google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, November 6, 2015, Victor Barocas

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Nov 6, 2015

Friday, November 6, 2015, Victor Barocas

Theme: Letter rip.

For those of you who do not like creative and difficult puzzles, this effort from University of Minnesota Professor Victor B. will not be pleasant. When you have clues such as AAEGIMRR, there are those who will pull out Thumper and move on. You have to assume the reveal is also the seed entry as the grid is a 16x15 presentation.  Basically you are doing a big JUMBLE where you have to unscramble the clue and fit it with a word meaning to unscramble. Or looking at from the reveal, you take a word and or phrase and list the letters alphabetically. The challenge was  to create four interesting 16 letter theme fill. Some will grouse because two answers are two words and one only a single word, but I had fun as this took me longer than most Fridays to suss. With 16 columns you have room for lots of sparkly fill. I loved EVANDER, INHALER, DAY TRIPPER,  STAY ON HOLD and the three Bs BANISHED, BEEFCAKE and BEREAVED. We also had the challenging GALENA and SHARIA. Okay, let's hop on the solving train.

18A. AAEGIMRR : ARRANGEMARRIAGE (16). The word marriage is taken apart and re-imagined with its letters presented alphabetically.

28A. AACDEINNV : ORDERED IN ADVANCE (16).

47A. ADEHLNRTUY : SORTED THE LAUNDRY (16).

and the reveal:
62A. ILST ... and each of three other puzzle clues : ALPHABETIZED LIST (16).


Across

1. They're bought and soled : SHOES. Victor has had some very fun pun puzzles in the NYT. Those of us who also toiled away at the puns and anagram puzzles were prepared for today.

6. Educational foundation : ABCS.

10. Lowest part : BASSO.

15. Make like a tree, facetiously : LEAVE. More silliness.

16. "Uh-huh" : YEAH.

17. Butyl acetate, e.g. : ESTER. He is after all a professor in Biomedical engineering.

21. Balkan region : BOSNIA. We Americans are so weak in Geography, as seen nightly on Jeopardy.

22. Wild period : SPREE.

23. Edible tuber : YAM. Gotta love a good tuber. Can you name an inedible tuber?

24. __ Plantation, site of the world's largest maze : DOLE. A Pineapple Garden Maze in Hawaii.

26. Sun Valley locale : IDAHO. More potatoes.

35. Sea sound : ROAR.

36. One of Suetonius' "Twelve Caesars" : NERO. I do love this HISTORY.

37. Actor Hawke : ETHAN.

38. Youngest March sister : AMY. Little Women.

39. Sent away : BANISHED.

42. Make a selection : OPT.

43. "I've got this one" : LET ME.

45. Wax on an envelope, say : SEAL.

46. Robert of "The Sopranos" : ILER. The misunderstood SON.

51. Structural opening? : INFRA. Infrastructural.

52. Angler's prize : FISH. We had a discussion of the word angler recently.

53. Lack of continuity : GAP.

55. Old painting sites : CAVES. Nice clue.

58. More pinlike? : NEATER. Neater than a pin; does it mean orderly or shiny?

65. Not hold one's peace : SPEAK. Nearby the opposite 67A. Of few words : TERSE.

66. Domain : RULE.

68. Game that may involve complicated shots : HORSE.

69. Mediterranean feeder : NILE.

70. Three-layer treats : OREOS. Clue 900 for this cookie.

Down

1. Thick mass : SLAB. Of meat?

2. Rescuer, often : HERO.

3. Marine propulsion aids : OARS. Nice visual.

4. Heavyweight champ between Buster and Riddick : EVANDER. Holyfield in between Douglas and Bowe.  he had his ear then.

5. __ citizen : SENIOR. We had a luncheon at the office to meet a new lawyer joining the firm and of the 30 people there I was clearly the oldest.

6. Mate's affirmative : AYE. Aye, Aye.

7. Garden spots : BEDS. Cute.

8. Like-minded group : CAMP. Tricky, I am in the puzzle lover camp.

9. Islamic law : SHARIA. Do want to know MORE?

10. Mourning : BEREAVED.

11. "Take me __ am" : AS I.

12. Wait for help, perhaps too long : STAY ON HOLD. I really like this fill and hate staying on hold.

13. Genesis creator : SEGA. Video games.

14. Home of Utah Valley University : OREM.

19. Lead ore : GALENA. Time to LEARN.

20. Comedian Foxx : REDD. Do you want to LISTEN? Not PG rated.

25. First place? : EDEN. Really nice misdirection.

27. Porkpie, for one : HAT.
28. Advanced tests : ORALS.

29. "What light through yonder window breaks?" speaker : ROMEO.Tis Juliet and our Friday William S.

30. Other side of "We Can Work It Out" : DAY TRIPPER.

31. Like Jameson whiskey : IRISH. The favorite of Father Blackie Ryan.

32. Long time ending? : NO SEE. Or as some say, "It's been donkey years."

33. Heist, say : CAPER.

34. Contest form : ENTRY. PCH has gotten my wife hooked.

39. "Magic Mike" feature : BEEFCAKE. The TRAILER. (2:29)

40. " ... on the sand, / __ sunk, a shattered visage lies": "Ozymandias" : HALF. Inspired by the discovery of a huge remnant of a statute to Ramses II, Shelley wrote this poem which begins:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown...

41. Paige of British musical theatre : ELAINE. I am unfamiliar with this STAR.

44. Map feature with an elev. : MTN. Mountain, the elev. tells you it is an abbreviation.

46. Asthma sufferer's relief : INHALER.

48. Boring : DRAB.

49. Ale seller : TAVERN. Will Tin is happy.

50. No longer bothered by : USED TO.

53. Severe wound : GASH.

54. Dinner for Spot : ALPO.

56. Little case : ETUI.

57. Window frame part : SILL. Or sash.

59. Weary : TIRE. Verb not adjective.


60. Canadian gas brand : ESSO. Part of the Exxon Mobil family and the brand I grew up with.

61. GPS info : RTES.

63. Is down with : HAS.

64. Zipper opening? : ZEE. Well Z is an appropriate place to end a puzzle.

A shorter version, but my remaining brother is in the hospital so you all get to fill in the rest of the blanks I never got to say. Thanks Victor. Lemonade out.

52 comments:

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks, Victor, for a real challenge! Took a while, but I finally prevailed.

Thanks Lemonade for nice expo!

Got to swim, finally, today after a long hiatus due to awful cold. Still have problems with chest cough though.

I hear the Brits have cancelled New Tricks after several years. Too bad. (It has older people, so I really like it.)

Really enjoy The Librarians. Especially John Larroquette.

Cheers!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Got through this on in one piece, but it tool awhile and was touch and go there for a bit.

The theme clues were impenetrable until I finally got down to the theme reveal, and by then I was mostly able to guess at the theme answers based solely on the letters filled in by the perps. But it was nice to actually figure out the theme and understand what was going on.

In addition to the wacky theme clues, I really tripped on some of the obscure stuff in the grid such as DOLE, HALF (as clued), ELAINE, etc. Fortunately, I've been to both OREM and IDAHO, so those were easy to get from the clues. And it was nice to see BASSO for a change instead of ALTO, which is typically the only voice part ever mentioned in crossword puzzles. I am the BASSO profundo in my local choir...

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Once I saw the tricky theme clues I was sure we were in for a challenge, and sure enough it was. Quite a few unknowns had to be worked through. Tried Hoops before Horse, and took a wild guess at Edwina before Elaine showed up. It happens that Alphabetized List was the first theme answer to fill in, and from that clue, the rest unraveled fairly quickly.

OwenKL said...

The typical cave-man, as NEAT as a pin,
His CAVE didn't look at all lived in!
His wife could sob,
The apish slob --
Outside of his man-cave, house-cleaning's a sin!

Fermat' : My LW is a librarian, so I got her to watch The Librarians with me a time or two, but not her type of show. I was amazed by its similarity to Warehouse 13!

Sherlock, Death in Paradise, New Tricks, and a dozen other BBC mysteries all share just two one-hour slots on the local PBS station per week, so I don't get much chance to see them. I think I've seen 3 episodes of NT, and that's likely all I'll ever see.

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. Well this puzzle certainly started on the right foot with SHOES in the 1-Across spot! I just loved, loved, loved this puzzle! It was fun figuring out the rearranged letters.

Lots of fun puns and misdirections. I confidently wrote in Nadir for the lowest part. Oh, we were looking for the lowest part in a musical sense ~ BASSO.

I wasn't fooled by First Place ~ EDEN, although it was fun to also see Genesis Creator = SEGA in the same puzzle.

Old Painting Sites = CAVES made me laugh. It reminded me of the Lascaux caves in France. Years ago when my husband and I lived in France, we went to see these caves. There was both a French tour and an English tour. We opted for the English tour. It turns out, all that meant was the tour was for a group of English-speaking visitors. The guide still spoke French! My husband and I ended up being translators for most of the others on our tour!

QOD: I have always believed that 98% of a student’s progress is due to his own efforts, and 2% to his teacher. ~ John Philip Sousa (Nov. 6, 1854 ~ March 9, 1932)

Big Easy said...

Lemonade- I found this one easier than most Fridays. Any English speaking person could see that the clue for 18A had something to do with ABCS. And after solving 53D & 54D guessing either ALPHABETICAL or ALPHABETIZED LIST was easy.

If only 6A could have been 1A the puzzle would have started with ABC and ended with ZEE. Porkpie- HAT, Magic Mike- BEEFCAKE, and ELAINE Paige we the only unknowns for me today.

STAY ON HOLD- that's why I always use the speakerphone feature on the telephone or use Google Talk on gmail and talk using a computer. It's hard to hold newer telephones on your shoulder with using your hands.

DOLE- when I visited the Dole Plantation (1996) I was informed that they would stop growing pineapples in Hawaii because it was too expensive. Moved operations to Central America.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

I really liked this one. Thanks, Victor. I'll bet Jerome likes it, as well -- right up his YA ELL. Not familiar with "Magic Mike," so I wound up staring at BEE F_AKE (Flake?) until I finally snapped that it was BEEF _AKE. No prob.

GALENA was a gimme. There's a town named for the ore on the Wisconsin/Illinois border quite near the Mississippi River. Even 50 years ago the downtown was mostly deserted and the storefronts that were open were selling "antiques" -- i.e. old junk.

Hahtoolah, hand up for Nadir. And your tour group story was hilarious. Only in France...

Lemonade714 said...

Big Easy, I did not mean to SAY the puzzle was especially difficult. I was suggesting that some might see the clue AAEGIMRR AND STOP RIGHT THERE. The overall cluing was challenging for me but not impossible.

HowardW said...

Loved this puzzle with anagrams. Like Big Easy, solved faster than usual for a Friday. Only unknowns were ELAINE Paige, Robert ILER, "Magic Mike", and the DOLE maze, although it took quite a few perps to release EVANDER Holyfield from the mental filing cabinet. Favorite clues (beside the theme) were 1A & 15A, easy enough to guess and provided a chuckle as well. I well remember "Ozymandias" from high school and still think of it when I hear hubris.

What Big Easy said about ABCS and ZEE for a puzzle with an alphabetization theme. (Of course, that should be ZED for some of the visitors here.)

Thanks Victor and Lemonade!

thehondohurricane said...


Can't say I loved this puzzle, but I found it doable once the jumbled clues were figured out. Many of the vague clues were in my wheelhouse. It will likely be some time before another Friday solve arrives in this neck of the woods.

ELAINE Paige was a gimme. I have bookmarked Susan Boyle's debut on Britain's Got Talent. When asked who she wanted to sing like she named Ms Paige. The moderator's and audience smirked until she began to sing. The lady has a beautiful voice.

Lots of learning moments today; Porkpie is a HAT, thought ILER was Ilia (thanks perps), DAY TRIPPER is a song.

Tried Offered before ORDERED ......

Always keep a bottle of Jameson's on hand for special moments. Smooth booze. My special moments are usually a couple bottles annually. St Pats day usually puts a good dent into the bottle.

Area artists are having an open studio Sunday so I'm the "traffic cop" for Lucy. I hope it goes well because she has put a lot of work into the preparation.

Jerome said...

desper- otto... yup, thought the puzzle was very clever on many levels... ARRANGED, SORTED, ORDERED, and ALPHABETIZED all having the same sense. All ending in -ED. All themers 15 letters long. The anagrams all organized in the order of their appearance in the alphabet.

Ugly and not clever at all-

My friend owns a dive bar. I call it Carl's bad TAVERN

"Where do you put your needles, Caesar?"
"My ETUI, Brute"

Avg Joe said...

Fun outing. Lot's of crunchiness and no real dreck. Figured out the theme early, but solved the spanners in turn as I went. Hand up for wanting Nadir, but held off with no proof. Also liked the story of the English-French tour, Hahtoolah.

Thanks for the write up, Lemon. Hope your brother is OK.

Yellowrocks said...

I loved this puzzle when I figured out what was going on. I sussed ARRANGED, ORDERED, SORTED and ALPHABETIZED early on. Then I got LIST and saw what was happening. Soon I was able to complete the theme answers using the clue letters.
Fermatprime, I am glad you are well enough to swim now. I wish you continuing recovery.
The neurologist suggested waiting to repair Alan's very painful herniated cervical disc. We will try a pain management doctor in the meantime. Alan still has the severe headaches, too.

TTP said...


Thank you Victor and Lemonade.

Daily Jumble solvers may have had an advantage with Victor's nacreito. YEAH, I aced this test, but it took more time and concentration than usual.

My assessment ? This puzzle required your thinking cap. YMMV, but it did for me. Generally clever cluing through out. Bought and soled, Like-minded group, Old painting sites, More pinlike, Wild period, Not hold one's peace. Loved 'em all.

ARRANGED MARRIAGE broke the ETUI open on this one.

Didn't know Utah U home, but know that OREM is a frequently used Utah place name. NO SEE was fun to solve. Just as easily could have been Serbia, but that wouldn't work in this puzzle. Tried to fit in Can't Buy Me Love at first.

Unknowns like AMY, ELAINE and others perped in.

Nailed HORSE, and "complicated shots" gave it away. How about "On the baseline, up and over the backboard ?" That was usually good for a letter.

Canadian Eh is too smart to not know ZEE rather than ZED.

kazie said...

i actually got the anagrams and then worked backwards to complete the beginnings of each phrase, but then I think my brain was so fried I got stuck in the mid south: I've never seen Magic Mike, had no idea of what it was, so BEEFCAKE never emerged, with no FC in the middle. I tried MUSEA instead of CAVES, thinking it was an "old" use of the Latin plural of the word museum. Needless to say I never thought of TAVERN either. Also gave up on NILE, thinking only of the north shore of the Mediterranean.

However, getting all the anagrams and knowing all the names except EVANDER made my day!

Lemonade, Hope your brother recovers quickly.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle; it was fresh and clever and, while challenging, quite doable. I put Meg before Amy and needed perps for Elaine and some others but, overall, it was smooth sailing.

Thanks, Mr. B., for a Friday treat and thanks, Lemony, for the sparkling summary. Get well wishes to your brother.

Ferm, glad to hear you're feeling better and back swimming.

YR, I hope Alan gets some relief from his pain.

Have a great day.

Husker Gary said...

Some puzzles just dazzle me with their construction and this is one of them. Those of you who are better at the Jumble than I am probably got it faster but I still had a good time!

Musings
-Lemon’s and Jerome’s assessments work for me
-You have to SORT LAUNDRY?
-Voice range of a BASSO Profundo
-Hilarious variation of ”Make Like a Tree…” (:22)
-DOLE, et tal, was infamous for the Bayonet Constitution that deposed King Kalakaua
-Is Napoleon the most famous person to be BANSIHED?
-I OPTED to sub today on what looks be a good day for, well, you know
-Some college degrees leave a GAP between attainment and employment
-Everyone Loves Raymond fans remember the hilarious scene where Marie SPEAKS and does not hold her peace
-Ultimate game of HORSE (1:00)
-On HOLD
-Some of REDD’s old material is now standard fare for primetime TV
-AB, AB, AB, AB, AB – Long time NO C.
-Reading OZYMANDIUS in high school was a watershed moment for me
-Do you know the movie with these ABC’s?

Lucina said...

Hello, friends!

What a wonderful puzzle! I love a puzzle that forces me to think outside the box and this one did! Thank you Victor Barocas!

I was on VB's wave length immediately and hardly paused. Ditto for MEG before AMY and since I didn't see Magic Mike took a while for BEEFCAKE to appear. SASH was my first window part but SILL soon became obvious. ELAINE filled easily though unfamiliar to me. Thanks for the links.

ETUI is an old friend from the past.

Thank you, Lemonade, for your superb contribution today. Prayers for your brother's recovery. Ferm, I'm glad you are doing better and YR, constant prayers for Alan.

BigEasy:
That's what I heard, too, about the DOLE plantation because it was becoming too expensive to maintain.

I'm off to the dentist!

Have a ahppy ady, everyone!

VirginiaSycamore said...

Wow, what a puzzle.
Thanks Victor for the puzzle.
Lemonade, I will pray for your brother.

I really liked the colored letters to show the scramble.
When I saw the theme clues I thought, "I better get a lot of downs."
The south downs gave enough to get ALPHABETIZED LIST which helped a lot. The presence of THE and IN in the answers prevented just unscrambling the clues.

I knew EVANDER only because his named was mentioned on a radio station this morning because he was giving an interview for "Chasing Tyson." I tried to find out more to put a link up but no luck.

When I was a little kid, we found a record in my Uncle's basement wet bar and heard the blue material of REDD Foxx. Wow, not like Fred Sanford at all!

Anyway, I got through with perps. Last to fall were NOSEE, HORSE and RULE.

VS

Anonymous said...

Where to send a check to support this forum?

C6D6 Peg said...

Thanks, Victor, for a great puzzle. The non-theme clues helped fill in a lot of the entries, and ARRANGED MARRIAGE was the first to fall, which helped on the others. Very ingenious!

Thanks, Lemonade, for your great write-up. Loved the Dole Plantation Maze, pic.

Have a great weekend, all!

Lemonade714 said...

Anon 10:40; on the right side of the Corner there is a donate link that also links to where to mail a check. It is great to support the Corner because there are expenses incurred by C.C. to provide the bloggers extra tools to do the write ups. Thank you

Lemonade714 said...

Goerge Barany; where are you?

Anonymous said...

I love this site. Very informative information. As to 5 down comment, are you a lawyer? In which state? I practice in Ohio.

Donna

Misty said...

I almost didn't start this puzzle when I saw the weird capital letter theme clues. But I'm so glad I did because even though I never "got" the theme, the perps helped fill it all in, and in the end I got the WHOLE THING! A Friday puzzle, and I got it. Woohoo! Many thanks, Victor, and Lemonade, thanks for posting that amazing DOLE maze picture. Also for giving us the Shelley poem.

Yellowrocks, hope Alan's pain gets better and that he has a good weekend.

Fermatprime, so glad you're recovering.

I'm hosting our annual Gourmet Club potluck tonight, something we'd been doing every year since Rowland's stroke. It'll be my first "party" of sorts since losing Rowland in July, and I guess it means I'm able to start moving on. Just wish he could still be there with us.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Lemonade714 said...

Anon at 11:13, I am no longer admitted to the bar in any state as I had some difficulty in the late 80's when working with a savings and loan. I will be happy to detail that if you wish more information. In the interim, I have been an assistant to many lawyers over the past 15 years or so and recently began working for a large firm in that capacity. I live and work in Florida having moved here to attend Law School at U. of Florida in 1971.

I have updated my profile picture with one from Charlotte's third birthday luncheon. She has her big party Sunday. I also will post more Harper Mae pics as they become available.

Nice Cuppa said...

VICTOR LUDORUM!

Now that's what I call a Friday Puzzle. Clever, novel, with a minimum of obscure names, even some SCIENCE (GALENA, ESTER, Bring 'em on!)! Being raised as a CRYPTIC crossword solver, the theme was straightforward, but still fun.

Nice to see our old friend, ETUI again I hope I alerted you yesterday to the BEATLES, in order to answer 30D. I knew ELAINE PAIGE, but had no idea what she looked like.

INFRASTRUCTURE Is a common word, but INFRASTRUCTURAL? – legit. but rare.

My only roadblocks were writing in (me too) NADIR; STEROID (rather than INHALER); and INURED (rather than USED TO), but then realized the crossing letters were not in the Anagram. And since we had SPOT being asked to SPEAK the other day, I was looking for something less obvious that ALPO (although it did cross).

Rich, invite Victor more often.

Bill G. said...

That was fun; tricky and fun. It's always more fun when one can figure out the trickery, right?

Thanks Victor and Lemon.

Fermatprime, I hope things improve. Lemon, good thoughts for your brother and you. YR, best wishes for Alan. I hope everyone else's health issues improve. We need and deserve it.

I just came across a little bit of what has to be one of the worst Bond movies of all time; "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" with George Lazenby as Bond and Telly Sevalas as the villain. BUT, it made up for its shortcomings by having Diana Rigg. Boy, is she appealing! I wonder what she was like in real life?

Ol' Man Keith said...

It took a couple of lookups and one error (three mistakes) to finish today's entry. I caught onto the jumble after finishing 18A.

CAMP was one I missed (I had SAME). I didn't understand NO SEE until reading Lemonade's exegesis - and even then I had to sound it out.

Sometimes when I think of the various kinds of mental leaps we make when solving these pzls, I realize all over WHY the Brits included Xwders among their Bletchley Park lot!

Big Easy said...

If 'Z' were pronounced ZED in the USA it would not rhyme with 'V' and children couldn't learn the alphabet singing to the melody of 'Twinkle, Twinkle little star'.

Q,R,S,T,U & V, W,X,Y & "ZED"- it would need a new tune.

Steve said...

LOVED this puzzle. Thanks for the mental workout, Victor, and the expo, Lemonade.

To Irish Miss yesterday - spam musubi is a Hawaiian concoction (the Hawaiians eat more Spam per capita than any other state). Basically, you marinate slices of Spam in soy sauce and sugar, fry them until brown and caramelized, sandwich them between two rectangles of sushi rice and wrap them with nori.

I eat them dunked in hot mustard. Food!

Here's a link if you want to see the process and the end result

Anonymous said...

For Desper-otto:

Galena has turned into a major tourist attraction, with wineries, specialty shops, ghost tours, great restaurants, art fairs, skiing, etc. It has definitely changed over the past 50 years!

Anonymous G

Unknown said...

Fun puzzle but a little too easy for a Friday. Saturday will probably be a killer.

Jayce said...

I concur with Hahtoolah: I loved this puzzle. I concur with TTP: This puzzle required your thinking cap. When I saw the all-caps clues I said to myself, "Self, don't despair; don't worry about them now. You'll eventually figure them out." And I did, the journey being extremely satisfying. Bravo, Mr. Barocas!

I knew Elaine Paige right away, having seen her performance in Cats and seeing her on television singing Don't Cry For Me, Argentina.

GALENA brought back fond memories of my living in Sturgis for 6 years of my childhood.

Hand up for entering NADIR at first.

Excellent write-up, Jason!

desper-otto said...

Anon-G, thanks for the update on GALENA.

Freond said...

My experience today was a lot like Big Easy's. Took me 26 minutes, which is on the quick side for a Friday. There were enough easy fills that the hard ones had enough perps filled in to work with. I too got a few of the main themes from perps, and then the theme clue came easily from that, although I started with ALPHABET-ICAL and had to change it to -IZED. Quite an enjoyable puzzle today.

Hungry Mother said...

I just used the synonyms for sorted and never looked at the strings of letters. Very simple, not my usual Friday struggle.

CanadianEh! said...

I smiled from the very first clues for SHOES and LEAVE today. Thanks Victor and Lemonade for the fun.

I had Dead before DRAB, Sash before SILL, and Stay on Hand before STAY ON HOLD.
I'm not familiar with the term PORK Pie HAT but perps to the rescue.

ETUI is another word that I learned long ago doing crosswords.

When are you a SENIOR? Some places start their discounts at age 55, some 60, but most commonly 65.

NILE divides into Blue and White branches I learned when in Africa.

LOL re ZED, Howard and Big Easy!
This Canadian says ZEE (except in the ABC song!)
Zee vs. Zed

Thoughts and prayers for all those who are ailing.

Anonymous said...

I don't understand: in the explanation of the theme, why are some letters in "ARRANGED" different colors? Did I miss something?

OwenKL said...

Fun theme and easy puzzle for me today, only took a couple of passes, unlike yesterday's which was a DNF that left me somewhat less than normally gruntled.

TTP: caught your chaotic creation. And yours, too, aciLnu.

Jerome: I didn't even notice the bonus entries ABCS & ZEE, let alone that ARRANGED, ORDERED, SORTED were in alphabetical order! You are very perceptive!

I know ETUI only from crosswords, and haven't seen it lately, so my confused memory started it out as PTUI.

OZYMANDIUS is a favorite because I learned it as a song. Filk I think, though I was a fan of The Three D's, and they did a lot of classic poems to music.

Manac said...

Hello everyone.
Hand up for Nadir at first but I thought the
rest of the puzzle was fairly easy for Friday.

Nice write up Lemon.

5D Senior citizen Reminded me of this Elderly Banking ( a little long but worth the read).

And what is a trip to the corner without saying hi to CED

Lemonade714 said...

MANAC good to see you . You and CED always bring color to this world.

Irish Miss said...

Steve @ 12:23 - Thanks for the info and link on Spam musubi; I'd certainly try it. (I don't think I've had Spam since I was a child.)

Lemony, that picture of Charlotte brightened my day! ☺️

OwenKL said...

I've been suffering memory loss and loss of concentration recently, almost, but not quite, like mild Alzheimer's. Now I don't think I'm on my way to dementia (at least, no more so than we all are), but I've often read "...Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia..." and began wondering what other causes there could be. So last week I googled to find out. The one of them that seemed most possible for me was Lewy bodies.
Robin Williams' suicide shocked me. It seemed he was still in his prime, and it seemed such a shame for such a healthy, successful, and beloved actor to go that way. Then this week, we find that he wasn't healthy at all, but was already well on the way to the living death of dementia. Lewy body dementia. Given that, his death seems much less puzzling or painful. Not senseless tragedy, but releasing euthanasia.

Bill G. said...

Manac, I really enjoyed your Elderly Banking letter. Thanks for that. Well, all of your other posts too for that matter...

SwampCat said...

Owen, memory loss can come from many things. Don't jump to conclusions! Hang in there!

Puzzle was interesting and ultimately doable, but lots of work. Lemon, your observations were spot on!! You are a treasure! Thanks to all.

Hawaiians and span have a long history dating from WWII when it was what they had to eat. They have been very creative in using it!! I haven't had musubi but it sounds intriguing!

Ozymandius was a favorite of mine, too.

VirginiaSycamore said...

Anonymous @3:42, if you check, you will see that the color of the letters in the clue match those in the answer so you can trace where each letter went. Just an educational aid.

Manac, I LOVED the Elderly Letter to her Bank. There are a couple of banks around that have "1 day grace" so that if you miss by 1 day and make it up you are ok. I also loved the little song after it.

The little video of the dog and cat, which I assume was a repeat loop, as I don't think the cat would stay there forever, was a scream also.

I will always remember the last line of the lady's letter to the bank:"And remember:
Don’t make old people mad.
We don’t like being old in the first place, so it doesn’t take much to piss us off."

VS

VirginiaSycamore said...

Anonymous at 3:42, I goofed.
Yes, you are right, ARRANGED should be black ink since that word is not in the scrambled clue. The other theme answers are done correctly.
But, as his brother is in the hospital, Lemonade probably didn't have time to proof read his post.

VS

TTP said...

Hi all. Thanks Owen, and good read on that link to Lewy bodies.

Manac, that was a funny gif.

VS and others (especially Jerome), if you haven't already, have fun with David Diebold's Apt Anagrams. I think you'll have fun with it.

Good night all.

Bill G. said...

That new contestant on Jeopardy certainly has an unusual speech pattern. It sounds affected but maybe not.

Anonymous T said...

Hi all!

Very late, I fell asleep and just got up and finished reading the comments. FIW w/ 2 bad sqauares over 3 hours of solve. But boy was it fun. Thanks Victor and Lem. Fav 5d 'cuz it made me think of BTTF (thanks HG). T-20 min for Sat's puzzle to drop. Cheers, -T

Anonymous said...

Where would crossword constructors be withou OREOS?