Theme: "Bull Session" - BLE is added to each theme answer. My *BLE pronunciation is different from the "bull" sound. How about yours?
11A. Lowly glowworm? : HUMBLE BUG. Humbug.
23A. Turkey's affectionate peck? : GOBBLE SMACK. Gobsmack. I've only used "gobsmacked".
36A. Beach brawl? : MALIBU RUMBLE. Malibu rum.
44A. Lens cover for a low Earth orbiter? : HUBBLE CAP. Hubcap.
65A. "Those are stone fragments, all right"? : AY, THERE'S THE RUBBLE. Ay, there's the rub.
88A. Mogul mishap? : SKI BUMBLE. Ski bum. Great clue.
93A. Slip while washing dishes? : SPONGE BOBBLE. SpongeBob.
112A. Warning about an escaped horse? : STABLE ALERT. Stay alert. This is the only one that has spelling change.
119A. Henry VI's "O, God forgive my sins, and pardon thee!"? : NOBLE EXIT. No Exit.
Unusual first themer placement today. Normally HUMBLE BUG will be placed in 25-Across spot. 11A and 22A are broken into two.
Mr. Ed, who has plenty of themeless experiences, took a bold approach. Those triple stacks of 9's on the top right and lower left are hard to fill in cleanly.
Across:
1. Fours, on most Augusta National holes : PARS. On most other courses as well.
5. Gauguin's island retreat : TAHITI
20. Mine, in Montreal : A MOI Also 61A. French postcard word : AVION. 13D. Marne moms : MERES And 104. To be, to a Breton : ETRE. Hello Splynter!
21. Old block seller : ICEMAN. Ice block.
22. Spy : OPERATIVE. And 30. Spy mission, for short : RECON
25. Source of a fond melody : SERENADER. Needed crosses for both of the 9's.
26. Prefix with arthritis : OSTEO. Other than apple cider vinegar and honey a try, Knox gelatin is said to be good for arthritis also.
27. Sharer of the prize : CO-WINNER
29. D, for a driver : GEAR
34. News anchor Burnett et al. : ERINs
35. Ross on a commemorative 3-cent stamp : BETSY
41. Service station offering : AIR
42. Blue-and-yellow megastore : IKEA. Sweden's national colors.
43. Snap back : RECOIL
50. Merged labor org. : CIO
51. Letter-shaped bike locks : U-BOLTS. It's just called U-locks, right?
52. Bit of information : DETAIL
53. Chicken-king link : A LA
54. Former U.N. chief : ANNAN (Kofi). Studied here at the Macalester College.
56. Three times due : SEI. Due is "two" in Italian. Also 71A. New, to Dante : NUOVA. I only knew the Spanish NUEVO.
57. Far from choice : LOW END
58. Adds a soundtrack to : DUBS
59. Command to a boxer : SIT
63. Rips into : TEARS AT
69. What the god Mars' symbol represents : MALE SEX. I did not know this.
72. Vote in favor : YEA
73. Leave out : OMIT
74. Some dorm accommodations : SUITES. Not my college dorm.
77. Ernest J. Keebler, for one : ELF
79. Arcade coin : TOKEN
83. Story opening? : SOB. Sob story. I was thinking of "ONCE upon a time...".
84. Early cinema sex symbol : HARLOW (Jean). Don't think I saw any of her movies. Quite severe eyebrows.
85. Makes fuzzy, as one's vision : BLEARS. Not a word I use.
87. Actress Gardner : AVA
90. Tie the knot : SAY I DO
91. Ended a flight : ALIT
92. Map abbr. : RTE
95. Footnote ref. : OP. CIT.
98. Dirty money : LUCRE
101. Reform Party candidate Perot : H. ROSS. Minnesota is a caucus state. We gave Marco Rubio his only win so far.
102. Narrow inlets : RIAs
103. Orthodontic appliance : RETAINER
106. Sources of heavenly strains? : HARPS. Great clue. Got me.
110. Halite extraction worker : SALT MINER
116. Whatever number : ONE OR MORE
117. Port SW of Buffalo, N.Y. : ERIE, PA. Nailed it.
118. Reeded instrument : OBOE
120. Stinging crawler : RED ANT
121. Crow's-nest support : MAST
Down:
1. When repeated, a Samoan port : PAGO
2. Cookie man Wally : AMOS
3. Gen. __ E. Lee : ROBT
4. Site of the world's longest railway : SIBERIA. The answer filled in itself.
5. Sudden death cause : TIE
6. Some window extensions, for short : ACs
7. Hesitant sound : HEM
8. Apple for the teacher : iMAC. Not going to touch this brand after what D-Otto went through.
9. Nogales nosh : TACO
10. Where there's a quill? : INKWELL. Another great clue.
11. Mubarak of Egypt : HOSNI. He's still alive.
12. Ivy League sch. : U PENN
14. Fox's title : BR'ER
15. PC interconnection : LAN
16. Curio case : ETAGERE. Nothing on it. But this one looks quite fancy.
17. Plumbing fixture uncommon in North America : BIDET. Kazie has one in her home.
18. Iris locations : UVEAs
19. Redistricting eponym : GERRY. Gerrymandering.
24. 1924 co-defendant : LOEB. Drew a blank, though I've heard of Leopold and Loeb.
28. Dander : IRE
31. Bus stop spot : CURB
32. Embossed cookies : OREOs
33. Berserk : NUCLEAR. New meaning of "nuclear" to me.
35. One in a wallet : BILL
36. Flaky mineral : MICA
37. Related : AKIN
38. "Worthy Fights" co-author Panetta : LEON. Don't know the book, but Panetta alone is enough.
39. Whodunit why : MOTIVE
40. Grafton's "__ for Burglar" : B IS
41. Comply with : ABIDE BY
44. Emulate Paul Bunyan : HEW
45. 4 x 4, briefly : UTE
46. Language of southern Africa : BANTU
47. Thing to fight for : CAUSE
48. Jessica of "Barely Lethal" : ALBA. She also founded The Honest Company.
49. Ago : PAST
51. Blood amounts : UNITS
52. "Pearly Shells" singer : DON HO
55. Up to now : AS YET
57. Yoga position : LOTUS
58. "The Circus of __": 1935 novel adapted into a 1964 Tony Randall film : DR LAO
60. "Ditto" : THE SAME
62. "What else __?" : IS NEW
64. Sticks by, as a stickup man : ABETS
65. Court defense : ALIBI. Not basketball court.
66. Bedroom community : EXURB
67. Soprano Lear : EVELYN. Stranger to me.
68. Capital on Interstate 40 : RALEIGH
69. Tree-hugging greenery : MOSS
70. Out of control : AMOK
75. In bed, maybe : ILL. Lots of fresh but tricky clues in this puzzle.
76. Part of a foot : TOE
78. Sound engineer's device : FADER
80. Political pundit Marvin : KALB. Wiki said he hosted "Meet the Press" for a few years. I miss David Gregory.
81. Like some film geniuses : EVIL
82. Hoopster Archibald : NATE
84. Jabba, for one : HUTT
85. Chinese steamed bun : BAO.
It's Baozi. No one calls it BAO alone. Often round in shape. Actually
Chinese call "steamed bun" Mantou, which are rectangular and served with
every meal in Xi'an.
 |
| Baozi |
 |
| Mantou |
86. Prefix with call : ROBO
89. __-Myers Squibb: Big Pharma firm : BRISTOL
90. "For Hire" detective : SPENSER
91. Son of David : ABSALOM. This grid has quite a few names.
93. Mumbai mister : SRI
94. DOL division : OSHA. Department of Labor.
95. Welles of "War of the Worlds" : ORSON
96. Grand on stage : PIANO
97. Biblical spy : CALEB
98. Fine china : LENOX
99. Biological incubators : UTERI
100. Proofing mark : CARET. Also 109. Proofing mark : STET
103. Ancient mariner's story, e.g. : RIME
105. Sneak attack : RAID
107. Self-named sitcom : REBA
108. Ones in a league of their own : PROS. Another great clue.
111. GI fare : MRE
113. Emmy recipient Arthur : BEA
114. Hosp. staffer : LPN
115. Put away : EAT. Look at this Japanese New Year's food spread Martin Herbach prepared two months ago. I spotted lotus roots immediately. Sashimi on the lower right. See the black beans on the red lacquer plate? Martin told me he soaked them for 8 hours, then simmered for 6 hours with rusty nails. I'm not kidding, Steve/Jayce. Real rusty nails. He said "I string them on pine needles from my garden and dust them with gold flakes." He's a real food connoisseur (and test-solver for the New York Times crosswords).
C.C.
59 comments:
Greetings!
Nice puzzle, Ed! Interesting expo, CC!
Some things were perped: ERIN, EVELYN, BAO.
No problems.
It's raining here again. Should help my squash to grow, if the seeds don't get flooded out.
Have a great Sunday!
Morning, all!
Mostly delightful puzzle today. I got the theme early on with GOBBLESMACK and enjoyed sussing out the rest of the themers (many of which I could figure out based on the clue alone thanks to knowing the theme). The one outlier was MALIBURUMBLE, since I've never heard of Malibu Rum before. And yes, I pronounce GOBBLE and RUMBLE and HUMBLE the same as if they were spelled GOBBULL, RUMBULL and HUMBULL.
A couple of tricky spots down south included the unknown (and strange looking) ERIEPA, which I just realized should be parsed as ERIE, PA and not as a single-named city. Now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure we've seen this before and I just forgot. Elsewhere, I struggled with the unknown KALB, made more difficult because I misread the clue for 91A as "Ended a fight" instead of Ended a flight."
In the end, I manged to get all that stuff right, but finished with a typo up north. MARE/OPARATIVE instead of MERE/OPERATIVE. Oops.
Oh -- not a big fan of Baozi, personally, but I love a good Jiaozi (especially fried instead of boiled). My in-laws used to make them from scratch once a week, but now we just buy them frozen from the local Asian market.
Hello Puzzlers -
Struggled a bit in the Blears and Harps areas. For the latter I had Hymns, which didn't help much. At least the theme was easy to grok, and that did help much. Hand up for misreading "flight" as "fight", i.e. WBS.
Morning, C.C., the Japanese feast looks mostly unfamiliar but probably delicious!
And so, Puzzlers, today we come to an end: the U.S. airing of the very last Downton Abbey episode. I hope Edith finds happiness at last. Our local studio is hosting a private advance viewing at midday, followed by tea and an auction featuring a Downton stage prop donated by the production company.
Interesting puzzle by @Ed Sessa, an experienced and creative constructor who has published widely in the Los Angeles Times and New York Times. Fascinating commentary from C.C.
Another constructor friend of mine has a birthday today (March 6). Find out who, and wish him Maazel Tov!, by clicking on the link and solving.
Ed is just a complete professional and his work is entertaining no matter the day of week.I did not know ERIN Burnett or EVELYN Lear, there many proper names.
I also never thought of BLEARS as a verb though I have been bleary eyed and BAO or BAOZI were both unknown.
All that said, the theme was fun and helped solve.
Thanks Ed and C.C.
Good morning!
Fun puzzle from Ed this morning. I got the theme early, but even after getting STABLE ALERT, I didn't understand it -- definitely an outlier. Had to walk away from the puzzle for a few before TIE and ACS made sense up top. It's foggy here this morning. Maybe that's what BLEARed my thinking. Still, it was a fun outing.
C.C., I think NUCLEAR means "berserk" in the same sense as "scorched earth." She went all nuclear on me.
Good Morning, C.C. and friends. Interesting puzzle. The gimmick finally dawned on me when I got to the bottom of the puzzle.
Two of my favorite clues were the Old Block Seller - ICEMAN and Grand on Stage = PIANO.
I, too, was momentarily confused by ERIEPA.
I was mislead by Story Opening into thinking we were looking for the letter of the word Story, so initially tried ESS. Oh, instead we were going for a true SOB Story.
NATE “Tiny” Archibald (b. 1948), was called "Tiny" because he was "only" 6'1". He played for the Celtics when we still lived in Boston, so would occasionally seem him play when we could afford tickets to a game. We were students back then with very little spare cash.
Jean HARLOW (1911 ~ 1937) died young from kidney disease, possibly as a result of complications from an earlier bout of scarlet fever.
Nathan Leopold (1904 ~ 1971) and Richard LOEB (1905 ~ 1936) were students at the University of Chicago who killed a young boy in 1924 just to see what it would feel like.
My hubby is ILL in bed today. Alas!
QOD: There is no greater harm than that of time wasted. ~ Michelangelo Buonarroti (Mar. 6, 1475 ~ Mar. 18, 1564).
Great puzzle and theme. I, too, had one bad cell, a typo.I always told my students to check their work before handing it in. I had many write overs in the ERIEPA section (hello, Abejo), until I parsed that word. V8 can, please. EVELYN, KALB, and ERIN were unknowns, but amenable to perps and wags.
Delicious looking Japanese New Year's Feast,CC. I missed seeing the long, uncut noodles, slurped whole as a symbol of longevity. I never heard of the rust cooking method, either.
Hatoolah, I wish your hubby a quick recovery.
The ending -ble has the unclear, unstressed schwa sound. We do not say circ CUSS, or a PRILL or hum BULL. But I give BULL a pass in the puzzle's name because it is close to the -ble sound. To me it seems to be the same issue as when we accept almost sound alike puns in crosswords.
I caught the theme early today and danced all around the puzzle. Plenty of false starts. MALE SON to SEX, IPAD to I-MAC, SUV to UTE, SAW to HEW, GRADE-D to LOW END, BARDOT to HARLOW. But in the end I stubbed my TOE by misspelling NUOVA as NUEVA and filled DONHE as the singer of the unknown song 'Pearly Shells'. So, a DNF today.
DR LAO, ABSALOM, BAO, and EVELYN were my unknowns filled by perps. ETAGERE is only know because my wife overpaid for one years ago. 1A-Fours- most par-72 courses have 4 par 3s, 4 par 5s, and 10 par 4s. I can usually shoot about 5-6 pars to match the number of double bogeys.
After filling ASYET, UNITS, and ALIBI I kept thinking something had to be incorrect but after RUBBLE filled the other side I realized what it was. 'AYE' have never seen it spelled AY, or maybe EYE never noticed. I think those are painted I-brows on HARLOW.
Have a nice day and keep up the good work C.C.
Bernard and Marvin KALB both worked for CBS for many years. I never knew Marvin was at NBC. It seems that one or the other was on the CBS evening new every night when Cronkite and Rather were the anchors.
Good Morning:
This was a fun offering with a theme that showed itself very early on and that always helps with the solve. CSO to Abejo with the ubiquitous Erie, Pa. Not familiar with the soprano, Evelyn, but do know of Erin, Kalb, Harlow and Loeb. There is an Alfred Hitchcock movie about the Leopold/Loeb murder starring Jimmy Stewart; the title is either The Rope or just Rope.
Thanks, Ed Sessa, for a Sunday sparkler and thanks, CC, for the "tasty" summary. Do the Bao and other rolls have a filling?
Beautiful, sunny day here today. By Wednesday, temp around 70! This has been the winter that wasn't.
Have a great day.
Hola!
It's great to see you, C.C. with some insight into Ed Sessa's marvelous grid. WEES. I had many of the same confusing moments as you all did, especially ERIEPA. Thank you, Barry for pointing that out and I do recall having seen it before.
SMACK defeated me and I can't believe I spelled OP CIT as OP SIT!!!!! As many times as I typed that in footnotes it should be permanently etched in my memory.
Time to go.
Have a wonderful Sunday, everyone!
BLE sounds like BULL when I say it. AY THERE’S THE RUBBLE was wonderful!
Musings
-As you can see, the HUBBLE does have a mirror COVER
-SPENCER/SPENSER slowed my finish but not for long
-Last years US Open had a 546 yd PAR 4. No really!
-Getting ICE BLOCKS a long time ago
-Our Saturday Silkie had a SERANADER
-Who says AIR is free?
-I was the one who liked chicken ALA king in high school
-American sitcoms with DUBBED Italian were a hoot when we traveled
-Getting 13 YEAS in 1776 wasn’t all that easy
-Chuck E Cheese’s TOKENS ain’t cheap and go in a hurry
-I sifted through a McDonalds trash container to fetch a student’s very expensive RETAINER
-Stalin gave out lots of one-way tickets on that SIBERIAN railway
-Our iMAC has lasted 8 years
-“Bus stop, wet day, she's there, I say, Please share my umbrella”
-The OREO clue well seems to have no bottom
-Do you know the MICA(H) in this picture
-Useful BANTU/Swahili phrases
-Lots of kids gave lots of UNITS at the blood drive at school last week
Fun puzzle! Thank you, Ed!
C.C. Thanks for the expo. Didn't understand SOB as the start of a story, but you made it make sense!
Thanks Ed and CC. That was a fun couple of hours. I liked the theme. It helped.
I can't say I agree with the QOD. Wasting time is bad but there are things much worse.
Re. Jean Harlow's eyebrows, I much prefer the natural look.
Add me to the list of folks who were confused by ERIEPA at first.
When my mother was young, people used to put rusty nails in water (boiled?) to get a liquid that was rich in Iron to combat anemia.
D-O, what was your problem with the iMac? Mine has been fine. I need to think about retiring it due to its advancing age.
Lots of rain for a few hours last night. More due tonight and Monday. Yea!
I like old westerns. I came across one on cable starring Randolph Scott. It's probably one of the worst movies I can remember watching but since it's an old western, I'm still enjoying it.
Hi Y'all! This puzzle was just jampacked with "bull" and like Gary, I pronounce it that way. I was on Ed's wavelength so enjoyed this, thank you very much.
I lost my concentration and the mind began to "BLEAR" somewhere in the middle because of loud noises outside. I was having trouble reading the numbers in the squares and trying to fit in answers where they didn't belong. I had just decided "Bristol" was the right answer and wondered why it went into a four-square slot beginning with "R" when a loud bang had me jumping up and going to the window. For two days neighbors down the block have had crews taking down a big tree that was leaning precariously over the street with the roots bulging up the dirt at the base. I had remarked to my SIL that I hoped it didn't fall as we passed or on kids riding their bikes. The last big portion of the tree trunk falling was the big bang today. No traffic hazard now. Anyway when I got back to the puzzle the BLEAR was gone and BRISTOL went into the correct place.
I can't believe I dredged up Erie, PA with no problem. Probably because I had been looking at a map of that area lately in connection with genealogy. My dad said my great grandpa worked on the Erie Canal, but it was quite a distance from where they lived. I think it was another canal.
Thank you for the expo, C.C., and all you do. I scanned the CW honors list yesterday looking for your name. I was glad to see the nice tribute to you someone had written clear at the bottom. I felt you deserved more credit than that, however.
We know you are top notch and enjoy you here very much.
As for the rusty nails, I once saw a reference in pioneer days medicine to making a tonic to cure iron-deficiency anemia by boiling rusty nails and drinking the water. Supposedly it worked.
HG, you are a hero to dumpster dive at Mcdonalds...
(& that student must be really brave to put that retainer back after that!)
(Ack!@)
Anywho, I just jumped on to yell at George Barany, who is really messing up my day!
I do not know why I am so stretched for time on a Sunday,
I feel like The White Rabbit...
So, I knew I would not have enough time to do the Sunday puzzle...
So, yesterday I printed out George Baranys link to CC's 2013 puzzle thinking
it would be a faster solve. (+ I may have done it before, how long have I been on the Blog?)
But, Then George posts (7:23 AM) a link to a friends Birthday!
GodDangIt George! You know I can't resist sending a cake on someones BirthdaY!
& now I am doubly frustrated because I can't figure out this %$^%$$# puzzle!
Thanks a lot!
:(
Hmm, come to think of it,
George led me down the rabbit hole!
Husker, I sure hope that was only one unit per student!
PK, after Hurricane Ike we noticed one tree was now leaning dangerously over the street. That was 2008, and that tree is still at that jaunty angle.
Bill G, the IMAC decided one morning that booting was passé, and it opted to display only vertical purple bars on the screen. It was barely two years old, but it was going to cost $725 to give it a chance to reach its third birthday. I declined. It was my first and only (and probably last) Apple product.
Good afternoon everyone.
Fairly easy today. A few unknowns such as 67d EVELYN were helped by the perps. Liked the theme.
21a - ICEMAN - Before electricity came at the end of WWII, our dairy farm mainly used ice blocks to cool the milk before pick-up. We would fill our ice house with ice blocks harvested from the Hudson during Winter. After that was used up during late Summer, ice would be regularly delivered by the ICE MAN until the onset of cold weather.
D-Otto - Our IMac is almost 7 years old. No problems. Very robust operating system.
Excellent! Thanks Ed and C.C.
Cluing was inventive and provided several "aha" moments.
PK,
Thank you! That nice comment is from Dan Feyer, the best crossword solver in the US. He won the last six consecutive American Crossword Tournament. I was incredibly flattered by his comment.
Food! Or, more specifically, Chinese food! I love cha shao bao (often called just baozi), xiao long bao, and sheng jian bao. I learned about the latter when LW and I discovered a wonderful Shanghai restauarant near us. That's the same place where we had those fish gluten balls I mentioned last year. I like mantou okay, but LW doesn't like such purely doughy food. And this da fan tong can eat a lot of jiaozi! Sometimes LW likes to make them, but it's a lot of work, so we often buy the frozen ones from Trader Joe's.
Jayce,
You always make me smile with "da fan tong".
Also, I learned this Golden Milk recipe for arthritis the other day. If anyone is interested, give it a shot. Please don't use cow's milk.
Ingredients:
1) 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder
2) 1/2 teaspoon of ginger powder
3) 1/2 teaspoon of coconut oil (optional)
4) Pinch of black pepper
5) One cup of unsweetened soy milk (or almond milk/coconut milk)
Warm up soy milk in medium heat, stir in all the other dry ingredients. Add a teaspoon of honey for taste (skip this if you're diabetic).
Drink before bed. Turmeric is super anti-inflammatory.
Whew, got carried away by thoughts of baozi and jiaozi. Rusty nails? Pine needles? Wow, talk about an imaginative way to prepare black beans!
As for the puzzle, I liked it a lot. The theme was funny and clever, and most of the fill quite sparkly. Ed Sessa is definitely in a league of his own. A very pleasant way to spend this Sunday morning.
Best wishes to you all.
C.C.- Berserk... and a little historical context.
Not all Norse people were Vikings. The Vikings were Norse warriors in the 8th through the 10th centuries. Within this group of warriors were a cult of ferocious shock troops called Berserks. Their legendary exploits were chronicled in the ancient Sagas. It was bad enough to face an onslaught of the Norse warrior class. To face the Berserks was absolutely terrifying. They probably dressed in bear skins ( ber=bear, serkr=shirt... Berserker) and normally carried an ax and a shield. They were utterly ruthless and afraid of nothing. In fact, they glorified the thought of dying in battle, which would land them in Valhalla, a special room in Viking heaven called Asgard.
By the way, it's estimated that about 25% of the roots of English words come from the Norse. It's easy to see why "Going Berserk" has the meaning that it does.
D-Otto and Jerome,
Thanks for the Berserk explanation. Also, Jerome, remember some anon on the blog called you arrogant when you criticized Tim Parker's puzzles long time ago? Where did that anon go?
Irish Miss,
Yes, Baozi always have fillings. Jiaozi (Chinese dumplings) also. Have you had dim sum before?
Jayce,
Martin said that Japanese blackbeans are quite big. Same size as almonds.
CC @ 2:28 - No, I haven't had dim sum, unfortunately.
Holy cow, I didn't know Martin Herbach is the same guy who was the lead architect of SuperCalc! I used that program a lot back in the early 80's. At that time I was lead programmer at a very small and insignificant game company. My computer game for the Commodore 64, called "Pipes," won the best game award at the 1983 CES show. Small world!
Jerome:
That is really interesting about the origin of BERSERK. I love to know the origin of words. Your assessment of words from Norse is likely quite accurate since the Norsemen invaded England and contributed much vocabulary to the existing language.
The Norsemen also contributed heavily to the English gene pool undoubtedly.
I found this blast from the past. Those were the good ole days. Well, even now I am enjoying the good new days.
Jerome, thanks for that info about the Vikings and the Berserks. Very interesting.
C.C. Wow! The best crossword solver in the U.S. can't be wrong about what is good. You have a right to be proud. The name Dan Feyer didn't register with me until you said that. Then I remembered the tournament writeups. When I read his comments about you, my thought was, "Finally, someone who knows what he's talking about." Guess that was right.
D.O.: I knew a lady who was driving down the street and had a tree fall on her car. And her next door neighbor's tree fell on my daughter's car sitting in her driveway. So I am just a bit leery of leaning trees.
Jayce, thanks for sharing the info about "Pipes". Good for you. Nice to know there was a practical video game that might be beneficial to the infrastructure. Needs to be resurrected for today's warlike youth.
Yeah, me! I finished about 95% of a Super Sunday puzzle! Thanks, Ed Sessa! This was fun! I even got the theme on my own,for a change. Thanks, C.C.,for the expo! More fun!
Jerome, thanks for the explanation of Berserk. After I read it I remembered most of that information, but I have no idea where I would have learned it. I learn a lot from reading the write-ups and the blog.
DH and I are celebrating 40 years of wedded bliss today. Well, 40 years of wedded life. Both sets of parents made it to 60 years so we have quite a goal to meet.
Enjoy your evening!
Pat
Musings 2
-Dave that girl who lost her RETAINER was an 8th grade girl BB player and a space cadet. Her dad was an obstetrician and so cost would not have been a factor. Incidentally, while sorting through the fast food detritus, I found a $10 bill. It turns out another girl on the bus had thrown that away too
-BTW, I am one of those who has constructed puzzles with C.C. but still started working them the day they were published without looking at the author name(s) and had to work at it. My memory coupled with Rich’s penchant for switching cluing…
-Yes, Otto, they only gave one UNIT of blood and some of them were still a little light-headed but wore these proudly!
C.C. Yes, I remember going berserk concerning Timothy Parker. Turns out, all I said was true. For years a vast majority of constructors have known that Parker is a fraud and a charlatan. And your welcome, Awesome Blossom, for the info on my ancestors. You, too, Jayce.
Lucina- Yeah, there's an endless amount of subjects to learn. I'm not sure if there are many as fascinating as language and the origin and meaning of words. I suppose it's one reason why we love crosswords.
The Vikings did invade England, but I'll bet most people don't realize four English kings were Norse or that the Vikings founded Dublin. Throw in their occupation of France, Normandy, and the fact that the Swedes founded Kiev (Swede= Rus=Russia) and we can start to grasp the influence of Norse culture in much of the world.
Also, it really needs to be mentioned that to too many people the word Viking conjures up an image of some big, vulgar, ax wielding man with horns on his head, which is pure fiction, and bloodlust in his heart. In many ways their lifestyle deserves that image. But, I hope we don't forget that they were among the finest metal craftsman, ship builders, and explorers the world has ever known. They were also enraptured by literature, folklore, and poetry. Even their chief god Odin was a poet.
HG, 10 bucks!
(Hmm, I might dive in myself...)
Also, all the talk of Beserkers makes me think of
Fred Saberhagens excellent novels of Man vs Machine.
I gave my books to a friend, & now I want to reread them
but the Beserker series is out of print.
(Anyone know if they are online somewhere?)
PIPES - InfoWorld - 1983
"Arlo is a hardworking plumber but a touch absent-minded. Help him construct a water-supply system for a whole neighborhood."
"A marvelously entertaining and challenging exercise in planning, economics and spatial relationships for all ages."
scroll to page 42
Jerome, when I was in college, my roommate was from Norway. He taught me a lot about Norse culture and history, and laughed (in a nice way) about my inability to pronounce "yeg" correctly. (Yeg is "I" in English, the first person pronoun.) At least I recognized the sound of it in King Harald's introductory speech to the Olympic games in Lillehammer lo those many years ago. I was sad to learn of my roommate's death a few years ago; he was still so young. His name was Ragnar Boyesen and my cousin almost married him instead of the guy she actually did marry and is still married to.
For out of press SF (and other genres) try Portland OR's Powell's City of Books. Ideally by going to Portland and losing several hours browsing their giant used book selection but you can shop online at http://powells.com
Anon @6:28
Can you provide a link?
I can't find Arlo,
I found this instead...
(P.S., I didn't get past stage one...)
Ooh, Thank you Anonymous @ 7:22!
CrosseyedDave
ck this out on Ebay
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=Beserker+series&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XBeserker+book+series.TRS0&_nkw=Beserker+book+series&_sacat=0
Terry's LINK
Creative Software Ads:
Boys Life Nov 1983 Pages 16 and 17
Jayce- I just popped a beer in my man cave and thought I'd check out the Corner. Here's to your buddy Ragnar, and if he was your pal there's no doubt he was a fine man. Skoal!
Late to the blog today--took me all day to solve this delightful Ed Sessa, and enjoyed every minute of it. Always love your Sunday expo, C.C.
Pat, congratulations on the 40 years! Wonderful!
Saw a sad item about possible crossword construction plagiarism on the CBS News tonight. Sorry to see that.
Hope you all had a lovely Sunday, and have a great week ahead!
Good evening, folks. Thank you, Ed Sessa, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for a fine review.
Started this early this morning, was busy all day, and just finished while watching Downton Abbey. Last show.
I see my home town made the puzzle again, ERIE, PA.
I never figured out the theme until I came here. Got all the words.
Tried SOLOMON for 91D, Son of David. It fit. Thought that was obvious. Well, it soon became apparent that that was wrong. Slowly I remembered ABSALOM. A few perps helped.
Spelled RIME as RYME the first pass. SALT MINER fixed that to RIME.
EXURB is a new word for me. It fit so I went with it.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Ooooh,
Good links!
Thank you all!
I know I will be a happy reader...
(Puzzler, hmm,maybe...)
OK, Puzzlers!
Downton is all done in the first two time zones - everybody satisfied with the tying up of loose ends?
Sunday lurker says
Jayce - I don't recall Pipes, but that's cool. I have a C-64 sitting in a box nearby - maybe I'll play it when I have time (i.e. retire).
TTP 1) where are you? 2) did you know Jayce was a fellow code-head?
I've seldom enjoyed a USA / Universal puzzle (but sometimes it was all I could at a hotel until I found I could pay $ to print from Mensa)... Now I know why. If I ever defended Tim Parker it's cuz I was thinking of the other Parker (Rex) and that still would have been a light defense.
Jerome - My entire knowledge of Norse history, outside of Garrison Keillor and Hagar the Horrible, is comprised of Douglas Adam's Dirk Gently and Erik the Viking. Thanks for the etymology. FWIW - I wish you'd play w/ us more oft. You seem like a really smart fellow.
Cheers, -T
Dudley:
Yes, what a beautiful and satisfying ending to a series I and so many have enjoyed for these past six years. It make me happy all over, well, except for poor Carson. But that is life, in fact and fiction both.
Julian Fellowes is a genius. I hope he creates something else we can enjoy.
Oh, dear. "made me happy."
Jerome:
I agree and wish you would join us more often.
pje - in all the Norse talk I forgot to say congrats on 40 years! I'm on 27 years of bliss - DW & I wed 28 years ago... //Rim-shot. :-)
C, -T
Sorry more not-puzzle related, but inquiring minds...
I'm finishing up the paper and I just saw this octopus discovery article. That thing looks like it's from another planet (no really, it looks like the aliens shown on weird-TV).
Cheers, -T
Yes, I saw that new octopus too. They nicknamed it Casper after the friendly ghosts of children's comics.
Pje, AnonT, wow! Lots of people married a long time who enjoy CW puzzles. Me too. It's coming up on 50 for us.
Malibu beach, CA, I think.
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