Title: Colour me happy.
I have blogged for almost six years now and C.C. has 127 solo puzzles published in the LAT in the last 4 years, but this is only my second solo C.C. Friday. The first was the outstanding Poet's Corner puzzle in 2014. Today is quite tame by comparison, and like last weeks JW, primarily a fun puzzle. The simple concept of phrases including words which sound like colors is brought together by the rare Friday reveal. Once again she builds her grid in a pin wheel fashion with the reveal in the southeast. No long fill, but some interesting intermediate fill like STACHE, OH DARN, OGRESS, GASHED, B B KING, SPREES, BOASTS, FAINTS, ANEMIA, HEFNER, ENGAGE, PAWNEE, SCENERY, EPITHET, SINCERE, LET ME GO, HOW'S THAT. All this from our transplanted fearless leader...amazing.
17A. *Lost it : BLEW A FUSE (9). New fill to the LAT, yet very common.
60A. *Entertained the kids, in a way : READ ALOUD (9). Also new.
11D. *"Bonanza" star : LORNE GREENE (11). I had the pleasure of meeting him at a charity tennis match in Boca.
25D. *Cottage site in the Beatles' "When I'm Sixty-Four" : ISLE OF WIGHT (11). I did not know this but I bet Steve and NC did.
And the reveal.
41D. Risqué ... and what each answer to a starred clue contains? : OFF COLOR (8).
Across:
1. Trellis pieces : LATHS. THIS always confused me, but I learned a trellis can be made of lattice. Splynter, help?
6. "Ideas worth spreading" acronym : TED. Technology, Entertainment, Design
9. Runs out : BOLTS.
14. Eponym of a United Kingdom poetry prize : ELIOT. It is obvious many here share my love of Poetry and PRIZES.
15. Schooner filler : ALE.
16. Walking the dog, e.g. : CHORE. I was thinking about yoyos.
19. Storage place : CD-ROM. Oh these modern times.
20. Play set : SCENERY.
22. Nonpro? : ANTI. Ifn you aint fer it, your agin it.
23. Man's best friend, e.g. : EPITHET. They can be nice like that or they can be bad. It is a sobriquet, a nickname, a title, a label, a description etc. Fittingly a lead in to...52D. Animal that's been a Japanese Natural Monument since 1931 : AKITA. An amazing STORY.
26. Fiona, after Shrek's kiss : OGRESS. Nit polic, Fiona was always an Ogress, the spell which made her look like a human was broken by the kiss.
28. Cut deeply : GASHED. But literally and metaphorically.
29. "Blues on the Bayou" musician : B. B. KING. An album and a song...RIP B.B.
32. Overindulgent outings : SPREES. A binge.
34. Stranded messenger : RNA. Nice strand pun.
37. Handle : SEE TO. Make it so....
39. Mr. Potato Head piece : EAR. Followed by the anthropomorphic...
40. Front-wheel alignment : TOE IN. Know your TOE or you will be towed.
42. Unduly : TOO. Not unduly hard.
43. Possesses with pride : BOASTS.
46. Deflect, with "off" : FEND.
47. Passes out : FAINTS.
49. "The Girls Next Door" co-creator : HEFNER. PLAYBOY meets reality tv.
51. Fictional Indiana town in "Parks and Recreation" : PAWNEE. You can READ or watch
53. Genuine : SINCERE. Like the...
54. Dust Bowl migrant : OKIE.
55. Release request : LET ME GO.
58. Summation symbol, in math : SIGMA. You all get this, RIGHT?
64. Moral principle : ETHIC.
65. Scar, say : MAR.
66. Thorny evergreen : GORSE.
67. Occupied, as a desk : SAT AT.
68. Museum pieces : ART.
69. Vertical : ERECT.
Down:
1. Its natl. emblem is the cedar tree : LEBanon. Fun with flags. The cedars of Lebanon are mentioned often in the Bible.
2. Every drop : ALL.
3. 20-20, e.g. : TIE. Not perfect vision; not a tv show. good misdirection.
4. ''What do you think?'' : HOW'S THAT? Often heard while you try to hang a picture.
5. What one might have with milk, briefly? : 'STACHE. Got Milk? Who was your favorite?
6. Needle : TAUNT.
7. Different : ELSE. She was something....
8. Road sign image : DEER. How do they know where to cross?
9. Email option, for short : BCC. Now blind courtesy copy.
10. "Shoot!" : OH DARN.
12. Brings (out) : TROTS. And then to make the disastrous evening complete, they trotted out their vacation pics.
13. Late round : SEMIS.
18. Satellite broadcasts : FEEDS.
21. Team connection : YOKE. Poor oxen, the yoke is always on them.
23. Get rid of : EGEST. Opposite of ingest. Seriously.
24. Retro diet, to put it mildly : PALEO. The word is from Greek palaios meaning ‘ancient.' The idea is to eat like early man, no processed foods etc, Since their life expectancy was about 30....
27. Kernel : GIST.
29. Leadership : BRASS.
30. Hall of Fame pitcher Blyleven : BERT. Of course C. C. would slip in a baseball payer from Minnesota, what a curve ball. He was born in the Netherlands and coached their pitchers in the new world event.
33. Organic fuel : PEAT. Major heating fuel in the Highlands, I have read.
35. Bay Area pro : NINER. We got our morning weather girl from the 49ers
38. Village Voice award : OBIE. Off-Broadway. LINK.
44. Law school newbie : ONE L. We did not use this in my day.
45. Drew back : SHIED.
48. Lack of get-up-and-go : ANEMIA. I had the ferrous oxide recently.
50. Hold rapt : ENGAGE.
51. Puts forward : POSES. Say you are stuck on a desert island, who do you want there with you?
If you answer, "my spouse" you are...
53. Quick on the uptake : SMART.
56. Humorous Bombeck : ERMA.
57. Sewer's concern : TEAR. One who sews.
59. Play : ACT.
61. Natural resource : ORE.
62. L.A. school : USC. University of Southern California.
63. LAPD rank : DETective.
C.C. makes it all seem so easy; I hope you had fun and Happy Mother's day to all.
Lemonade out.
I was really hoping for a week without a CC Burnikel LAT. Week ruined! :(
ReplyDeleteCompleted without reds or lookups! Caught the reveal before I'd tried to guess the theme, so don't know if I would have figured it out myself, DARN it!
ReplyDeleteThe particular colors were significant. RGB and R+G+B=W.
I've never been sure of how the ISLE OF WIGHT was pronounced.
Tawnya, I'm on facebook, and post some of my best limericks over there, too.
Fido (from fidus, Latin for loyalty, as in semper fi) yesterday, Hachikō today.
Computers have colors of RED, GREEN, and BLUE
They make all others up by mixing those few.
At full, they make WHITE.
At naught ebon as night.
In between they make orange, yellow, indigo, violet, cyan, magenta, ecru, umber, and millions more TOO!
There was a gross OGRESS who went on a SPREE,
Stomping Utes, Otoes, and even PAWNEE!
Till Coyote, the trickster,
Got her tabled to nix her,
She's now a green mesa, Southwest SCENERY!
Zeus was a god who was given to BOASTS
Of maidens deflowered while feeling his oats!
But that wasn't wise
For the god of the skies,
When Hera began FEEDING him his own lightning BOLTS!
{C, C+, B-.}
Greetings!
ReplyDeleteThanks, CC, Lemon!
Hard one. However, it eventually was solved w/o any cheats
BERT was perped.
Cheers!
Morning, all!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a challenge today, but ultimately doable. It was nice to get the theme reveal, since that helped me go back and fill in some blanks. Shot myself in the foot misspelling EPITHET as EPHITET, but I finally got that fixed. Needed all the perps for PAWNEE and it took a long time to finally come up with BBKING. EGEST started out as ERASE, then turned into EJECT and finally EGEST.
Gotta run!
I don't know about you but it's just a bummer when Friday is a drag....
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteI did not find this one to be easy. On the other hand, there's not a bit of Wite-Out on my grid. It just took some time to pull things together. Interesting that EPITHET (the non-derogatory type) showed up so soon after its last appearance. Thanks, C.C. and Lemon.
Last year I watched some B-Movie on Netflix that was based on that famous Akita.
Organic Chemistry is the study of carbon compounds. Most fuels, with the noteworthy exception of hydrogen, are carbon compounds, so PEAT is just one of many "organic fuels."
Not easy, but quite a lot easier than the past two Fridays. Clever fill throughout. Had two erasures. Germ to gist and Sgt to Det. All of the themers were gettable and I threw in Isle of Wight with only the F in place. As easy as Vera, Chuck and Dave, so the reveal wasn't needed for the theme answers, but it was needed to understand the theme. Very clever.
ReplyDeleteThank you C.C., and thanks Lemon for the review.
Ok Joe, Vera, Chuck and Dave. I'm sure sure there is better out there but this is fun.
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 8:07. I'd no idea there was a band that had adopted that name. But I guess it's only natural. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHello, all.
ReplyDeleteA tough but fun run for me. I seemed to be on the wrong wavelength for so long. Like Barry, and abnormally for me, I found the theme reveal earlier than later. That made all the difference. Agreed! Not impossible, not too many errors, but it took a bit of time. Thanks, C.C.. Nice tour, Lemonade. Thank you.
Looks like another mostly sunny day. Yay! Enjoy the weekend. Happy Mothers' Day to all of you who are mothers and those of you who have done plenty of mothering in many ways.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone else wonder why someone would make such a nasty, negative comment as the one in the post at 4:40 am? The comment at 6:31 isn't' very nice, either.
This puzzle shows CC's amazing (IMO) creativity. Never in a 100 years would this theme have occurred to me. I had trouble in several areas but, eventually, finished w/o help. The cluing was tough but fair and certainly Friday-level. Didn't have a clue about the theme until the reveal!
Congrats, CC, on another gem and thanks, Lemony, for the detailed review.
DO, I saw that movie, also, with Richard Gere in the starring role; it was a tear jerker.
Ave Joe, could you expand on your Vera, Joe and Dave reference?
Have a great day.
I kind of like c.c.'s puzzles!!!
DeleteIM, as you can hear in the cover version of "When I'm 64" that Anon @ 8:07 posted, part of the lyrics in the song go: "Every summer we can rent a cottage in the Isle of Wight, if it's not too dear. We shall scrimp and save. Grandchildren on your knee, Vera, Chuck and Dave."
ReplyDeleteCareful what you wish for, though. This is a powerful earworm. I know it's got me firmly in it's grasp today.
Another clever theme from CC! This was slow and steady - the OFF COLOR helped when I had ISLE OF but knew that Man and Skye wouldn't fit, I knew the song but not the verses just the chorus.
ReplyDeleteHeading into the a beautiful weekend - our church is having a work day tomorrow to freshen up the grounds and it looks like we should be able to get a lot done.
Thanks Lemon and CC!
One of whimsical nicknames Chris Berman created during the early days of ESPN was Bert "Be Home" Blyleven.
ReplyDelete10 – 4 on Lemon’s summative paragraph of C.C.’s wonderful puzzle. Good to be back after an incredibly busy Cinco de Mayo.
ReplyDeleteMusings
-The NW corner caused me much vexation but finally fell with SCENERY, PALEO and STACHE (Arrgghh). HIIL, RARE, APART and TEASE had to be EGESTED
-LORNE’s other skill (2:26)
-How ‘bout this for chores?
-Donald and Hillary will have to FEND off many EPITHETS from now until November
-Yeah, I’d watch the Girls Next Door for the dialogue and not the SCENERY!
-An LA Times story talks of the impact of the OKIES on California - "Stop in any town in the San Joaquin Valley and you might as well be in Tulsa or Little Rock or Amarillo," said Dale Scales. "Same music, same, values, same churches, same politics."
-Where’s Waldo, er, I mean Where’s SIGMA?
-You can STAND AT as well as SIT AT
-I have a laser leveler to supplant Joann’s eye’s on picture hanging
-It’s always interesting to see who pols TROT OUT to be in the background of their speeches
-If I’m on that island, I want to be there with the world’s best boat builder (or The Girls Next Door?)
-Cleaning out the garage today is penance for golf yesterday.
Hello Puzzlers -
ReplyDeleteZoomed right through today, partly because Lorne and Isle of Wight went in without delay. Paused a bit at Epithet, but since we talked about it so recently, it went in too.
CED from yesterday - nice simulator for sure, but I'd better not take up the hobby. Too busy as it is!
Typical Friday for me. I almost always find the late week LAT more fun than the NYT.
ReplyDeleteFun workout today. Thanks C.C. and Lemonade. (Unlike Mike S @4:40, my week is not ruined.) I started with a sea (not an ISLE) of WIGHT after my first pass across and there was only a slight improvement after my first pass down. But then I got a TOE IN the theme and moved along. Like HuskerG, the NW was the last to fall.
ReplyDeleteClever theme although COLOR was OFF for this Canadian who wanted to add the U.
LORNE GREENE was Canadian.
Clever misdirections with sewer (septic or thread?), storage place (I wanted Attic).
I couldn't make the following fit: 46A - Brush OFF before FEND, and 50D - Enthrall before ENGAGE.
I had READ Along before ALOUD and Mr. Potato Head's Eye before EAR.
I'm not familiar with TED.
CSOs to Ol' Man Keith with SCENERY and ACT.
I had Oil before ORE, probably because my mind was on the terrible wildfire affecting the oilsands area of Fort McMurray. Is the American media covering this?
FortMcMurray
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteGreat write-up, Lemon; Thank you
Hard to get started. Poked around and finally built the solve out of the bottom. LORNE GREENE yielded a nice advance to the North. Quite a few WAGS, but they worked. Liked the long down ISLE OF WIGHT. Recall a voyage up The Solent to Southhampton 50 odd years ago.
GORSE - Have heard the name in connection with golf course flora. Member of the pea family, so it's a legume.
PEAT - German Torf; L. German Törf. Grew up hearing about Törf from my mom; I guess she had to deal with it when she was a kid in northern Germany. Apparently there's a lot of peat in Schleswig-Holstein. Törf seems to be related to English turf.
I think fellow constructor Matt Skoczen was merely bemoaning the incredible productivity and success C.C. has had; he posted the same line at Crossword Fiend.
ReplyDeleteNice to see the culture here with the Beatles and Chris Berman and his nicknaming ways. Which reminds me, Canadian Lorne Greene was born Lyon Himan Green.
Not funny or clever, Matt S. Too snarky.
ReplyDeleteThe READALOUD themer is a tad inelegant...only because READ can sound like RED or REED.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, I am aware the clue indicates past tense. That's why I say a tad inelegant.
Also, this should have been a Wednesday puzzle. Certainly not a Friday.
Matt Skoczen - Your jealous heart will eat you alive, bro.
ReplyDeleteCanadianEh!, yes the national media are covering it, but only in passing with a short video clip. I spent a few days in Fort McMurray on business about 40 years ago. It was definitely not a city of 80,000 back then, I'd say 10,000 tops. The only way to get there was by air from Edmonton; there were no roads. I remember that we were ticketed on a 2pm flight back to Edmonton, and we showed up at the airport about 1pm. Surprise! They'd already found enough people on hand to fill the plane, so it took off at 12:30. So it was back to our rustic hotel for another $125+ night -- this was the mid-70's and those prices were outrageous. You'd better believe we got to the airport early the next day. That is the farthest north in Canada that I've ever visited.
ReplyDeleteLemon, Lyon Himan Greene? Sounds like an EPITHET for a girl purporting to be a virgin!
Canadian Eh - yes, the wildfire was big news on our local NBC outlet last night. We were amazed by the size of the fire, and the number of structures already lost. I hope people and pets are safe.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a Friday puzzle. Great one C.C. and Lemon was on top of his form on the Expo. Me, not so much. Today was an official DNF because I had to use Red Letters to get through the puzzle. I didn't need any GOOGLE look-ups though.
My initial missteps started with SLATS vs LATHS, and like Lemon I had YOYOS before CHORE. ATTIC vs CDROM, and I tried SLASH before GASHED became evident.
I never watched "Parks and Recreation" so I had to rely totally on perps for PAWNEE. Other words that were perped include EPITHET, GORSE, STACHE, YOKE, PALEO, and OBIE.
I did see the movie "Hachie, A Dogs Tale" with Richard Gere, so AKITA fit nicely and I filled in ISLE OF WIGHT by singing the song. Good thing that I don't have any pets, because they would have run and hid. DW did make a snarky comment about my singing though.
Isn't it amazing that DEER know how to read and can find their designated crossings. At least that is what the lady thought in this Radio Call-in link. Could be fake, but it is funny.
Wet and rainy here in Central PA. I hope everyone has better weather than we do.
Challenging puzzle today, but thank you, C.C., for the workout. I started at the bottom and spread out from there. Caught on to the theme and realized the OFF COLOR feature. However, the NE gave me fits! It took a very long while for BOLTS to emerge but then so did TROTS. CDROM took excruciatingly long to finish. Of course, I had to research BERT Blyleven. Never heard of him. I love TED talks on NPR.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lemonade. You always get to the GIST of the puzzle.
Have a splendid day, everyone!
CanadianEh:
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, the news about the fire has been prominently covered. Last night it was the lead story. What a disaster! I'm so sorry about the loss of property though so far no deaths have been reported.
I admit that I was stumped at first with LATHS, ELIOT and TED eventually being filled by perps with STACHE being my last fill; the first three were unknowns and I didn't understand STACHE until Lemonade's explanation. Luckily LORNE GREENE was an easy fill and BLEW the puzzle wide open. PAWNEE, along with its clue, were unknown. And it's nice to see ELLA Fitzgerald following BB King ( I knows but had to write it).
ReplyDeleteI don't want to be OFF COLOR so I will not write what I saw for OH DARN but it has the same number of letters. A TOE IN explanation is something I once saw observed of TV when the reporter was explaining how NASCAR cars are set up differently for different tracks.
'Walking The Dog'- I actually wrote DANCE before CHORE took its place.
Keep up to good work C.C.
I enjoyed the puzzle but I knew I would. Thanks CC and Lemon.
ReplyDeleteA few of the clues already mentioned were too tricky for me to get first time through. I certainly struggled in certain areas. WEES.
I agree with Anon at 7:45. Matt's remark seemed out of character. I'm sure Lemon (11:21) is correct. If Matt said it in person, we could have seen his little smile over his little joke. But in print, we only have his words to go by. That's why smiley faces were created.
I always enjoy matching wits with our champion, C.C.!
ReplyDeleteEspecially, when I can hold my own and complete a Friday entry w/o lookups. The only correction I needed to make was to change SGT to DET.
This was a fine piece of work. I loved the theme, although I didn't see it coming. I believe the key to solving today's pzl had more to do with understanding the clues than any other factor. C.C. is cunning in many ways, and today I noticed her use of tense ambiguity (e.g., "Cut deeply" and "Read aloud") and noun/verb similarities ("Handle" and "Scar").
I wasn't aware of the UK's ELIOT poetry prize, but glad to discover it here. T.S. Eliot is my favorite 20th century poet and my second or third favorite critic. I once learned his Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, a brilliant tour de force that contrasts comic refrains with some of the darkest musings of his generation. I love how it opens with such an unexpected and disturbing image. He starts by repeating six lines of ominous-sounding Italian from Dante, and then come his first English words:
"LET us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table...."
That tends to get listeners' attention.
Well, this was a toughie Friday puzzle for me, C.C., and you know I love your puzzles. I actually started out excited because I got the top NW corner right away, but it was pretty much downhill from there, both literally and figuratively. A problem that frustrates me no end is not being able to remember names. I could picture every actor in "Bonanza" and remembered some of their series names, but couldn't come up with LORNE GREENE and had to cheat on that one. I guessed lots of items correctly but couldn't verify them with crosses, so that made things a bit tough too. So I cheated and cheated and finally go it done. Clever theme, C.C., and great pics, Lemonade. I couldn't figure out what STACHE had to do with milk until your photos.
ReplyDeleteI still don't understand "Schooner filler" and ALE?
CanadianEh, I've been watching news of the Ft. McMurray fire for the last two days--absolutely terrifying and heartbreaking. My heart goes out to all those poor residents. Hope they'll get help rebuilding their lives when this is over.
Have a great weekend coming up, everybody!
I was wrong Matt actually perceives that C.C. gets special treatment at the LAT. How odd. You can read it HERE .
ReplyDeleteMisty
ReplyDeleteSCHOONER
Oh! And how about? --
ReplyDelete"I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas."
SCHOONER
ReplyDelete(Skoo-ner) noun
1. Nautical. any of various types of sailing vessel having a foremast and mainmast, with or without other masts, and having fore-and-aft sails on all lower masts.
See also ketch, topsail schooner, yawl.
2. a very tall glass, as for beer.
Musings 2
ReplyDelete-Matt, maybe I am like Sheldon on Big Bang Theory who doesn’t always recognize sarcasm but your comment, sans any disclaimer, was very unwelcome to me first thing this morning.
-My first SCHOONER thought goes with the territory
Lemon (1:38), interesting. I can imagine somebody might feel like that occasionally but I would think they would have the common sense to keep it to themselves, not put it online. It seemed a bit petty to me. I guess with social media, most every thought gets posted somewhere these days.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, Lemonade and Ol' Man Keith. You can tell I'm not a beer drinker, can't you? Nice to have a new word in my vocabulary.
ReplyDeleteLemon: Nice write-up and links. Very informative.
ReplyDeleteC.C. Thank You for a FUN Friday with a colorful theme.
(OK, I admit I had to "put-it-down ... pick-it-back-up" 4 times before I finished).
Fave today was the Milk STACHE at 5-d.
Needed ESP to get PAWNEE since I never watched "Parks and Recreation."
Another beautiful, sunny mid-70's day here in the Tampa Bay Area.
And It's 5 O'clock Somewhere ...
Soooooooo, Cheers!
Misty
ReplyDeleteAt Villa Incognito ... that Schooner would be filled with Scotch.
... NEAT, of course.
Cheers!
Avg Joe @ 9:26 - I posted about an hour ago but either I forgot to hit the Publish button or the cyber gremlins are up to their merry mischief! In any case, thanks for the explanation of V, C, and D; I was not familiar with those lyrics.
ReplyDeleteCanadian Eh, our news broadcasts have shown extensive coverage of those disastrous fires, which is terrifying and heartbreaking to watch. It's almost impossible to believe the magnitude of the devastation and danger. Prayers go to all affected.
Apropos of today's theme: jealousy = green(e). 🙈 🙉 🙊
CC, I enjoyed your colorful puzzle. No nits. Great expo Lemony. I missed one cell. Having to take Alan to work I set the puzzle down half way through and later did not see the missing cell, which would have been easy.
ReplyDeleteI had STACHE, but didn't "get it" until Lemon explained.
I am a big Bonanza fan. I didn't know Lorne Greene was a singer.
IMO opinion CC is given no more liberties by Rich than he gives any other constructor. Rich has changed many of CC's clues, as he has with others. We can never be sure which clues are whose. Most of the editorial changes are great, but others are more clunky than the original constructor's clues.
Tin, would your SCHOONER hold a whole pint of Scotch instead of ale? Whoop-De-Doo!
Owen KL, I especially liked your second verse. Top notch, not a C.
On the Internet I have read quite a lot about the Canadian fire. I feel so sad for those who lost everything but their lives. I also mourn the loss of habitat and the harm to the ecosystem.
I am off to pick up my car after "routine" maintenance to the tune of $1000+ including tires and alignment.
IM- agree with you. ASShole at 4:40 with nothing better to say. OH DARN!
ReplyDeleteHG- 'Donald and Hillary, watch for the "pillory"; Oh I mean 'Rose and Valery...from the gallery' ( another Beatles song_-"Maxwell's Silver Hammer")
Tinbeni- It's definitely 5 o'clock somewhere and one of the local Mexican restaurants is having a 'Cinco de Mayo' weekend for those who couldn't make it yesterday with bands tonight and all day tomorrow.
Hi Y'all! Another challenge from C.C! I am grateful at how much more able am I to meet these challenges than I was when I started doing crosswords. As for Matt Whatshisname, he's just GREENE with envy.
ReplyDeleteAt first pass, I knew LORNE GREEN, Cedars of LEBanon, ALL, DEER, OBIE, OKIE & ERMA. Everything else took several guesses with red-letters glowing and that's the GIST of my filling the puzzle because I'm not as SMART as C.C. I still enjoy trying. I feel good to get a clue on 2nd or 3rd try on the weekends.
Liked how OFF COLOR crosses HEFNER. Most apt.
Lemon had to explain the theme to me. The OFF COLOR clue flew right above my head. Thanks, L.! Enjoyed the B.B.KING music. Fit my mood.
Canadian Eh - Watch the Ft. McMurray coverage and wonder if they know the cause. Some of these big fires seem like terrorist plots to me. Nothing more terrifying than that.
The learning-challenged sacking girl at the grocery asked me yesterday if I was "ready for Mother's Day". I told her, "Well, I'm a mother so that's the most ready I'll get." My girls will take me out to eat after the younger takes me to shop for a new washer.
Fun puzzle, and devilishly delicious! (Jeez, that sounded like Bruno Tonioli praising a dancer.) I always like a C.C. puzzle and expect them to be tricky. Stranded messenger didn't fool me, although Walking the dog did. Did not know PAWNEE, but knew SIGMA immediately. Had to change PLUMB to ERECT and ATTIC to CDROM. Laughed out loud at STACHE, of whom the Swift one is my favorite of the two.
ReplyDeleteFrighteningly serious fire(s) in Alberta. I believe there have been no deaths, at least, so I'm glad about that, anyway.
Ol'ManKeith, I agree Eliot's Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a brilliant tour de force. Amazing imagery and command of language. Several years ago at work I had a piece of electronic equipment all disassembled and spread out on the workbench so I could work on it. A colleague asked me, "Whatcha got there?" and I replied, "A patient etherized upon the table." I was pleasantly surprised when he laughed in understanding.
Husker Gary, I admire and enjoy how you so skillfully and cleverly illustrate things.
Best wishes to you all.
Like many of you, I've been trained to be skeptical of nearly everything as a professional necessity. As such, I am skeptical about the authenticity of the Matt S posts today. But if genuine, I'm pretty stunned. Sophomoric, at best. But these things do have a way of working out, since Karma is a female canine that has previously borne offspring. Yeeeesch!
ReplyDeleteWe are also getting coverage on the Canadian fire in our market. IIRC, they were started by lightning, but I'm not certain I'm remembering that correctly. Nasty situation, But it's amazing that no one has been killed, considering the magnitude. And to touch on a recent puzzle, can't help but be reminded of Sodom.
If Matt got out of the grumpy side of the bed at 4:40 this morning I'm surprised he didn't keep it to himself.
ReplyDeleteWe used to go on our family summer holiday to the Isle of Wight when we lived in Winchester near the South Coast. My Dad loved going there as it was only a half-hour drive to the ferry terminal in Southampton and so we kids never had a chance to trot out the "Are we there yet?" annoyance before we were running around the ferry deck. The vacation started before it started, if that makes any sense. We often passed the ocean liners on Southampton Water inbound from New York heading for the Cunard terminal.
Happy Days!
BTW, I just read the thread on Amy's blog, and it goes with the tone of the territory over there.
ReplyDeleteNot too long ago, I was genuinely puzzled by a clue/answer in the NYT and posted a question there. "Gareth" (who I believe is Gareth Bain) snarkily suggested "Google it".
Funnily enough the very next puzzle I blogged here was a Gareth Bain Wednesday. I was nice.
This blog is the best!
ReplyDeleteLots of cranky judgmental people here today? Not sure why, but I'm not piling on, life's too short.
ReplyDeleteI also had to start at the bottom and work up. Kind of a Natick at 2A/5D but got it sussed.
Hope everybody gets a good night's sleep for tomorrow's puzzle…
FWIW, there is a post on yesterday's blog made at 3:07 this am by a Matt Skodick which is identical to the one at 4:40 today, sans the sad emoji. Makes one wonder.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your kind thoughts re the Fort McMurray fire. I am far away and do not know anyone affected personally but so many people from all parts of Canada moved there to work that there are lot of connections. The weather there has been very hot and dry this spring and has created a tinder dry forest. Because of the isolated area there are very few options for evacuation. The fire will not be controlled until there is a good rain. It will be a long rebuilding process although apparently the infrastructure (hospital, airport, downtown is still standing).
ReplyDeleteVery difficult clueing today.
ReplyDeleteI got the theme, but still could not get the NW corner color.
Front end alignment was the 1st of many that sent me to Google
to try and finish the puzzle, all I could think was camber...
Hmm, off color,, what images could I possibly post?
(well, I guess it's late enough for these...)
first, for Matt Skoczen
No comment...
Also, no comment...
a comment from my cat...
& last, again for Matt Skoczen, Maybe you should sleep later...
Oh my! What a strange day. Thumper and I will defer comment on all the Anons and Matts, etc. @ Maybe they need a laxitive.
ReplyDeleteI loved the CW, CC! And the write up was exceptional, Lemonade.
Owen, since you asked...I'll say B, B+, A. They are all A+ to me.
Canadian Eh, I also have seem the horrors of the fires. Glad you are not near.
Good evening, folks. Thank you, C.C., for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, for a fine review.
ReplyDeleteI was riding the train quite a bit today and worked on the puzzle while there. It took me quite a while to finish it. The NW corner was the tough spot. STACHE, EPITHET, FEEDS, TAUNT, etc. But, I did get it done!
Got the theme after I finished. Very good.
BERT was unknown, but perps fixed that.
ISLE OF WIGHT was neat. After a few letters, I easily got it.
I will have to check SIGMA out. I like math, but may be unaware of some of the finer points.
Getting late. See you tomorrow.
Abejo
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