toaster timer much since a toaster uses a heat sensor, not a timer. Might have been a win, but it tasted like a mouth full of feathers.

Avg Joe said...

PK, hand up for enjoying tongue. Heart and liver too. The only "variety meats" I can't handle are brains and tripe.

On the section question: It depends. "Short sections" are smaller. Those result from the corrections made to account for curvature of the earth. Some are less than 320 acres, but are still technically a section. And if you really want to pick nits, surveying capabilities were imperfect at the time most sections were platted, so there's almost always some deviation, though it usually isn't greater than 43,560 square feet.

Lucina said...

How about "lingua franca" as common usage?

Tongue with green chile is delicious! Haven't had any since my mother died and I miss it. Having been raised on a ranch, she like PK, loved every part of the cow as well as the sheep.

OwenKL said...

Mars Rover

Literary Arts

Heavy Trading

AnonymousPVX said...

Got to this very late today and usually that isn't great for me. Sure enough the first pass left me thinking of Saturdays. But keeping at it and ignoring the (growing) frustration gave a couple of footholds. And then it was done. Now for the short wait until the actual Saturday.

Anonymous said...

How about bilingual?

Anonymous G

Misty said...

Well, I of course had to cheat in the end, but I still did better than expected and did enjoy this puzzle, although it took a while. I had BATS and AMILIA, but should have remembered EMILIA and that might have helped me get JARGON. But still, fun, so thanks Jascha. My prayers and best wishes for all with health problems, and my best wishes for a good weekend for everyone.

CrossEyedDave said...

Hmm, a toaster timer at weddings may be a good idea...

Light toast:

Exhibit A --- Exhibit B

Medium toast:

Exhibit A --- Exhibit B

Burnt toast:

ExhibitA --- Exhibit B


Aftermath...

SwampCat said...


Waaaay above my pay grade today. But I enjoyed the challenge. Thanks for walking us through, Lemon!

Owen. I would have laughed at your poems, but they are sooo true! One of my nits, too. Thanks for saying it so eloquently.

PK said...

AVG JOE, Somehow brains and tripe were never wrapped and hauled into my freezers. Gee, how'd I get so lucky? A farmer's wife was expected to use everything and I expected it of myself. At least we hired the butchering done. "Make it yourself, make do or do without," our mantra. I told a young woman that not long ago and she just stared at me.

I never heard of a short section or any without the 640 acres. Some of that Nebraska land is pretty rough stuff. I can see that might cause problems because of sudden changes in elevation out west. Our county has pretty uniform levels and is mostly just mildly hilly. Pretty and good farm land. I think the mapping just shows 640 acre sections in that county. At one point I was doing a lot of utility mapping for my son who was moving dirt all over the county. I also did a lot of utility mapping and did economic impact studies in an effort to prevent gov. takeover during three different projects. So I was fairly familiar with things there.

hebow44 said...

Know I'm late to the party, but so excited to have completed a Friday puzzle with no mistakes. I think it's a first. Took me all day and the NW corner was last. Still don't really get Mars rover? Thought it had something to do with the Jetson's. I got sweater drawer pretty early and thought the other long answers would have the same play on words as drawer (a person drawing) and drawer (where you keep your sweaters), but the others were more klunky and less clever. But I'm not complaining. Loved the puzzle ... just enough crosses to solve the unknowns.

Avg Joe said...

PK, nearly every county has short sections, if not all. Just like they have correction lines that are normally every 24 miles (4 twp) apart. Think about it. If the N-S roads have to jog over a couple of blocks to account for the curve of the earth, the sections are going to get squeezed E to W to account for that as well. Most counties will pick a strip of sections running N to S in a straight line and take up all that variance. Frinstance, in Lancaster County, NE, which is 24 X 36 miles, it's between 110th and 120th Street. We use 14 block miles here, just to further illustrate the point. On the S edge of the county those sections are roughly 5,200 feet wide, but 36 miles N on the Northern edge, they are under 2,600 feet. I'm playing fast and loose with the dimensions here, but you get the idea.

If you have a good plat book, or a county engineers map (and I would bet you do), take a look at all sections in the county. Look for the N-S line of skinny ones and you'll see what I mean. You've obviously never owned land in that narrow strip, but they are there. I'll try to find something linkable tomorrow that shows it graphically. But for tonight, it's my bedtime.

Bill G. said...

I like most anything that other people think is good to eat. I like calves liver and chicken livers cooked a little on the rare side. My parents ate brains for breakfast a few times with their scrambled eggs. I don't think I ever tried them but I would now if given the opportunity. Years ago Barbara and I went out to a nice and expensive French restaurant. We had sweetbreads and I thought they were very good. I can't remember having tongue. I've had tripe just once in a Mexican dish (soup?) called menudo. I liked it pretty well. I can't remember ever having chitlins (chitterlings).

Anonymous T said...

Hi Puzzle Pals!

Late today 'cuz 1) the puzzle was a bugger and I didn't want to give up 2) Eldest & I went shopping for materials...

A tale of two puzzles here. Everything right of 6d is filled, the west side is a mess of wrong answers. I blame the ENbAlm'er. Major DNF.

Fills - 16a rash (later, bzzt), SESS, TESLA, EDDIE, ANODAL, ARCSIN, and then filled the Eat from there. I didn't get a single theme answer. I had PRINTER hONER, StEAmERDRAWER and T--STER TIMER. It's just UGLI.

To ADD insult TO injury, ENbAlm gave be bRAt for CRAW fish, and I loves me them little mudbugs. Oh, well. Thanks Mr. Smilack. Thanks you Lem for stopping the HOURS of pain.

For the record, NW was blank until MIL filled me in on "spelled w/ a Q." I wanted hijab or BURkA, but no crosses-cooperation. MIL finished w/ only 1 lookup. Ptui. :-)

Sounds like many of us had the same errors; BAn, baTS, hEro...

Fav - 38d for the Potter misdirection. The V-8 whack actually made me smile.

OKL - The muse is strong today. Very funny.

Ave Joe & PK - If it isn't pretty at the store, I don't eat that part of the cow. I admire that you know what to do with a whole animal.

Tomorrow Eldest & I are building a trebuchet for her physics class w/ the materials we gathered. HG, Bill G, ETAL, any hints (esp. don'ts)? I've read instructions for various designs on the Internet but still don't know if I should use a sling or a cup (like a catapult uses). Goal: ping-pong ball 30' into a gallon bucket for full marks.

Cheers, -T

OwenKL said...

CED: Atheist Toast

Anonymous T said...

Doh! And a TOAST to CED... I needed that smile. Cheers, -T

Yellowrocks said...

How did the electric toaster get in here? The best man is the toaster who needs to be timed or even gonged (PK) as I thought immediately. See my noon time post. CED, I liked the way you capitalized on the two kinds of toaster.

Bill G. said...

AnonT, did you mean a golf ball instead of a ping-pong ball? I can't imagine flinging a ping-pong ball 30 feet. Too much air friction. I've never built one so I don't have any hints. What's your power source? Good luck. It sounds like a fun project to do with your daughter.

Anonymous T said...

Bill G. Nope the rubric clearly states a ping-pong ball. Power is a counter-weight on the other end of the fulcrum... Here's one design I've already over-re-engineered. I've decided to build one machine w/ every option available to the operator! :-) Slings, buckets, adjustable fulcrum & wts, aiming mech., etc. :-) Cheers, -T

Bill G. said...

It sounds like an enjoyable challenge. Two thoughts; One, try throwing a ping-pong ball 30 feet. It's not easy. Second, will there be enough of this project for your daughter to get her hands dirty too? It sounds as if you're already having a lot of fun with it. Keep us informed of your progress...

Anonymous T said...

Bill G. Oh, she's getting her hands dirty alright. I've had her work out the force & velocity, distance v. angle of release calculations, draw up sketches, etc. Tomorrow she works the drill and saw (and maybe my nail gun). I just stand back and let her learn (unless danger lurks w/ fingers & saw).

Me? I'm just thinking about when the theoretical collides w/ reality. We have 3x the materials we need, just in case... (and then we build my castle-stormer, buahahahaahah - The fiefdom is mine!)

BTW, did you ever get emojis to display?

Cheers, -T

loulujane said...

Porto is NORTH of Lisboa. Did anyone notice the error?

Anonymous T said...

loulujns; I didn't 'cuz I didn't know better (I had Pompei?) . However, anon @10:27a mentioned it and Argyle confirmed at 11:44a. The talk about Port, learned me something.

C. Moe / anyone, did you get a bottle of Georges D's Beaujolais Nouveau? I've got 2 for Thursday's feast. If you've uncorked it, how is it?

Well, I've x-ed everything from my list except for a good laugh w/ CICGC (Seinfeld).

That's 5, -T Out. Cheers.

Bill G. said...

I agree with the Porto error. I've been to Portugal.

AnonT, no, no Emojis, on Safari or Chrome.

Lemonade714 said...

HEBOW44 congratulations.

It is always interesting to see what people at the Corner know about various topics and the Section Acre discussion affirmed the diverse knowledge here. Thank you all and not a single comment on the pangram

hebow44 said...

Thanks Lemonade. And now I know what a pangram is ... though spellcheck doesn't like it.