Words: 68 (missing J,Q,X,Y)
Blocks: 32
Ugh
- I'm sorry, but I just don't like Mr. Lim's puzzles :7(( Every time I get
one on a Saturday, I cringe. Today was no exception. I had the right
fills, and yet could not finish up the NE and SW corners - not without
red letters, one Google cheat, and a hail Mary WAG. Still not sure what
some of the answers mean. Might have to do with excessive 'cardboard
box syndrome' I'm suffering from, and a head cold, to boot. Quadruple corners of
9-letters, with two inner 10's crossing two more inner 9's;
30. Supplanting : PRE-EMPTING - like football and '60 minutes' on Sunday nights, or the president's TV address
31. Goodyear variety : TIRE SIZES
- I need tires on the Dodge - also a new ignition switch, but I'm so
close to 300,000 on the odo that I will invest the money to cross that
milestone
7. It's hard to put down : PAGE TURNER - I have yet to put my TV
up in my room, going on 7 weeks now. That's how busy I've been.
However, it has led me to reading nearly everything on my room-mates
shelves - I've read "The Lost Symbol", half the 'Alex Cross' books, and
"The Litigators", a book I was reluctant to read because I sensed that all of Grisham's books were about lawyers, and here was no exception - but this one was really good
38. It may be green : CHINESE TEA
ON Sela WARD~!
ACROSS:
1. High-end beer-serving eatery : GASTROPUB - what~? it's not HOOTERS~? I'm shocked~!
"I'll have the third from the left"
10. First husband of Bathsheba : URIAH - half perps/half WAG
15. Drink with Campari and sweet vermouth : AMERICANO - I think this has been in crosswords before - Mr. Lim left out the club soda
16. San Francisco : BART :: Philadelphia : __ : SEPTA - I tried METRO, which is, uh, 20% right~? Or is that 40%~? Anyway, my buddy Mike is from Philly, so I could have called him to find out what the scheduling is down there
17. Islands visited by Darwin : GALAPAGOS - a good, solid fill that had me wondering if I could be wrong
18. Bill toppers : STARS - It takes me too long to remember that "bill" in this sense is the playbill
19. Like some plugs : SHAMELESS
20. Got hot for a while : WAS IN - I really don't know, but I think this is a poker/cards reference; I got hot, so "I'm in"
21. H.S. exam : PSAT
22. Distresses : NAGS AT - yeah, some of the cluing NAGS AT me
23. Silver fish : SMELT - I put in sPelt - that is totally 80% correct
26. Driving forces : URGES
29. __ ale : PALE - again, I got caught thinking "nah, too easy"
35. Wave back? : ECHO - tried EDDY
36. Pointless : INANE
37. Word after big or bright : IDEA - again, too easy~?
40. Holds up : ROBS - ah, that kind of holds up - not LASTS, ENDURES, etc.
41. Stone measure : CARAT - gaffed the "C" with a "K"
42. Storyteller from Thrace : AESOP
43. "Awesome, bro!" : "ROCK ON~!"
15. Drink with Campari and sweet vermouth : AMERICANO - I think this has been in crosswords before - Mr. Lim left out the club soda
16. San Francisco : BART :: Philadelphia : __ : SEPTA - I tried METRO, which is, uh, 20% right~? Or is that 40%~? Anyway, my buddy Mike is from Philly, so I could have called him to find out what the scheduling is down there
17. Islands visited by Darwin : GALAPAGOS - a good, solid fill that had me wondering if I could be wrong
18. Bill toppers : STARS - It takes me too long to remember that "bill" in this sense is the playbill
19. Like some plugs : SHAMELESS
20. Got hot for a while : WAS IN - I really don't know, but I think this is a poker/cards reference; I got hot, so "I'm in"
21. H.S. exam : PSAT
22. Distresses : NAGS AT - yeah, some of the cluing NAGS AT me
23. Silver fish : SMELT - I put in sPelt - that is totally 80% correct
26. Driving forces : URGES
29. __ ale : PALE - again, I got caught thinking "nah, too easy"
35. Wave back? : ECHO - tried EDDY
36. Pointless : INANE
37. Word after big or bright : IDEA - again, too easy~?
40. Holds up : ROBS - ah, that kind of holds up - not LASTS, ENDURES, etc.
41. Stone measure : CARAT - gaffed the "C" with a "K"
42. Storyteller from Thrace : AESOP
43. "Awesome, bro!" : "ROCK ON~!"
Van Halen - Stay Frosty
47. ThinkPads, e.g. : IBMs
49. ooVoo alternative : iCHAT - had zilch on this one; my Google, and having -C-AT, WAGed the rest
50. Dish cooked in seasoned broth : RICE PILAF - healthy fill (pun intended) after a few perps - wanna be a monk~? see 43a. above
55. Left-hand page : VERSO - opposite the RECTO
56. Childhood friend of Paul Cézanne : EMILE ZOLA
57. Secretary of war under Teddy : ELIHU - perps and WAG
58. Defame : DISCREDIT
59. Deferential denial : NO, SIR
60. How fries are usually served : ON THE SIDE
DOWN:
1. Stifles : GAGS
2. Asian nurse : AMAH
3. Ward of "Gone Girl" : SELA - also starred in "The Fugitive" movie, and season two of "House, M.D."
4. Treat cruelly, as another's feelings : TRAMPLE ON
5. Most developed : RIPEST
6. College of Central Florida city : OCALA
8. Some, in Seville : UNOS
9. Order giver : BOSS
10. Naval recovery ship for some Gemini missions : USS WASP
I seem to recall something about Frank Sinatra last week
11. Change the price of : RETAG - meh
12. "Not for me" : I PASS - a Juliam Lim puzzle~? 12d.
13. Ventricle neighbors : ATRIA
14. Is without : HASN'T - dah~! I thought NEEDS, LACKS, so the "S" went in, and messed me up
22. Site of ancient Greek games : NEMEA
23. What some write on : SPEC - all the reading is helping me with my own fiction novel idea
24. Eponymous physicist Ernst __ : MACH
25. K thru 12 : ELHI
27. Calf snagger : REATA - one of those "variant" spellings; I am sure it's legit, but "meh"
28. James Watson, notably : GENETICIST - notably, I did not know this
30. Resident on the Arno : PISAN
32. Partnership-forming words : I DOs
33. Mount from which Moses saw the Promised Land : NEBO - and then he brought forth the 15, oy, 10, 10 commandments~!
34. Sound of surprise : GASP
39. Outing led by a naturalist : ECO-TOUR
42. Unit in Ohm's Law : AMPERE - I = V/R, where I = current in amperes, V = volts, and the resistance, "R"
43. Torn asunder : RIVEN - I mentioned a different RIVEN last week....or is it the same~?
44. 3M sponge brand : O-CEL-O
39. Outing led by a naturalist : ECO-TOUR
42. Unit in Ohm's Law : AMPERE - I = V/R, where I = current in amperes, V = volts, and the resistance, "R"
43. Torn asunder : RIVEN - I mentioned a different RIVEN last week....or is it the same~?
44. 3M sponge brand : O-CEL-O
45. Ruth's __ Steak House : CHRIS - never heard of it
46. GOLEAN cereal maker : KASHI - I have heard of this, from commercials
48. Gush forth : BELCH
50. Second take : RE-DO
51. "Let's go!" : "I'M IN~!"
52. Lombardy city : LODI
53. "Put __ on it!" : A LID
54. What "All are architects of," per Longfellow : FATE
48. Gush forth : BELCH
50. Second take : RE-DO
51. "Let's go!" : "I'M IN~!"
52. Lombardy city : LODI
53. "Put __ on it!" : A LID
54. What "All are architects of," per Longfellow : FATE
Splynter
57 comments:
Morning, all!
VEry slow solve for me today and, like Splynter, the NW and SE corners put up the biggest struggle for me. Unlike Splytnter, however, I did manage to eventually finish it unassisted, although it was touch and go there for awhile.
Down in the SW, I didn't know/remember OCELO, didn't know what ooVoo was in order to think of an alternative, didn't know ELIHU from a hole in the ground, couldn't remember VERSO, and vaguely remembered CHRIS but spelled it as CRISS instead. Oops. Lot of white space in that section until I finally guessed correctly at RIVEN, which gave me the toe hold I needed to remember VERSO, replace CRISS with CHRIS, and guess at ELIHU, OCELO and ICHAT.
Up in the NE, I was proud of myself for getting URIAH, but nothing else worked there except for RETAG. I had I'M OUT at 12D and AORTI at 13D, which gummed things up terribly. Put in HASN'T at 14D and took it back out when it didn't fit. SEPTA was a complete unknown and I couldn't parse "Bill toppers.". I finally got rid of everything except for URIAH and started over again. Still nothing for awhile, but then I finally realized that 10D was looking for a specific ship and not a type of ship and entered in USS. I then tried IPASS at 12D and that was enough to get me going. Fortunately, I have heard of the U.S.S. WASP before, although I couldn't have told you anything about it.
The clue for WAS IN almost ended up being my downfall since I just couldn't make any sense of the letters the perps were giving me, but I finally had my "AHA" moment.
Good morning!
The train came into the station ahead of schedule this morning. I like when that happens. I did fall into the LACKS trap, and tried C'MON before I'M IN showed up. Long anchors like PAGE TURNER, TIRE SIZES , GALAPAGOS and EMILE ZOLA made this a totally do-able puzzle.
Splynter, I can't believe you misSPELT SMELT. WAS IN refers to a fad product like the Hula Hoop. It WAS IN, but now it's out. BTW, SELA (yeah, I noticed that you picked a leggy photo) was also on CSI-NY for several seasons. She replaced that busty Greek woman whose name escapes me, but the memory lingers on.
PREEMPTING is one of my pet peeves. I always have to remember to add an hour to the recording time of the weekend network shows. Those ball games/car races/golf tournaments always run way over the "scheduled" time and the stuff I want to watch gets delayed. Aaaack!
I try to never criticize someone's endeavor and I won't because for some reason this was an easy Saturday fill. And that with some total new words to my ears: SEPTA, AMERICANO, GASTRO PUB, O-CELO, I-CHAT and unknowns filled by perps- FATE, NEMEA, NEBO. I had heard of 'ooVoo' only from my granddaughter saying it was better than SKYPE and guessed some type of VOIP service was the fill.
The three brand names in the SW gave the most trouble, along with the aforementioned I-CHAT and ELIHU. Ruth's CHRIS Steak House was a gimme because it started here. As a matter of fact, my wife just got a gift certificate to Ruth's; RUTH Fertel bought CHRIS'S Steak House , hence the name. Moved the apostrophe from Chris to Ruth. The original one on North Broad St. was where all the crooked New Orleans politicians went on Sundays to get free meals and payoffs from bag men. It never reopened after hurricane Katrina.
My only changes were TIRE TREAD to SIZES and AORTA to ATRIA.
A real challenge, but easier than most Saturdays. I liked this one a lot. PERPS and WAGS filled the unknowns, such as ooVoo, ROCKIN, MACH. I liked GOT HOT FOR A WHILE= WAS IN, like a fad. No complaints. I couldn't read my writing, so I had to copy the difficult parts in MENSA, MASTER.
I was so sure the Mount was NEMO that I missed the B in ROBS and wondered why ROMS didn't make sense. DUH! One bad cell. I should have run the ABCs on all the letters. Now, too late,NEBO rings a bell..
We have had a RUTH'S CHRIS Steak House here for many years.
A few perps helped recall SEPTA.
I have used O-CELO sponges.
I've tasted KASHI GOLEAN. No big whup.
I'm off to do my chores. The older I get the more I have to do things early in the day or they don't get done.
This one mugged and ashtrayed me badly. Made most of the errors already mentioned, then pioneered some new ones like Musli for the cereal. Finally threw in the towel and googled for Elihu and Chris to limp to the tape. Didn't hate it, but it's not on the top ten list either.
Cold here this morning.19 when I got up. But it's supposed to be mid 40s this afternoon and 50 tomorrow, so it's looking better.
I knew we were in for a challenge when I saw Julian Lim's name on the page, but this went much faster than my usual experience with his puzzles. NE and SW took the longest. Getting some of the longer fill quickly like Galapagos, Pageturner, Geneticist gave lots of fodder for the perps. For some reason it took me the longest time to see CHINESE TEA - head slap when I stepped back to look at it.
Lots of Christmas "cultcha" this weekend - our neighbor girl is in the Nutcracker tonight and going to a cantata and then the children's Xmas program at church tomorrow.
Thanks Splynter !
ooVoo was a total unknown, but reminded me of an old "Kilroy was here" icon, and threw me off totally. I normally use pen on newspaper, but got so flustered I reverted to the Mensa app, which always goes faster, and finished (helped by previous newspaper work) in 22 minutes with no help other than red letters. Yesterday on paper only, took all day, albeit a few minutes at a time. Amazing what the brain can do when it's had some time to think in the background.
45D: Sometime before I-95 was completed and a drive from Jersey to Florida would constantly take you on and off the interstate, I came across a "Chris's Steak House". I ate there and really enjoyed the meal. It was probably in NC. Much later on I began to see "Ruth's Chris Steak House" popping up from NY to FL. My guess is that Ruth bailed Chris out during a financial downslide and built the business back up a hundredfold. Lucky Chris. This is my theory. Does anyone have more to offer. Would love to hear the real story.
Regarding the rest of the puzzle, it was awful. I would need a Philadelphia Lawyer to figure it out. 😖
I groaned when I saw the constructor's name in the by-line. Mr. Lim's prior puzzles have been impossible for me. Not today though. I worked my way through this one in more like Thursday or Friday time, even though I needed ESP for NEBO, NEMEA, and ICHAT. It took far too long and several perps to remember RIVEN and VERSO, but they eventually did emerge. It also probably helped that SEPTA is a local service here.
Thanks for the workout, Mr. Lim, and for the entertaining and educational expo, Splynter.
We had to cancel our annual Christmas party yesterday. The kitchen oven just rolled snake eyes, and if I can't cook, we're out of business. I will never, EVER buy a GE appliance again. Guess I'll have to drown my sorrows in football and glogg, later.
Cya!
Magilla, I don't know the whole story of Ruth's Chris, but it started in 1927 as a steakhouse run by Chris Matulich (not sure of the spelling!) it was on Broad street in New Orleans near the Fairgrounds race track and attracted the clientele you might expect there. It thrived or failed several times until Ruth Fertel bought it during one of the failings in 1965. Politicians and political reporters gathered for deals and "leaks."
In 1975 or 1976 it burned and Ruth moved it to a new location. There was some dispute over the name, so she called the new place Ruth's Chris Steakhouse , not wanting to lose the old associations. For a while there were two restaurants on Broad...one was Chris and one was Ruth's Chris. That was in the 70s or 80s. At some point she franchised out the name to other people. I know there was one in Baton Rouge.
About 1999, when Ruth was old and ill, she sold it to a big conglomerate who spread it to other locations.
Local lore! Hope it helps.
Like YR, this one was solved relatively quickly for me, despite a few complete unknowns such as SEPTA, ICHAT (& ooVoo), LODI, NEBO, U.S.S. WASP and AMERICANO. Then there were the ones which came after a couple of perps, such as ELIHU Root, EMILE ZOLA, OCELO, KASHI, VERSO. [For some reason I could recall recto but not verso.] Wanted auricles as the ventricle neighbors; fortunately it didn't fit. Familiar with Ruth's CHRIS because I'm visiting Palm Beach FL and noticed two of that chain while driving around. Unlike yesterday, not many mistakes: ECOTrip for ECOTOUR, and RiATA are the only two which come to mind.
Thanks Jeremy for the puzzle, and Splynter for an excellent write-up. Particularly liked the brief Mel Brooks clip. Technically, though, it was on Mt. Sinai that he brought forth the 15, um, 10 commandments, and then he viewed Israel from Mt. NEBO later on.
Merry Christmas Manac, & all you dog lovers out there!
Photos by Theron Humphrey.
(A trip with his dog Maddie.)
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Greetings, friends!
Like most of you, I cringed on seeing Julian Lim's name and knew I was in for a heated battle. That was partially correct, however, and the NW filled in a flash. Ditto at left center but I could not parse CHINESE TEA for a long, long while. I researched NEMEA knowing that it would take a lifetime to suss it. Down below, CHRIS was easy as there is one here and always well advertised. It took the H in KASHI to recall ELIHU as I have read much about him and Teddy both.
SEPTA was a complete unknown and that NE corner almost tore with all the erasing. URIAH/USS started me fine, but the rest was hit and miss, mostly miss, though it came together finally. Though LODI is in California, too, I reckoned the name originated in Italy and EMILE ZOLA was a pure guess.
So, thank you, Julian for today's workout and Splynter, too.
Have a stupendous day, everyone!
& for you cat lovers...
Splynter: I agree with you about losing the FUN level when solving a Juliam Lim Saturday puzzle.
With GASTRO-PUB at 1-a (WTF ... I never heard a "High-end beer-serving eatery" called that), the FUN LEVEL was missing.
D N F ... too many obtuse clues to mention ... though 49-a, "ooVoo alternative" led the list.
Well it was below Florida Freezing" when the paper arrived. Yup! 45 degrees.
In fact ... it was 6 degrees below that number (which is 51 degrees), the temp when "Real Floridian's" walk around saying: "It's F***ing Freezing out there!"
But it has already warmed-up ...
Avg.Joe ... I would probably die if it was 19 degrees outside.
Cheers!
Hello Puzzlers -
Must've been firing on all cylinders today! Managed to march right through this one mostly, slowing down in the other corners, NE and SW. Had some trouble connecting clues to answers, but that's Saturday for you.
Morning, Splynter, I'll have the fifth from the left! Oh, and thanks for Sela Ward. She was in the show Sisters back in the 80's. My mom liked the show, so that gave me permission to watch it and admire Sela as well as Patricia Kalember.
Good Morning:
The Southwest corner did me in. I finally asked for one clue and that broke it open so I could finish, but it was a FWA (finished with assistance.). I can't say I enjoyed it but it wasn't as frustrating as some other Saturdays, either.
Thanks, Mr. Lim, for the challenge and thanks, Mr. Splynter, for the detailed summary.
We have bright sunshine and temps in the 40's.
Have a great day.
Dave, those are some great dog photos. And that little white kitten wasn't bad, either.
Temps must have dipped to freezing overnight, judging by the frost on the rooftops. It was up to 40 by the time we went for our morning march, wrapped in our heavy winter parkas.
Like Splynter, the NE and SW took time but their counterparts yielded comparatively easy. A satisfying Saturday challenge filled with words I only know from this venue – VERSO, ELIHU, AMAH, ELHI (ugh!!), REATA…
Musings
-Irrespective of your opinion of the author these are real PAGE TURNERS
-Some call Hooters, Twin Peaks and Tilted Kilt Breastaurants
-King David ordered a hit job on URIAH when Bathsheba got pregnant in his absence
-Major STARS Brando and Hackman got BILLING over title character Christopher Reeves in Superman
-For math-heads only - 18 sample PSAT questions
-Depression Era ROBbers Bonnie and Clyde were thought of as Robin Hoods
-ICHAT had to be as ooVoo had nothing to do with Olive Oil
-Nothing is TAGGED or RETAGGED any more. The computer simply updates this process
-Winchester told Klinger “I PASS” rather than invest in the “stupid” Hula Hoop any child could make out of a length of garden hose. Can you say Pet Rock?
-Watson and Crick are usually thought of as a unit
-Corruption in the back room at Nawlins’ Chris’s Steak House? I’m shocked!
-Off to The Nutcracker in Lincoln today!
CED - Only you can post links that bring tears and smiles simultaneously. 😹 😻. Thank you.
Not bad for a Saturday but DNF due to crossing of ICHAT and OCELO. OOVOO reminded me of EVOO and I was misdirected to thinking about cooking oils. I use Skype or FaceTime for online chats.
Never heard of OCELO (or NEMEA).
AMAH and REATA (or Riata) are old CW favourites that I have not seen for a while.
Gush forth would not be my first definition for BELCH but it fits!
I am familiar with Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Toronto and Niagara Falls and I see that there are 5 in Canada. Here's what Wikipedia reports about its history.
Ruth'sChrisSteakhouse
New granddaughter arrived safely!!!! Off to welcome her to the family. (Not envying her the birthday so close to Christmas for the rest of her life!)
Good morning everyone.
Agree with Splynter about Lim's puzzles. Although this time I got everything except the SW without aid. SW was kind of a double Natick with not "knowing: I CHAT and OCELO. Had porto before VERSO; ha ha.
Knew ELIHU Root was Teddy's Sec. of State circa 1909, but did not know he had been Sec. of War prior to that. Root's home is near us and is now part of Hamilton College; the gardens and copse of woods are worth a side trip if you are in the area.
Always learn something new here.
15a - Campari - I like mine with Schweppes Tonic and lots of ice; but soda will do, too.
Tough one today. I managed to get everything but one crummy clue I coulda/shoulda gotten. Had to look up SEPTA, since I was stuck on I'M--- going down. If I had a dollar for every time that happened, I could afford to eat at Ruth's Chris. Several around Chicago but never been. All those high end steak places are too pricey, when I can grill my own.
Hi Y'all! I agree this was a hard one, but I find Lim easier than Silk, so I won't gripe. Lost track of the number of red-letter vowel runs to get a start in problem areas after I'd done two passes. NE corner was one. Unknowns: WEES. Still took only 26 min. to fill. Usually a Saturday runs over half an hour for me. Sometimes way over.
With USS in place, I filled in Uriah and wondered how I knew that.
I think the Longfellow quote was on Jeopardy or some other game show recently, but I tried "life" before FATE.
Ruth's CHRIS Steak house was mentioned on some TV show lately and I remembered. Haven't ever seen one.
Talk about SHAMELESS plugs: ABC Nightly News (or whatever they call it) is owned by Disney and has plugged the new "Star Wars" movie until I'm totally annoyed. I took the kids to a drive-in to see the first one. Haven't seen the others. Won't see this one.
Splynter, thanks for struggling thru a hard one. Not all Grisham novels are about lawyers, but they are all fast paced PAGE TURNERS. You'd probably like "Playing for Pizza" about a struggling athlete.
I, too, groaned when I saw the constructor's name, but this one came out pretty smoothly, but did have to work on the NE and SW. Think this is the first Julian Lim puzzle I've finished correctly!
Thanks, Splynter, for your usual witty write-up.
Re: Hooters. My golfing buddy and I were at the local Hooters for the nineteenth hole, performing a post-mortem on each others games recently. He looked around and asked me which of the servers I would most like to be stuck in an elevator with. I replied (without hesitation) "Any of them who can fix an elevator". I'm old, I'm tired, and I pee a lot.
I guess I'm a little more forgiving. Gastropub sounds made up to me because gastropod couldn't work out. Not sure about redo and idos in the same puzzle. Didn't we just have retag in a weekday puzzle? That one seemed OK to me. I finished in under 20 minutes with no hints after a flourish of insight for the NE and SE. Overall an OK puzzle it was challenging and educational.
A volcano or chimney BELCHES smoke.
Thanks Splynter for you fine write-up. I, too, and just NOT on Mr. Lim’s wavelength.
I spent 1.5 hours, using many cheats and had to turn on red letters to finish. I got many toe holds, but without perps I was never sure if they were correct. And I think my brain was so beat up that I didn’t see obvious answers like RICE PILAF. I had CHILE SALSA before CHINESE TEA.
Thanks for everyone’s comments and links.
For fun, here another version of the 10 commandments.
LEGO_10_COMMANDMENTS_EDDIE_IZZARD
I once heard this story. The boys at a certain high school began wearing t-shirts that read: "Hooters, More than a mouthful"
When the principal refused to ban the shirts the girls had shirts made for themselves that said: "Cocks, Nothing to crow about!"
It was said that then both shirts were banned. I hope this isn't too blue for this blog.
Cleveland area finally got snow here last night. Brrr!
VS
Happy Saturday!
After Car Talk & Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, I TITT - 2 hours is enough. Only the East-Central is fully filled. SW has CHRIS & nothin' else.
NW - w/ GAGS in place I went w/ Grille PUB. It's not like I knew any of the perps anyway. W/ GALAPAGOS in place, my WAGs got silly.
Thanks anyway Julian - I least I learned stuff. Thanks Splynter for the writeup - and you know I like Mel Brooks and Van Halen - ROCK ON!
D-O: we only got down to 39 (I'm south of you), but like Tin said, "It's Freezing!" At least it will be in the 70s today.
Anyone else want 'deep' for 37a? "The STARS at night are big & bright, DEEP in the heart of Texas... I finally got the IDEA.
Congrats C, eh? on the new grand-baby! FWIW: BIL's B-day is Jan 3 but MIL wouldn't it conflate w/ Christmas unless he wanted something big.
Well, we finally got a tree yesterday. Today we decorate, tonight at the PUB we'll figure out gifts... Thank goodness for overnight shipping; right Splynter? :-)
Cheers, -T
Whew! Finally finished (sort of) the puzzle!
One good thing about a bad memory is that I forgot how tough
Julian Lims puzzles can be, and attacked this thing anyway...
Shot myself in the foot from the get go, because my usual
Saturday Stumper strategy of hitting the solve button for all proper names
(I would have had to look them up anyway...)
didn't help much at all. Not that many names.
Learning moments:
Thrace is a place!
Van Halen - Stay Frosty! Never heard it before! Awesome!
I must learn it!
Hmm, somethings not right, it looks too easy...
Aha! I knew it! In the comments, below "Sorry dave" I clicked on "see more"
& it goes onto list all the special guitar tunings...
Aw crap! Now I know what i want for Christmas. A whole bunch of guitars
so that I could set each one to the special tuning of songs I want to play!
(Suite Judy Blue Eyes & Love The One Your With by CSNY are tuned E,E,E,E,B,& E)
Oh well, Back to John Denver...
Note to PK:
I always check at least 3 how to(s) for discrepencies,
then the original live. Note how John does not move to a "C" bass in the intro compared to the above lesson. Plus, a 12 string to boot! (Thank goodness it is not special tuning...)
I am aware of GASTROPUBs. There seem to be quite a number of them, like this one:
Link nearby GASTROPUB
Hmm,
maybe I only need one guitar after all...
The OCELO, ILIHU and KASHI crossings were a little harsh. And Thinkpads are made by Lenovo (I'm using one right now). IBM sold their PC business to Lenovo ten years ago.
Yeah, I needed a lot of help with this. That would be OK if I'd been tickled by any of the cluing, but I can't I took much pleasure. I do credit Mr. Lim for the integrity of his creation. Nothing seemed too far fetched or overly obscure. And I did learn one term (GASTROPUB) that must be a recent innovation, in the wake I suppose of the microbrewery tide. (Thanks, Yellowrocks, for the link.)
I got beat up today. Had to turn on red letters just over half way thru and the only red was NEEDS for HASNT.
I don't get SPEC. spec to me is short for specification as on blueprints and such.
Ruth's Chris has the best steaks that I know of. I don't know if it's a southern chain or nationwide.
Never heard of GASTROPUB either.
VS - Thanks for the Izzard link - a smile on my face... The mouthful / crowing T-Shirts stories are funny but sounds apocryphal. Still, I'll repeat it 'cuz it be funny :-)
Anyone following the Shkreli fraud story? I expected this to be some old Madoff type of guy, but he's younger thant I... I thought the younger gen were supposed to be non-ass-hats.
More in the paper, I see that my Eldest's school just won State in 5A-D1 Texas football. She had a baby-sitting gig during the game but got a txt right after the 50+ -0 win. No IDEA what that means for her scholarship opportunities, but it gives name recognition to the school where she won 6th chair in alto.
I couldn't sleep last night so watched Weird Weather (or whatever) on TWC (now part-owned by IBM - Steve, Lenovo was my guess too, but 4 letters...) and saw the reason behind MACH 1 clouds. This video doesn't explain it, but it has to do w/ moist air in front of the jet compressing and then decompressing behind the wing. Cool shtuff.
Cheers, -T
Boo L. - Some writers write on SPEC - Asimov would do a 250 or 500 word story for fill (and $$) on SPEC in SciFi rags back in his day.
BTW - I love you pipin' in w/ S. Louisiana culture... You, Swamp, & Big E. make we want to run back to NOLA ASAP! I'm a kid of the mid-west, lived in North LA (Go Tech!) & Norman OK (OoooU!), and now HOU, but I love the swamplife's food and attitude. Cheers, -T
Boo Luquette - writers (and building developers) often work ON SPECULATION - they do the work, then hope they can sell it.
OCELO, ooVoo and ruth's CHRIS were a total Natick to me
Hand up for feeling the intimidation upon seeing this is a Julian Lim puzzle. Sure enough, I guess I must have psyched myself out because I flat out could not finish without looking some things up and turning on red letters. Never would have gotten SEPTA in a hundred years.
Boo, I posted a short history of Ruth's Chris up above. Hope you can find it. Chris started in N'Awlins in 1927, was bought out by Ruth Fertel in 1965 , and spread from there. Now it is national.
Bill-O: I think it means on SPECification. Perhaps spell check /auto fill got in front of you.., C, -T
H-G- You learned "VERSO, ELIHU, AMAH, ELHI" from doing crossword puzzles; you can add Jai ALAI, ARIL, ARIL, TOME, & RECTO. They show up nowhere else. ELI, Mel OTT, and RUTH's CHRIS were local people, so I already knew them along with Bobby ORR and Ernie ELS. Great fills when they are needed.
The alternative spelling of RIATA, a word rarely seen outside of crosswords or rancheros (my Mac spell checker red-lined it), as REATA strikes me as an example of a constructor bailing themselves out. I took the time to comment, in part, because preempted is already a rare example of two Es at the conjoining of two root words sans hyphen.
Shout out to everyone in the Crossword Corner community for providing such a fun place to visit.
I've gotta vote for Speculation in the spec conversation. Similarly, in the homebuilding biz, building on spec is with the hope that the house sells, rather than having a custom contract prior to start of construction. It is widely recognized as short for "speculation".
Dang five letter ropes: reata, riata, lasso, noose.
billocohoes got it right. BTW, is it Cohoes, NY?
It's 'on speculation' or 'to specification'.
Anonymous T,
Here is the Mach1 cloud explanation,
plus a really cool example@ 2:30 of shockwaves bending light.
Seems to me WAS IN is incorrect terminology because "got hot" is never used to describe a product that is sold well; rather, it's "was hot" that is as in: "Yeah, that model was hot for a while." "Got hot" is always used with regard to a person performing well for a period of time as in: "Wow, that guy got hot in the first quarter making all those shots." So it seems the the proper answer for the clue "Got hot for a while" would be WAS ON not WAS IN. And the SW area was an unfortunate mine field of propers. Just my two-cents and I'm sure someone will tell me that I've short-changed myself and others here. lol
Anonymous@11:28 Great story about the elevator! Got a good long guffaw from me!
Lot of other good comments today, too, as usual.
Not that it matters, but I got a DNF. ICHA[T] was a natick, and since unset ceramics are greenware, I had CHIN[A] SETEA. Those left me with [A]CO[ ]OUR, which I couldn't see.
Thanks for schoolin' me Argyle - I never thought about the difference between on / to re: SPEC. CED - the waves in the cloud were Awesome, Bro. Thanks. C, -T
According to an online dictionary, both meanings you guys gave above are acceptable. The first one is the most common usage.
1. Done on a speculative basis; with no assurance of profit. For example, We didn't design our house; the builder built it on spec. The use of spec as an abbreviation for speculation dates from the late 1700s.
2. As specified; right on specifications. This has been built exactly on spec—just as you asked. It's important to make sure the design is on spec or the customer will not pay.
10 Commandments
Wikipedia.com says Mount Sinai
BibleHub.com says Mount Sinai
Dltk-bible.com says Mount Sinai
Kidsbiblemaps.com says Mount Sinai
Travelexplorations.com says Mount Sinai
Abcnews.go.com says Mount Sinai but say it could be any of 30 current mountains could be that mountain, none name NEMEA
I thought Mount Sinai
What am I missing?
I did find that Hercules’ first task was to kill the NEMAN lion
What you're missing is that the clue doesn't say a thing about the 10 Commandments! I asks "Mount from which Moses saw the Promised Land" -- an event from 40 years later! God had cursed Moses that he would never enter the Promised Land, but relented enough to at least let him see it just before he died.
I think someone got off on the wrong track. Wow that's a catch 22 LOL ~!~!
What I mean is NEBO is where Moses saw the promised land. Way different place that he got the 10 commandments.
Ok I get SPEC now thanks ya'll ~!~!
Yes I do try to hold up my Cajun Culture and Heritage Thanks ya'll for the kudos ~!~!
Oops, wrong link on the 10 Commandments there, so to justify writing again, the curse wasn't because Moses had murdered anyone, but because he hit a rock with his staff when God had told him only to talk to it. Numbers 20:2-12.
(This late at night there shouldn't be much complaint about my breaking the no religion rule, but if anyone does have any comment on my links, over there is the place for it, not here please!)
Ah, there it is! Finishing the puzzle 12 hrs ago and coming back to some of these comments is as good an excuse as I can muster. Mea Culpa!
I wanted ECO TRIP for 39D – just for pun.
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