google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, November 18, 2015 Gary J. Whitehead

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Nov 18, 2015

Wednesday, November 18, 2015 Gary J. Whitehead

Theme: A HISSY FIT BY ANY OTHER NAME.


17. Lose it : HAVE A CONNIPTION.   Equivalent slang expression.


24. Lose it : HIT THE CEILING.    Equivalent slang expression.


35. Lose it : GO APE.   Equivalent slang expression.


41. Lose it : THROW A TANTRUM.  Equivalent slang expression.



55. Lose it : FLY OFF THE HANDLE.   Equivalent slang expression.


Hi gang, JazzBumpa here, having way too much fun with this one.  Lots of anger in this theme.  Let's see if we can stay on an even keel.

Across

1. Home of the Nobel Peace Center : OSLO.  Norway, of course.

5. Loafed : IDLED.

10. Wharf : QUAY.  A wharf may be built along the shore or projecting into the water.  A QUAY is a structure built along the shore parallel to the water's edge.

14. Scandinavian royal name : OLAV.  Back to Norway.

15. Black, in Bordeaux : NOIRE.  Simply the French word for black.  Let's put it in context.


16. Johnson of "Laugh-In" : ARTE.


20. Takes advantage of a cloudless night : STAR GAZES.

21. Grating sounds : RASPS.

22. "Oui, oui," across the Pyrenees : SI SI.   From France to Spain - yes, yes?  And a homophonic call out to our fearless leader.

23. 1-Across locale: Abbr. : NORway, for the trifecta.

30. Kentucky college or its city : BEREA.   

31. Cod cousin : HAKE.   Something fishy here.

32. __ gratia artis: MGM motto : ARS.  Art for art's sake.  Latin, 'cuz who knows why?

34. Spot in the control tower : BLIP.   This is a spot on the radar screen in the control tower.  Not so much a misdirect as unanticipated specificity.

37. Twosomes : DUOS.  Some are dynamic.


38. Brillo competitor : SOS.  Scrubbing pads.

39. Alert : WARN.

40. Packers quarterback Rodgers : AARON.   Superstar QB who is having a sub-par year.  The woeful Lions managed to eke out a nail-biting, unimpressive victory in Green Bay on Sunday, the first such win since 1991.  

45. NASA affirmative : A-OK.   All systems are go.

46. Big name in speakers : BOSE.

47. Prophetess : SIBYL.  An oracle influenced by divine inspiration.



50. Works like a demon : POSSESSES.  If you accept that demon POSSESSION is a thing.  But still, it's not a demon's work, it's what it does for fun.

57. Lowly worker : PEON.  The modern meaning.  Historically, PEONAGE was involuntary servitude imposed on native populations by Spanish conquistadors.   Nasty business.

58. True-crime author Dominick : DUNNE.   If I have this right, he is also the father of actress Dominque Dunne who was tragically murdered at age 22 by her ex-boyfriend.

59. Wine barrel sources : OAKS.   Strictly speaking, the source would be a COOPERAGE, OAKS provide the raw material.

60. Applies gently : DABS.  As with a cotton ball.

61. Hilarious types : RIOTS.  Funny people

62. Bout enders, briefly : TKOs.  In boxing, Technical Knock Outs occur when the officials determine that one contestant is physically unable to continue, or is in danger of serious injury if the match continues.

Down

1. Sounds of amazement : OOHS.  Often accompanied by aahs.  At any rate, there were many of these in Detroit on Sunday.

2. Blind part : SLAT.

3. Basalt source : LAVA.  Basalt is a form of igneous [derived from ignus, the Latin word for fire] rock, formed by the cooling of LAVA or magma.

4. Exceed, as one's authority : OVERSTEP.

5. One way to pay : IN CASH.  I'll give you credit for cashing in here.

6. Humdinger : DOOZIE.   Something special, unique or outstanding.  DOOZY is the preferred spelling.  I thought the referent was the Duesenberg automobile, but the usage antedates the car by at least a couple of decades.   

7. Poem piece : LINE.

five syllable line
comprising a poem piece
only in haiku

8. Coastal raptors : ERNS.   The venerable sea eagle of vintage crossword puzzles.

9. Opus __: "The Da Vinci Code" sect : DEI.   God's Work in Latin.   Also a real world institution in the Roman Catholic Church that teaches that all are called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity.


10. Persian Gulf native : QATARI.   Since the name of the county appears to be pronounced "Cutter," I'm not sure how to say this.

11. "Exodus" novelist : URIS.  Leon.

12. Resting upon : ATOP.  Literally on top of something, or figuratively on top of something like the standings in your fantasy football league.


13. Hankerings : YENS.   Urges.

18. Stomach discomfort : AGITA.   Indigestion.  Probably arising from Italian slang, possibly derived from the Latin agitare, to stir up [agitate] or acido, Italian for stomach acid.

19. Orwellian worker : PROLE.   In the novel 1984, by George Orwell [Eric Blair] the nation Oceania has three classes of citizens: Inner Party, Outer Party and the PROLES, constituting 85% of the population.  They are common working peons, living in poverty and deprived of education.

23. Footwear company named for a goddess : NIKE.   The Greek winged goddess of victory, whose Roman equivalent was Victoria.

24. Serf of ancient Sparta : HELOT.   One might think of them as being equivalent to PEONS or PROLES, and, according to Herodotus, they did comprise about 85% of the population of the Spartan controlled areas of Laconia and Messsenia.

25. __ whiskey : IRISH.   One of many kinds of whiskey.

26. Music from monks : CHANT.   A single line of melody [i.e. without harmony] in free rhythm and a restricted scale, developed during the 9th and 10th centuries.   The shortest clip I could find is 8 minutes.  There are some over 8 hours.  Do not feel obligated to listen.


27. "The Pit and the Pendulum" monogram : Edgar Allen Poe.

28. World's smallest island nation : NAURU.   This 8.1 square mile BLIP with fewer than 10,000 residents is northeast of the Solomon Islands, very near the equator.  The only smaller nations are Monaco and Vatican City.

29. Clean and brush, as a horse : GROOM.

30. Air gun pellets : BBs.  Metal spheres, 4.3 to 4.4 mm in diameter, typically made of steel, plated with zinc or copper to resist corrosion

33. Form 1040EZ info : SSN.   Social Security Number.

35. Rubberneck : GAWK.

36. 60 minuti : ORA.   Minutes in an Italian hour.

37. Lacks the courage to : DARES NOT.

39. Virginia of the Bloomsbury Group : WOOLF.   This was an influential group of writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists associated with the Bloomsbury area of London's Borough of Camden. 

40. On the briny : AT SEA.

42. Synthetic fabrics : RAYONS.  Orlons, nylons - polyester and acrylic don't fit.

43. Not answering roll call : ABSENT.  With or without official leave?

44. Satisfies the munchies : NOSHES.   Snacks.  Is it kosher to use NOSH as a verb?

47. Calif. law force : SFPD.  San Francisco Police Department.

48. Lower intestinal parts : ILEA.   The ILEUM is the third portion of the small intestine, between the jejunum and the cecum, where the small intestine joins the large intestine.   I didn't have the guts to post a picture.  Still - there will be a quiz.

49. "We're not serving liquor," briefly : BYOB.  Bring Your Own Booze Bottle.

50. Spitting sound : PTUI.  Onomatopoeia.

51. "That isn't good!" : OH NO.  Common reaction in Green Bay on Sunday.

52. Minn. neighbor : S. DAKota.

53. Northern Nevada city : ELKO.   No idea.  Has anyone heard of it?

54. Meeting of Cong. : SESS.   Abbreviated SESSion of Congress.

56. New Deal pres. : FDR.  Franklin Delano Roosevelt.



That's all folks.  Hope I didn't do anything to make you mad.  We had, among other things, some hard workers, indigestion, a bit of ancient music, an example of bad poetry, a sports upset and something to drink -- if you brought your own bottle.

Cool regards!
JzB



47 comments:

  1. Morning, all!

    Well, when I saw that 17A was HAVE A CONNIPTION instead of HAVE A CONNIPTION FIT, I thought the theme involved lopping off the last word of common phrases. So, you can imagine my confusion when the rest of the theme answers were intact. The image Jazzbumpa provided shows that HAVE A CONNIPTION is definitely a thing, but I swear I have never heard or seen it without a "fit" attached. Guess I can't say that ever again...

    The rest of the puzzle was smooth as silk. Had a minor misstep when I put in PIER before QUAY and BEREA was all perps, but that was about it. Really liked the clue on POSSESSED.

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  2. Greetings!

    Thanks, Gary and Jazz!

    Nice theme. Only unknown was BEREA (all perps).

    Cheers!

    (Still sick.)

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  3. FIW. When I got no ta-da, I figured it was in the cluster of unknowns I'd WAGged, AGITA/BEREA/HELOT, but no. 51d had started as OH-OH, but solid looking perps of DUANE and RIOT had changed it, so instead of OH NO, I had a gibberish OHAO. :-(

    Would spit in a pencil-case be etui ptui?

    Nit: to fit the clue, 50a should have been POSSESSED.

    If you're going to LOSE IT, A TANTRUM you THROW,
    You FLY OFF THE HANDLE, or APE you GO!
    A CONNIPTION you're feeling,
    Your wig HITs THE CEILING --
    Most maddening is when no one notices, though!

    A RIOT of papparazzi descend like a hawk
    On the celeb of the HOUR who goes for a walk!
    She might feel a daze
    As the cameras STAR GAZE --
    While bystanders wonder who she is, as they GAWK!

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  4. A complete DNF for me. I just did poorly at solving. My son was deployed to Qatar several times, so we learned to pronounce it.
    Elko, Nevada was a half-way stop when we traveled to CA to visit children. Nice place with friendly people.

    Chilly wind in my part of the country,

    Montana

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  5. Hi Y'all! I was ready to HAVE A CONNIPTION when I tried to do the puzzle at midnight. Message said my computer was not connected to the internet. It was fine at 9:30 p.m. After fooling with it for half an hour, I decided my ISP was down and went to bed. At 5 a.m. it was connected again. Gives me AGITA of the ILEA. (Or something.)

    The puzzle was fun and fast to soothe my agitated soul with only brief hangups which perped out okay. Thanks, Gary W. Did putting this together give you fits? Great one, JzB.

    Couldn't remember how to spell QUAY. "Cay" didn't fit after "pier" turned red.

    Didn't know HAKE was a fish. It's a prolific family's surname in our part of the prairie.

    Not Tonga or Samoa, but NAURU whose only claim to fame in my books is a season of "Survivor".

    There's a college called BEREA? Live & learn.


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  6. Thank you Gary and thank you JzB.

    The write up was more entertaining than the puzzle, and the puzzle was A OK. Took a couple minutes longer than yesterday. Liked the links.

    Had PIER ere QUAY, but changed it with the clue for URIS.

    Thought SI SI clue was good.
    Agree that OAKS just didn't feel right with that clue.
    We are normally ASEA. Now we are AT SEA.
    Had to see which DAK was going to be Minnesota's neighbor.

    Jazz, My TE had a bye week and Eric Ebron was the best available TE I could pick in this last weekend's Fantasy Football. He ended the game with a lousy 2.8 points.

    That was some game. Packer Backers are shaken.

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  7. Good morning!

    I was zipping along, but somewhere on the gulf coast the zipper got stuck. Between UHOH and NDAK it took some time to untangle POSSESSES. JzB, you outdid yourself this morning.

    ELKO appears occasionally in cwds, but I've never been there. The one in WI is pronounced the same, but is spelled Elcho.

    Used to travel to Albuquerque several times a year on business, and liked to eat at the Cooperage Restaurant there.

    The only BEREA I'm familiar with was the old KGB dude. He got a bullet as a Christmas present back in '53. So they named a college after him. Hmmmmm.

    Back in the 60's old Bonnie Dick (CVA-31) was often parked at the QUAY Wall at North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego. PK, it rhymes with "key."

    And where did that E in NOIRE come from? The Loire region?

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  8. Greetings.

    What a delightful start to my day! Thanks, Gary, for fun fills. PTUI is nicely onomontopoetic with a tough combo of letters. ARTE--Anyone for a Walnetto? You can still get them at The Vermont County Store. DOOZIE, a word I learned many years ago in a Vonnegut short story, Harrison Bergeron. The old stuff is always somewhere up there in the ancient brain.

    In an Italian family like mine, someone either has AGITA or is causing it. My brother an I may have been catalysts.

    D-O, the "E" technically makes NOIRE feminine, but it works, nonetheless, in CW world.

    JazzB, nicely done. What a fun run today! The links were "perfetto"--a little more Italian here.

    Have a great day, even if the weather isn't cooperating.

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  9. Hello Puzzlers -

    Put me down for a TDNF today. I never heard of Berea, and didn't recall Helot, so I tried an "I" where they intersect. In addition, I was sure the medical word was Ilia, and Pion didn't look all that bad. Bzzzzt!

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  10. Good morning everyone.

    The Utica OD had a puzzle dated 11/19 which I did not notice until after finishing it and coming to the blog site here.
    So I guess I'll return tomorrow to comment on it. Suffice it to say that it was by a frequent author and challenging but refreshing to solve.
    Don't know if I'll get to today,s offering, now.

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  11. Great puzzle, but I thought EAP was initials and EPA was the monogram. Nevertheless, got it with "Goape" Thanks for a great write-up. Loved the old Laugh-In clip!

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  12. Jazz: Your write-up earns another WOW !!!

    OK, I have to admit I needed ESP to get BEREA ... never heard of the Kentucky college or city.

    Fave today, of course, was the CSO to our IRISH (Miss) and a personal favorite whiskey.

    That gives me an idea for the "Toast-to-ALL" at Sunset.
    Cheers!

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  13. Every time I see SLAT I have to ask: Do blind Venetians make better louvers?

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  14. Went back to view all of JzB's links: wow, I didn't know Cybill Shepherd could sing! I saw only a few episodes of her show "Moonlighting". I assume that's connected to the Blue Moon clip. Thanks, Jazz!

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  15. Good morning, folks. Thank you, Gary Whitehead, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Jazzbumpa, for a fine review.

    This one was a little tougher than I thought it might be, but I persevered and finished it.

    I wanted GRIPE for 35A. Finally got WARN, then CHANT. That fixed it to GO APE.

    Liked the theme. Those came easily with a few perps.

    Did not know SIBYL. Perped her.

    Did not know DUNNE. Perps.

    I think I have been through ELKO, NV. Used to cover those four states. CA, NV UT, AZ

    Tried LAPD, but FLY changed that to SFPD.

    NAURU was a learning moment.

    Did not make it to Waukegan last night. Weather was too bad and I was not feeling real good. Still have a froggy throat. Dentist appointment in an hour. Hope he doesn't mind.

    See you tomorrow.

    Abejo

    ( )

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  16. Enjoyable outing. Easy enough to get the theme answers with several perps.

    Excellent expo, JazzB. I didn't realize that there was a slavery element to Peon. I'd always considered Serf and Peon to be interchangeable.

    Snow is falling here this morning. A surprise at that. But it's 35, so it shouldn't stick, or stick around.

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  17. Great puzzle and expo. As usual perps were needed for some words: NAURU, OLA(f OR v), HAKE and SIBYL. But basically it was a good Wednesday puzzle that flowed right along.

    I agree with JzB that OAKS are the raw material for a COOPERAGE. At one time there were many Cooperages around the country. Now there aren't very many. Especially in the east. There is more demand for barrels these days because of the many craft distilleries and vineyards springing up. The http:Adirondack Barrel Cooperage is a new startup and possibly the only cooperage in New York.

    Have a great day everyone.

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  18. Fun puzzle. My mom often said, "Don't have a conniption." She never added the word FIT. I wanted CURRY before GROOM and PIER before QUAY. I liked OAKS for wine barrel sources,as the ultimate or prime source.
    This was an appropriate puzzle for me today. We have a square dancer whose mind is aging,to put it kindly. Every week he has a CONNIPTION, GOES APE, FLIES OFF THE HANDLE, THROWS A TANTRUM about something. Everything has to be as he likes, forget the greatest good for the greatest number. He has called me an A-- H---. He insults the callers, even holding his nose, and makes them ANGRY. Soon the callers will not want to call for us anymore. Yesterday my co-president and I had to tell him, "If you can't be nice to the callers, stay home." Everyone used to feel sorry for him, but the tide has turned. He was ruining our club.

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  19. Good Morning:

    Enjoyed this a lot. A fresh and clever theme and some fun cluing and fill hit the spot. Went astray with gape before gawk and Wollf before Woolf. Berea and Elko were both known, for some reason. I have tried playing "agita" in Words With Friends but it gets rejected as unacceptable. It irks me because some of the words deemed acceptable are outlandish.

    Thanks, Gary, for a mid-week treat and thanks, JazB, for another informative, entertaining, and just downright excellent write-up!

    Thanks for the CSO, Tin, and it's also to you, too.

    We have lovely blue skies, plenty of sunshine, but chilly and windy. I think rain is due later today into tomorrow.

    Ferm, I hope you feel better soon. You, too, Abejo.

    Have a great day.

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  20. All of these clever theme fills reminded me of what I saw two 60+ yr old men do on the golf course this month. I can deal with teenagers doing that, but like YR, not adults.

    Musings
    -This SERF or PROLE enjoyed Gary’s puzzle and Jazz’s assessment
    -Have you ever this kind of car IDLING like this?
    -The first two paragraphs tells you a lot about BEREA
    -A year ago tomorrow, the radar BLIP of MH370 disappeared from the screen in Ho Chi Minh City
    -Me too, Owen, the cluing for POSSESSESS (not POSSESSED) was sketchy for me
    -Am I the only one who has DABBED at something that eventually took an SOS pad?
    -Google Holly Holm’s brutal TKO of Rhonda Rousey last week at your own peril.
    -Have you ever seen this incentive for paying IN CASH?
    -I’ve told the story here of my sampling what I thought was a new soda at a supermarket near St. Patrick’s Day that turned out to be IRISH Whiskey. OH NO!
    -Shooting your 10-year-old sister in her backside with a BB gun is not a good strategy.
    -ABSENT – Sports radio personality says of oft-injured Derek Rose, “To be valuable, you have to be available”
    -My ILEA had an alternative exit for 108 days this summer
    -Avg, we haven’t seen any snow here 50 miles north of you

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  21. I was sailing along beautiful until I reached the south but eventually I finished. Thanks Gary and
    JzB.

    Our pellets today were BBs. I noted the grouping of HELOT, PEON and PROLE as well as OSLO, NOR and OLAV (I always wait for perps to see if I need the V or F).

    We used to have ASEA but more recently it has been ATSEA. Hand up for SDak before North and LAPD before SFPD. Also had Reno before ELKO. I guess I am too far south today.

    I am not familiar with NAURU and had to reach for AGITA. Loved some the old expressions like DOOZIE and CONNIPTION!

    Have a great day.

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  22. I had a bit less difficulty today than yesterday's name fest. I knew someone from Nauru once when living in Oz, so that was a gimme for me. I had never heard of ELKO, and had to perp/guess SIBYL, AARON, AGITA & BEREA. Otherwise it was all good.

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  23. Thanks to Mr. Whitehead for an enthralling puzzle. Many of the unknowns or sorta knowns [needed perp help to recall] were learning experiences. Only one unknown was a sports figure.

    JazzBumpa, do you get the puzzle like a week in advance? The many amusing comments and images and videos must take a lot of work. Also very educational even for the ones I knew. Details on PEON, PROLE and HELOT were very enlightening.

    Also, thank you for the Opus reference. I have been trying to recall the name of the strip that had Bill the Cat. He was in Bloom County with Opus the Penguin.

    Husker Gary beat me to it but I will add this about BEREA_WIKI.

    I visited it on a church youth trip through Kentucky. It is unique in that students come from needy families and ALL students get a full tuition scholarship and do work-study of at least 10 hours per week. Many of the businesses in the town use student employees. Berea was also the first Southern college to be co-ed and racially integrated.

    We are also having high wind gusts AGAIN. Our November in NE Ohio has been the warmest since 1964.

    Live well and Prosper,
    VS

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  24. Elko is not the middle of nowhere, but you can see it from there. Great place to drive really fast on endless straight, flat highways, but watch out for those towns that rely on such activities to balance their budgets.

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  25. Didn't think I was going to get through it, but I persevered and it all fell into place.

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  26. Initially my heart sank when I saw a Wednesday puzzle with two grid-spanners. But it filled in pretty quickly and once I got HAVE A CONNIPTION (never heard it with FIT, Barry)I was also onto the theme. This was so much fun, Gary--many thanks. And as soon as I saw all those great pictures, I knew this was going to be a JazzB expo. How do you do that, so early in the morning? The cartoon pics were such a delight--many thanks for that second bit of pleasure right after the puzzle.

    A treat to see Virginia WOOLF in a puzzle.

    Owen, I loved your ETUI/PTUI.

    YR, your dancer sounds like a real pain.

    Fermatprime, so sorry you're still not feeling better. Take good care of yourself.

    Have a great day, everybody!

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  27. That was a pleasant Thursday diversion. Thanks Gary and JzB.

    AnonT, from late last night re. Emma Watson. As I said in my original post, I think she is a local high school girl. I remember seeing her poring over a large textbook in the coffee shop but I'm not sure. I looked on Google and couldn't find anything about Emma Watson being around here for a movie or for personal reasons. So I'm pretty sure she is just a coffee-loving attractive local high school girl with nice eyebrows named Emma something.

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  28. I guess my only complaint is that there was nothing in the puzzle that would evoke Thumper...

    Berea was well perped, & I knew Helot , Quay, & Nauru (when there was only one blank left...)

    But, still an FIW ALA Dudley as I also fell for the Ilia/Pion similarities.

    I guess Pion seemed familiar because it is an existing word in physics, the contraction of Pi-Meson. But I was surprised to find that in many countries it is the word for "pawn," as in Chess!

    OwenKL, I was about to look for a pic of your Etui/Ptui, but thought better of it...(Yuck!)

    Once again I must thank Jzb for providing links to the pages the write up pics came from.
    (a pic may be worth a thousand words, but it just a tease compared to the Novel...)

    Oc4beach@9:20, your link made me go through the Cooperage FAQs & how to prep a barrel.
    But I was somewhat dissatisfied with the explanation "if it leaks, do the water test again?"
    So I went looking deeper. To the video!

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  29. Bill G. - it's Wednesday.

    I thought this a perfect "Wednesday" puzzle. Just difficult enough with great clues.

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  30. Nice puzzle comments Bill. You might want to save them for Thursday.

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  31. Hi gang -

    Glad you all enjoyed today's outing. We've been very busy today and I have rehearsal tonight.

    Time for a nap.

    Cool regards!
    JzB

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  32. Geez, I lose track of the date more often now that I'm retired. This is the first time I've so totally embarrassed myself in public by using the wrong day. I'm not sure if it is because Wednesdays and Thursdays seem so similar or because I was just careless or...? If somebody had asked me, I think I would have known the day but I didn't think carefully about it when typing. I think the DVR contributes to my confusion since it records favorite shows for me and I don't have to think about what is on today. Anyway, I hope 2014 is a great year for you and that you have a nice Labor Day BBQ. (Don't forget to set your clocks back.)

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  33. In looking back at this puzzle, the theme could have been the 'other half of society' with GROOM, PEON, HELOT, & PROLE. It filled so rapidly that I didn't even notice some of the words until writing JzB's 'illustrated' write-up. Very few perps needed today; only BEREA & SIBYL.

    After HAVE A CONNIPTION, it was obvious what the rest of the long fills would be and they made the perps even easier to fill.

    ELKO- if you drive from Salt Lake City to Reno, NV on I-80, it's about the only real town in between. But if you read some of their advertising, a lot of men stop there and leave 'happy'.

    The spelling of DOOZIE was done by crosses as I knew it started with a D and had a Z; that's it.

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  34. Samtombs: Too funny! Keep 'em coming.

    YR: Good for you in not letting the guy completely ruin your fun. Hope he doesn't come back with an Uzi or something for the ultimate TANTRUM. There is a lot of that going around these days. So glad your dancing legs were restored to you.

    AvgJoe: We just missed the snow, too. Did it put you in a festive holiday mood?

    Thanks for the info on BEREA. Amazing that it stays true to its values in this century. Love it.

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  35. Nice puzzle, imaginative.
    By pure coincidence I looked on the map to see where Interstate 80 goes, because a friend of ours says he's driving to Indiana via I-80 and I didn't believe it went as far north as Indiana. Sure enough, it does, and goes right through ELKO Nevada on the way.
    Bill G, nice sense of humor. By the way, there's another Emma whose eyebrows I like, and that's Emma Slater, a professional dancer on Dancing With The Stars. I guess my admiration of her looks is STAR GAZING.
    I like the word PROLE.
    I heard another news anchor mispronounce a person's name again. Not really all that hard to say Aung San Suu Kyi. He called her "Sushi." Why the obsession with pronouncing people's names as if they/we were French? I wonder if a talking head would call me "Zhayce." And the recent Olympic games were held in Sochi, Russia, not "Soshee." Sheesh!
    I don't know why that annoys me so. Probably because it reinforces my opinion/observation that television news reporters really are just repeating what some other news reporters have said and give no thought to the meaning, sensibleness, or feasibility of what they are saying. The teleprompters all show "Ang San Soo Chee" and they still say "Shee." All of 'em!
    Sowwy.
    Bye now :)

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  36. Jayce, it's funny how your own surroundings can shape your perceptions. I live within 20 miles of I-80 and drive on it a few times a week. I've never taken it west of Cheyenne, however, and I've also never driven to California. But if you had asked me 20 years ago where I-80 ends up on the west coast I would have said somewhere near Eugene. I had no idea it took that hard left to the SW in Nevada.

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  37. Hello, friends!

    Wow. I almost missed the party. Today a friend and I went to our recently deceased friend's home to pack her clothes. Her husband is still too devastated to do that. It was a labor of love.

    WEES about the puzzle. An easy sashay. Only the SW gave me problems. I had LAPD first and that did not work out. After erasing that I could see the rest of the fill and FLY OFF THE HANDLE was done.

    CSO to Windhover. His alma mater is BEREA. If anyone is around from his time on the blog you might recall his mention of it when it appeared once before in a puzzle.

    Thank you Mr.Whitehead and Jazzb for your classy review.

    I hope your day has been spectacular, everyone!

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  38. CHIP before SFPD for me. WOLFF before WOOLF.

    d-o: Don't recall ever eating at The Cooperage in ABQ, but see it a lot as there's a Masonic Lodge just a couple buildings down from it. I take my LW there every couple weeks where she plays piano for a Job's Daughters youth group.

    samtombs: LOL! I think we need to see more of you!

    Back in my college days, a dorm-mate invited me to spend the Xmas vacation with his family in ELKO. I opted to stay on campus with my girlfriend. Had my first sexual experience then, but after a painful breakup a couple months later (complete with TANTRUMs, etc.), I still wonder if I made the right choice.

    Re:Interstates, they can indeed be surprising. I-25 comes into Santa Fe from the south, but leaves heading SE! I also have to take it south in order to get to the four corners, which is NW of here. (extremely boring link about the four corners being in the wrong place.)

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  39. I would like to hear more of Bill G's fantasies with teenage girls.

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  40. Hi All!

    PTUI! A FIW at 18d xing 30a - I shoulda stopped at A (I had E). I'm not gonna THROW A TANTRUM though 'cuz Gary's puzzle was fun and JzB's writeup HIT THE CEILING and continued through the roof! Thanks guys.

    W/os - Sure, er, SI SI, there were a few (including that). Pike b/f HAKE, nDAK at 1st, and, hand-up, f b/f V in OLAV.

    ESPs - 22a, 30a (and bad WAG), 58a 11d, 18d, 28d, 48d, & 53d. Good thing the 6th sense was working today. :-)

    Fav - DOOZIE. Just a fun word. (CONNIPTION is fun but too much drama).

    YR - Glad to hear you're back dancing after double-replacements.

    HG - Spec's (liquor/epicurean mega-store in HOU) gives discounts for paying IN CASH. Perfect for BYOB & NOSHEeS.

    JzB - in your Loony Toons spirit... I tried to find the Bugs Bunny "Watch that 1st step, it's a DOOZIE," but so far my Google-fu has failed me.

    Police lost AT SEA send an SOS as a Message in a Bottle.

    Cheers, -T

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  41. OH NO, I meant to ask, what do fellow puzzlers think of an emoji as OED's 2015 Word of the Year? Think Rich will put it in the pzl? If he does, I know IRISH Miss will nail it :-)

    Cheers, -T

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  42. Anonymous T @ 9:39 - I like the choice. 😉. I love using these little expressions of emotions or events or just meaningful symbols; as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Right, CED, 🐱 , Manac 🐶 , Tin, 🍸, YR and Lucinda, 📚 , Dudley, ✈️ , Spitz, ⚓️ , Splynter, 🔨 , JazzB, 🎼 , Bill G., 🚴🏽, and for everyone else, 🆒 .(I would be embarrassed to say how long I had my iPad Mini before I was aware of the emojis feature on the keyboard. 😔 )

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  43. IM - Glad you held back on -T, 💩. Cheers, -T

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  44. How come I don't see any Emojis in the posts above on my computer screen? I'm using Firefox on a Mac with OS 10.6.8. I can see other emojis in Gmail for example. Here, I just get a little square with GIF and a number in it.

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  45. Bill G. Not sure, the UTF (U-1F602) may not be rendering in Firefox. Try looking through the Safari glass. BTW, 1:41p was LOL - I'm going to go set my clocks back now. :-) [ASCII emoji for you]. Cheers, -T

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