google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday Dec 13, 2015 Matt McKinley

Gary's Blog Map

Dec 13, 2015

Sunday Dec 13, 2015 Matt McKinley

Theme: - "Morning Addition" - AM is added into each theme answer.

23A. Harsh criticism of an old Pontiac? : GRAND AM SLAM. Grand slam. All but this AM addition is part of another word.

27A. Unprincipled operator? : AMORAL SURGEON. Oral surgeon. "Unprincipled operator?" describes Dave's doctor so well. 

57A. Salesperson who doesn't take your offer seriously? : AMUSED CAR DEALER. Used car dealer.

66A. Mexican dish you were warned not to eat? : CAUTIONARY TAMALES. Cautionary tales.

76A. "Missionary squad loses big in softball game"? : APOSTLES CREAMED. Apostles' Creed. The answer cracked me up.

107A. Memoirs of a penitent bookie? : ODDS AND AMENDS. Odds and ends.

117A. Really large items thrown overboard? : JUMBO JETSAM. Jumbo jets.

Funny, I solved the whole puzzle thinking "Morning Edition" is the title. It aptly sums up the gimmick, though not as perfectly as "Morning Addition".

Seven entries with a total 95 theme squares is very manageable amount of theme material. Matt went low on word count, only 138 entries today. I've yet to explore that territory. 144 and I are just so inseparable.

Across:

1. Opinionated assortment : BIASES. Skipped to next entry right away.

7. Biblical shepherd : ABEL. Not Jesus.

11. Polaris Rangers, e.g., briefly : ATVs

15. Asian cookware : WOKs. I've collected a few recipes you guys put on the Comments section occasionally. Click here if you're interested.

19. Start a bulleted list, perhaps : INDENT

20. Forecast : BODE

21. Painful, in a way : TRAUMATIC
 
25. Superman or Spider-Man : TITLE ROLE. We also have 66D. First name in superhero lore : CLARK

26. Unavoidable end : DESTINY. Got via crosses.

29. "__, I'm flying in my taxi": Harry Chapin lyric : AND ME. Never heard of the song.

31. Table salt, in chem class : NACL

32. Pool stroke : MASSÉ

33. Therapists' org. : APA

36. Corporate rule : BY-LAW

39. Something for a fan to support : THE TEAM. And 42. Fan appreciation event : BAT DAY. I like Bobblehead Days.

45. Personal: Pref. : IDIO. I put in IDEO.

47. Pleads not guilty : DENIES IT. Just could not parse my own answer.

51. Soviet cooperative : ARTEL. We had this concept in China also. Not surprising. We copied lots of things from Soviet in those earlier years.

52. Loud salutes : SALVOS

55. Type of cell or cent : RED

56. "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" constable : ODO. Learning moment to me.

61. [Uh-oh!] : GULP. [ ] hints that the answer is a sound.

62. Annual August golf tournaments, familiarly : PGAs

63. Classic theaters : RKOs. Not ODEON.

64. Aiming devices : SCOPES

71. Current king of Spain __ VI : FELIPE. His Australian wife is a fashion icon.


73. Silents star Negri : POLA. Just like TTP, I learned her name from doing crosswords.

74. Time to beware : IDES

75. Truth stretcher : LIAR

83. Rink legend : ORR

84. Tee sizes: Abbr. : SMs. OK, smalls

86. Done like Donne : POETIC. Simple in retrospect.

87. Rancor : SPITE

88. If it's orange, it's really black : PEKOE TEA. Read here. I never heard of Pekoe until I came to the US.

91. Physics unit : DYNE

92. Strengthen : BEEF UP. I'm a kind of Beef.

 

93. Race on the water : REGATTA. Also 114D. Zip (through) : SAIL

96. Kidney-related : RENAL

98. Match in size : FIT

99. Doo-wop band instruments : SAXES

102. After-hours : LATE

104. Hoods : THUGS

112. WWII bond designation : SERIES E. Unknown to me.

116. Carefree : FOOTLOOSE

119. Life partners : TRUE LOVES. Terrific stacks in this corner. I really hope Splynter finds his in 2016.

120. Snack in a stack : OREO

121. Nails the test : ACES IT

122. Doesn't have to ask about : GETS

123. Egg holder : NEST. Lovely clue.

124. Sign of boredom : YAWN

125. Techniques involving falsetto : YODELS

Down:

1. Texas city nickname : BIG D

2. About : IN RE

3. Some govt. lawyers : ADAs

4. "The Flying Dutchman" soprano : SENTA. Foreign to me.


5. Conclude with : END IN. I had END ON first.

6. One awaiting a cancellation : STAND-BY. Great clue.

7. Six-pack set : ABS

8. Two-balled weapon : BOLA

9. European cheese town : EDAM

10. Bar fruit : LEMON. D-Otto (Tom) also lost his brother John earlier this month. I can't picture a life without my brother.  

11. Hook on : ATTACH

12. Warbled : TRILLED

13. Winery fixtures : VATS

14. Course-plotting "Star Trek" crewman : SULU

15. Simulated military exercise : WAR GAME

16. Chiwere speakers : OTOES

17. Bust measurements? : KILOS. Oh, I finally got it. Narc's bust.

18. Not a good thing to make : SCENE

22. Marine myth : MERMAID. Cute, isn't it?



24. "Goodness!" : MY MY

28. Traitor : RAT

30. Woman in a "Paint Your Wagon" song : ELISA. This girl always stumps me.

33. Simple rhyme scheme : ABAA

34. Veal __ : PARM. Never had it.

35. Largest of the Near Islands : ATTU. Gimme for Spitzboov. I drew a blank.

37. Purim month : ADAR

38. Like most zoo animals : WILD

40. La., once : TERR

41. Lincoln-to-Des Moines dir. : ENE

43. Give up : DESPAIR

44. Advantage to get : A LEG UP

46. Like talent, in a Geoff Colvin best-seller : OVER-RATED. Have any of you read the book?


48. Liquid courses : SOUPS

49. Not working : IDLE. Also 65. Monty Python co-founder : CLEESE

50. Beats : TOPS

53. Vanilla-flavored, as wine : OAKY

54. Machine displaying fruit symbols : SLOT. Rigged. You just can't win.

58. Go out with : DATE

59. CBS drama since 2000 : CSI

60. Spanish "that" : ESA. Our Korean vet neighbor Andy moved away to a nursing home. A Spanish-speaking family moved in.

61. Throws a fit : GOES APE

64. Iraq's __ City : SADR

67. W, vis-à-vis E : OPP

68. Don Knotts denial : NOOP

69. Too : ALSO

70. Open __ night : MIC

71. Disaster : FLOP

72. Where the Shannon flows : EIRE

76. Fishing, perhaps : ASEA

77. Interstellar dist. : LTYR (Light-year)

78. Berlin article : EINE

79. Canine attraction : SCENT

80. Annoy : MIFF

81. Decorative sewing case : ETUI. Long time no see!

82. Cabinet part: Abbr. : DEPT.

84. Phrase on a fortuneteller's business card : SEES ALL

85. Office conf. : MTG

89. Son of Agamemnon : ORESTES. Electra's brother.

90. Travelers' references : ATLASES

92. Rogers Centre player : BLUE JAY. Only one Hall-of-Famer in Blue Jay uniform.

94. Least likely to bite : TAMEST

95. Downed : ATE

97. "Sure, I get it" : AH SO. Yellowrocks knows Japanese. In Chinese, we tend to say "Ah, it is because of so" for the "Doh moment".

99. Magic center? : SOFT G. I figured it's G, but did not think of SOFT G.

100. Be gaga over : ADORE

101. Marked for deletion : X'D OUT

103. Relish : ENJOY

105. Artist El __ : GRECO

106. Located : SITED

108. Classic showdown time : NOON. "High Noon".

109. Went off the deep end : DOVE

110. Commercial prefix with "cell" : DURA. Duracell. Gluey entry.

111. Fish-eating duck : SMEW

113. Forum infinitive : ESSE

115. First responders, for short : EMTs

118. __ mot : BON


C.C.


47 comments:

  1. Greetings!

    Thanks, Matt and CC!

    Cute theme! Clear early on.

    No cheats!

    Just worked Saturday! No cheats! Pretty easy. Did not do so well on Friday. Very tired, if you'll pardon my excuse.

    So sorry, Lemonade.

    Really late for bed!

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cross Eyed Dave, I hope you saw the thoughts and suggestions I posted last night concerning your Dr. situation.

    Best of Luck!

    ReplyDelete
  3. So much for a good week-end. Sunday isn't supposed to be as bad as Fri or Sat, but this one killed me. with a MACE before a BOLA. A scattering of white in the NW, and about half the SW sector. Finally turned on the red, and whatever wasn't white in the SW lit up. Bah.

    No poems today, back to struggling with this misbegotten OS.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Morning, all!

    Got the theme at CAUTIONARY TAMALES and that really helped a lot with the other theme answers. Very fun theme overall.

    I struggled with some of the non-theme stuff, however. The NW was the last to fall, what with the unknown SENTA and AND ME, plus the fact that I had END ON instead of END IN. Elsewhere, it took a long time to see (and finally accept as valid) XDOUT and NOOP. SOFT G also held me up for awhile, but at least I didn't have any trouble accepting it once I figured it out.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good morning!

    Fun puzzle. Lots of CSO's in this one: Lucina with TAMALES, Husker with the Lincoln clue, Canadian Eh! with the BLUE JAY. And C.C., why does your place card say "Beef?" Is that so the server knows what you advance-ordered?

    GRAND AM SLAM sounds like breakfast at Denny's. ARTEL used to be common in cw's. I threw that one down immediately. Wanted that Paint Your Wagon gal to be MARIA, as in "They call the wind..." The CSI clue needs updating -- that series is over and gone.

    Turned out to be a quick solve, but I liked it. Thanks for the explanations, C.C.

    ReplyDelete
  6. APOSTLES CREAMED was the most fun but it is also the only theme fill requiring a letter change.

    AND ME ? NOOP and NOON, SENTA CLAUS?

    Interesting to see OVERRATED after yesterday's discussion

    ReplyDelete
  7. What do you mean "requiring a letter change," Lemon? The only outlier I see is GRAND AM SLAM with that extra AM in SLAM.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Slow start, and a slow finish, but most of it went pretty smoothly. The theme showed up early with amoral surgeon, but I couldn't get off TransAm Slam. So the right side filled and the left went begging. Favorite theme answer was odds and amends. Thanks for the expo, C.C. And it's interesting to know you are a beef. :-)

    I woke up early before the paper had arrived, so I watched some weather. One thing they talked about was a huge storm in the Aleutians, and I thought "it's been a long time since we've seen Attu. Lo and behold....

    I'm very sorry to hear about the recent passing of your brother, Tom. My condolences.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The theme showed up early with AMORAL SURGEON, but at first I thought the AM had to be at the beginning. When I conceded that point things went well until the NW, the last to fall. GRAND AM SLAM was kind of an anomaly and I hesitated to write it. Once I put it in, the NW fell into place. Fun!

    ReplyDelete
  10. CED, I learned the hard way that many doctors do not have the authority to promise verbally to accept only what the insurance pays. More and more doctors belong to a consortium which sets the fees. Alan's urologist was paid in full while he was in the hospital. When Alan was an outpatient the doctor said he would not charge above the Medicare rate. He did not accept our secondary insurance. When I received the bill I questioned it and was told the doctor cannot set the rates himself. We paid, but the amount did not break the bank. Now I know not to accept such assurances.
    I assume you have Medicare. If $20,000 was the 20% Medicare does not pay, was the entire bill $100,000 or does your doctor not accept Medicare. I find medical billing is often in error and check things out thoroughly before I pay.
    BTW, how is your daughter?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Shouldn't 34 down include "abbr."?

    ReplyDelete
  12. PARM is just an accepted short alternate to parmesan; a separate word.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Good Morning:

    This was one of the more enjoyable Sunday offerings, for me, anyway. Caught the theme early which was telegraphed by the title, so that helped a lot. There were a couple of areas that needed perps but it was basically smooth sailing. I'm sure Lucina's tamales need no caution, except, maybe, to not eat too many!

    Thanks, Matt, for a nice start to the day and thanks, CC, for the informative expo.

    CED, I hope everything is okay with your daughter and good luck straightening out the medical mess.

    Tom, belated condolences on the loss of your brother.

    Have a great day.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Good Morning all. Thank you Matt (very clever puzzle) and thank you CC (always a great write-up). First things first. Did not know SENTA and never thought about S for BIASES. Should have mentally ran through the 'alpha bits' and considered it. Did it earlier for the K in OAKY / RKOS cross. But, was pressed for time. Heading later to the sports bar for the Steelers / Bengals game...

    CC, and Theda Bara and Lillian Gish. If not for crosswords, probably never would have known of any of them.

    As requested, here's the 1D music moment, courtesy of Mark Chestnutt Goin' Through The Big D (w/ lyrics). A man reflects on his divorce... Country can be so fun.

    Painful in a way ? A neighbor's Boxer pushed through the doorway late Friday afternoon as she opened it for company, ran out and attacked the TAMEST poodle being walked down the street. It was TRAUMATIC for all concerned. The poodle will be fine. The neighbor will be lighter in the wallet after the emergency hospital bills.

    And SCENT for canine attraction ? Tell me about it. With this El Nino weather pattern, plenty of dog walkers have been out, and the mile and a half to two mile walks with my boy have been talking much longer than they should. Still, he's always under my control when we are "out."

    I entered addict at 'hook on' (damned pushers !) but was able to recover (get it ?) and move forward in a positive manner. Liked the clue 'W, vis-à-vis E' as the structure of it threw me off, and caused a silent 'What ?'

    I got OVER RATED easily because in reading yesterday's comments this morning, it was used by posters so often in describing Sinatra. PK's "scrawny" and follow on comments made me chuckle.

    The clues and answers at 87A and 80D seem to capture the essence of some of the back and forth SALVOS and retorts we endure to enjoy each others company here.

    65D CLEESE should be a no brainer for Anon-T.

    My condolences D-O.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I don't understand people who don't carry medical insurance, and then complain when they need medical care. Surely, the money they saved on premiums can pay for the care they need. Or they learn the lesson about why people carry medical insurance.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Thanks Matt for a fun themed puzzle and CC for your great write-up.

    For some reason, the link you gave for ORANGE PEKOE didn't work, but
    THIS_ONE should. It seems to imply that my tea bags can't be true ORANGE PEKOE, but are "broken", or BOP in abbrev.

    I turned on the red letters from the start on this one.
    I need a list of all the food abbreviations, like PARM etc. that are now considered main-stream. Not to mention the wine ones like OAKY I am just seeing in puzzles. Why is Vanilla-flavor OAKY?

    My condolences to d-otto on the loss of his brother.

    VS

    ReplyDelete
  17. CED, It may be different now, but also check if you insurance has a yearly cap on out-of-pocket expenses.

    VS

    ReplyDelete
  18. Veal PARM??? Geez. Why not veal PICC, for goodness sakes?? NOOP!!

    ReplyDelete
  19. 91 hits for Veal Picc, 87,600 for Veal Parm. Reason enough.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hi Y'all! Liked this puzzle, Matt. Got the theme with GRAND AM SLAM which helped with all others. I just had a little trouble trying to decide which long ones were NOT theme entries. I often had a GRAND AM parked outside my office when I kept books for the dealership.

    67D W, vis-a-vis E = OPP. What does this mean? Have no idea.

    Great Expo, C.C. Where does your brother live?

    Bust measurements = KILOS had me LOL when I finally got it.

    Doo wop band instrument: wanted trombone or trumpet because of muted "waa waa" sound. SAXES? Okay.

    Magic Center: Not the NBA Orlando Magic arena I kept trying to remember the name of.

    Don Knotts: I kept trying NOpe which I was sure he said instead of NOOP.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. E is opp W...East is opposite West.

      Oak contributes a complex of flavors to wine, a part of which is vanilla-like. I'm an oenophile, but had a trouble with that. It's an ok clue but vanilla doesn't make me think oak, and adding vanilla flavor is what I was thinking.

      What the heck is an ARTEL?

      Delete
  21. Well, I liked the theme and chuckled at CAUTIONARY TAMALES. Very clever. Some of the rest of the puzzle I just don't GET or flat out disliked, such as how vanilla flavored = OAKY (glad you asked, VirginiaSycamore) and the aforementioned veal PARM.

    LW had some heavy-duty dental work done several weeks ago and they sure screwed up the billing, over-charging us not once but twice. Fortunately it took only two phone calls to get it straightened out, and they were magnanimous enough to admit it was their error.

    Rainy and yucky here today.

    OwenKL, is the "misbegotten OS" you refer to Windows 10? I am discovering quite a few things that don't work any more since "upgrading" from Windows 7, and it is a pain getting things back to working condition.

    Yellowrocks, I regret having recommended a couple of weeks ago that you "go for it" to upgrade your Windows 7 to Windows 10. There's no hurry; as I understand it you have until the end of June next year to do it. Maybe by then they'll have worked the wrinkles out of it.

    Best wishes to you all.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Argyle, I hear ya. I did a google search too. I still don't like it, though.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anon at 12:42: "The money they saved on premiums" very well could have been used for silly little things like food, utility bills, car fuel, etc. If you get a big unexpected medical bill and don't have the money to pay it, it isn't complaining. It's horrifying! Sometimes the income just doesn't cover everything.

    ReplyDelete
  24. One more post: IN RE Windows 10, I have found that many of my problems stem from device drivers that were rendered out of date by the "upgrade." Many manufacturers have made new drivers available, but many have not yet. Unfortunately, even among those who do have new drivers, in doing an "Update the Driver" the OS almost always calims that you already have the latest driver. I have had to go to the product manufacturer's website, manually download the latest driver, and then tell the OS effectively, "Find the driver at this location on my hard drive." Then and only then will the OS install the new driver. A couple of specifics: my AMD Radeon graphics card and my TP-Link Wi-Fi adapter began intermittently failing under Windows 10. For a graphics card to fail is a disaster because the screen goes blank and you can't see anything. Fortunately the OS did detect the failure and force the driver to work again so I could see; interestingly and ironically, although the OS reported that the video drive failed and was "repaired" the OS still insisted that it was the latest driver. So, as I said, I had to manually download the latest and basically force the OS to install it. Oh, and my printer driver as well. Finally, ever since the latest update, my Outlook doesn't work right and insists in running in "Safe Mode."

    ReplyDelete
  25. I LOVE THIS CROSSWORD ANSWER FINDS. IT HELPS ME TO BETTER MY SISTER!!!!!! HA HA HA..... SEE YOU NEXT SUNDAY. SIGNED PITSTOP.

    ReplyDelete
  26. PITSTOP SAYS HOORAY FOR THIS CROSSWORD SITE. I CAN NOW DO IT IN PEN!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Matt’s puzzle was a ray of sunshine on this rainy A.M. The title gave me the gimmick and I chuckled at each of them but like C.C., I thought APOSTLES CREAMED was exceptional!

    Musings
    -Men carrying JUMBO JETSAM
    -BI _ _ _ S yielded BIGOTS first
    -Jesus was a carpenter and none of his APOSTLES were shepherds
    -Common pool room sign
    -50,000 fans in the Bronx with BATS. What could possibly go wrong?
    -GULP, we left him on Mars! The Martian was well worth the 2h 20m!
    -SM MD at LG (Criminal fortune teller on the lam)
    -A lot of THUGS run rampant in North Omaha because the “code” says don’t RAT
    -I doubt Frankie Valle ever YODELED
    -Seinfeld – They’re called STAND BY’s because they STAND and wave BYE when the plane leaves
    -Tom Hanks’ first big movie role was in -a Ron Howard movie with a MERMAID
    -American soil was attacked at Pearl Harbor and ATTU in WWII
    -Liquid courses made me think of wine, which made me think of Marti! Miss her!
    -A 4 pm Fac. MTG. is the bane of all teachers!
    -Did anyone else think of this Magic center?

    ReplyDelete
  28. PK @ 1:45, well said. My thoughts exactly.
    Jayce, thanks for the update in re Windows 10, confirming what I expected. I heard of many frustrations with it so I waited. My techie friend advised me against Windows 8. Maybe Windows 10 is another bomb.
    So many short cuts like veal parm are in the language these days.
    Although I enjoy red wine, I do not "get"the descriptions of vanilla, oaky, raspberry overtones, etc. I may not be a connoisseur, but I know what I like. I have picked up the lingo, but do not relate to it.

    ReplyDelete
  29. To me, "vanilla-flavored" means having had vanilla flavoring added to it, as opposed to the "hints of" and "overtones of" various aromas and tastes that a wine connoisseur can discern in the "nose" and in the "mouth." When a wine reviewer says something like "hints of cassis" surely he/she is not saying that the wine is "cassis flavored" as if cassis extract had been added to it. "Oaky" doesn't mean "oak flavored" as far as I can tell. That's why I thought that clue was incongruous. And that's five postings, so this is Jayce signing out for the day.

    ReplyDelete
  30. DOVE is a bird. The past tense of "dive" is "dived."

    And it's open MIKE night, not open MIC. This is simply a misspelling. If the fill-in is to be MIC, the clue needs an "abbr."

    And, finally – just an alternative, folks – how 'bout "Condl. deed" for MTG, 'steada "Office conf."?

    ReplyDelete
  31. "Techie friend" is haughty when espoused by Yellowrocks. She is so above techie.

    ReplyDelete
  32. C.C. - you should try some Veal PARMesan at an Italian restaurant; it's soooo good.

    I hate it when 1A is on of the last to fill. BIG-D was easy and 5D had END_ _, but @D was either AS TO or IN RE so I moved on and filled the rest, slowly. The theme popped up at AMORAL SURGEON. I just has a few unknowns, SENTA, ARTEL, FELIPE, and ORESTES, but the clues were cleverly confusing. The 'Bust measurements' and 'Advantage to get' were great for KILOS and A LEG UP. I wonder why KILO is mentioned, people always assume KILOgram, not KILOmeter, KILOcalorie ( C not c), or KILOcycle.

    NOOP- I've never seen NOPE spelled that way and I haven't listened to Barney Fife in a while.
    DESPAIR- never heard it used as a verb.

    OVER RATED- I disagree with Colvin; if you don't have the talent, you can practice all you want and have the mental discipline to stick to it, but you can't teach speed, moves, the ability to sing the correct note or play an instrument. When it comes to the elite, they need that first; the rest comes with teaching, coaching, practice, and mental toughness.

    ReplyDelete
  33. The Don Knott's "NOOP!" was from the Man on the Street skit on the Steve Allen Show.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Hello, friends! Busy day today so had to finish this by hit and miss. I enjoyed the theme once I got it. CAUTIONARHY TAMALES, ha, ha. Much to love here especially a new cluing for OREO, snack in a stack. Had to work out OVERRATED as I had never heard of the book.

    Back to work. My family is coming over for a deferred birthday party since I wasn't feeling well on the actual day, last Sunday. I decided to decorate the table in Christmas motif so the dishes and linens are now out of the shed and we'll use them for the duration.

    Thank you, Matt and C.C. I'll have to savor the grid later when everyone is gone.

    I hope your day has been stupendous, everyone!

    ReplyDelete
  35. Good evening everyone.

    Enjoyable puzzle today. Solve went well enough. Sussed the theme gimmick early.
    ATTU - One of 2 islands in the western Aleutians captured by Japan in WWII; the other is Kiska which is one of the Rat islands.
    WAR GAMES -Took a course in war gaming at the Naval War College in Newport in 1968.

    CED - Sorry about your medical flap. Don't hesitate to contact the medical insurance and health depts in your state and let your providers know you are doing so.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Argyle, great Man in the Street clip! Thanks. It brought back fond memories.

    CED, continued good wishes re. those two issues (and everybody issues too!). Let us know how both turn out please.

    Veal parmesan is good; veal piccata is better than good!

    I know some wines are aged in charred oak casks, hence their oaky flavor.

    Well, that was fun! Years ago, our town decided against a 4th of July fireworks display because of all of the celebratory rowdiness. So instead, they decided to have a Christmas-time display. Tonight was the night! (Reminds me of an old joke...) Anyway, it was raining a bit and Barbara started whinging about skipping it. But I insisted we put on our big boy pants and go anyway. We headed toward our preferred parking area (on a hill overlooking the pier) but before we go there, we could hear a boom and see the first blossom. So I found another street with a perfect view and we pulled in front of a driveway. Perfect! The display seems to get a little better each year (probably a little new technology in an old art form). It was really good. I'm jazzed!

    ReplyDelete
  37. I'm sure you know the new "Star Wars" is coming out soon. I really enjoyed the first one; the others, not so much. Far be it from me to criticize such a successful franchise but I will anyway. A couple of nits immediately come to mind.

    One was Jar Jar Binks, a very annoying character that didn't seem to contribute anything positive.

    But the biggest turkey was Chewbacca. He actually had a fairly big part but to what end? You couldn't understand anything he/she/it said and became tiresome (for me) very quickly. Han Solo might have benefitted with a real significant sidekick; like Tonto to the Lone Ranger or Dr. Watson or Ralph Cramden's Ed Norton, Rose Tyler, Archie Goodwin, Barney Fife, Spencer's Hawk, Igor, Mr. Spock. Did I miss any? (Your favorites?)

    (Rose Tyler was certainly the best looking of the bunch.)

    ReplyDelete
  38. Bill G - Just out of curiosity, why the change to Bill Graham and a different (although remembered) avatar?

    CED, hope all is well.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Irish Miss, geez! I hadn't noticed. I didn't make any changes intentionally. Maybe it's because Firefox on my old Mac was working oddly and I switched to Chrome, a Google product.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Lurker say...

    NOOP* == NO OPerations;
    null commands to the CPUs
    before I slide into memory
    and haxor youz.

    (Owen - haikuz it up pleaz) :-)

    Bill G. - I noticed the avatar change yesterday too and was curious.

    Re: Jar Jar, I fully agree -- annoying. However, they (the race) were @ the end of Episode III celebrating when DSII was destroyed IIRC. Warning - don't go dissin' Chewey -- you're messin' w/ dogma there dude. :-)

    Veal PARM is, like, you know, totally acceptable in today's vernacular. Yeah,,, whatever...

    Last note - thanks Argyle for the Knot's clip... That was funny.

    Cheers, -Sunday Lurk
    *It's NOP on most CPUs but you can still smash the stack for fun. I assume only TTP will (or has) read it. -T

    ReplyDelete
  41. So here I am back on Firefox. It is acting oddly but maybe I'll be back to my normal sign-in and avatar. We'll see.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Yeah, that looks like what I'm used to. But Firefox isn't working well any more. Maybe it's finally time to spring for a new iMac with a new OS. I never like to do that because I get frustrated when old things don't work right anymore and I've got to get used to new stuff. I never used to think of myself as a Luddite but it's gradually creeping up on me as I get older.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Fun puzzle. Took a long time but I finished with no cheats.
    PK: "W"est and "E"ast are "OPP"osite directions.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Good Tuesday afternoon, folks. Thank you, Matt McKinley, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for a fine review.

    Well, this took me the better part of three days to finish, but I got it!

    Theme was very good. Clever. But, they did not come easy. My last to get was CAUTIONARY TAMALES.

    I had BOARD for 36A for the longest time. Finally figured something was wrong there. I wrote in MY MY for 24D and that was the key to unlock BY LAW. With that I was able to finish the puzzle. Phew!

    Veal PARM took me a while. I thought the abbreviated PARM would have had an abbreviation in the clue. Guess not.

    I won't drone on forever since no will read this anyway due to being a couple days late. Merry Christmas.

    Abejo

    ( )

    ReplyDelete

For custom-made birthday, anniversary or special occasion puzzles from C.C., please email crosswordc@gmail.com

Her book "Sip & Solve Easy Mini Crosswords" is available on Amazon.

Please click on Comments Section Abbrs for some blog-specific terms.

Please limit your posts to 5 per day and cap each post length at about 20 lines in Preview mode.

No politics, no religion and no personal attacks.