google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, July 1, 2016, Jeff Chen

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Jul 1, 2016

Friday, July 1, 2016, Jeff Chen

Title: Put one over on you.

Rabbit, Rabbit:  happy July all. It has been almost 4 years  LINK since I last blogged a puzzle by Jeff Chen one of the many very helpful and thoughtful constructors with whom I have corresponded. Like our own C.C., J.C. has mentored countless people.  I love the visual aspect of today's puzzle, but quite honestly the theme clues made the solving too easy. S placed on top of EIGN STATE would I hope have lead me to the fill (SOVEREIGN STATE) with the OVER implied by the placement. If I were a betting man, I would think Rich toned the gimmick down. In any event, a lovely challenge to locate 4 different fill which would result from a letter+ OVER+ part of a phrase. The resulting phrases are clued in a straight forward manner. With only 40 theme spaces, there is room for tons of sparkly fill like GATEWAY, AD SALES,  CHENIER, NOMINEE,  MIRAGES, CORRIDOR,  TELEPATH, EMOTIONS, AEROSTAR, INSIDE INFO, GRECO-ROMAN,  EYE OPENERS,  LEOPARDESS. Off to the solving races:

16A. With the circled letter over, self-ruled entity : [SOVER]EIGN STATE (9).

32A. With the circled letter over, humanitarian goal : [POVER]TY REDUCTION (11).

39A. With the circled letter over, undercover missions : [COVER]T OPERATIONS(11).

59A. With the circled letter over, concern of the Fed : [GOVER]NMENT DEBT(9)

Across:

1. Mimic : APE. Is this becoming an un-pc term, offending our simian cousins?

4. Dreidel stakes : GELT. Dreidel- Hanukah; Gelt- Yiddish for money. Not to be confused with 54D. Fix : GELD.

8. "The Avengers" co-star : RIGG. Now starring as a Dowager of the Tyrells. She was so enticing.


12. Droops : SAGS. No comment.

14. Two-dimensional figure : AREA. Nicely clued, length times width.

15. 2013 Literature Nobelist :

MUNRO. A nice tribute to our Canadian contingent ALICE.

18. "Breakfast at Tiffany's" co-star : EBSEN. Jed Clampett was a singer, dancer and actor. He grew up in Orlando and like Fred Astaire danced with his sister.



19. Website revenue source : AD SALES.

20. "Now wait just a sec ... " : BUT.

22. Some bling : ICE. Diamonds; okay Tin?

23. Where many kids squirm : PEW. Church can drag on for a youngster.

24. Passage : CORRIDOR. Not a part of a book,  This meaning comes the 16th century military concept of a passage by a trench.

26. One who really gets in your head? : TELEPATH. Wonderful clue/fill. TRUE?

30. Where a "cluck and grunt" might be ordered : DINER. Waitress speak for ham and eggs.

31. Response to an order : AYE. Maybe for a Cyclops?

35. Corp. bigwigs : CEOSChief Executive Officers.

37. "Double Fantasy" artist : ONO. Released three weeks before his murder.

38. "I got it" : ON ME. This round is on me.

44. Favorable, as a contract : FAT.

45. Some aides : PAGES. Congress and the knights of yore.

46. Actors change them often : EMOTIONS. Partners?

48. Old Ford minivan : AEROSTAR. Had not thought of this vehicle in a while. Out of production since 1997.

50. Product of Ptolemy : MAP.

51. Stop : END. Stop the madness.

52. Dude (up) : TOG. Not my favorite even if true. TOG: to dress especially in fine clothing —usually used with up or out

53. Illusions : MIRAGES. All mirages are illusions, but not all illusions are mirages.

57. Take care of : SEE TO. I like make it so better.

61. "Citizen Kane" poster name : ORSON. Welles.
62. Mercyhurst University city : ERIE. No idea, but a gimme for some. Mercyhurst University, formerly Mercyhurst College, is a Catholic liberal arts college in Erie, Pennsylvania in the United States. Wikipedia.

63. Draw guffaws from : SLAY. Hey Peg.

64. "Hey, you!" : PSST.

65. Nik Wallenda need : WIRE. His family was always getting high. Iget dizzy just watching.

66. Color : DYE.

Down:

1. On the briny : ASEA. Oceans are quite briny.

2. Took care of : PAID. Friday vague.

3. Silly Putty holders : EGGS. Invented during WWII as a possible rubber substitute.

4. 2007 Acer acquisition : GATEWAY. Computers.

5. Often-named stretches : ERAS. Stretches of time.

6. Service to be redone :  LET. Tennis anyone?

7. Workout portmanteau : TAEBO. Tae Bo is a portmanteau of tae kwon do and boxing.

8. Sticking point : RUB. "To sleep — perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub! For in that sleep of death what dreams may come. When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. "

9. Skinny : INSIDE INFO. So many ways; book, 411, lowdown, poop, scoop, dope, tip.

10. Wrestling style : GRECO-ROMAN. Nothing below the waist...Greco-Roman (US) or Graeco-Roman (UK) wrestling is a style of wrestling that is practiced worldwide. It was contested at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 and has been included in every edition of the summer Olympics held since 1908. Wiki.

11. Dead man walking : GONER.

13. Rowling teacher : SNAPE. The recently departed....both real and fantasy.

15. Like steres : METRIC. One cubic meter.

17. Drifted off : SLEPT.

21. Indic language : URDU.

24. French poet executed by Robespierre : CHENIER. Chénier might have been overlooked but for the well-meant, indignant officiousness of his father. Marie-Joseph did his best to prevent his brother's execution, but he could do nothing more. Maximilien Robespierre, who was himself in dangerous straits, remembered Chénier as the author of the venomous verses in the Journal de Paris and sentenced him to death. Chénier was one of the last people executed by Robespierre. Wiki. If you liked the French Revolution... LINK. (You might notice this name begins CHEN....).

25. Digging : INTO. In the Maynard G. Krebs sense.

26. Delicacy : TACT. Not a food but an action.

27. Revelations : EYE OPENERS. A nice infrequently used fill.

28. Female in the wild : LEOPARDESS. All perps but in retrospect what other animal could it be?

29. Home run __ : TROT. Baseball corner with 60D. Test for one on the DL, perhaps : MRI.

33. Bad end : DOOM.

34. Barclays Center hoopsters : NETS.  In Brooklyn
36. Lily variety : SEGO.

40. Lie atop : REST ON.

41. About : AS TO.

42. Runner in a race : NOMINEE. Political not physical.

43. Pencil maze instruction : START.

47. Pro and Mini : I-PADS.

48. "Sour grapes" coiner : AESOP. Interesting juxtaposition with the speaker of nattering nabobs.

49. 1973 resignee : AGNEW. Spiro beat Dick out the door.

53. Israel's Iron Lady : MEIR.  Golda. A true LEADER  and a key to the existence of the Israeli state.

55. Owner of StubHub : E-BAY. Bought in 2007.

56. Ophthalmologist's concern : STYE. Not really a cause for a specialist, just use the WARM TEABAG.

58. One of the small fry : TOT. Does this refer to a Tater Tot or just a young child? What a wonderful clue for a three letter word.

What a great way to start the month. Welcome back Jeff, I am not sure where you find time to construct, advise, do XWORDINFO, write and work. Awesome. Thanks to you and to all here as we enter the second half of 2016, Lemonade out.



52 comments:

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Really tough one for me. After the first pass, I had most entries on the W side, but the E side was mostly "snowed in". Filled it in the end, but only with red-letter help. I did catch onto the theme after determined study when finished. It sure didn't help me to fill it. The unknown stacked three proper names in the NE corner were the last to fill. I was thinking of an animated "Avengers" for too long.

Learning moment: Steres is a cubic metre. Don't know where I'll use that knowledge unless it's in another CW.

Thanks for your expo, Lemonade.

Loudly arguing neighbors down the block woke me at 3 a.m. Usually very quiet people. They are in the open garage throwing stuff around. Hard to concentrate on the puzzle with this in the background.

Anonymous said...

Try harder, Jason. You can't.

OwenKL said...

FIR! And a very tricky gimmick! This one is worthy of cryptic-style cluing! I can't recall which one I got first, but it immediately opened the other 3 stumpers to me!

{C+, C+, C, B-.}

A King who was SOVEREIGN OVER his nation
Decided to launch a COVERT OPERATION.
Could those in POVERTY
Be helped by the monarchy?
Or would GOVERNMENT red tape cause plan defenestration?

Good little children of the Hebrew persuasion
Will get candy GELT on a winter occasion.
The luck of the dreidel
Is to be born to a cradle,
For those born to a stable may get a GELD operation!

A convivial group used to follow the path,
BUT mall-walkers conversing is a thing of the past.
The sounds now are ring tones
From smart watches and iPhones.
They must mind-read in the CORRIDORS, it's become a TELE-PATH!

If there is a reason black leather is big
Much credit must go to Ms. Diana RIGG!
As the Avenger, Mrs. Peel,
She made pubescent boys feel
They'd rather stroke shiny leather than feel like a prig!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Seriously? I'm used to not having circles in my puzzles, but typically it just means I don't get the added satisfaction of understanding the theme. This time, though, the lack of circles was inexcusable. I actually somehow managed to finished unassisted (eventually), but there was no joy in the solve.

Of course, in addition to the theme answers, we also had to deal with stuff like TOG (as clued). Total fun sponge (as somebody else coined).

Hungry Mother said...

Very enjoyable solve today. I got the theme without noticing the word "over" in the clues. It could have been done with "literally" without changing the degree of difficulty much.

thehondohurricane said...

Fastest Friday ever. After roughly ten/ fifteen minutes I said "Screw it".

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Funny, Hondo!

Got the gimmick early on, and that helped a lot. When I saw "Nik Wallenda" I was thinking Lech Walęsa. D'oh! Was looking for a suffix for "bad" with "Bad end." Double-D'oh! ERIE may have been a gimme for the graduates of Mercyhurst, for the rest of us, not so much.

This has been a big week for the "outgo" -- auto insurance, home insurance, flood insurance, new shocks/struts for the pickup, and to top it off, the A/C at home went out yesterday afternoon. Lucky for us, the temp was only in the 90's, and the local guy I called had it back in working order just a few hours later.

CanadianEh! said...

Too busy celebrating Canada Day to get the puzzle done today. Back later maybe.

Wonderful concert in the park last night; parades and firecrackers today!
Usually Canadians are fairly quiet about our national pride but today we let our patriotism show.

Avg Joe said...

This one put up a terrible fight. And took around an hour. Probably not worth it, but stuck it out. The "Over" in the clue did seem quite taboo, and could have been readily solved by using "Including the letter above......" That would also make it easier for those that were without circles.

BobB said...

Filled it all in with perps. Had a bunch of weird looking answers. Never did get the theme until I read the blog.

Big Easy said...

It took me a while to get the 'over' part of the clue and I realized it after filling OPERATIONS by perps. POVERTY REDUCTION using GOVERNMENT DEBT= 'what's the federal debt now? STYE- I wanted EYES but EYE was already in EYE OPENERS.

I knew Buddy EBSEN was a dancer, but never saw Tiffany's so his fill was by perps, along with CHENIER and MUNRO. I found Jeff's puzzle tough due to false starts- the actors were changing COSTUMES instead of EMOTIONS, the dead man walking was a GHOST before he was a GONER, and concerning this puzzle I was AT IT before I got INTO it.

"cluck and grunt'- never heard it before but it made sense.
'Mercyhurst'- I was thinking Ireland (EIRE or ERIN) but the clue was 'city'. New to me.
Haben Sie GELD? money. Didn't know what a dreidel was but GELT was the only thing that would fit.

I really thought the puzzle would SLAY me but luckily I survived today. Happy Fourth.

Dudley said...

Rabbit Rabbit

Hello Puzzlers -

Sussed the theme right away, so it was mostly a quick solve, but the North was obstinate. I thought kids were squirming in a (goat) Pen, which blocked the acquisition of Gateway. Got there eventually.

Belated Happy Birthday to C.C.! A busy schedule kept me away from the Corner for a day - possibly two.

Tinbeni said...

Pinch, Pinch ...

D-N-F ... Lemon, thanks for explaining my incomplete Ink-Blot.

OK, I admit, I never caught on to the "Circled Letter OVER theme."

Also, can honestly say I'm not "up-on" who was the 2013 Literature Nobelist, or what French poet was executed by Robespierre ... so MUNRO & CHENIER were learning moments (always a plus).

And Lemon, you were correct, not a problem putting in ICE ... since it meant diamonds.

Maybe I should have had a few Villa Incognito EYE-OPENERS ...
Hmm, it is a Holiday Weekend ...

Time to "Toast-A-Few" in honour of Canada Day!!!
Cheers!

Lemonade714 said...

I should have included a DREIDEL LINK as wekk as the backstory for GELT .

Bill said...

What Barry said (as usual).

I solved the puzzle but had to study the explanation in this blog to finally get it.

Do puzzle constructors (and for that matter, the editor) fail to grasp that not everyone will see the circles? Or the puzzle title, for that matter. I usually print the puzzle from Mensa or Merriam-Webster. Granted, the puzzle title does appear on the daily selection, but it never prints out on my copies, nor do the circles.

Bill in Kentucky

Yellowrocks said...

It took me a very long time to "get" the theme, even having completed some of the theme answers. Finally the light dawned and I was able to finish up quickly with no lookups or red letters. Once I understood it I liked the theme, but not its clues. I think there should be a better clue than "with the circle letter over."
Very busy today. Company tomorrow. Gotta run.
Tinman, I was ready to ask you to pass your ICE on to me, but I see you have accepted it. LOL

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling Thoughts":

What Tinbeni said, both CHENIER & MUNRO were Googles for me, as I needed several footholds after randomly entering words and letters, here and there. Some clues were obvious (TROT, MRI, AGNEW, WIRE, AESOP, APE, and RIGG), but others weren't, as I too was having trouble seeing the theme. I think it was COVERT OPERATION that got me started on the right track, but when I saw PTY REDUCTION, it finally hit me. Re-reading the clues made all the difference.

Not only was the LAT Xword puzzle tough today, but so was the daily Sudoku. I can usually solve those, regardless of difficulty, but not today. Oh well; never said I was perfect! 😜

Have a great weekend all, and a safe 4th of July (and Canada Day) holiday. 🎇🎇🎆🎆

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I liked the puzzle very much even though it took some time to grasp the theme. JC is a devilish deceiver (that's a compliment) when it comes to cluing but I finished w/o help so I'm not complaining. Lots of fun to begin July!

Happy Canada Day, CE.

Thanks Jeff and Lemony for an excellent job.

Have a great day.

Lemonade714 said...

Bill

I am not sure where you see puzzle titles in the newspaper or the online site mentioned, as the daily LAT does not have a title. Bloggers here create their own guesses at what a title might be

Lemonade714 said...

Happy Canada day to all our northern solvers

Sailor said...

"Sparkly fill" is right! Great clues, too. This was the most purely enjoyable puzzle in recent memory. I had serious doubts with that opening APE/ASEA crossing at 1A/1D, but from there on out, blessedly, a nearly total absence of crosswordese. Thanks, Jeff Chen!

The difficulty of this puzzle depended a lot, I think, on how quickly one grokked the trick to the theme. It seemed tough on my first pass through the grid, but then the light bulb came on, and with the themers in place the rest filled in quickly.

Sonia said...

Not a happy camper this morning..............difficult puzzle for me

CrossEyedDave said...

Ahem..

(Excuse me...)

I have not read the write up, or the comments yet,
because I have not yet attempted the puzzle.

But I just felt compelled to post after reading last nights late comments.
(I could not contain my exuberance...)

The discussion of coconuts, & the banter thereof,
are exactly why I enjoy this Blog so much.
Not only did I learn something, I enjoyed doing it...

Thank you all...

Pls allow me to contribute...

(Hey Lemonade714, can this be counted as a yesterday post?)

Husker Gary said...

What a treat! Jeff’s gimmick befuddled and then amazed me along with the clever cluing.

Musings
-GOVERDEBT gave me the trick but NO ONE at the FED is concerned with our DEBT.
-Breakfast At Tiffany’s was my first Netflix movie. It’s horrible and racist.
-Those kids have nothing on me for PEW squirming!
-This bldg with the most AREA in the world had the longest CORRIDORS I ever saw
-Egomaniacal Kobe Bryant got a $23M FAT contract and had a lousy season
-You’d better SEE TO her! (2:23)
-How do I clue thee, ERIE? Let me count the ways
-A Parisian EYE-OPENER
-More grandson baseball today in Omaha!

Bill G. said...

Hi everybody. At the risk of sounding like I'm bragging, I enjoyed this Friday puzzle without the knowledge of the location of any circles. Neat! It sounds like bragging I'm afraid because my success was beyond what I think of as my mediocre crossword solving abilities. Anyway, I'm pleased with my success. Thanks Jeff and Lemon.

Happy belated birthday CC! Thanks for everything.

My father was a deacon in our neighborhood church as I was growing up. In his service on the building committee for a new church, he recommended theater-style seats instead of traditional and uncomfortable pews. It turned out to be an excellent idea.

I've always loved Bloody Marys, with or without celery salt.

TX Ms said...

Can someone please explain "Test for one on the DL"? MRI? I thought DL in this instance was Dean's List, but I guess that is totally wrong. Googled MRI acronym, and mainly got the medical test. Thanks!

Argyle said...

Disabled list, a list of injured baseball players.

C6D6 Peg said...

Was about to "toss" this one as impossible, but started filling in the last half of the theme answers, and then the V8 can hit! Appreciated it much more after solving. Thanks, Jeff!

Lemonade - Hey back! Thanks for the SO. Great job as usual, really enjoyed this write-up!

Happy Canada Day, and 4th of July weekend! Stay safe and have a happy time!

TX Ms said...

Well, duh! Thanks, Argyle! There are so many acronyms in sports, I can't keep track.

SwampCat said...

Way OVER my head today, but it was a work of art once Lemonade explained it. Thanks, Jeff and Lemony!

Jayce said...

Jeff Chen, thy name is sneaky tough! That's a compliment. I had much the same travails solving this as many of you did. I did not know Buddy EBSEN was in Breakfast at Tiffany's and I totally shot myself in the foot by entering PEEL instead of RIGG. Did not know MUNRO or CHENIER but the perps filled them in. I can see why not having the circles would be a big impediment. Thanks for explaining DL, Argyle; I thought it meant "one on the Down Low" so MRI made no sense to me. LEOPARDESS is just plain awesome!
Best wishes to you all.

unclefred said...

Nope. Nyet. Nein. Could not begin to suss what "circled letter over" meant, thus goofy looking fill got rejected, and CW became totally impossible. No fun.

AnonymousPVX said...

A tough slog at first, the puzzle a vast sea of white. But as above, worked it from the bottom up, still a tough solve.

Oh boy, and tomorrow is Saturday.

Spitzboov said...

Good afternoon everyone.

I was OVERwrought in trying to suss how to apply the circled letters to the theme fill, initially the clue wording was as clear as mother's milk. But with POVERTY REDUCTION, the schtick appeared out of the morning mist. I was then OVERwhelmed by Jeff's cleverness. Great Friday with much interesting fill.

GELT = German is Geld, but the d is tends to be unvoiced.

PAID off - Brit speak for decommissioning a ship.

Misty said...

Too tough for a Thursday for me--took endless cheating.

But I just had to check in to say Happy Canada day!

PK said...

When I saw the first NW theme answer was unrecognizable and had a reference to circles, I immediately closed out the Mensa site and opened the LA Times site to work the puzzle to get a fighting chance. That helped some but not much. Right after I posted at the top, my electricity went off. So in pitch blackness I felt my way back to bed and stayed there until noon. The puzzle drained my brain so I slept like the proverbial log. So thank you, Jeff, for that.

Ol' Wooden head a/k/a PK

Irish Miss said...

Bill G @ 11:30 - Your last sentence had me scratching my head and wondering how I missed a Bloody Mary reference in the puzzle or write-up as I'm a big Bloody Mary fan. Then I checked out HG's links and found the answer. I enjoyed the article and agreed with the author's assessment about what a true Bloody Mary should have in it or, more importantly, not in it. The best are made from scratch, of course, but the Tabasco brand mix is quite good. Cheers! 🍹

We are presently under a severe thunderstorm watch. I have already experience my own turbulence at the Funny Farm, AKA, the grocery market on the Friday of a holiday weekend! This is about the third time I have committed this faux pas and I hope it's the last. To add insult to injury I forgot my purse that held my wallet that held my credit cards and money. Fortunately, I was cashing a check which I didn't forget to take with me, so all ended well. Well, maybe not well, but I managed to survive the mayhem. I could use a Bloody Mary, I think! 🍹

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

I started off great until I got to the NE - triple-stacked names against two long downs (my 1st thoughts on those were right so I get the consolation prize) BUT I hit the Google for the names. Thanks Jeff & Thanks Lem.

I didn't get the theme until the end when I was trying to figure out WTF. Then it hit me OVER the head like a ton-a-bricks.

WOs: Solve b/f START @43d, mend b/f GELD, Nixon b/f AGNEW (BUT, I was only 3 then!) and C/TOPERATIONS is a mess o' ink.

Fav: The theme - a MIRAGE while the fill was sparkly (if not a PITA).

=====TMI, skip a bit====
Lem, thanks for the link to the STYE site. My Dr. Rx'd antibodies but, after reading side-effects, I didn't take them (no sun?!?). The infection is worse 3 was later and traveled to the other EYE so I was about to start them anyway. I'll try the green tea bags 1st.
===================

{C+,C+,B+,A-}
Hondo - LOL!
CED - that was enjoyable
D-O: I feel your pain AS TO insurance all due at once; and yes, my upstairs A/C unit is on the fritz. Can a Dude get a break?

Happy Canada Day! C, Eh!

A little GELT - The Dreidel Song (South Park). It's Hanukkah in July!*

Cheers, -T
*The guys that wrote this also wrote The Book of Mormon. No Jews were harmed in either.

Tinbeni said...

Irish Miss @3:08

Dewar's ... "On the Rocks" ... It is your favorite. LOL

Moi? ... I think it is time for a PINCH of something ... NEAT!!!

CHEERS!!!

Lemonade714 said...

Tony there are anti-biotic eye creams/ointments that do not have systemic side effect. Any of the tetracycline drugs do demand that you stay out of the sun. I had a friend who blew up like a red balloon

CrossEyedDave said...

Wow!,
Glad to see I wasn't the only one that got beat up & had their lunch money stolen...

Went across, went down, & had only a smattering of perps.
(Sorry, I never get to use a word like smattering...)

Due to the lack of Perpage, (another fun word)
& lots of colorful language directed at our constructor...
(Jeff Chen, Ya got me good:)
I had to peek at the Blog to figure out WTF was going on...

Seeing the gimmick @ the 1st answer, I trudged on...
I did get all the theme answers after that,
but contrary to Lemons' description,
I still had a total lack of perpage!
Dang it! This was one puzzle that had me looking up every dang answer!
Jeez!
Throw me a bone Jeff!

AnyWho, I do have one (minor) nit
Lemon, believe it or not, there are people out there who have never seen Breakfast at Tiffanys! (me!)
You are doing us ignorant slobs a disservice by not providing the whole clip!

P.S. for the totally ignorant (but learning) people(like me) Here is the movie trailer to get you in the mood...

Ford AeroStar was a marketing disaster because of the Challenger disaster...

Silly Putty? WWII?? What?

Lucina said...

Welcome to July!

It felt daunting to see the Jeff Chen byline and as one of my friends was due to collect me, my time was cut short and I couldn't devote the proper time to this puzzle. It was almost completed by the time I left but felt no joy since I didn't have the time to study the theme and it required studying! Thank you, Lemonade, for you elucidation.

Breakfast at Tiffany's was on TCM only a few days ago so Buddy EBSEN was fresh in my mind and we've seen Alice MUNRO before though I think it was in a Sunday puzzle. I vaguely recalled AEROSTAR but mistakenly wrote EUROSTAR which AESOP then corrected. Here in the desert MIRAGES appear quite frequently.

Total unknowns were GELT, EGGS as clued yet I've heard about the Potter books enough to know SNAPE. Four letter word city with E at the beginning and end? Got it. ERIE. Service to be redone? Let???

So thank you, Jeff, and I'm sorry I couldn't give this the time and effort it deserved.

And thank you, always, to Lemonade, whose EYEOPENERS lift the veil from those cryptic clues.

Happy Canada Day to our northern neighbors!

Have a superb weekend, everyone!

CrossEyedDave said...

P.S.,

(Re:Breakfast@ Tiffany's)

I also am guilty of falling in love with wild things...
but one came back, (Her name was PK)

Also,
(Re: Lemonade714@3:29)

I never throw anything out,
So when my kids got pink eye, I saved the remaining eye drops.
I don't know why, I just thought "why throw away such useful thing?"
even though the antibiotic prescription was past its useful life,
I had it in my laundry room cabinet. for years...
When PK had her 1st litter,
one kitten was outcast from the rest,(the runt)
because he was diseased.
the problem is what they call "the cat flu."
but it results in blindness...

So when PK would not intervene on behalf of this poor
outcast, I took it upon myself, & administered these eye drops...

The result was miraculous!

(pics to follow,I have to scan, post on Facebook, & copy to the Blog)
(It's a pain...)

Anyway, We called him "Lucky."
& adored him for two years,
(until he got hit by a car,,,go figure...)

inanehiker said...

Enjoyed the clever theme and once it was discovered it was a smooth solve with appropriate Friday crunchiness.

Thanks Lemonade and Jeff !

Happy Canada Day!

Ol' Man Keith said...

VERY tough - until I reckoned how the theme worked. Then I was a little disappointed that all the theme answers relied on "over," and the creator missed his chance to use "under" and other variants like "atop" or even "aside."

But all-in-all a worthy challenge for Friday! My thanks to Mr. Chen and Lemonade.

Jerome said...

Is Chenier simply being more Jeffrier?

And by the way, have any of you who do not get your puzzles from a site that includes the circles in the grid thought of simply getting your puzzles from some other place?
The fact that you don't get the circles has nothing at all to do with The constructor or the editor. They include them. Your source does not.

Anonymous T said...

Musical interlude: Breakfast at Tiffany's.

DW's PhD-candidate colleague/friend thought the drummer English 101 in Denton, TX (UNT).

Cheers, -T

CrossEyedDave said...

Re:Breakfast at Tiffanys trailer.
Gearge Peppard says "I love you" " I own you."
(WTF! When you love someone, they own YOU {So to speak...})

Irish Miss, I hear you are now on Facebook.

After years of denying, I finally joined Facebook,
(& my wife said "God help us all...")

Words of caution:

I used to check Facebook every day,
but now I avoid it because I get sucked in to this time consuming morass!

#1 tip,
If it requires clicking on "next"
ABORT! IT'S CLICKBAIT! EXIT ASAP!
these ad overloaded malware sites are bad news, & just slow down yr PC to a crawl...
(Yes, I know you want to click on the kitty pics, but don't do it,,, it's a trap!)
#2tip
Sign out,
the dang thingie is always active if you don't sign out...
you will get msgs about bullcrap just when you need all the RAM you can get...
(trust me, I'm a flight simulator gamer...)

Regards
Antisocial Dave..

Northwest Runner said...

A very clever and enjoyable puzzle.

Anonymous T said...

Antisocial-CED:

YouTube can be just as bad. An hour or 3 ago, niece's hubby was strumming a lick on the guitar (Eldest has a starter) which made me take a left turn at Chicago. Not only did I listen to 25 or 6 to 4, I went on to Satureday in the Park, and interviews with the band and... I need sleep! And that lead me to The Barenaked Ladies; the only other band outside of Tull I know w/ a flutist. G 'nite, -T

Freond said...

I thought the gimmicky clyes very poorly expressef. They made no sense until the whole thing was done, with a lot of red letter help. And home run TROT? Really? No fun in this tough and odd puzzle for me.

Picard said...

For once I made the effort to track down the version with circles. Not sure I would have solved it or enjoyed it without them. As it was, I did enjoy it and it was a creative theme.

Thank you to Argyle for explaining "DL" which I was frustrated not to understand even after I got the answer. A total unknown to me.