Theme: Read all about it. Names of magazines begin each theme entry clued in a hilarity-ensues fashion.
20. Financial magazine tracking device? : FORTUNE COOKIE. Cookie in the web browser context. For any nerds out there, the original computing cookie actually was called a fortune cookie because it contained an embedded message.
37. Newsstand selling many a human-interest magazine? : PEOPLE MOVER. My local newsstand on Laurel Canyon sells about a million titles. I don't know how the owner keeps track of them all.
44. Keeping cool with a fashion magazine? : ELLE FANNING. Teen actress, and sister of the perhaps better-known Dakota.
59. Rolled-up news magazine drifting at sea? : TIME IN A BOTTLE. This was apparently a Jim Croce hit in 1972. I'm guessing it didn't make the charts in the UK as I'd never heard of it, and listening to it on YouTube I have to confess I don't think I missed much.
Good day, all! Steve here reporting from snowy Denver and feeling glad that I remembered to pack my gloves and scarf. Scraping the snow off the windshield isn't something that I have to do very often in Studio City!
A straightforward enough theme with some Thursday-level cluing misdirection. The middle-top section came last for me due to some biblical name amnesia and aforementioned clue-trickeration.
Let's see what else we can find.
Across:
1. Covenant : BOND
5. Poorest : WORST
10. Eldest son on "Bonanza" : ADAM. "Madam, I'm Adam".
14. Snack choice : OREO. If I had a dollar for every time I've filled this into a grid, I'd have .... a lot of dollars.
15. Eldest son of Cain : ENOCH
16. City ENE of Petaluma : NAPA. It's also WSW of Sacramento and NNE of San Francisco for the direction-trivia fans in our midst.
17. Musically off : FLAT
18. Stage __ : ACTOR
19. A four beats it : TREY. Here's aptly-numbered Trey Burke, Utah Jazz point guard.
23. Earliest stage : ONSET
24. Abbr. on a business card : TEL
25. Family guy : DAD
28. Credit card bill list : DEBTS. Odd clue - I'd say a credit card bill is a list of charges, not debts.
32. Development sites : UTERI. Not a word most people use pretty much - ever.
34. World currency org. : I.M.F. The International Monetary Fund.
40. Spring tide counterpart : NEAP. The spring tide is when there is the greatest distance between low and high tide. The neap tide is when there is the least difference.
42. Pleasant surprise : TREAT
43. Salon option : TINT
47. Wager : LAY
48. Green sauce : PESTO Food! What to make when you've got a shed-load of basil. Traditionally made with pine nuts, but these are so expensive nowadays almonds are often substituted.
49. Horse-drawn wagons : DRAYS. I enjoyed this. I used to live near Young's Brewery in London and they continued to deliver beer to local pubs by dray well into the 1980's. The horses were more economical over short distances than diesel-fueled trucks.
51. Golf bag item : TEE
52. One who helps break the case : RAT
55. Piece between steps : RISER. Do you know your nosings from your stringers? Staircases are fraught with specialist vocabulary.
64. Biblical preposition : UNTO. Topically "Unto us a child is born".
66. Pot boiler : STOVE
67. Camera feature : IRIS
68. Singer Redbone : LEON. Thanks, crosses. I need to "bone" up on my Cyprus-born Canadian/American ragtime/jazz singers.
69. Bygone : OLDEN
70. Au naturel : NUDE. Stop snickering at the back.
71. Deep-six : TOSS. Originally referred to a depth of six fathoms, or 36 feet. It was difficult to recover something from this far below the surface.
72. Dukes and barons : PEERS
73. Proofreading mark : STET
Down:
1. Smashing, in show biz : BOFFO. I love this word, and the various headlines in Variety magazine that spawn some great slang words: "Boffo at the B.O."
2. Synthetic fabric : ORLON. Fill in ON and wait for the crosses.
3. Verges on : NEARS
4. Like staccato notes : DOTTED "Dit dit dit dit dit dit ....."
5. Withdraw by degrees : WEAN. Tricky area for me here today. This and the next four downs caused some slow going.
6. Back in the day : ONCE. I tried "THEN" first, and along with trying OPEC below I was way off base.
7. Drilling gp. : ROTC. Parade ground drilling, not oil wells.
8. Hotfoot it : SCOOT
9. Sharp pang : THROE. Not often felt outside of crosswords. The plural is more likely to be encountered in day-to-day speech, and often misused. You need to be in the middle of something painful or unpleasant to be "in the throes of" that situation.
10. Not backing : ANTI
11. Big risk taker : DAREDEVIL
12. Gorilla, for one : APE
13. Possibly will : MAY
21. The Miners of Conf. USA : U.T.E.P. Nailed it! University of Texas at El Paso.
22. "Project Runway" host : KLUM. I know of Heidi, I don't know the show. A friend of mine occasionally provides security for her in Los Angeles, and describes her as completely down-to-earth and a pleasure to work for.
26. Sports spot : ARENA
27. Unscrupulous : DIRTY
29. __ blocker : BETA. Commonly taken to alleviate high blood pressure caused by misuse of the word "throes".
30. In a quandary : TORN
31. Lay out : SPEND
33. Preschooler : TOT
34. All thumbs : INEPT. There is no good reason that I can find why "ept" is not a word meaning "capable".
35. Fracas : MELEE
36. Some doo-wop voices : FALSETTOS. High ones.
38. Bestial hideaway : LAIR
39. Mount near Catania : ETNA. I didn't know where Catania was, but it didn't stop me from filling this in without a thought.
41. Like a preferred theory : PET
45. Diving judge's concern : FORM
46. Sandwich with tzatziki sauce : GYRO. Yum! Here-o, jeer-o, jire-o, whatever you like to call it.
50. Peaceful protests : SIT-INS
53. Notable author of animal tales : AESOP
54. Proof of ownership : TITLE
56. Walk like Jagger : STRUT. A little late in the expo for a music link, but I couldn't resist this one. Here's Maroon 5 and Christine Aguilera. Check out the interview clips with a very young Mick. If you're a Stones fan like me, be sure to look out for the documentary "Crossfire Hurricane" if you ever see it pop up on your TV listings.
57. Skip over, in speech : ELIDE
58. Pedometer button : RESET
60. Physics particles : IONS
61. Point of connection : NODE
62. State categorically : AVER
63. Uncle __ : BEN'S. I buy my rice in 10lb sacks from the Asian markets for about the same price as an 8oz box of the supermarket brands.
64. Final: Abbr. : ULT
65. Prefix with con : NEO. Although usually used to refer to a neo-conservative, the word actually is a trademark of the group who organizes an annual commercial interior design exposition. Who knew?
That's about it from me. Heading back to the warmer climes of SoCal after my brief dose of a Colorado winter. See you all next week!
Steve
20. Financial magazine tracking device? : FORTUNE COOKIE. Cookie in the web browser context. For any nerds out there, the original computing cookie actually was called a fortune cookie because it contained an embedded message.
37. Newsstand selling many a human-interest magazine? : PEOPLE MOVER. My local newsstand on Laurel Canyon sells about a million titles. I don't know how the owner keeps track of them all.
44. Keeping cool with a fashion magazine? : ELLE FANNING. Teen actress, and sister of the perhaps better-known Dakota.
59. Rolled-up news magazine drifting at sea? : TIME IN A BOTTLE. This was apparently a Jim Croce hit in 1972. I'm guessing it didn't make the charts in the UK as I'd never heard of it, and listening to it on YouTube I have to confess I don't think I missed much.
Good day, all! Steve here reporting from snowy Denver and feeling glad that I remembered to pack my gloves and scarf. Scraping the snow off the windshield isn't something that I have to do very often in Studio City!
A straightforward enough theme with some Thursday-level cluing misdirection. The middle-top section came last for me due to some biblical name amnesia and aforementioned clue-trickeration.
Let's see what else we can find.
Across:
1. Covenant : BOND
5. Poorest : WORST
10. Eldest son on "Bonanza" : ADAM. "Madam, I'm Adam".
14. Snack choice : OREO. If I had a dollar for every time I've filled this into a grid, I'd have .... a lot of dollars.
15. Eldest son of Cain : ENOCH
16. City ENE of Petaluma : NAPA. It's also WSW of Sacramento and NNE of San Francisco for the direction-trivia fans in our midst.
17. Musically off : FLAT
18. Stage __ : ACTOR
19. A four beats it : TREY. Here's aptly-numbered Trey Burke, Utah Jazz point guard.
23. Earliest stage : ONSET
24. Abbr. on a business card : TEL
25. Family guy : DAD
28. Credit card bill list : DEBTS. Odd clue - I'd say a credit card bill is a list of charges, not debts.
32. Development sites : UTERI. Not a word most people use pretty much - ever.
34. World currency org. : I.M.F. The International Monetary Fund.
40. Spring tide counterpart : NEAP. The spring tide is when there is the greatest distance between low and high tide. The neap tide is when there is the least difference.
42. Pleasant surprise : TREAT
43. Salon option : TINT
47. Wager : LAY
48. Green sauce : PESTO Food! What to make when you've got a shed-load of basil. Traditionally made with pine nuts, but these are so expensive nowadays almonds are often substituted.
49. Horse-drawn wagons : DRAYS. I enjoyed this. I used to live near Young's Brewery in London and they continued to deliver beer to local pubs by dray well into the 1980's. The horses were more economical over short distances than diesel-fueled trucks.
51. Golf bag item : TEE
52. One who helps break the case : RAT
55. Piece between steps : RISER. Do you know your nosings from your stringers? Staircases are fraught with specialist vocabulary.
64. Biblical preposition : UNTO. Topically "Unto us a child is born".
66. Pot boiler : STOVE
67. Camera feature : IRIS
68. Singer Redbone : LEON. Thanks, crosses. I need to "bone" up on my Cyprus-born Canadian/American ragtime/jazz singers.
69. Bygone : OLDEN
70. Au naturel : NUDE. Stop snickering at the back.
71. Deep-six : TOSS. Originally referred to a depth of six fathoms, or 36 feet. It was difficult to recover something from this far below the surface.
72. Dukes and barons : PEERS
73. Proofreading mark : STET
Down:
1. Smashing, in show biz : BOFFO. I love this word, and the various headlines in Variety magazine that spawn some great slang words: "Boffo at the B.O."
2. Synthetic fabric : ORLON. Fill in ON and wait for the crosses.
3. Verges on : NEARS
4. Like staccato notes : DOTTED "Dit dit dit dit dit dit ....."
6. Back in the day : ONCE. I tried "THEN" first, and along with trying OPEC below I was way off base.
7. Drilling gp. : ROTC. Parade ground drilling, not oil wells.
8. Hotfoot it : SCOOT
9. Sharp pang : THROE. Not often felt outside of crosswords. The plural is more likely to be encountered in day-to-day speech, and often misused. You need to be in the middle of something painful or unpleasant to be "in the throes of" that situation.
10. Not backing : ANTI
11. Big risk taker : DAREDEVIL
12. Gorilla, for one : APE
13. Possibly will : MAY
21. The Miners of Conf. USA : U.T.E.P. Nailed it! University of Texas at El Paso.
22. "Project Runway" host : KLUM. I know of Heidi, I don't know the show. A friend of mine occasionally provides security for her in Los Angeles, and describes her as completely down-to-earth and a pleasure to work for.
26. Sports spot : ARENA
27. Unscrupulous : DIRTY
29. __ blocker : BETA. Commonly taken to alleviate high blood pressure caused by misuse of the word "throes".
30. In a quandary : TORN
31. Lay out : SPEND
33. Preschooler : TOT
34. All thumbs : INEPT. There is no good reason that I can find why "ept" is not a word meaning "capable".
35. Fracas : MELEE
36. Some doo-wop voices : FALSETTOS. High ones.
38. Bestial hideaway : LAIR
39. Mount near Catania : ETNA. I didn't know where Catania was, but it didn't stop me from filling this in without a thought.
41. Like a preferred theory : PET
45. Diving judge's concern : FORM
46. Sandwich with tzatziki sauce : GYRO. Yum! Here-o, jeer-o, jire-o, whatever you like to call it.
50. Peaceful protests : SIT-INS
53. Notable author of animal tales : AESOP
54. Proof of ownership : TITLE
56. Walk like Jagger : STRUT. A little late in the expo for a music link, but I couldn't resist this one. Here's Maroon 5 and Christine Aguilera. Check out the interview clips with a very young Mick. If you're a Stones fan like me, be sure to look out for the documentary "Crossfire Hurricane" if you ever see it pop up on your TV listings.
57. Skip over, in speech : ELIDE
58. Pedometer button : RESET
60. Physics particles : IONS
61. Point of connection : NODE
62. State categorically : AVER
63. Uncle __ : BEN'S. I buy my rice in 10lb sacks from the Asian markets for about the same price as an 8oz box of the supermarket brands.
64. Final: Abbr. : ULT
65. Prefix with con : NEO. Although usually used to refer to a neo-conservative, the word actually is a trademark of the group who organizes an annual commercial interior design exposition. Who knew?
That's about it from me. Heading back to the warmer climes of SoCal after my brief dose of a Colorado winter. See you all next week!
Steve
Note from C.C.:
I'd like to introduce you to Adopt an Inmate, a cause Melissa has been championing the past two years. Read that article in Melissa's blog post. I can't tell you what a caring and inspiring sister Melissa is.
49 comments:
Good morning! Thanks @Steve for your fun writeup of @Jeff Stillman's interesting puzzle.
If I may change the subject, I've collaborated with some friends (my wife @Barbara, and @Brent Hartzell and @Karen Kaler) to create a super-easy sports-themed puzzle especially for today, for reasons that will become obvious as you solve it. Please try Back-and-Forth in Omaha ... and we hope you enjoy it.
Greetings!
Thanks, Jeff and Steve!
Fun puzzle. Great theme!
Only hitch was putting in STAGE coach before actor.
Cheers!
Morning, all!
Had trouble getting started today after confidently sticking in OATH at 1A. I didn't get that fixed until I finished the rest of the puzzle and went back to see why nothing else worked in that corner. BOND just seems off to me, but I'm sure it's legitimate.
I then shot myself in the foot a bit by putting PAUL at 22D instead of KLUM. I was, of course, thinking of RUPAUL and for some reason thought that RU was his first name... This seemed to work with UTERI, but I couldn't figure out why TEA would be on a business card.
Everything else was fairly smooth today, although it took me a little time to accept that Uncle BEN'S could exist as a stand-alone phrase (Uncle BEN's what?). Minor nit, though. Also, I swear the only ENOCH I remember from the Bible was the descendant of Seth who was the ancestor of Noah. Guess it's been awhile since I actually read the Old Testament...
Good morning!
For about the third time this week I confidently put the wrong word at 1a.: PACT. To quote Barry, "BOND just seems off to me, but I'm sure it's legitimate." My drilling gp. was OPEC, and that didn't help, either. Things got easier (and faster) further down. Liked it, Jeff.
Jim Croce was probably before your time, Steve. That song was on the charts back in '72. Leon Redbone is also an oldie, probably best known for this song (2:43). Steve, I had not heard/seen "shed load" before -- I plan to steal it. And, yes, I do know what nosings and stringers are -- I'm a fan of This Old House.
PACT instead of BOND; OPEC instead of ROTC. Those both slowed me down, but eventually got changed. Got 'er done in about my normal Thursday time. Thanks for a fun CW, Jeff. Thanks for a nice write-up, Steve.
The Greek sandwich is a GYROS, not a GYRO.
And isn't "Stage ACTOR" a bit redundant?
My dictionary says GYRO is correct:
gyro 2 |ˈyērō|
noun (pl. gyros) N. Amer.
a sandwich made with slices of spiced meat cooked on a spit, served with salad in pita bread.
That ACTOR could be on the stage, screen, radio or television, etc. "Stage" pins it down.
Steve: Nice write-up & links. Especially enjoyed the DRAY picture.
Living in Tarpon Springs, with just a bit of the Greek Culture, you can't swing a leg-of-lamb without seeing an establishment that prepares and sells GYRO sandwich's.
Of course their signs out-front say GYROS ... because they make more than one kind of GYRO.
Hmmm, that gives me an idea about what to have for lunch today.
Cheers!
This was a Thursday puzzle with a Monday's difficulty. Heidi KLUM was the only easy guessable unknown. After FORTUNE COOKIE and PEOPLE MOVER I thought their might be a Time-Life magazine group reveal. Lo and behold, we got TIME IN A BOTTLE, and let's sic 'Big Bad Leroy Brown' on Steve for being unfamiliar with the song. They can call the OPERATOR for his address, because 'YOU DON'T MESS AROUND WITH JIM', Croce (RIP) that is.
I still UTEP Texas Western as I remember it from the OLDEN days. I think the clue for DOTTED is unfair to the those who have never learned to read sheet music. I always think of DOTTED in music as 1.5 times the length of the note, as in a 'dotted quarter note'.
fermatprime- I also thought of stage COACH before filling ACTOR as I always mentally check at least one perp before putting the ink on the paper.
Good morning everyone.
Great intro, Steve. Thanks
Ultimately got it all with only 2 strikethroughs; had OPEc before ROTC and lens before IRIS.
Funny; never thought of our Navy ROTC as a drilling group. Mostly classroom work; earning 3 semester hours credit per semester. Parade ground marching only in good weather, which in Troy meant none in the winter at all.
Agree with Steve on 28a - DEPTS.
DEEP-SIX - Part of my vocabulary. When we were outside the 50 mile limit, Main Control in engineering would request permission once a watch to DUMP, PUMP and BLOW. (Dump garbage, pump bilges, and blow tubes (firesides of boilers.))
Not too many GYROS available out here in the sticks of SW WI. But my "must have at least once" every time we're in Germany is its Turkish cousin, the Döner Kebab. Messy if you don't get them on a plate, but delicious.
I had TEL early on, but never having heard THROE used singularly, I thought all that would fit for 9D was THROB, despite not thinking THROB meant the same as sharp pang, so that messed things up a bit. UTEP was a complete mystery to this non sport non Texan, as was the concept of a dot on musical notes. As I always say, music is one language I don't know. I should add sport to that list.
Hello, all.
I was off all over the place today as some of you have already stated. I wanted something dental and then oil for ROTC. Absolutely pact for BOND. BOFFO eluded my today. Axis for NODE. I thought I would have to TOSS this, but I walked away and then began anew. I liked LAY for that wager. Thanks, Jeff.
Thanks, Steve. I envy you for that newsstand! Enjoy the snow before you leave.
Have a great day.
This was a fun romp. Three of the four theme answers came easily, but I've no familiarity with Elle Fanning, so that had be all perps. Got through it in about the normal time. Enjoyable puzzle and great expo, Steve.
While you're in Denver, you might see if the Parthenon is still open on E Colfax. I had my first Gyro there years ago. It's still by far the best I've ever experienced. I think I had a tastebudgasm.
Good morning all. Thank you Jeff and Steve.
It seemed like I couldn't get on a roll, but since I was making steady progress jumping around, I kept doing it that way. Then got to 59A and with T-------OTTLE in place, saw the first theme answer. PEOPLE MOVER came next, and then FORTUNE TELLER. Wanted MONEY something there at first.
Almost crashed and burned with OPEC before ROTC, but stage ACTOR gave me that change. Ditto with SPLAY before SPEND, with both DRAYS and TREAT making me reconsider. Lay out = SPEND, and made me think of flip flop outlay = expenditure. Or, spend and (money) spent. Neat.
An eventual FIW today. 2 errors. 2 cells. A lack of sleep doesn't BODE well for solving late week puzzles.
First ruled out pact in the NW, and eventually ended up with BaND and aRLON instead of BOND and ORLON for some unknown reason. I know covenant. Signed a few when I retired, including a non-compete covenant.
Hard the hardest time with the clue "One who helps break the case" and "Notable author of animal tales", but finally saw RAT / AESOP, which proved OLDER / PEERS, but got no tada, and thus a FIW. Had no idea who Uncle BERS was. DOH ! BENS. For OLDER justification, was thinking, "From a bygone time, from an older time.."
I prefer this REDBONE.
Curse you Red Baron, er, Jeff Stillman. ☺ LEAST, OPEC, YORE, SCRAM and THROB (THROE?) held me up (like Steve) and gave me one bad cell. What a fabulous TREAT!
Musings
-It had to be COOKIE but that seemed a little esoteric for Rich to allow
-Great fun on a PEOPLE MOVER!
-Luckily for CAIN there were no jails so he could procreate
-Petaluma made famous by Charles Schulz (WSW of Napa)
-The Web will lead one to belief they have the ONSET of something horrible
-When I teach TIDES, I tell the kids that this hardly affects the Platte River!
-I’d take the hungry Huskers in their bowl game and LAY the 7 points
-We all know the long non-verbal run the Sopranos and Altos have in this part of For UNTO Us
-Speculation was that LEON was really Andy Kaufmann or Frank Zappa but he outlived them
-Bones broken by DAREDEVIL Evel Knievel
-KLUM sans makeup
-The non-violent SIT-INS of the 60’s were very effective
7D: I went with OPEC, an oil drilling group. Reasonable answer; or so I thought. I never recovered the top center area. A Thursday DNF; but not by much.
My favorite Redbone(band) : Witch Queen of New Orleans
Good Morning:
Started out slowly (and incorrectly with pact, OPEC, etc.) but, after a fashion, everything fell into place for the tada! The dray picture brought back memories of the horse-drawn delivery wagon that a local bakery used to bring our daily bread, cakes, cookies, etc. right to the front door. (Argyle, did Freihofer's deliver up your way?). Gone are the days of home delivery of bread, milk, and veggies.
Thanks, Jeff and Steve, for a just-right Thursday solve and summary. Steve, you must cook rice often to buy 10 lbs. at a time. I rarely have rice and, believe it or not, I haven't bought sugar in 13 years. Now, Dewar's is another story altogether!
It's very gloomy today with rain expected later on. Better than the white stuff, anyway.
Have a great day.
Yes, a truck stopped once a week and if we were good, we might get jelly donuts. (A rare occurrence. :~)
Not on the wavelength today, but the clues were interesting enough to keep me going. Thanks Steve, for the explanations!
Like others, I had Stage Coach before Actor, and OPEC before ROTC. But then I filled in 39d, ETNA without thinking even though I didn't know Catania.
I loved Pot Boiler for STOVE. I tried for the longest time to think of a 5- letter word for that other kind of potboiler. And when AESOP appeared from crosses I had to smile. I was working way too hard to think of a modern Save the Amnimals type writer,
Looking back, it seems easy. But I just kept tripping over my own feet..er...words. Thanks, Jeff, for the fun.
Hello, friends!
Thank you, Jeff Stillman, for this lovely challenge.
I really wanted PACT at the ONSET but knew BOFFO had to be right so went with it and finished the corner down to FORTUNE . . . eventually COOKIE appeared and thank you, Steve, for pointing out computer COOKIE. That didn't occur to me. The rest was a fairly quick sashay until the center. DEBIT and UTES held me up for an unreasonable length of time but gradually the errors dawned on me, erased them and ta-da, done.
However, THROB seemed perfectly correct and so I left it. Drat!
I guess you have to be a Jim Croce fan to like TIME IN A BOTTLE. I love it. But I'm not a Stones fan, either so none of their music appeals to me.
A shed load of basil? Hmmm. That gives me an idea to make PESTO for gift giving as my plant is enormous. Thanks, Steve.
Have a beauteous day, everyone! I have Christmas cards to mail.
I worried that I might not totally get this one because of a silly insecurity about the cross between FORM and RAT. But I went with the R, thank goodness, and so got the whole thing! Yay! Great puzzle, Jeff--with a delightful theme. And great expo, as always, Steve, except for your riff on TIME IN A BOTTLE. That Jim Croce tune is wonderful! Rowland and I used to not only listen to a Jim Croce album, but dance to the music, by ourselves, in our living room. That song just brings back such lovely memories.
Have a great Thursday, everybody!
A puzzle with STRUT, KLUM and NUDE in the grid?
Well, here's a Treat for y'all: Mandatory link
Actually no NUDE or KLUM in that link but i made you look. Disappointed? Splynter?
Cripe's what a roll I'm on. Another DNF. I refused to get off of OPEC, ROTC never crossed my mind. To make things worse, SCOOT was my only correct fill for the North Central bloc.
Everything else was OK. Chuckled at the clue/fill for 52A.
One more day for this BOFFO week, then atonement begins on Monday.
Everyone have a terrific day.
Melissa, good luck with your work with the interred. I hope it brings much success for you and the folks you will be helping. I've always been a believer in giving 2nd opportunities.
Hi gang -
This one was so far out of my wheel house . . .
Got on the wrong track with FORTUNE HUNTER
The PEOPLE MOVER is a fixture in downtown Detroit. Does anyone else relate to that fill? I thought it seemed a bit local.
I now who Heidi KLUM is but never watched her show, so missed that one.
Never heard of ELLE FANNING.
One more round for experience.
Cool regards!
JzB
Steve, I loved your blog, but once you introduce a new term or terms, you really ought to explain it, for the record. And save everyone from having to Google it. Think about all the time it would save.
For the record, .... a 'nosing' is the overhang on the horizontal 'step' (also called the 'run'), that extends past the vertical 'riser'. Like an eave, on each step - or like a nose - to provide an additional embellishment and traction for climbing, up or down. Generally rounded and sometimes edged with metal or rubber slats.
A 'stringing' is/are the vertical edge toothed template(s), mounted at a slant, that is the load bearing member of the steps and the risers, in which the steps and risers are embedded.
As for food, I prefer the Thai Jasmine rice, preferably with an elephant or elephants in the logo. Its long grained, and very fragrant, and keeps the cooked grains separate and free flowing. Your tastes may differ.
Gee, Stoic stork, that's fascinating, not!
You wanna hear an interesting thing about stairs?
Listen to Sheldon
Wow! I concede defeat! The top middle killed me...
(even looking up Enoch did not help!)
Also, Uncle (blank) = Bens threw me
& Dukes/Barons are certainly not "my" peers...
Thank you Steve, excellent write up.
I especially enjoyed learning about deep-6, & the origin of "cookies."
Also, I can never find pine nuts for my pesto, but walnuts make a great substitute.
I can understand that Time In A Bottle may not be your cup of tea,
but if they did not play Jim Croce where you live, you might be missing
something if you have not heard Operator.
It took me a week to learn his guitar part, & now I can never play it in public
as it is just not the same without that wonderful second guitar harmony.
39D Lets hope there are no other 4 letter mountains out there...(Etna is a gimme...)
Spitz @9:51, do they still do that outside the 50 mile limit?(yuck!)
HG! (@10:14) loved the people movers!
(said holy crap! at the broken bones...)
(can't repeat what I said at the Heidi Klum pic...)
Irish Miss, I remember getting milk delivered to my door in glass bottles
with tin foil tops, with an inch of cream on top. & now every time Poland
Spring delivers (you can't drink the water in Jersey...) I think,
"just like old times!" (almost...)
Bob @ 11:45, I have been so busy that I have been bookmarking a lot of links to listen/watch
later. I think it's time to go thru the backlog just to get to your link.
Personal update: The good news I rec'd yesterday turned out to be (possibly) bogus.
I am now not sure if these people are totally incompetent, or really good scam artists.
Fun theme. I had heard of ELLEN FANNING, but ELLE FANNING seemed like a type or deliberate truncation, and wondered for a while if I was missing something in the theme.
I wrote THROB in at first, like most posters here. As far as I know, THROE (singular) is hardly ever used in modern English usage. My Apple Dictonary (2011) admits only the plural form, THROES. My 1984 "Shorter Oxford Dictionary" (the first to include all the naughty words, by the way) does give THRO,E singular, as the main entry. I might accept death-throe, but the plural "in his death throes" seems more natural. It seems that THROE was chiefly associated with the twisting and writhing pains associated with childbirth or death. THROW (noun) seems to be closely related, originally meaning "twist or turn", which I assume led to the modern meaning of the word - the THROWING of a ball. etc., generally involving twisting and turning.
STEVE, I checked, and JIM CROCE only made it only to #52 in the UK singles charts at the end of 1973 (shortly after his death), but TIME IN A BOTTLE was certainly big in the juke boxes in my college-town pubs in the mid-to-late 70s. The song made the charts at the same time as MOTT THE HOOPLE (Roll away the Stone); ROXY MUSIC (Street Life); ELTON JOHN (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road); DAVID BOWIE (Laughing Gnome + Sorrow); STATUS QUO (Caroline); MUD (Dyna-Mite); not to mention Gary Glitter, Alvin Stardust, Donny Osmond, The Carpenters, inter alia. So quite a lot of competition.
NC
CED @ 1307 - What I said was 55 years ago. I think dumping of "clean" garbage is still allowed. Dunno about bilge water since it usually contains oil or oil derivatives. Saw a video of Maersk's largest and newest containership a few days ago and they claim to take all waste back to port even if some is legal to dump at sea. Voluntary on their company's part.
Thanks Spitzboov, your post rang alarm bells in my head for some reason.
Now I realize it was a 1 hour PBS special on invasive species. I don't remember
all the details, but it was something about Zebra clam/Tiger mussel causing
botulism outbreaks in the Great Lakes introduced by tanker bilge water.
Sigh! Maybe I should give up Crosswords, ignorance was such bliss...
(The following is for guitarists only...)
How I learned to play Operator.
Sadly, it is not the same without the duet harmony guitar.
& there is not such a detailed lesson as the above out there...
If anyone wants to learn to main part, I will learn the lead harmony
if you want to do a duet?
(Sorry CC, but it is hard to find guitar partners...)
STEVE
INEPT vs. INAPT. INEPT comes direct from Latin, and meant IN-APT (I don't know the reason for the vowel change). It is first recorded in English in 1603. INAPT was a later English invention, as the opposite of APT. First recorded in 1744. But it seems that their meanings were not clearly distinguished until much later.
My 1998 OED does list EPT as a "back-form of INEPT" (20th Century), and its usage has been mostly jocular, as you might expect. You may like this quote from a review in TIME magazine, no less, July 1, 1966:
"With the exception of one or two semantic twisters, I think it is a first-rate job – definitely EPT, ANE and ERT".
NC
hondo, appreciate the good wishes, thank you.
Big Easy @9:24
I believe that if the dot is AFTER the note it is held longer.
But if the dot is ABOVE the note it is staccato. I had some good music education in school then did piano and clarinet for a bit. I need to stand next to someone on key to sing though.
A fun Thursday puzzle. I got most of it from perps. I had to wait for some answers where there was ambiguity.
My FIWs were not seeing Uncle BENS and OLDEN which I had as OLDER.
I also messed up and had a typo with DAREDEVIS which had SAYS vs. the correct LAYS. Doh!
Thanks for the write-up Steve. And George Barany for a fun puzzle I just did.
VS
I remember in my wee ute that I'd go visit my grandma and stay overnight at her house. She lived ***way out*** in the country. (I think it may have been almost a mile from our house to hers.) She got up before 6 in the morning, went outside and pumped some water for her coffee, and would cook breakfast at the wood-stove in the kitchen. I'd want to go home right after breakfast, because I didn't care much for the two-holer outhouse she had. About 6:30 the milkman would come by, and I'd hitch a ride home with him in his van. I got to help deliver the milk on the way -- a special treat for a 6-year-old. Good times.
Hi Y'all! Fun but a little frustrating puzzle at first with a lot of red feedback. WEES. I vaguely noted all the magazine names but it didn't register that would be the theme. Duh du jour! Thanks, Jeff! Thanks, Steve!
Don't all big airports have PEOPLE MOVERS now, JZB? Four lively children from one family, who were traveling without adult supervision, had a great time on the PEOPLE MOVER in the Denver airport ONCE when we were delayed several hours because of tornado weather on the plains east of us. They'd ride it to the end then race back up to the start & ride it over & over. Burned enough energy so that they slept ONCE we were airborne. Whew!
DRAYS: To continue Steve's memories. Betcha the horses knew the route and the way home if the driver partook too much of his load. No truck can do that -- yet.
Horrors! I've been order a GYRO by pronouncing the "G" as in "baG" which comes out like "GuY-RO". They hand out the right food so I might not be the only one.
"FOR UNTO US..." soprano part was my semester test in college choir private voice class. The choir performed the "Messiah". The soprano part is so tricky, who knows what we would have sung if a grade didn't depend on hitting the right notes. I could still impress my vocally superior brothers with singing it 20 yrs later. Now 50 yrs later I can't hit the high notes or probably the right notes.
I did pretty ugly on this one. Besides some of the ones already mentioned, I temporarily had LEAST>WORST, AO_A (Am.Orthodontics & something Asso.)>ROTC, SCRAM>SCOOT. In the end I still had TBA>TEL and KASL or KASC>KLUM (PEOPLE cOVER or lOVER). Once I turned on the red and corrected those, the changed letters spelt MULE, which is what I felt like for that poor performance.
Getting the theme was even worse. The first one I filled in from perps was ELLEFANI__, which I assumed was a pun on elephant. Never heard of ELLE FANNING, and while I have heard PEOPLE MOVER, it's not something I've ever seen, so not in my working vocabulary. The types of phrases seem so inconsistent that I was just lost.
Got switched back to Win7, which didn't take long, and seems to have been painless. No lost files or anything discovered yet. Did have to reset a couple things, but not as much as expected.
No wind today. About 65 degrees F. Off for a short bike ride, than espresso and a litte reading followed by an hour of tutoring.
QOD: Ordinary People have Big TVs. Extraordinary People have Big Libraries.
~ Robin Sharma
Lay? Lay a bet, yes.
Downtown Miami has a Peoplemover system.
The thing about about Detroit's PEOPLEMOVER is that it is named "People Mover". If you go to Google and type people mover, check out their suggested searches before pressing 'enter'.
Argg! I wouldn't give up OPEC for 7d which led to opera @18a (why not a Stage opera?) and broke at 5a (they were ink'd outside the grid). The WORST part is I thought of all the right answers but wouldn't ink 'em either. DNF.
Hi all:
My bragin' yesterday put me in Karma DEBT - this was a toughie in every corner. I did enjoy the theme and it helped get rid of Forbes for FORTUNE. Thanks for the fun Jeff.
Thanks Steve for the writeup, always a TREAT. Sorry you didn't know about Croce. I remember his music fondly, though I'm more of a Stones fan too.
Wos: AVow b/f AVER; sLIDE b/f ELIDE, bet b/f LAY, and idioT (me) b/f INEPT (at finishing).
Fav: TOSS-up between TIME IN A BOTTLE (Croce) and FORTUNE COOKIE (what my *NIX boxen give me when I login - "2 rabbits escaped the petting zoo, so far they've only caught 116 of them.")
Cheers, -T
All the talk about being fans this week has given me a stunning realization. I've only been an avid fan of two musical geniuses, John Denver & Mikhial Barishnikoff and the shows "River Dance" and "Mamma Mia". This is using the yardstick of not being able to see/hear enough of the artist(s). But that didn't last long. Am I strange?
Nice-Cuppa,
Your research and conclusions are suspect.
PK - Strange? No. You've heard of binging, eh? Wait, John Denver?!? :-)
I'm a huge fan of many things and will delve into them for days at a time and then back away. I'll kick on RUSH (my fav band) for a week or three and then have to go cold-turkey so I can enjoy them again in a few months. I do the same w/ comedians and shows (e.g. Taxi, WKRP, Flying Circus) I like.
I've heard that some PEOPLE don't like to post on C.C.'s Comfy Caring Crossword Corner 'cuz they feel dumb for not getting a pzl. I'm here; so what's your excuse again?
Regulars - we love to hear from you!
So, who's ready to SPEND for Christmas? We don't even have a tree yet, but DW is off for the next 2 weeks; here comes the DEBTS... :-)
Cheers, -T
I sure did SPEND for Christmas this year. My descendents & spouses have reached the number where they really fill up a house. We're big people and with six boys 16 to nine yrs old... The wife with the biggest house was having a hosting crisis this year because a basement-finishing project has been going on over a year and stuff from the basement is piled in a lot of corners upstairs. So I have shelled out money to rent a lakeside cottage for one day and hired a caterer. Now if the weather will cooperate and we all stay well... This will be a New Years celebration so no tree and no one has to clean house. Each family is to bring a game everyone can play. I haven't seen four of my grandsons for two years because I was sick last time they were here.
AnonT: Yes, John Denver and I'm not ashamed of it. Knew every word of his songs and played most of them on the guitar.
PK reads different than in years past. Feeling festive? Good for you, sweetie.
obvi anon. //hip to the scene// cte..
PK - That sounds wonderful! Hopefully someone brings the game Snakes and Stringers, er, Chutes & Ladders :-)
I was just joking re: John Denver - I liked many of his songs too. Here's one for 'ya that I really liked and still remember: Thank God I'm a Country Boy. Cheers, -T
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