google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, March 18, 2016, Jeffrey Wechsler

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Mar 18, 2016

Friday, March 18, 2016, Jeffrey Wechsler

ThemeIf you don't snooze, you lose, you need to catch those zzs.

JW in back-to-back Friday appearances. Today he inserts  'ZZ' into expressions and clues the result with levity. Of course using double Zs requires lots of z words so there is some very challenging fill. Much of the non-theme long fill is rarely if ever used including REAL BAD,  ADRIAN I,   JIMENEZ,  GALLONS, RADIOED, CERAMIC, ZAMBIAN, LIBERIA, ERODING, GARTERS, AN EARFULSEA TO AIR. There are some complete unknowns for me (ATWOOD, JIMENEZ etc.) The triple sevens in the NW and SE make for an interesting grid with only the 13 letter themers requiring some cheater squares. The humor is clear in all the theme fill, with Semper Fizz my favorite. Well, you gave mixed reviews last week; let's look at this week.

18A. Syncopated gaits? : JAZZY WALKS (10). A Jaywalker ups his game by dancing to the music.

33A. Rube Goldberg machines, e.g.? : DIZZY PROJECTS (13). Rube Goldberg was famous for his unnecessarily complex machines, like the beginning to Elementary. He was a CARTOONIST, inventor and so much more. The choice of the DIY (do it yourself) phrase is awesome.

36A. Impress around the green? : CHIP AND DAZZLE (13). More cartoons with those lovable CHIPMUNKS and maybe the golfers recall this shot. LINK.

55A. Cocktail that never goes flat? : SEMPER FIZZ (10). Semper is Latin for always so the joke is great and the shout to Dennis and our other marines is nice.

Across:

1. Indian bigwig : RAJA.

5. Short club : CUDGEL. I may be a day late but this is an example.
11. With 28-Across, was read the riot act : GOT. 28A. See 11-Across : AN EARFUL.

14. Find the right words, say : EDIT. Puzzles clues are often more than 50% changed by editors.

15. With 54-Across, common dorm room phenomenon : UNMADE.  54A. See 15-Across : BED.

16. 55 million-member service org. : AAAAmerican Automobile Association.

17. Treaty subject : ARMS. Salt I from last week.

20. Bit of duplicity : LIE.

21. Broadway choreographer for "Chicago" : FOSSE. His CAREER. People forget he was a dancer first.

22. Fr. address : MLLE. Not a street but to a young lady, mademoiselle.

23. Zulu or Kikuyu : BANTU.

25. Called the tower : RADIOED. I only thought of this.
32. Sack stuff : GUNNY. Want to know WHY?

35. Like tandoori cuisine : ASIAN.

44. Annoyance : PEEVE. Many keep them as pets.

45. Like some naval missiles : SEA TO AIR.

46. Holdup bands? : GARTERS. Nice challenging Friday clue and excuse to link for Splynter....
48. Gym dance in "West Side Story" : MAMBO.
49. Genesis twin : ESAU. Jacob is his conniving brother.

50. Dumpster habitués : FLIES. I did not know until last Sunday that DUMPSTER was a trade name.

58. Helpful, if impersonal, voice : SIRI. Not to Raj. WATCH.

59. Nous minus moi? : TOI. Us minus me equals you in French.

60. Fill with passion : ENAMOR.

61. "Game of Thrones" actor __ Glen : IAIN. Sir Jorah Mormont.
62. F1 neighbor : ESC.

63. Margaret Atwood's homeland : CANADA. Eh! She is accomplished. LINK.

64. Hitch : SNAG.

Down:

1. Desperately : REAL BAD. I wanted that new car....

2. Eighth-century pope : ADRIAN I. Yo, another random Pope? No, a rather significant ONE.

3. 1956 literature Nobelist Juan Ramón __ : JIMENEZ. A celebrated Spanish poet, but not in my ken. I am sure Clear Ayes could have told us much.
4. Cadillac compact : ATS.

5. King dog : CUJO. Not a nice puppy.

6. Some, in Sevilla : UNAS.  Spanish: Un and una mean 'a,' and unos and unas mean 'some.' 

7. Neutral areas, briefly : DMZS. We grew up with DeMitiliarizedZones on the news nightly.

8. Star attachment? : GAZER.

9. Name on an ice cream container : EDY. And a way to buy...11D. Dairy case choices : GALLONS.

10. "Ben-Hur" author Wallace : LEW.

12. Headliner in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show : OAKLEY. Annie.
13. Shocked, in a way : TASED.

19. Something made by millionaires? : A MINT. Where millions are made as well.

21. " ... a tale / ... full of sound and __": Macbeth : FURY. Our Shakespeare quote of the day. Sound and fury has become a phrase meant to signify a whole lot of nothing.
'Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.' -- Macbeth

24. Whirling toon : TAZ.  The cartoon Tasmanian Devil. I have had him on Friday before.
26. Meeting staple : AGENDA.

27. French noble : DUC. Duke.

29. Bad news from the professor : F PAPER.  I wonder how and when grading A-F started?

30. __ Major : URSA. The constellation that holds the big dipper. Latin for Bear.

31. Butcher's cuts : LOINS.

34. Ming dynasty art source : JADE. Clecho. 36D. Ming dynasty art source : CERAMIC.

37. Excited : HET UP.

38. "__ gotta run!" : I'VE.

39. Date night destinations : ATMS. B's cost money! (Babes?)

40. Suffix with proto- : ZOA.

41. Lusaka native : ZAMBIAN. Not up on my African CAPITALS.

42. Africa country whose official language is English : LIBERIA. I now know that this was Africa's first republic, founded in 1822 as a result of the efforts of the American Colonization Society to settle freed American slaves in West Africa. The society contended that the emigration of blacks to Africa was an answer to the problem of slavery and the then prevalent perception of the incompatibility of the races. This settlement dates back to 1847. If you want you can read MORE.

43. Whittling away, as support : ERODING.

44. Former Toyotas : PASEOS. More Spanish, and a short lived sporty car of the 90's.

46. Beau __ : GESTE. A character in a P.C. Wren book and many movies, it also is French for grand gesture.

47. Trekkie, e.g., for short : S F FAN. Science Fiction Fan.

51. Capital south of Quito : LIMA. Ecuador and Peru.

52. Sportswear brand : IZOD. The complete HISTORY.
53. Biblical scribe : EZRA. He was part of the first return to Jerusalem and the return of the Torah to the Holy Land. LINK.

56. 1957 Treaty of Rome org. : EECEuropean Economic Community, precursor to the European Union.

57. Genetic messenger : RNA.

58. Member of the fam : SISter.

Wow, that was a workout. I do enjoy JW 's creations very much and appreciate his humor and consistency;  having blogged so many that I think I can see where the puzzle is headed when I begin solving a JW Friday. Hope you enjoyed your St. Paddy's Day.  Spring is near. Lemonade out

41 comments:

OwenKL said...

UNAS dias I can do a Friday all on my own. Today was not one of those days. The NE corner was the only part I was able to fill before I gave in and turned on the red.
Interesting bases for today's gimmick - a normal word, a proper name, an acronym, and a Latin word. Nice variety!
CSO to me at 47d, crossing a reference to a sci-fi author from Canada,eh's stomping grounds.

He didn't like retiring, because he missed the bizz.
He didn't like his soda flat, because he missed the FIZZ.
He didn't like the diaper
That he had to wear to BED, fer
Otherwise too many sodas meant he slept and missed the whizz!

They said the SYNCOPATION would give it more pizzazz.
That Ragtime must be HET UP to provide some razzmatazz.
But regardless how they scurried,
The Blues would not be hurried,
And an EARFUL that was soulful was the lullaby of JAZZ!

I hope the first lim wasn't a downer, and the second doesn't insult those with more musical appreciation than I have.
And apologies to Anon@8:41 yesterday, for forcing a bit of poetry into your cerebellum. Glad it's not impairing your ability to realize how poorly I compare to McGonagall! :-)

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

This one was beyond me. I managed to correctly guess JIMENEZ and ADRIANI, but I eventually had to turn on the red letter help to get the bottom central section. SFFAN, FLIES, EZRA, EEC, CANADA, IZOD -- it was all just a sea of white until then.

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning,

Thanks for the challenge, Jeffrey. I caught JIMENEZ on a WAG for a Spanish surname. TAZ was easy, but the double Z's didn't help me initially. Suddenly after CHIP AND DAZZLE, I went back looking for them. Sussed IAIN Glen with alternate spellings of Ian (John). Then I realized before he was "enthroned" he was a suitor to Lady Mary Crawley. Well, well, well.

Nice walkabout, Lemonade. The links were terrific. Thanks.

Hope none of you spent too much time consuming green beer yesterday. ;)

Hungry Mother said...

Slogged through it with several write-overs. FPAPER was my break-through. I guess having been a professor has some rewards.

unclefred said...

Wow!! Last Friday I was on the wavelength, and ripped right through it. THIS Friday, exactly 100% the opposite. Totally defeated me. Huge Did Not Complete. I just got six clues, ran through it all a second time, got one more, and gave up. You got me good, JW, you devil!! Nice write-up, though, Lemonade, thanx.

thehondohurricane said...


Success today was limited to the NE corner. The rest was pretty white. The double Z gimmick never came into view. SEMPER FIZZ??? Sloe Gin Fizz I've partook in a long time ago. CHIP AND DAZZLE???? Okay, I get it now, but never saw it. I was trying to make CHIP AND putt work.

I was dead in the water from the get go today, so after the second pass through, the white flag went up.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Tough, but Wite-Out can cover a multitude of sins. Figured that Zulu or Kikuyu described a TRIBE, the date-night couples were bound for INNS, the dumpster habitués were WINOS, and Margaret Atwood hailed from PANAMA. Somehow it all worked out. Thanks for the exercise, JW and the exposition, Lemon.

Did not recognize Juan Ramón. I would have gotten it quicker if it'd been clued as Bill Dana's astronaut character, José.

Today LIBERIA's claim to fame is its lax ship registration requirements. "Liberian" and "freighter" go together the same way that "tech-heavy" and "NASDAQ" do.

Lemonade714 said...

I was wondering if anyone would recognize Richard Carlisle...Glen, Rose Leslie, Ron Donachie, Simon Lowe, and James Faulkner all have appeared in both DA and GOT. There may be more...

Northwest Runner said...

I'd quibble that "zoa" is not a suffix in protozoa but that proto is a prefix, and you can't have a word that's just a suffix and a prefix.

kazie said...

Glad to see I'm not the only one bambooZZled by this Friday offering. Thanks to Lemonade's fantastic links though, it was an educational experience.

My NW and NNW quarters were a disaster due to having TRIBE/BANTU and LAND/ARMS, plus BEN/EDY, and being in a golf mode for the short club clue. Also, I never caught on to the additional ZZ theme, and my grammatical bent meant I was sure 1-D had to end with -LY, so AN EARFUL never had a hope and RAKED OVER THE COALS wouldn't have worked either.

Happy weekend to all!

CrossEyedDave said...

Saving the puzzle to do at the hospital, DW gets out today!

But I just read Anonymous T's EE joke last night, & did not understand it.
(I am not an Electrical Engineer.)
So I went looking on the internet (big mistake...)

This is what I found so far:

The Sex Life of an Electron

(From: Tom The sparky (martinm@wic.net).)

One night when his charge was pretty high Micor Farad decided to get a cute little coil to help him discharge. He picked up Millie Amp and took her for a ride on his megacycle. They rode across Wheatstone Bridge, around by the sine wave, and stopped in a magnetic field by a flowing current.

Micor Farad, attracted by Millie Amp's characteristic curve, soon began to lower her resistance to minimum and his field was fully excited. He laid her on the ground potential, raised her frequency, lowered her capacitance, and plugged in his high voltage probe. He inserted it into her socket, connected them in parallel, and began to short circuit her shunt. Fully excited Millie cried "ohm, ohm, ohm".

With his tube operating at a maximum peak, and her coil vibrating from current flow, she soon reached her maximum peak. The excess current flow had gotten her hot and Micro Farad was rapidly discharging having drained off every electron.

They fluxed all night trying different connections and sockets until his bar magnet had lost all its field strength. Afterwords, Millie Amp tried self-induction and damaged her solenoid. With his battery fully discharged, Micro Farad was unable to excite her generator. So they ended up by reversing polarity and blowing each other's fuses.

Anonymous said...

Waste of time....

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

I enjoy Jeffrey's creations, too, and that's why I stuck with it. Tough slogging at first but then it gradually began to come together. Liked the theme - ZZ insertion, but defer to Lemon for a good explanation. Had air-to -air but LOINS insisted on SEA TO AIR missiles. Makes more sense; brain slow this morning. Vaguely recall PASEOS.
Needed help with JIMENEZ and ADRIAN I.
Favorite clue was for SEMPER FIZZ.
GUNNY - We just called them burlap bags. Always had some around what with cow feed, chicken feed and all.

Have a nice day.


inanehiker said...

Fun romp, especially looking where the next ZZ would go in -- at first I thought they would all have ZZY, but dropped the Y as I went down the puzzle.

SEMPER FIZZ was also my favorite.

Thanks Jeff and Lemonade!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

JW's Friday offerings are usually tough but doable but I needed help today. Like Hondo, I fell into the chip and putt trap and was trying to fit dip in. Naturally, it wouldn't work and because Chip and Dale never crossed my mind, I was stymied. Also, had tango/mambo which didn't help, either, so it was FWH. I did like the theme a lot.

Thanks, JW, (I think?) and thanks, Lemony, for the informative summary.

From yesterday:

YR - My hand is about 95 % back to normal. I still have some pain and diminished strength, both of which are annoying but tolerable. It'll be six months since the surgery on March 23rd. Thanks for asking. 😉

Misty- Thank you for your special wishes. Our family celebration was a lot of fun, if a little on the noisy side. ☘

PK - Keep up the good word. It sounds like you're getting back to normal. Just be careful!

CED - Your DW sounds like a real trouper! Hope her rehab and recovery are speedy.

Tin - Congratulations on your 95, That certainly deserves a toast! 🍾

Now, I have a conundrum: I use my iPad Mini almost continuously and it is always plugged into the charger, keeping the battery 100 % charged. Yesterday, I noticed the battery was losing power and finally ran out completely. I tried several times over the course of the day to get it to turn back on, with zero results. I decided the connecting cable must not be working (this has happened before) so I called the local Apple Store to order a new one. After being transferred 3 times and put on hold interminably and having my ears assaulted by loud, blood-curdling "music," I hung up. Went online and ordered one for $10.00 less than Apple's price. Just for the heck of it, I turned the iPad on this morning and, lo and behold, the battery was at 100% charge. However, it is now at 91% and is not charging at all. Any thoughts from our techies?

Have a great day.

Irish Miss said...

Rephrase of an awkward sentence: On March 23rd, it will have been six months since the surgery.

PK- Keep up the good work. (You can use good words, as well! 😈)

oc4beach said...


This was a toughie and officially a DNF because of Red Letters and one Google lookup, but last Friday's puzzle was a killer. Once I saw the double Zs it started to fall into place, but it took more than that to finish. A lot of the fill was difficult. If I had tried this in pencil and paper, I probably would have worn holes through the paper.

I tried ZAIRIAN before ZAMBIAN, FGRADE before FPAPER, TRIBE before BANTU, SEATOSEA before SEATOAIR, and ROBBERS before GARTERS. I remember when ladies wore garter belts and nylons and then switched to panty hose. Not the case anymore. I found a lot of images of garter belts and stockings on Google, but decided not to post them.

I got GAZER right away. In my early career I worked in design and mission operations on a few NASA Star GAZER satellites (OAO) that were the forerunners to the HUBBLE Space Telescope. DW worked on HUBBLE on it's first in-orbit repair mission.

The Ming Dynasty clecho really got me. Perps to the rescue.

AGENDA was obvious. I always hated going into a meeting where there was no agenda. They usually droned on and didn't produce anything except wasted time.

JW provided a true Friday puzzle today and I really enjoyed Lemon's write-up. Especially the Chip and Dale cartoon.

Bright, sunny and relatively warm today, but snow is predicted for this weekend. UGH!

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Lost the puzzle twice and reconstructed it so it became very familiar. Got the theme when done, but started looking for double "Z's" early on. Kept trying to plug in crazy on every theme and it turned red. REAL good (not BAD), Jeffrey.

Another good one, Lemon. But you almost lost me with the Roy Orbison side link on Tiger Woods' shot. I was in the mood for ol' blue and mellow Roy and heard three before I woke up and came back to the blog.

We had African and Spanish sub-themes here, none of which I knew. Perped & WAGd.

IAIN? Wow, a vowel bonanza for constructors. Didn't know him either.

F1 neighbor = ESC escaped me until Lemon explained. Never learned to use those keys.

I didn't remember the gym dance from West Side Story. As much as I like dance, how could I forget? I just remember "Amerika". Tried "samba" before MAMBO. I can't tell the difference when they dance it.

SEMPER FIZZ is amusing but almost sacrilegious to the corps. LOL!

Big Easy said...

JW almost took my lunch money this morning. Almost. I thought it might have been Saturday and I missed my Friday appointment at the dermatologist. But nay. First pass gave up RAJA, RNA, OAKLEY, GESTE, & ZAMBIAN. After grinding away for 20 minutes it was still mainly white and I had to leave. Many, many false starts. CRAZY to DIZZY and BEN to EDY (package has EDYS) led to a wild correct guesses of BANTU and JIMINEZ and that opened it up because I noticed the ZZ. The FP start to F-PAPER didn't make things easier. I had filled CHIpAND__Z__ and once ZZ appeared, the rest came in fairly easily.

The cross of SEMPERFIZZ and SFFAN stumped me because the meaning of SEMPER was an unknown but filled by the perps and I thought maybe JW was trying to fool us with PESO for capital instead of LIMA, plus I was waffling between PANAMA or CANADA for the Atwood clue. CUJO, ADRIAN-I, FOSSE, PASEOS (no wonder they don't make it), IAIN, ATS were other unknowns.

My pet PEEVE is the lazy people who leave their grocery carts in the parking lots instead of walking a few feet to place them in designate areas and the even lazier ones who park their cars, walk past a empty cart ( that might hit their car), and then go into the store and get one. Now that you have AN EARFUL, I'll walk past my UNMADE BED, and GET out of Dodge.

Lemonade- IZOD and LACOSTE are no longer the same company.
Have a nice weekend.

oc4beach said...


IM @ 10:44 am: I have an IPOD, IPhone 6 and an IPAD Mini. The IPOD and the Mini both have charging issues when I use a non-Apple charger and cable. Sometimes they charge and sometimes they don't. Turning the Lightning cable plug over that goes into the port on the devices will sometimes fix the problem and start charging. The problem doesn't exist with the Apple supplied cables and chargers. There are also some software issues that can be addressed.

Here is a WEBSITE with some tips on possibly solving the issue.

Apple is greedy and makes it difficult to use non-Apple accessories.

PK said...

Irish Miss, thanks for your good thoughts. Some days are better than others. Glad your hand is progressing. Those appendages are so necessary. As for your computer cord, I am convinced that weather patterns and static electricity wreak havoc on electronic stuff. Also ghosts and gremlins. LOL!

Gunny sack: I think I've told some of the story of the night two dangerous criminals wrecked their vehicle in the ditch near our farm. The sheriff and deputies had been chasing them so were in our yard very soon. The police dog tracked one guy to several doors of the house (locked), the garage (no keys in car) and the barn (no keys in truck), then lost the scent. When they found the guy next day, he still had the strong smelling gunny sack he'd stolen from our barn. He'd stuffed it in his clothes to mask his scent and confuse the dog. At one point he'd lain between milo rows with the gunny covering his upper body, so he blended in and wasn't seen in the search lights.

C6D6 Peg said...

This was a tough outing to start, but finished it correctly. Got the theme on SEMPERFIZZ, but really loved the CHIPANDDAZZLE. Thanks, JW, for another nice puzzle.

Lemonade, great outing for you again! Keep up the great job!

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling Thoughts":

As someone who uses the byline "puzzling thoughts", the ZZ theme was pretty obvious! 😜

I had to cheat a few times; had ROY instead of DUC which kinda screwed up the NE corner. Didn't care for the SF FAN as referred to as a Trekkie; would've preferred a reference to the Giants or 49'ers instead. I had a hard time "getting" the meaning of SEMPER FIZZ until Lemonade explained; still, a meh for me. Tough puzzle but doable. Have a great weekend, all. I will be consumed again with March Madness tonight. Go Panthers!

AnonymousPVX said...

Ok, I'm a Star Trek fan in all its incarnations. No one has EVER referred to me and/or others as a "SFFAN".

It doesn't even make sense - how is SFFAN even short for Trekkie? Wouldn't "Giant Afficiando" be a better clue?

I my opinion, another puzzle constructed by someone who doesn't want to give a solve and gets their thrill by lousy clueing.

Jayce said...

Wow, this was a really good puzzle, hard but I was actually able to solve it without looking anything up. It was a fun challenge. Many of clues left me thinking, "What the heck is he talking about?" but little by little things fell into place. I learned that LIBERIAN and SIBERIAN did not do well side by side, and I learned that F PAPER is apparently a real thing. Bob FOSSE and Jerome Robbins, the choreographer of MAMBO (and the other dances in West Side Story,) are both highly talented guys. I think Rita Moreno was especially outstanding.

As for that doggone lightning connector on Apple products, I find that if I don't plug it in ALL THE WAY it doesn't connect. That last little millimeter of insertion is crucial. Personally I think it is not very ergonomic, nor, for that matter, particularly good design engineering. It encourages over-jamming it, thus risking slightly warping the iPad frame. Sure it has a very tiny "click" when it is inserted far enough, but it is hard to discern.

PK said...

March Madness: the president and I are in agreement, Go Jayhawks!

Ol' Man Keith said...

Proud of myself for finishing this in relatively good time - with only one lookup, for JIMINEZ.
My first fill was FURY, naturally, from one of my favorite quotations. Of all the major Shakespearean characters I never got to play, Macbeth is at or near the top of the list. I think directors saw me as too nice, or too peaceful to take on Big Mac's deadlier intentions. I did get to do Macduff in Pittsburgh (with Tom Atkins and Jean Smart in the top roles), and I count that loyal thane as one of my favorite parts, with a truly challenging scene in IV/3 when he endures the news of his family's massacre.
I did get to direct a couple of other Macbeths, and I think of it as a perfect illustration of how unintended consequences can bite us in the... behind.
The FURY quotation is part of Macbeth's "Tomorrow and tomorrow" speech, one of Shakespeare's most nihilistic utterances.

Irish Miss said...

oc4beach l 11:14 - Thanks for your input and that link. However, I have already tried all of those suggestions to no avail. Also, the present cable and charger are Apple products. Jace, I checked my connection and it is tight as can be. I still think the cable is defective, although that makes the temporary "back from the dead" of this morning even more mysterious. The proof of the pudding will be if the new cable does the trick. In the meantime, until it arrives, I have my ancient but serviceable iPad to keep me plugged in!

Ol' Man Keith said...

AnonymousPVX @12.17,
I agree with the confusion (minor but real) of SF FAN. I never heard anything but Trekkie, and when the term "Science Fiction" is elided, it is usually "SciFi."
Hailing, as I do, from San Francisco, SF FAN means something altogether different for me.

Unknown said...

Very fun Friday puzzle. Finished with no cheats, but very challenging. As to SFFAN, I've seen a lot worse clueing.EG, CLUE: K-12, ANSWER: ELHI (Elementary-HIgh school)

Jerome said...

Barrel in a Russian saloon? MOSCOW MUZZLE

Husker Gary said...

Showing videos is common for us subs and some are real snoozers but today’s BBC Secret Garden showed wrens, hedgehogs and snails mating along with other activities and the kids, uh, really got into it.

Musings
-It took ‘til SEMPER FIZZ to get the very clever theme
-That shot of Tiger’s is the best golf shot I’ve ever seen. It definitely DAZZLES
-GOT AN EARFUL? I’m a husband, so you do the math!
-FOSSE Jazz Hands
-I get MADEMOISELLE but do not get how to pronounce MONSIEUR no mater how close I listen
-Yeah, I know, what has four wheels and FLIES?
-Yo, ADRIAN!
-South Korean soldiers staring at North Korea at their DMZ
-Poor Annie OAKLEY
-I taught some abolitionist history yesterday by referencing the Big Dipper in URSA Major which is mentioned in the song Follow The Drinking Gourd
-Here come some Freshmen where we are supposed to talk about STD’s. I’VE gotta run!

Misty said...

Well, I got the West and some of the South, but I had so much trouble with this puzzle I felt almost too embarrassed to check in with the blog. So it's a relief to find I'm not the only one who had trouble. After cheating a little, everything fell into place, and it was a fun puzzle in many ways--so, thanks, Jeffrey, after all. And you too, Lemonade.

Sorry to hear you still have some hand pain, after all this time, Irish Miss.

Have a great weekend coming up, everybody.

CrossEyedDave said...

My reaction to this puzzle was similar to a furball...

(sort of) WBS,
so much white stuff I could go skiing...

Yes, SF Fan was a stretch, but understandable in retrospect.
(incomprehensible in forethought.)

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Loved the cleverness of today's Jeff Wex theme, which emerged at Chip And Dazzle. The NW corner was trouble for a long time, because the only Cadillac I knew about was the CTS. Nothing in the Caddy line interests me even a little. Still, managed a legitimate no-peeky.

Anonymous T said...

IM - I haven't read everyone yet 'cuz I know your in EDT, so maybe this was answered. It seems it's a feature in newer iThings to keep the battery conditioned. I found This C | NET article.

2. non-branded Apple chargers don't always work.

3. Of course there's always - "Are you on a switched outlet?" My cable-modem kept dropping. I found DW had plugged it into a switched outlet so she could plug in something else. For two days Internet would go out when she "downed" all the switches near the front door!

Cheers, -T

OwenKL said...

I'm going to put in a plug here for the premier SF FAN club here, the N3F. The National Fantasy Fan Federation (which despite its name is international and mainly Science Fiction oriented, though Fantasy, Superhero, and Horror are all major components) was founded a bit before Star Trek, in 1941. It welcomed Trekkies into its fold, as well as Star Warriors and others. At the time I was president of the organization in the late 80's, Fantasy had stopped being the catch-all term, but Sci-Fi was still considered a vulgar neologism, and SF was the favored descriptor of our genre.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

The N. Central is the only "win" I can claim today after I got rid of supER Star and went w/ GAZER. JW kicked my but and left me w/ an inky mess. I finally RADIOED Lem "May Day. May Day" And it's only March! Big-Time DNF.

JW - If I could have glommed onto the theme (insert ZZ) I would have loved it (I do in retrospect, you know after Lem told me), but I didn't even get that far. I did know BANTU, so had a proud moment there. Thanks for the offering.

No point in going over w/o's & ESPs; by then I had at least 4 Googles.

Funny, I work w/ a 3d but he spells it w/ a G. Yeah, that was a Google too.

Fav: Duh, TAZ next to FURY :-)

Didn't mind SF FAN - though I see Giants' fans confusion :-)

IM - I'll research your iIssue a bit more later...

CED - a) glad to hear about your DW; b) that @9:27 EE romance-novel borders on porn!

//BTW, the joke relies on knowing that you perform Laplace transforms on the fundamental equations to "move them" into the imaginary/frequency domain. Like I said, you can pick out the EEs 'cuz they get it and laugh. Then you can give them a Vulcan-salute: \/_\/

Jerome - nice. You actually added the Zeds to a real word.

Big E - never understood those grocery-folk either. Take a cart in w/ you (if it's out there), put it back in the corral when your done. And, if you can, yank one off the front of the train as the collector moves them back to the front door - just to lighten his load a bit.

I'll play later but it's been a long week. The kids are w/ Nana, so nap time for me.

Cheers, -T

Irish Miss said...

Anonymous T @ 5:00 - As I mentioned earlier, the charger and connector are Apple products and I have always kept the iPad on the charger all the time. And, unless I have ghosts and goblins changing plugs and outlets, that possibility is moot. The defective cable still seems the cause so the new one should correct the problem. Thanks for your help. ☘ ☘ ☘

Tinbeni said...

D-N-F ... never on the Constructor's Wave-Length ...
But it did kinda "Fly-Right" after I wadded it up ...
and punted-it across the living room.

Lemon: Nice write-up with loads of interesting, Learning-Moments, information.

SEMPER FIZZ was my favorite theme ... since it was the only theme I got before the punting.

Then the clouds came over "Ruining MY SUNSET" ...
But THAT'S OK (sigh ...) since I was already "Toasting" THAT "It-Was-Five-O'clock-Somewhere!".
Cheers!

Anonymous T said...

Tap, Tap, tap, [anoying feedback]... OK, this Mic is on...

Where'd everone go... I'm reading crickets.

Just finished w/ an outage in the Great White North and then got off the horn w/ DW (she went to Pompeii today - I told her she'd should have call'd 1st so I could check on the life-insurance policy).

Everything I know about the Italian language I leaned from this Bugs & TAZ Toon. Italian stereoTYPes (wanted proto-types but didn't fit)? Sure, but heck, this WOP thinks it's funny. //Steve - new recipe! I don't think it would sous vide well tho.

Cheers, -T