google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday, April 4, 2016 Mark McClain

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Apr 4, 2016

Monday, April 4, 2016 Mark McClain

Theme: Late - Things after dinner.

58. When one might have a mint ... or where the first words of 18-, 24-, 37- and 48-Across can be found : AFTER DINNER

18. Hotel lobby supervisor : BELL CAPTAIN. Dinner Bell

24. Working the room, as at a banquet : TABLE HOPPING. Dinner Table

37. Time of reckoning : DATE WITH DESTINY. Dinner Date

48. Congressional majority, e.g. : PARTY IN POWER. Dinner Party

Argyle here. Barely awake and no, it wasn't a rough night.

Across:

1. Website pop-ups, e.g. : ADS

4. Brush with liquid while roasting : BASTE

9. Jeweled headwear : TIARA

14. Morse code bit : DAH. Well, no dit.

15. Electric razor brand : BRAUN. What's a razor?

16. Like some short-term committees : AD HOC

17. Make a boo-boo : ERR

20. Bathtub insert : PLUG

22. Texter's "Wish you hadn't said that!" : TMI. (too much information)

23. Practical, as a solution : VIABLE

27. Words before uproar : IN AN

28. Dipstick wiper : RAG

29. Gumshoes: Abbr. : PIs. Private Eye.

32. Madrid museum : PRADO


35. Little kid : TOT

36. Went to the bottom : SANK

41. Is the right size : FITS

42. Yea's opposite : NAY

43. Short, but probably not sweet : TERSE. Like this write-up?

44. Sneaky : SLY

45. Warm lining : FUR

46. Feline king : LION

53. Nielsen of "The Naked Gun" films : LESLIE. And "Airplane!"

56. Canon SLR camera : EOS. Are they all DSLR now?

57. Indian wrap : SARI

61. Santa visitor's seat : LAP. Ho Ho Ho!

62. Fable's lesson : MORAL

63. Rear, to an admiral : STERN

64. Mao __-tung : TSE

65. Unlike poetry : PROSY

66. Blended ice cream drinks : MALTS

67. Buddhist sect : ZEN

Down:

1. Quite competent : ADEPT

2. "Our Gang" girl : DARLA. Never knew this. Not a bad voice.


3. Decorative foundation plant : SHRUB

4. Consumer protection gp. : BBB. (Better Business Bureau)

5. "Respect" singer Franklin : ARETHA

6. Upstream swimmer : SALMON

7. Dutch bulb : TULIP

8. Britannica, e.g.: Abbr. : ENC. (encyclopedia)

9. Wrapping, as an ankle : TAPING

10. Rover's collar attachment : ID TAG

11. Melville's obsessive whaler : AHAB

12. Stir up : ROIL

13. Clearasil target : ACNE

19. Fly : AVIATE

21. Flies like a seagull : GLIDES

25. Sufficient, in poetry : ENOW

26. Cattle poker : PROD

29. Low poker hand : PAIR

30. Quaint lodges : INNS

31. Hebrides isle : SKYE

32. Many emailed image files : PDFs. There are programs to change JPG to PDF or change PDF image to JPG but I have no experience with it.

33. Train wheel guide : RAIL

34. Suit filer: Abbr. : ATTY.

35. " ... hallowed be __ name" : THY

36. Dictation takers : STENOs. (stenographer) It seems STENO is a stand alone word and not an abbreviation.

38. Accustomed (to) : INURED

39. Small fruit pie : TART

40. Four-way __ : STOP

45. Without prejudice : FAIRLY

46. Big name in little trains : LIONEL. Fantastic in full screen!

47. What an editor's caret indicates : INSERT

48. Sincere entreaties : PLEAS

49. Busybody : YENTA

50. Dance in triple meter : WALTZ

51. Wipe out : ERASE

52. Mature, as fruit : RIPEN

53. Desk light : LAMP

54. Get an __ effort : E FOR

55. Houston player, informally : STRO
59. School-of-thought suffix : ISM

60. Hosp. staffers : RNs

Argyle


61 comments:

OwenKL said...

When the French Revolution was all a-boil
The common people in mobs did ROIL!
They did as they please,
Ignoring all PLEAS,
It was really a bad time be a royal!

The candidate schmoozes, TABLE HOPPING,
AFTER DINNER speeches and favor swapping.
The Man of the Hour
For the PARTY IN POWER,
His DATE WITH DESTINY there is no stopping!

The boss decided to date his STENO,
Dinner, drinks, and then -- well you know!
But "discrimination"
Won her a vacation
And the payoff then paid for her trip to the PRADO!

C, C, B-.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Pretty straightforward Monday puzzle, with a theme that I didn't pick up until I got to the reveal. I still don't think cluing PDFS as "image files" is really the best way to go, but whatever. Everything else was smooth.

Lemonade714 said...

Glad all is well Argyle. AVIATE sounds a bit odd, but I guess it is a real word. I have heard nor read before.

I too did not know DARLA sang.

Thanks Mark and Scott.

TTP said...

Good morning all. Thank you Matk and Argyle.

I too had dit before DAH, but DiRLA and StRUB stood out.

AARGHI'LL have to take a FIW to start the week as I never looked at FAIRLe. My unlike poetry entry was PROSe, and I never looked back.


Baseball Bugs (1946)

unclefred said...

A wonderful breezy fun-filled Monday CW!! My fave: I can do 'em w/o a cheat!! Seriously, I suspect everyone at this site is carved higher than me on the totem pole of CW capability; hey, I do my best!! Love Mondays and Tuesdays. Wednesday is O.K. Thursday, I'm already on thin ice. Friday, I've fallen through the ice. Saturday, forget it, I'm done-for. Used to be able to do 'em all. Oi. Anyway, really enjoyed today's romp, and Argyles wonderful write-up. Thanx, Mark and Argyle!! And as always enjoyed Owen's limericks. Wishing everyone a great week!

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Zipped through this one with nary a hiccup. Thanks, Mark. Argyle, I really enjoyed that model railroad video. I wonder how much real estate that model setup requires.

Another segment of the Grand Parkway opened this past week. We took the opportunity to drive the I-69 - I-45 segment over the weekend; the tolls kick in today. Can't imagine I'll ever have reason to drive that route again.


thehondohurricane said...


A nice start to the week from Mark....too bad I did not pay a little more attention to my effort. Did not realize until I logged in to the corner that I had -ATEW-ITHDESTINY for 32A, so instead of thinking I finished it off, I end up with a DNF. Nice start to the week!

Other then the omissions, this was a smooth fill.

18A BELL CAPTAIN left me wondering.....do they still exist?

A lot on my plate today which is going to be messed up thanks to an all day snow event. Apparently the highways are already full of accidents. I sure do not miss the AM drives to work and then PM drives home. I'd be a raving lunatic with today's congestion.

thehondohurricane said...

Darn....

My goof was -ATEWITHDESTINY one omission, not two. My typing accuracy really stinks.

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning, all.

Pretty smooth morning, but I could not get past IN AN as a lead in to uproar. Funny how sometimes not being on a certain wavelength makes something so easy seem so difficult. Thanks, Mark.

Thanks for the tour, Argyle. I, too, like the train. The Chicago Botanic Garden has a wonderful G-gauge set up--indoors during the winter holiday season and outdoors--appropriately for G-arten gauge--in the summer. The setting is natural Chicago area landmarks built with twigs and so on. Kids of all ages love it.

Have a wonderful day.

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Mark McClain, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for a fine review.

Zipped through this in near record time. Theme appeared after I was finished.

I was hesitant to write in PROSY, but FAIRLY looked correct.

I still own a LIONEL train. It is boxed up.

I like to use self-basting roasters. BASTE

Not sure I have ever heard of a BRAUN razor. I use a throw-away blade.

Have to run. see you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Yellowrocks said...

Easy peasy Monday.
I never think of E as a grade. My only write over was A FOR effort instead of E.
We hiked on the lovely Isle of Skye for a week.
Just this past week we were saying that very few places serve MALTS these days.
Have you been to Roadside America in Shartlesville, PA? They have a huge model railroad and village layout.
Link Roadside America
Example of use of AVIATE:
"Anyone who has learned to fly has heard that you must “aviate, navigate, then communicate” for the very reasons you mention, among others.
Scientific American Jul 13, 2013

TTP said...

Argyle, did you update the writeup ? I had no videos or links earlier this AM... I really enjoyed watching that model train video.

Yellowrocks, I had never heard of Roadside America before


Google has done it again. Google search Animal Sounds.


Desper-Otto, it looks like that Grand Parkway will be a big time saver, especially for those in the northeast trying to get back to the west . Also looks like there other new highways and parkways since I've been there.

Here you go Hondo:
Bell Captain salary on a Bell Curve

Tinbeni said...

Mark: Thank you for a FUN Monday puzzle with a nice AFTER DINNER theme.

Argyle: Were you up late watching the NY METS lose (again!) to the KC Royals?

Fave today was LIONEL ... probably because I had one of their "little trains" as a kid.

Perfect weather today here in the Tampa Bay area.
Cheers!

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Argyle and friends. My laptop is still has a corrupted Safari and I can't post fro there. Much harder to post from my phone.

Fun puzzle. I liked how LIONEL crossed with LION.

Mark McClain said...

Thanks for a great write-up and for appreciative words . . . I totally agree that PDFS is not a good answer for the published clue (my original was the very innocent "Sharable files"). Can't help but wonder if Rich was trying to trip solvers up if they got the "F" and immediately wrote in GIFS (I would have).

And that "E" for effort thing is an old gag, I guess, as everyone knows an "E" isn't a grade, so getting an "E" for effort is a bit of a dig meaning you tried but that's about all. Maybe we need to let that one fade away . . .

Feedback from solvers (positive or negative) is richly appreciated!

Mark
https://www.facebook.com/unpluggedcrosswords/

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was a fun, breezy offering, just right to start the week off nicely. Big CSO to Santa and DO and Anonymous T for Stro. Didn't see the theme until the reveal and, then, it's "how did I not see it?"

Here it is April 4th and I'm looking out at snow falling! If ever there was a wacky winter, this was it: 70's in March and teens in April! I wonder what Mother Nature has up her sleeve for the summer months?

Thanks, Mark and Argyle, for a merry Monday meander! 😇

Have a great day.

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks, Mark and Santa!

EOS was perped. Everything else, OK.

Still trying to get tax info to CPA. Ugh!

Have a great day!

Magilla Go-Rilla said...

32D: I had the F but I went with GIFs.

oc4beach said...


Good puzzle Mark and nice write-up Argyle. I enjoyed the puzzle.

I agree with Mark on the giFS file. That's what I did at first. Could have been JPEG, or TIFF or a myriad other file types. It took perps to fill it in.

I haven't been doing the puzzles for the last week. Went into the ER with a heart block (electrical) problem and spent the week having two surgeries. The first to install a Pacemaker and the second surgery to replace a defective lead into the heart. Most people have to wait 10 years to have the second surgery to replace the battery. I was not thrilled to be in the 5% group where things can go wrong. DW said I was a little too hard on the surgeon after the first surgery, but I disagree. It wasn't his fault that the lead didn't work. He fixed the problem and now the pump is acting properly. I'm still sore, but it will get better. I had great care from all of the hospital staff.

I'm glad to be back doing the puzzles and I think I got a couple of the nurses to do the LA Times CW and to log into the blog.

I hope everyone has a great day.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-We ring a “DINNER BELL” when we feed our kitty. Now when we need to find her…
-Where we stay, we are our own BELL CAPTAIN
-Best wedding where I was a guest – We ate right after the ceremony and the couple TABLE HOPPED
-My popup ADS dovetail with my recent web searches. That is uncomfortable.
-Grandma had one of these with a PLUG on a chain
-Dipstick – I’ve had two cars where I had to fill up the oil and only checked the gas
-It took diminutive Peter Lorre to make this 5’ 9”, 150 lb PI look threatening
-I’ll bet Johnny Carson’s heart SANK when a guest turned out to be TERSE
-At my grandson’s baseball games his father takes dozens of pictures of each single play with his $1,200 Canon DSLR and immediately picks the one(s) he wants. Not how it used to be!
-Who’s the last person to sit in your LAP Argyle?
-Our foundation SHURBS are yews from which no one will ever make a bow
-SALMON fish ladder built to help them around a Columbia River Dam
-Kineseo TAPE is seen more and more often on athletes
-A four-way STOP a hundred yards from here is backed up with at least 40 cars to the east on school days but our police dept. will not have someone direct traffic for a half-hour
-Me too TTP!

Sonia said...

Enjoyed the puzzle....................

I always look forward to what Owen has to say................

Argyle said...

Yes, TTP, I did. The title was more about me than the puzzle.

desper-otto said...

Oc4, good to hear that your pacemaker adventure seems to have had a good outcome. Sounds like you weren't particularly hard on that doctor. Did you mean to say that your wife thought you were too easy on that doc? It's gotta feel good to be out of the hospital.

oc4beach said...


DO @ 10:17 am: No, she thought I went overboard on the discussion about the second surgery. I didn't yell or scream or shout, I just stated I was not going anywhere until the problem was fixed and fixed right. I know it wasn't his fault, but I wasn't happy with the necessary do-over. You know how engineers are.

I'm glad to be out of the hospital, but I have a lot of restrictions for the next 4 weeks or so to make sure that it heals properly and that the leads are set in the heart wall.

Thanks for your concern.

Irish Miss said...

oc4beach - Sorry to hear of your health issues; feel better soon.

Yellowrocks said...

Best wishes for a great recovery, oc4beach. I hope the 4 weeks of restrictions pass by quickly. A big yellowrock to you.

Nice Cuppa said...

The SKYE BOAT SONG

[May be played as a WALTZ; but no TAPING!]

Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing [GLIDE, don’t AVIATE…!]
Onward! the sailors cry [Not A-STERN, CAPTAIN AHAB, PLEASe!]
Carry the lad that's born to be King [Disguised as DARLA but no TIARA]
Over the sea to Skye [GLIDE, STOP, then AVIATE….!]

Bill G. said...

Thanks Mark and Argyle. I enjoyed that though the theme eluded me until after I stared at the completed puzzle for a couple of minutes. WEES.

Oc4beach: Good luck with all that crap you're going through. It's good you have the crossword puzzles and this blog to keep your mind occupied. Best wishes!

I came across an old movie that I've seen a couple of times before; The Firm, adapted from a John Grisham best seller. It's a fun, dramatic story that keeps you involved all the way along. It also has two of the best-looking actresses that never quite made it big on the silver screen; Jeanne Tripplehorn and Karina Lombard. It mostly avoids the usual weak ending of many Grisham novels/movies.

Lucina said...

Thank you, Mark McClain, for a rapid romp through this grid. No need to ERASE at all and a big CSO to Dudley at AVIATE!

oc4beach:
I hope you continue to heal and stay well.

Thank you, Santa; LOL at your razor comment.

Have a beautiful day, everyone!

klilly said...

Today is square root day. I believe all the math and science bloggers would like this. Here is the link to information about it.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/78098/happy-square-root-day

Haven't posted for a long time. I love reading the blog everyday.

Kathryn

My mom lives in western ny york.. 5 inches of snow on her lilac buds that I planted two years back. I am glad I am in Texas where it is warm

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Argyle, a fine TERSE write-up. Thank you.

Zipped right along for an easy solve. Had to double back to get DARLA. No strikethroughs or lookups were needed. The unifier coughed up the catchy theme.
SKYE - One of about 10 or so Hebrides island with 4 letters. We see Iona a lot.
63a - Word play on rank of Rear Admiral. Originated in sailing days from assigning the more junior flag rank officer to command the ships held in reserve in the rear of the formation during a sea action.

Here are some facts on DST you may not have been fully aware of.

Chickie said...

Hello Everyone, No Constructor's name today. This is very unusual for our paper.
Thanks Argyle for an eye opening write up. I made some of the same errors as others--prose for prosy, and A for Effort. A is a grade and E is the beginning of the word effort. I haven't heard the latter before.

The SW corner was a bit dicey, until I had to change those errors with the correct letters. the rest of the puzzle went together very fast, but the theme escaped me until I had the unifier fill in.

For some reason the deck construction crew is not here this morning. They have just a bit of finishing touches to do, but I wish they would be here every morning to work until it is done. We don't know they aren't coming until it is late in the morning and they are no-shows. Hopefully they'll be here tomorrow.

Have a great day everyone.

Nice Cuppa said...

Mark McClain

You prompted for feedback.

• I thought nice clean cluing throughout, including:
– Limited resort to obscure abbrs., and just the one sports question (a personal dislike).
– Things like ADS & PLUG clued differently; addition of the ambiguous “quite” to “competent” for ADEPT.
– Use of adjectival phrase (“Unlike Poetry” – and the answer rhymed! – cutesy misdirection); adjective/verb ambiguity at “Mature”.
• I enjoyed the internal pun on “Rear admiral"/STERN – I assume that was intended; and the sea-to-air mini-themes, including SANK, SKYE; and the flight pattern: GLIDES and AVIATE (LESLIE might’ve been part of that, too).
• Standard fill was not excessive. “Quaint” has been overused though for “inn”.
• Enjoyed some uber-Monday fills– INURED, VIABLE, YENTA.

Critique:
• Theme was a little lame, but this a Monday, so that's practically de rigeur.
• “…hallowed be THY name” might be deemed a little ethno.
• I thought PDF was OK, just – albeit not all PDFs are image files [the original ones were textual, and many still are]; and of course not all image files are PDFs.
• Minor pique: crossing of LIONEL and LION

ENOW already….! On the mark!

Mark McClain said...

Thanks, Nice, for a "nice" critique . . . all spot on. I will share one response, that about LIONEL and LION. I agree with you at a personal level that this is not an attractive placement, and I would avoid it if something better presented itself at the time. But I have learned (I'm fairly new at this) that most editors don't worry about similar words, even closely placed, as long as the words are not related (LION and LEONINE would be a no-go). They are much more concerned about the inherent quality of the words than the fact that they share a few letters.

oc4beach said...


Thank you all for your encouraging words.

Ol' Man Keith said...

This was a pleasant start to my day. I found nothing objectionable (teetering for just a mo' over "Quaint" for INN) and much that I enjoyed (especially to be reminded of old flames DARLA and ARETHA).
I also got a kick out of PRADO, because of memories of that beautiful museum, so full of beauty and so cool on hot Spanish afternoons.

Lemonade714 said...

Mark

Thank you for stopping by; in a very short time, Mark has many publications and book of his own creations. I blogged a few Fridays of his and he seems like a very friendly man. See LINK . He has stepped up his production with this 4-4 effort his 4th of the year.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Fast & fun, Mark. Thanks!

Thanks, Argyle! Enjoyed the train. My older boy was given a LIONEL hand-me-down train from a step cousin. It was always under our tree at Christmas. When I was down-sizing to move, that son came for the train for his son and it had disappeared. Later found out the younger son had glommed onto it for his son. I thought there would be war, but elder son decided it wasn't worth ruining their relationship. I was proud of him.

Houston player: I had ST in place and wanted STud but settled for STRO.

PRADa before PRADO.

OC4beach: Bless your heart, surgery is no fun! Glad you had the energy to give the doctor some flak. Most of them need some deflation to egos. Glad you didn't go home without the repair. Best wishes for your continued recovery.

TTP, re your yesterday comments about the the Villanova - OU game. I did watch it until Nova was 30 points ahead and it was too embarrassing to see OU bumbling around anymore. 44 point win, I think. That win made it easier for a Kansas fan to take their defeat with 4 points. Nova is a defense powerhouse right now and I'm rooting for them to win it all.

SwampCat said...

Easy, but fun. Thanks Mark. Thanks for walking us through "your" puzzle, Argyle. Santa? Razors? Who else could it be about?

Clever poems, Owen.

I also have a Lionel train left over from years ago. It runs on what was then called Standard gauge track, much wider than you see today. The steam engine is huge ...and heavy by today's standards. Lots of good memories !

Misty said...

Your slick puzzle got my week off to a great start--many thanks, Mark, and thanks too for checking in. I also got today's Sudoku and Kenken (woke up early), so this felt like a triple great start to the week. A big delight, since I'm experiencing a similar weekly schedule to Uncle Fred's these days.

Have a good recovery, oc4beach, what a difficult week you've had!

Snow in April! My goodness, Irish Miss, you and the daffodils deserve much better than that!

Have a great week, everybody!

Anonymous T said...

Hi all!

Doh! What TTP said. I didn't even notice until he pointed out the E/Y issue in PROSe. FIW.

Thanks Mark for a fun puzzle w/ the STROs on our opening day*. Here's HOP'ING it's a good omen. Thanks Argyle for the write-up. I still have to use a razor :-(

WOs: a FOR effort; PRADa b/f O; doABLE b/f VIABLE; and twos/tec b/f PAIRS / PIS.

ESP: 56a. EOS is a model of Canon, I presume...

Fav:BASTE xing SALMON. I built butter-Basted Salmon last night for DINNER. Tonight - left over salmon on a bed of lettuce will be on the TABLE.

I'll play more later.

Cheers, -T
*I just saw the game is postponed. Can we get STROS again tomorrow Rich :-)

CanadianEh! said...

I see that I am late to the party today even though it is only mid-afternoon. Thanks for the Monday fun Mark and Argyle.

Hand up for A for effect, TIFs before PDFs, Prose before PROSY. I had to correct from past participle Sunk to past tense SANK. Saw the CSO to Santa & Spitz.

I enjoyed the placement of FUR and LION at 45A and 46A.

Loved the Skye Boat Song, Nice Cuppa @1054.

Best wishes for full recovery, oc4beach. DH is an engineer so I understand "how engineers are"!

LESLIE Nielsen was Canadian, born in Saskatchewan (son of a Mountie) and served in RCAF in WWII.

CanadianEh! said...

Ottawa has a beautiful TULIP festival every spring which dates back to just after WWII. The Netherlands continues to give Ottawa 20,000 tulip bulbs every year in gratitude for Canada having provided asylum for the Dutch royal family during the war and playing a strong role in the Netherlands’ liberation.
OttawaTulipFestival

Tulips coming up in the garden are under the snow.
We have more snow today than we have had all winter and it is not even April Fools Day!

Lucina said...

CanadianEh!
I loved the slide show and will put the tulip festival on my bucket list! Thank you for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Mark M., for this fun and fast puzzle! I didn't get the theme until Argyle pointed it out to me. Thanks for the expo, sir!

TTP: I made the same mistake! FIW on a Monday--sheesh. The rest of the week has to be better.

IM: you may like this:What's with this crazy weather?. It's a Facebook post and I can't get a copy of the picture without the comments.

OC4beach: best wishes for an uneventful recovery.

I hope you all have a wonderful day.

Pat

john28man said...

Re: E FOR EFFORT

In my days in the Chicago Public School System (in the 40s & early 50s) the were:

S for Superior
E for Excellent
G for Good
D for Deficient
F for Fail

You don't suppose it had a Chicago origin?

Jerome said...

It's my hope that the time will come when a president sees to it that certain doctors will have their DATE WITH DESTINY, and declare WE HIT DENTIST DAY.

tawnya said...

Good afternoon!

I enjoyed the puzzle today! Fantastic job Mark! I did put GIFs in but quickly changed it - PDFs came easily. And hands up for PROSe. I enjoyed the different clues you gave for common answers (instead of "terrier" for SKYE, no TSE tse fly either!). And the ones I wouldn't have know were easily perped and I didn't see them until reading the write-up. Average speed for a Monday so I had to think a little but not much. Overall, super fun!

Have to go study for Pharmacology exam on Wednesday...

OC - heal quickly! Keeping you in my thoughts! Those RNs should be smart enough to handle a Monday/Tuesday puzzle easily :)

Baseball opening day games are being postponed due to it being cold??? Too bad for the fans. Won't be a problem for my Dodgers I'm sure!

Have a great day,
t.

Yellowrocks said...

pje, too funny, too true comment on the weather.
Canadian Eh! Beautiful tulips. I hope they survive the cold snap. I am also rooting for the always late blooming cherry blossoms in our nearby park. Many brides choose this park for their wedding pictures. The timing is difficult. I feel so sorry when Mother Nature does not cooperate.
What a splendid afternoon I had today in spite of the cold rain!
My computer has sounds! I can play your musical clips.
The library tech restored my Kindle library app in nothing flat. No more swiping across a printed page to turn it. LOL And now I have the latest library update. My account even gave me back the book I had started reading.
Alan's medical checkup today showed he is the healthiest he has been in 6 months. No more complaints from him. He has been working his regular schedule for 3 weeks and was delighted with the size of his pay check on Friday.
My first experience with my new pharmacy today was delightful. No snafus, plenty of efficiency, pleasantness, and competence. Goodbye - - -. I have found a new love.

Jayce said...

A very pleasant Monday solving activity today. Thanks, Mark.

An enjoyable, terse writeup today. Thanks, Argyle. Terrific train video. I imagine the owner spent several thousands of hours building that layout. Clearly a lot of TLC was put into it.

Best wishes.

Lucina said...

YR:
It sound like your life is coming up roses! That's wonderful! I'm happy for you after the travails of this winter.

pje:
That is so funny!

CrossEyedDave said...

After dinner mints?

Late to the party, had an hour ride to the CPA & back.
(Got to see his Lionel train collection under glass...)

Ditto on the prose/y, never saw it.

But I am really late because...

(I took a nap:)

Irish Miss said...

pje @ 3:08 - Thanks for the chuckle; it was just what I needed after struggling with the trash and recyclable bins down my poorly plowed driveway! 19 tonight and a high of 35 tomorrow! Bi-polar, indeed!

Misty, my neighbor's daffodils were in full bloom last week; today, they are covered in snow!

YR, happy to hear such good news from you and Alan!

TTP said...

oc4beach, best wishes for a speedy recovery. Good that you were able to get there in time, and unfortunate that they had to replace a lead. Perhaps you could introduce them to Six Sigma ?

H-G, Anon-T, pje, and CED: TTP will take solace in that he wasn't alone in speeding past and/or not reading the clue at 45D. Gee !

Also pje, that is so funny ! She's been driving me nuts of late !

I was going to spray my crab apple Saturday. Then it rained. Then hailed. Then snowed. Then the sun came out. Then the winds kicked up and it started to rain again. Then sleeted. And snowed a little more. So Sunday I went to Lowes for the fungicide and even though the temps climbed to 70, the winds were gusting to easily half of that number. Can't spray in a windstorm.

Unfortunately, Sunday's warm weather brought the buds out, so I had to get it sprayed today. Which meant that after my 8:13 post this morning, I went out into the 36 degree weather and sprayed. Hope the garden hose doesn't freeze tonight.

The weather fooled my star magnolia as well. About 20% of it bloomed, and then that's it.

Crazy weather !

PK, you wanted STud ? :>)
I'll pull for Nova. Was really happy for Rollie Massimino when he coached them to victory in '85.

CanadianEh! said...

Tawna @ 3:56. What are you studying? PharmD? Been there. Best wishes for the exam.

Anonymous T said...

It's not Friday yet, is it? Rough day - a 3.5 hour troubleshooting call (hence time to post earlier :-)) ending in ERASE'n' a month's worth of work and we still don't have a root-cause.
Oc4 - You will esp. appreciate this - we had one site have errors w/ the new software that we didn't catch in testing and had to rip out today. Thank goodness they got you fixed before it was a real problem. And I wouldn't worry about being aggressive in that situation!

On the plus side, Pop got out of the hospital today. I'd tell you why he was in but TMI. He's fine now, just a bit week.

YR - Loved more LIONELs!

Pje - Even in H-Town Mother Nature is bipolar. I had to don jeans & a sweater over the weekend.

Killy - Thanks for the 4/4/16 info. Added that to my "presence status" today.

DARLA reminds me of the Our Gang intro to Rough Guys (REO Speedwagon) [you only need the first :24]

TTP - You share'd Nirvana Friday - how about Everything ZEN (Bush)?

Line 32a: PRADO, TOT, SANK: We were at a museum (ok, not PRADO) in SF for the Chihuly Exhibit. My heart SANK when we encountered our friends with their rambunctious TOTs in tow...

Thanks again Mark & Argyle!

Cheers, -T

Avg Joe said...

An enjoyable Monday romp. Needed the reveal to get the theme, but that's why it was there.

Can't say that I'm a March Madness fan, but at least it's coming to an end.....and it gives me a chance to link Basketball Jones.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

WEES. Late to the dance because of a busy day made busier with unneeded snow.

Nice to see Lionels in the puzzle - I played with a hand-me-down set with very little track as a kid. Years later, I was invited to join a family from Mass who were traveling to Germany to have Christmas with their military daughter, which meant that we each had to stuff a few pieces of Lionel train track and a car or two into our luggage. The object was to have at least the minimum oval track & train under the tree. Good times!

YR is quite right! Over a lifetime, pilots accumulate lots of little memory aids to help in high-workload situations. The saying "Aviate, Navigate, Communicate!" is a reminder how to prioritize when something stressful happens in flight. A related memory aid is "Never drop the airplane to fly the microphone!"

Argyle said...

E for Effort WWII link HERE.

Army and Navy Boards for Production Award

Anonymous T said...

Did anyone watch the Big Game tonight from H-Town? My dog was out of the hunt (OUch!) but it was an exciting game none-the-less. Both teams played well. Congrats to Villanova and their fans. Cheers, -T

Michael said...

pje @3:08:

Yes, Mother Nature is indeed bipolar: it's set to be 88 and clear here on Wednesday; but 60 and raining on Friday.

And this is the East Bay California, not Panhandle Texas or Minnesota where this kind of weather happens more oftener.....