Theme: Solve for A=πr², A=(hb)/2, A=wl, or find the areas!
17A. *Figure out, as someone's poker strategy : GET A READ ON. I'm sure I'd make a terrible poker player. I grin when I figure out a crossword answer, I can't imagine what my poker face would look like if I was dealt a royal flush.
21A. *Frighten off : SCARE AWAY
33A. *Disney film cry of discovery : I'M A REAL BOY. From the movie "Pinocchio" released in 1940. The line got a reprise in 2004 in Shrek 2
42A. *Chinese, say : FAR EASTERN. Only if you use a map centered on the zero meridian. If you use a Pacific-centric map then Brazil and Greenland are in the far east.
52A. *Ride crosstown together, perhaps : SHARE A CAB
61A. Group space, and a hint to the answers to starred clues : COMMON AREA
G'day everyone. A straightforward enough theme from Bruce, and the theme did help me with the Pinocchio quote. 60 theme squares, more "A"'s than any other letter due to all the AREAS and sundry other trivia. A pleasant enough ride, patently fair crosses to unlock the unknowns and some other interesting stuff. Let's take a look.
Across:
1. Mrs. Garrett on "The Facts of Life" : EDNA. Who? Never saw the show. Apparently played by CharlotteRusse Rae (who?).
5. Bring shame to : ABASH. This is one of those words where I'm more likely to use the opposite meaning in conversation - I'm sure I've been unabashed a few times, but rarely abashed.
10. Twitter's bird, e.g. : ICON. I had LOGO first. Wrong!
14. Dire fate : DOOM
15. "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" author : LOCKE. Published in 1689. I should read it, but I probably wouldn't understand it.
16. Poet's preposition : THRO'
20. "Un Ballo in Maschera" aria : ERI TU. Thank you, crosses. Verdi's opera, which translates as "A Masked Ball". The aria appears to be properly known as Eri tu che macchiavi quell'anima / "It was you who stained this soul" but I guess that wouldn't fit.
23. Office suite door letters : ESQ.
25. "Hollywood Squares" immortal : LYNDE. Thank you, crosses. Paul Lynde.
26. Not surprisingly : AS USUAL
30. Full of bubbles : SUDSY. Tried SOAPY first. Took it out.
36. Qatar's capital : DOHA. Don't get me started on the fact that the 2022 FIFA World Cup was awarded to Qatar.
37. Fifth of a dozen : MAY
38. Solar __ : FLARE
39. Promise : VOW
40. "On the double!" : ASAP
45. Place to follow politics : C-SPAN
47. "Told ya!" : SO THERE
48. "__ Daughter": 1970 film : RYAN'S
51. Match at the poker table : SEE. I'll see your $5, and raise you $10.
56. Diary component : ENTRY
60. Go up and down : YO-YO
63. Seasonal refrain : NOËL. Heard more than a few times recently.
64. Assembly line worker : ROBOT
65. Equipment : GEAR
66. Key used in combinations : CTRL. It doesn't do anything by itself other than allow you to exercise your left hand pinkie finger. My last Dell had the key positioned in the lower-left corner of the keyboard with the "Fn" key to the right of it; my new Lenovo reversed the positions so it took a little while to get used to it.
67. Films with many extras : EPICS
68. "College GameDay" airer : ESPN. Founded by Scott and Bill Rasmussen in 1978 and launched in 1979. It is now famous for allowing Chris Berman to appear with one of the worst haircuts in the history of broadcast television.
Down:
1. Advantage : EDGE
2. No couch potato : DOER. Relative of a mover or a shaker.
3. "It was someone else!" : NOT I!
4. Greenhorn : AMATEUR
5. Brown __ : ALE. I was born a few miles from the Tyne Brewery which produced Newcastle Brown Ale until 2004. It's brewed in Yorkshire now, a fact that the company don't promote heavily. The advertising is pretty funny though.
6. Feathery wraps : BOAS
7. "High Voltage" band : AC/DC. Australian rockers. Lead singer Bon Scott was found dead in his car on the morning of February 19th 1980 in East Dulwich, London, two blocks from where I lived at the time.
8. "Bottoms up!" : SKOAL
9. "Give me liberty, or give me death!" speaker : HENRY. Here's Patrick engaged in a little rabble-rousing at the Virginia Convention in 1775. In a church too - shame on him!
10. "That fizzled out" : IT'S A DUD
11. Considered carefully : CHEWED OVER
12. Marine threat : ORCA
13. Getting into the wrong business? : NOSY
18. Charlotte __ : RUSSE. I thought she was an actress, but I discover it's a clothing retail chain. Hey, I'm not exactly in their target demographic - I'm not in my teens nor twenties, and I'm not a woman.
22. USN one-striper : ENS. Navy rank of Ensign. Am I right in saying that a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis is assigned this rank?
24. 5-Down, for one : QUAFF. Skoal!
26. Stockpile : AMASS
27. Supplicate : SAY A PRAYER
28. "It was __ dream" : ALL A. A common-enough trope in TV, film and comics. Usually extremely annoying unless done really well.
29. Letter-shaped supports : L-BARS. Lacer bars. I looked at a picture of one and have no idea what it's used for.
31. Vacation destination : SHORE
32. Opening at an early-morning class? : YAWN. Lovely clue.
33. 1998 Apple debut : IMAC. It looks ugly as heck now, groundbreaking back then. Steve Jobs hadn't discovered his gray polo-neck period at that point.
34. __ cookies 'n creme: Jell-O flavor : OREO
35. "Leda and the Swan" poet : YEATS
41. Business expense : PAYROLL
43. Radiance : SHEEN
44. Like high-school years : TEENAGE
46. "Fat chance, laddie" : NAE. "If there's nae wind, and nae rain, it's nae golf".
49. Abalone shell layer : NACRE
50. Exclusive : SCOOP
52. Lip-__ : SYNC. Milli Vanilli came a cropper with this one when they tried to lip-sync at the MTV music awards in 1989 and, as the backing track skipped, it became apparent that they weren't actually singing. Research showed that they'd never sung "their" songs, and were stripped of the Grammy for Best New Artist awarded earlier that year. Whoops #1 (See 62D for Whoops #2)
53. Knee-slapper : HOOT
54. Prefix with valence : AMBI. Ouch. I've got mixed feelings about this one :)
55. Class pres., say : B.M.O.C. Big man on campus.
57. Very French? : TRÉS
58. Bring in : REAP
59. Entertaining tale : YARN
62. Extra periods: Abbr. : O.T.S Overtimes. Oregon were leading TCU 31-0 at half-time in the Alamo Bowl on January 2nd. They promptly contrived to lose, 47-41, in triple overtime. Whoops #2.
And ... here's the grid, today's colored version courtesy of OwenKL!
Steve
17A. *Figure out, as someone's poker strategy : GET A READ ON. I'm sure I'd make a terrible poker player. I grin when I figure out a crossword answer, I can't imagine what my poker face would look like if I was dealt a royal flush.
21A. *Frighten off : SCARE AWAY
33A. *Disney film cry of discovery : I'M A REAL BOY. From the movie "Pinocchio" released in 1940. The line got a reprise in 2004 in Shrek 2
42A. *Chinese, say : FAR EASTERN. Only if you use a map centered on the zero meridian. If you use a Pacific-centric map then Brazil and Greenland are in the far east.
52A. *Ride crosstown together, perhaps : SHARE A CAB
61A. Group space, and a hint to the answers to starred clues : COMMON AREA
G'day everyone. A straightforward enough theme from Bruce, and the theme did help me with the Pinocchio quote. 60 theme squares, more "A"'s than any other letter due to all the AREAS and sundry other trivia. A pleasant enough ride, patently fair crosses to unlock the unknowns and some other interesting stuff. Let's take a look.
Across:
1. Mrs. Garrett on "The Facts of Life" : EDNA. Who? Never saw the show. Apparently played by Charlotte
5. Bring shame to : ABASH. This is one of those words where I'm more likely to use the opposite meaning in conversation - I'm sure I've been unabashed a few times, but rarely abashed.
10. Twitter's bird, e.g. : ICON. I had LOGO first. Wrong!
14. Dire fate : DOOM
15. "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" author : LOCKE. Published in 1689. I should read it, but I probably wouldn't understand it.
16. Poet's preposition : THRO'
Thro’ the ghoul-guarded gateways of slumber,19. Brief moments : SECS. Seconds, abbreviated.
Past the wan-moon’d abysses of night,
I have liv’d o’er my lives without number,
I have sounded all things with my sight;
And I struggle and shriek ere the daybreak, being driven to madness with fright.
Nemesis — Howard Phillips Lovecraft
20. "Un Ballo in Maschera" aria : ERI TU. Thank you, crosses. Verdi's opera, which translates as "A Masked Ball". The aria appears to be properly known as Eri tu che macchiavi quell'anima / "It was you who stained this soul" but I guess that wouldn't fit.
23. Office suite door letters : ESQ.
25. "Hollywood Squares" immortal : LYNDE. Thank you, crosses. Paul Lynde.
26. Not surprisingly : AS USUAL
30. Full of bubbles : SUDSY. Tried SOAPY first. Took it out.
36. Qatar's capital : DOHA. Don't get me started on the fact that the 2022 FIFA World Cup was awarded to Qatar.
37. Fifth of a dozen : MAY
38. Solar __ : FLARE
39. Promise : VOW
40. "On the double!" : ASAP
45. Place to follow politics : C-SPAN
47. "Told ya!" : SO THERE
48. "__ Daughter": 1970 film : RYAN'S
51. Match at the poker table : SEE. I'll see your $5, and raise you $10.
56. Diary component : ENTRY
60. Go up and down : YO-YO
63. Seasonal refrain : NOËL. Heard more than a few times recently.
64. Assembly line worker : ROBOT
65. Equipment : GEAR
66. Key used in combinations : CTRL. It doesn't do anything by itself other than allow you to exercise your left hand pinkie finger. My last Dell had the key positioned in the lower-left corner of the keyboard with the "Fn" key to the right of it; my new Lenovo reversed the positions so it took a little while to get used to it.
67. Films with many extras : EPICS
68. "College GameDay" airer : ESPN. Founded by Scott and Bill Rasmussen in 1978 and launched in 1979. It is now famous for allowing Chris Berman to appear with one of the worst haircuts in the history of broadcast television.
Down:
1. Advantage : EDGE
2. No couch potato : DOER. Relative of a mover or a shaker.
3. "It was someone else!" : NOT I!
4. Greenhorn : AMATEUR
5. Brown __ : ALE. I was born a few miles from the Tyne Brewery which produced Newcastle Brown Ale until 2004. It's brewed in Yorkshire now, a fact that the company don't promote heavily. The advertising is pretty funny though.
6. Feathery wraps : BOAS
7. "High Voltage" band : AC/DC. Australian rockers. Lead singer Bon Scott was found dead in his car on the morning of February 19th 1980 in East Dulwich, London, two blocks from where I lived at the time.
8. "Bottoms up!" : SKOAL
9. "Give me liberty, or give me death!" speaker : HENRY. Here's Patrick engaged in a little rabble-rousing at the Virginia Convention in 1775. In a church too - shame on him!
10. "That fizzled out" : IT'S A DUD
11. Considered carefully : CHEWED OVER
12. Marine threat : ORCA
13. Getting into the wrong business? : NOSY
18. Charlotte __ : RUSSE. I thought she was an actress, but I discover it's a clothing retail chain. Hey, I'm not exactly in their target demographic - I'm not in my teens nor twenties, and I'm not a woman.
22. USN one-striper : ENS. Navy rank of Ensign. Am I right in saying that a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis is assigned this rank?
24. 5-Down, for one : QUAFF. Skoal!
26. Stockpile : AMASS
27. Supplicate : SAY A PRAYER
28. "It was __ dream" : ALL A. A common-enough trope in TV, film and comics. Usually extremely annoying unless done really well.
29. Letter-shaped supports : L-BARS. Lacer bars. I looked at a picture of one and have no idea what it's used for.
31. Vacation destination : SHORE
32. Opening at an early-morning class? : YAWN. Lovely clue.
33. 1998 Apple debut : IMAC. It looks ugly as heck now, groundbreaking back then. Steve Jobs hadn't discovered his gray polo-neck period at that point.
34. __ cookies 'n creme: Jell-O flavor : OREO
35. "Leda and the Swan" poet : YEATS
41. Business expense : PAYROLL
43. Radiance : SHEEN
44. Like high-school years : TEENAGE
46. "Fat chance, laddie" : NAE. "If there's nae wind, and nae rain, it's nae golf".
49. Abalone shell layer : NACRE
50. Exclusive : SCOOP
52. Lip-__ : SYNC. Milli Vanilli came a cropper with this one when they tried to lip-sync at the MTV music awards in 1989 and, as the backing track skipped, it became apparent that they weren't actually singing. Research showed that they'd never sung "their" songs, and were stripped of the Grammy for Best New Artist awarded earlier that year. Whoops #1 (See 62D for Whoops #2)
53. Knee-slapper : HOOT
54. Prefix with valence : AMBI. Ouch. I've got mixed feelings about this one :)
55. Class pres., say : B.M.O.C. Big man on campus.
57. Very French? : TRÉS
58. Bring in : REAP
59. Entertaining tale : YARN
62. Extra periods: Abbr. : O.T.S Overtimes. Oregon were leading TCU 31-0 at half-time in the Alamo Bowl on January 2nd. They promptly contrived to lose, 47-41, in triple overtime. Whoops #2.
And ... here's the grid, today's colored version courtesy of OwenKL!
Steve
52 comments:
There's a FLARE of expectancy at AREA fifty-one,
It may be that something is new beneath the sun!
A saucer that flew our way?
An ET alien's dossier?
An anonymous poster who thought this puzzle fun?
Carnal abstinence is a rule of many sects
Stuffy old men who are frightened of sex,
An act they consider bad!
It's women who should be mad,
They're just warming up when men are done in SECS!
Morning, all!
Totally missed the theme on this one until after the solve when I went back and noticed the COMMON AREAs. A mostly straightforward solve overall, but there were a few spots where I tripped myself up a bit. I went with EST (short for "established") instead of ESQ, which hid QUAFF from view for awhile. And down in the SW I had RIOT and BALM before HOOT and SYNC made themselves evident. No unknowns today, although I needed most of the perps to remember DOHA. For a change I actually remembered RUSSE with no perp help needed, so that was nice.
Bruce has become a regular here and this was very doable for a Thursday. ESQ was slow to appear; thanks to our own DOHA DOC (hope all is well, doc) and television that used to always be turned on there were no blanks.
I agree that the use of the word 'prefix' is getting confusing but AMBI does appear in the dictionary and in many words like ambidextrous which is familiar to all left-handed people.
Quaff is a fun word.
Thanks Bruce and Steve
Good morning!
Only a couple of stumbles on my slalom to the bottom. Hand up for LOGO. Tried RUSSO first -- oops, that was Rene, not Charlotte. Otherwise there was NAE problem. Well, one. I read the clue as "Dairy component."
Steve, RE your remarks on ERI TU: The song I remember goes, "T'was it you who did the pushin', made the stains upon the cushion, footprints on the dashboard upside down?...." Oscar Brand, I believe.
THRO -- I'd only seen it in Robbie Burns "Comin' Thro' The Rye."
L-BAR could be that hardware thingy that you screw to the back of the picture frame to hold it together after the nail holes in the miter joint get wallered (Texas word) out.
Lemon, wouldn't a southpaw still be a uni-dexter? He'd have to swing both ways to be "ambi." (I'm talking baseball, here.)
Hello Puzzlers -
Not WBS today, because I couldn't dredge up Russe from any cranial fold. No TaDa.
Otherwise an easy romp. Thanks for 'splaining, Steve!
Morning, everyone.
My solving experience was pretty much like Steve's, and very enjoyable. Thank you Bruce and Steve. 56a took ESP and I still don't understand it. Would somebody please explain?
DO: I remember that ditty from college. The next line goes, "Yes, twas I her did your daughter. Now it hurts when I pass water, and if I could I"d pass it on to you", all to the tune of "Humoresque"(sp?). There was a lounge singer in that college town that must have known 50 verses for that song, and never sang it the same way twice. The first verse was always "I get my jollies after dark goosing statues in the park. If Sherman's horse can take it, why can't you?" Very highbrow, erudite humor.
And now for something completely different. When our children were little, I did everything I could think of to childproof our home. Didn't work. They came back anyway.
Well, my only resolution for 2016 is down the tubes. It was a silly vow, but lasted a lot longer then many others I've made through the years. My first, and quite likely not my last, DNF this year.
The puzzle center was my difficulty,. 33A, 38A, 28D, 34D, & 35D were the unknowns. For 47A I had See Here, SO THERE, I made myself toast.
The South & North both filled in rather quickly, but the central section was a struggle from the get go. Well maybe later in the day I'll give my dieting a day off and have a QUAFF or two.
Never mind re: 56a. I made the same mistake as DO (or should that be DOH?).
Slow and steady puzzle - even after the theme clue it took me a second to get what it was, as I was focused on the COMMON part rather than the AREA part.
I was able to get RUSSE from somewhere in my brain - but for some reason thought it was a fancy dessert.
Off to work-
Typical Thursday puzzle, one write over, no unknowns, good perps. I needed the reveal to suss the theme.
Inane hiker, I too, know Chrlotte Russe best as a desert. Foodies take note.
Link Yummy
Facts of Life is still on TV in reruns.
I believe the aria is more comkmonly known by ERI TU, than by the longer version.
Got AMBI right away.
Patrick Henry is an American hero, not a character to be bashed about or ABASHED about.
Typo alert. Chralotte Russe is not a desert, but a dessert
Muphry's Law, YR! :)
D-O if you were a left-handed person in a right handed world as many of us are you quickly learn how to do things both ways. I throw better right handed, but can write and eat with either. Ironing is the one I have mastered.
18D: I didn't know it was a clothing chain. I've always known it as a dessert.
Good morning everyone.
Steve: Re ENS. A graduate of the USNA would normally accept a commission as Ensign in the Navy or 2nd Lt. in the Marines.
Accession through OCS, NROTC, or from enlisted ranks would also begin with commission as Ensign. If graduate level education is involved, and the candidate is above a certain age (27?), a higher rank such as Lt(jg) may be offered. Doctors and some others may start out as a LT (O3). Hope this helps. Today's clue, although correct, might seem a little awkward vis-à-vis the above.
Enjoyed the puzzle, but found myself doing it from the bottom up. Theme was easy enough. Considered equi before AMBI but seemed like it wouldn't work with the perps. Glad to see LYNDE; he was a character.
Steve: Good Job on a very informative write-up explaining my Rorschach Ink-Blot ...
Hondo: Hand-up for my 1st D N F of 2016.
Faves were that QUAFF of ALE with the "Bottoms up!" SKOAL.
3 booze answers earns this 4-Stars!
A "Toast-to-ALL" at Sunset.
SKOAL !!!
Good morning all. Thank you Bruce and Steve. Fun and challenging puzzle.
Good thing I saw AREA early after the first two, or I would have struggled to solve this puzzle.
Misread word of the day.... Dairy.
What happened to DOHA Doc ? Or Vegas Doc ?
Liked the clue for YAWN. Also like "Getting into the wrong business."
Office suite door letters was nebulous but easy with the ESQ.
Wanted MSNBC as the place to watch politics. CSPAN jumped off the page with CS--- in place. I would probably first think of CSPAN as the place to watch government (in)action, but I've only tuned in sporadically through the years.
I knew of Charlotte RUSSE stores. A fellow juror I got to know over the course of a week was a store manager of one.
Salud before SKOAL until gimme Hollywood immortal LYNDE. Soapy befor SUDSY.
With a voltage differential, you can get electrons to jump from valence shell to valence shell at the atomic level. Did you know you were so powerful ? Do you have AMBIvalent ideas about that ?
Steve, have you heard that there is a movement afoot to have one of the four new (heavy metal) elements named LEMMIUM in honor of Lemmy ? Seriously.
Also, for lacers, think of cable management in a power or signal chase, such as you might have in rack mounted hardware in data centers.
DNF for me...just too many names. But I enjoyed the expo, Steve,
I confidently entered Charlotte RUSSE, thinking of the dessert.
It was fun to see the reference to Masked Ball on this day after Twelfth Night, the start of the Mardi Gras season here. The first ball was last night. We spent yesterday taking down Christmas decorations and putting up Mardi Gras decorations for a King Cake party. Yum!
Fun CW, nice write up. My New Year's Resolution to quit drinking beer lasted a remarkable five days.
It helps if you can read. I read 56a as dairy not diary. I couldn't see what entry had to do with milk and eggs! Oh well.
After starting, or should I say trying to start, the puzzle I thought I was DOOMed. "facts of Life"-Steve never saw it but I never heard of it. EDNA-all perps. And the page was basically white until the SE. Upon seeing AREA it became easier to finish.
I really didn't like the 'Office suite door', Brown___ and Charlotte_____ clues. I've tasted the ale but RUSSE was all perps. I was tempted to fill S WEB. And I'm glad their ad tells what happens when anybody 'likes' on Facebook. I would equate it to feeding a stray cat; it will never go away. ESQ- only for lawyers. I had a few bad WAGS- finally changing A BAD dream to ALL A, I-BARS to L-BARS (angle iorn?) and ETHAN to ALLEN to Patrick HENRY. Good WAGS- ERI TU and AC/DC.
C-SPAN- does anybody really watch that?
OwenKL- women heat like a match and men burn like a match.
TTP- MSNBC for liberal BS and FOX News for conservative BS- take your pick. C-SPAN is just a waste of taxpayers' money.
SwampCat- Our Mardi Gras decorations went up SUNDAY. And after tasting Haydel's, All the various Randazzo's, and others, the best KING CAKE is from ANTOINE's bakery (not the restaurant) in Gretna.
Good Morning:
Seemed a tad on the easy side for a Thursday, although the theme stayed hidden (to me) until the reveal. I think it's pretty amusing that several of us read dairy instead of diary. I know Charlotte Russe as a dessert, only, but have no idea what it is. Google time, I guess.
Thanks, Bruce and Steve, for an enjoyable Thursday offering and expo.
Thanks to my cleaning lady, the Christmas decorations are all neatly tucked away for another year. (I don't know what I would do without her!)
Have a great day.
Good (rainy) day, friends!
Thank you, Bruce Haight, for a fine challenge! It was a smooth start at the NE corner, then the SW one and the entire bottom all filled quickly. But my Naticks were at the masked ball, which I more or less translated but didn't know the aria and Charlotte RUSSE. I wanted RUSS so that frustrated me and it used to be a favorite place to shop for my daughter as a TEENAGEr. And thanks to DOHA Doc that capital is etched in memory. I wonder what he's doing?
I knew Tinbeni would love this puzzle!
Thank you, Steve, too. I enjoy your quips.
Have a splendid day, everyone!
Big Easy, thanks for the tip on Antoine's bakery in Gretna. I'll try it. I'll go anywhere for King Cake!!
Even vowel roulette (correct as it turned out) at rUsse/eritU could not stop me from the swift completion of my appointed rounds - plus I did see AREA.
Musings
-Can’t get a READ ON this poker face
-The Washington Post’s biggest Pinnochio’s (Lies) of 2015 from both sides of the aisle
-PAUL LYNDE’s comic persona hid his pain and he died of substance abuse at 55
-Fifth of a dozen = 2 2/5 ☺
-AS USUAL, VOWS of no mudslinging will evaporate this year
-ROBOTS have taken away many low-skilled jobs at our Hormel plant
-CTRL/C on my Vaio is now a CMND/C on my MacBook Pro
-The EPIC Ben Hur required 15,000 extras for the chariot race
-NOT I… and so she did it herself
-Ed McMahon always told Johnny that New Year’s Eve was for AMATUER drinkers
-This man has AMASSED a forest of DUDS or a Lemon Grove
-My garage shelving is a forest of L-BARS
-Idiot me always had an 8 a.m. class! YAWN!
Some crunch today, but nothing way out there for a Thursday. Hand up for reading Diary as Dairy..3 times...but I got it on the 4th swing. I did plow new ground in the Russe/Read crossing. For 17a I had it all via perps except for the R, and did an alphabet run in my head and decided Get a Bead on sounded OK. Having no clue about Charlotte and actually knowing a Busse family, I went with it. Later when the reveal surfaced, I went back and corrected it. So, a win, but only by a narrow margin, and with a huge assist from the theme.
Well, I almost didn't finish this one because I had STEWED OVER instead of CHEWED over, and so just struggled with that NE corner. But finally figured out ICON and then it all fell into place. So, many thanks Bruce, for a challenging but fun morning, and you too, always, Steve for the fun expo. I liked seeing the Lovecraft poem, especially with the reference to YEATS's "Leda and the Swan" in the puzzle. But here I was a professor for 40 years and have never heard of B.M.O.C. Didn't realize I was so out of touch with my students.
Finally, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought Charlotte RUSSE was a dessert.
Have a great Thursday, everybody.
Thanks to Mr. G I learned new two things today:
1. Charlotte Russe (dessert) is similar to a trifle. Not my cup of tea.
2. Charlotte Russe (retail chain) has a store in a local mall. I never heard of it and haven't been in that mall in a good ten years.
Amazing things we learn at the Corner! 🤗
I am not a Downton Abbey watcher, but I thought this might appeal to you fans. The write up is interesting. I am sure there are better recipes.
Link Downton Abbey
My family loves trifle made with homemade custard sauce and fresh raspberries or strawberries, but not the short cut method with instant pudding and canned fruit cocktail. I serve it for Easter and on my older son's birthday. I have not tried to make Charlotte Russe. It contains gelatin. I think we prefer custard sauce.
Lemonade:
If you had nuns in grade school they'd tie your left hand behind your back to make you to become right-handed. The only good thing that came out of that was that I became a better hitter left-handed than right handed.
Hands up for only knowing Charlotte Russe as a dessert.
Named after the French dessert, Charlotte Russe began its sweet journey in
1975 with the first store opening in Carlsbad, California. Putting a spotlight on
women in their teens and early twenties and focusing on trendy, affordable
clothes, shoes, jewelry, and accessories, Charlotte Russe grew quickly from 35
stores in Southern California to 500+ stores across the United States and
Puerto Rico. We carry our own Charlotte Russe brands as well as other
well-loved brands like Refuge jeans.
I was just going to comment on it as well Argyle, as I knew of the store before the dessert.
We previously had Charlotte Russe on Wed May 15th, 2013, and at that time, JzB blogged the answer as the dessert. This time of course Steve gets it and blogs it as the store.
In both cases, the clue was written as "Charlotte _____ " so it didn't matter whether one thought of the store or the dessert.
Big Easy, yes, but it couldn't e FOX or FOX NEWS because the answer only had 5 squares :>)
Hands up for misreading Diary as Dairy. I felt like a mostly-complete idiot. Otherwise, I liked this puzzle as I usually do.
For a while, late last night, it rained SO HARD here that it woke me up. I'm not complaining though...
Argyle @2:50 and others who commented about Charlotte RUSSE.
Well that was a Learning Moment plus.
I didn't have THAT clue "X'ed Out" ... so obviously the perps got it.
Lucina @11:00
It is NOT-OFTEN that I rate a D-N-F solving experience as 4-Stars.
But as y'all know ... my "Rating System" (for all puzzles) is based on having BOOZE in the grid.
SKOAL!
A big problem with 22 Down is that a USN ensign wears bars on the collar, not strips on the sleeve. S/he is a young officer, not enlisted.
My vowel roulette failed me. Decided on the O instead of the U and got EDITo/ToSSED. Never heard of either. So DNF today.
I was certain by now someone would have commented about 22D. An Ensign is not a one-striper. In all the services "stripes" refers to the enlisted ranks. (Technically, they're chevrons but they're commonly referred to as stripes.) The navy actually does use a straight line (a literal stripe) as insignia for the E-1 through E-3 pay grades. A navy one-striper is a Seaman Recruit, not an Ensign.
What about the stripe on the epaulette. One for an ensign.
Boise Ed - When in dress blues, an ensign wears one 1/2 inch stripe on each sleeve near the cuff end. The stripe goes all the way around. Collar devices are worn with khakis. Shoulder boards also display one 1/2 inch stripe on each shoulder.
I stand corrected about the naval ensign's stripe. I was thinking only of the “service” or “working” uniform, the ones without the coat and tie, and I had forgotten that they sometimes wear epaulets (with stripes). Also, I see that they have revised their uniforms over the past decade. I was in the USAF, not the Navy, and it was rather more than a decade ago. So yes, the clue is quite correct.
Just heard that the Corps of Engineers will open the Bonnet Carre Spillway up-River from New Orleans on Sunday to prevent the rising Mississippi River from flooding the city. This doesn't happen very often.
The flooding in Missouri and beyond, up above us, has been awful.
I guess we are lucky, in a way, that after the Great Flood of 1927 measures were taken to prevent the city from flooding. That included the Spillway, which is just a big open passage for the Mississippi River water to flow into Lake Pontchartrain instead into the streets of New Orleans!
Owen, I have neglected all day to tell you how much I enjoyed your poems.
The cartoon, Pearls Before Swine had a recent strip in which Pig is agreeing to clock a female runner. She insists he abbreviate hours as HRS. He asks if she also wants SECs.
In the next frame, he is beaten up, and says, "Runners are so sensitive." Heheheheeee
Hi All!
An embarrassing DNF today... Wrong vowel in RoSSE, @48a I had mYA?S and I left CODE (oops, not combo locks) in for 66a (is a HOOO like a HOOT?), so PAYROLE [sic] and SAYAPMAYEd (like dismayed?). Dubi [sic] b/f DOHA (hey doc!)
Hand-up for not finding ENTRY in the Dairy aisle. Not until TTP said he read it wrong did I: a) thought TTP made a mistake (no you didn't) and b) checked. Doh!
IM A REAL (dumb) BOY today - AS USUAL for late week pzls :-)
Oh well, it was fun Bruce. Thanks for fixing my puzzle (and the writeup) Steve.
WOs: amature, ITSdeaD b/f ITS A DUD, and Just->Only->ALL A dream.
Cute: ROBOT over EPIC - HAL came to mind. C/a for 13d (NOSY) was fun too.
Fav: HENRY xing LOCKE. One inspired America ideals and the other fought for it.
BigE - I watch CSPAN all the time. Special Sessions are perfect for nap time - they drone on for hours and there's no loud commercials interrupting my rest. A subsidized nap!
Bluehen - LOL on childproof comment.
More work to do; hopefully I can play later and find a better Clip of LYNDE.
Cheers, -T
A headline on my browser's home news page said, "Hillary says she would govern differently than a man." My daughter taught me that 'different than' was incorrect and should be 'different from' instead. Yes?
Bill G, AMEN,! Your daughter is right!! This is one of my (many) pet peeves in word usage.
Here's another. Which one would you use?
I appreciate you not texting while we're visiting or,
I appreciate your not texting while we're visiting.
It seems to be I learned it the second way but I hear it said the first way almost all the time these days.
Another common one: I think I'll lay down for a little nap vs. lie down.
Oh m' goodness! Bill G you are pushing me!
Lie vs lay is easy.. You LIE down yourself, but you LAY something on the table.
You not texting vs your not texting gets more complicated, grammar -wise! It is correct to say " I appreciate YOU (for) not texting." But it is also correct to say ," I appreciate YOUR (act) of not texting."
I'm sure pedants can find a distinction. This old English teacher remembers when there was no such thing as texting! LOL I just find communication is everything. If the meaning is clear....that is, you have "communicated " ...relax!
Break time...
I looked for some other LYNDE videos, but I the earlier one should sum it up for Steve.
Swamp, BigE, and BooL - Mardi Gras is so early this year! My Christmas decorations aren't put up yet (OK, we haven't started; save the China). I'll be in NOLA w/ the Bacchus Krewe this year (a buddy is w/ the Krewe and gets to ride the float). It should be a HOOT even if it's too big for the Quarter.
It's interesting, after Katrina, how many folks you run into from NOLA. The chef who runs the stir-fry station in our company café is from there and we talked about Mardi Gras yesterday. He'll be there too! I should take him a King Cake next week (we have a bakery in Sugar Land that makes a dern good 'un).
I know this will hurt your English Teacher sensibilities Swamp & YR - I still can't get the LAY, LIE, LAIN, thing right. DW has corrected me for years and I still get confused. So I just get down for a nap or put it down there :-)
Back to the grind, Cheers, -T
Finally caught up!
Sorry I missed yesterday, I did that puzzle(or tried to) this AM
(SW corner did me in...)
Todays puzzle was tough, across & down only yielded one entry.
It took a lot of work to eventually fill everything in wrong...
Ditto on dairy component, but am I the only one who inked in "curds."
Ditto on the vowel roulette for rasse (eri ta?)
(well if I couldn't spell it, there is nae way I am going to parse it....)
Anywho, it is late here on the east coast & I want to go to bed.
So here are some links I found while looking for something funny...
Interesting common area sign.
Bad(yet good) pun...
& why Google had this little girls letter under "common area" I cannot understand,
& yet her perfect printing makes me think this is a fake...
Dudley, did you ever get a letter like this?
"Puzzling Thoughts"
It's too late to add much to Thursday's conversation; but it looks as if (or is it "like") we will be getting a newspaper delivered to the house on a daily basis, so no excuse for the Chairman to be absent
Thursday's puzzle took more time than normal; the NE was the last corner to fall
I'll try to show up earlier today (Friday)
Thank you CED! I missed your links...
Yeah, I think it's fake too. Nicola wrote "mum" but not "bullocks the landing." :-)
Today South Korea fired up the Amps over the DMZ. Since they are still technically at war, would broadcasting Psy be considered a War Crime?
Cheers, -T
Good to see you back C. Moe.
Your moment of Zen w/ a commedian Who's introduced by AC/DC's Back in Black. G'Nite, -T
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