Title: Shhhh the Js are coming!!!
C. C. has returned to the Friday wars with a different type of theme where common phrases which have the second word begin with "SH" it is replaced with a "J" and clued accordingly. I know I often complain that the letter J is left out of so many puzzles so of course I did love this effort, but naming it is was too hard. I loved all the long fill, much of it new and some of it learning moments. For example, we have AUTO PEN, INK SPOT, COSSETS, EASY JOB, BRETHREN, MISNOMER, IN MOTION, U. N. SPEECH, RED AS A BEET, BEER O'CLOCK, BIONIC LEGS, I SMELL A RAT. What a great mix of cultural stuff. Well, speaking of culture, let's solve the puzzle.
17A. Art-loving athlete? : CULTURE JOCK (11). Going to college in 1965 after four years away at all boys boarding school was a definite culture shock.
31A. What you don't know about audio equipment? : RADIO JACK (9). You don't know Jack unless you go to the Shack.
47A. Difficult situation at Bed Bath & Beyond? : PILLOW JAM (9). I have pillow shams on my bed and I am not embarrassed by them.
61A. Gem of a night out? : EVENING JADE (11). Evening shade just sort of sits there...I did love the show with BURT.
Across:
1. Wrap alternatives : PITAS.
6. Ill-fated Corleone hoodlum Luca : BRASI. A real mobster? According to wiki, Luca Brasi is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather, as well as its 1972 film adaptation. In the film, he was portrayed by Lenny Montana, an ex-wrestler and ex-bodyguard for the Colombo crime family.
11. TD scorers : RBS. Running backs.
14. Response to a raise : I'M OUT. Or I fold, or just muck your cards. Sound familiar from Wednesday?
15. Element #86 : RADON. Perp time.
16. Fish whose blood is poisonous to humans : EEL. Of course C.C. would know eel blood is poisonous to humans and other mammals, but both cooking and the digestive process destroy the toxic protein. The toxin derived from eel blood serum was used by Charles Richet in his Nobel winning research which discovered anaphylaxis (by injecting it into dogs and observing the effect). Wiki.
19. "Agnus __" : DEI.
20. Home of the annual Norwegian Wood music festival : OSLO. Wonderful excuse for
21. Heineken symbol : STAR. . C.C. used this before LINK. Do you remember the puzzle where all the companies that use a Star in their logo?
22. Quick : SMART. That boy is as quick as a whip!
24. Sign on a door : PUSH. P U then the perps.
26. Texas county bordering New Mexico : EL PASO. Did not know it was a County. Read a Lawrence Block mini-mystery where he was trying to rhyme El Paso.
28. "__ Irish Rose" : ABIE'S. The modern version had a really fun cast. Turns out may have married Bernie, but she loves Batya.
34. Chinese checkers, e.g. : MISNOMER. Really fun word, and again we see C.C. playing with her heritage. It is a German variation of an American game that has nothing to do with checkers.
36. Firm : STABLE.
37. Fruit juice brand : POM. Oo buys this regularly.
38. Break up : END IT. Now done by text, I understand.
40. Goddess sister of Selene : EOS. A few years ago, I has this goddess of the dawn many times. LINK.
41. World Heritage Site org. : UNESCO. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization...followed by, inexplicably...
44. Ban delivery : U. N. SPEECH. BAN Ki-moon is secretary general of the UN. (From C.C.: Ban! This is Rich's clue.)
49. Foreigner in "Taxi" : LATKA. The late great Andy Kaufman.
50. Greensboro Grasshoppers' baseball level : CLASS A. Leave it to C.C. to craft a Friday baseball clue. (From C.C.: Rich's clue as well. Along with many others.)
51. Surprised sounds : OHOS.
53. Appreciative sounds : CLAPS.
54. Wine holders : VATS.
56. "The Ghost of Frankenstein" role : YGOR. Or maybe IGOR?
60. "Away From __": Julie Christie movie : HER. This heart wrenching story of a woman who is institutionalized by her husband due to advanced Alzheimer's disease, is based on a short story by Alice Munro who was in a recent Friday puzzle.
64. Turkish bigwig : AGA.
65. Sculpted trunk : TORSO. The human variety.
66. Chocolate-caramel candies : ROLOS.
I loved the juxtaposition
67. It ends 11/6/2016 in the U.S. : DST. Daylight Savings Time. First Sunday in November.
68. Evil figure : SATAN.
69. "No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough" speaker : EBERT.
Down:
1. __ de gallo : PICO. No self-respecting South Floridian could get this wrong. Spanish for "rooster's beak," pico de gallo is a relish made of finely chopped ingredients like jicama, oranges, onions, bell peppers, jalapeño peppers and cucumbers, along with various seasonings. This condiment was so named because it was once purportedly eaten with the thumb and finger, an action that resembles a rooster's pecking beak. Food Network. Unlike salsa nothing is cooked.
2. Stern rival : IMUS.
3. Crossing cost : TOLL.
4. Signing facilitator : AUTOPEN. This 60 year old DEVICE.
5. Poker great Ungar : STU. Another sad STORY.
6. Members of a flock : BRETHREN.
7. Punjabi prince : RAJA. 23D. Woman whom Goya also painted clothed : MAJA. We have seen both versions here.
8. Flipped over : ADORED. Not a pancake, or mattress- a girl/boy?
9. A behavioral sci. : SOCiology.
10. Laundry challenge : INK SPOT. Use an alcohol based product, no longer hairspray.
11. Visibly embarrassed : RED AS A BEET. I love these two next to each other
12. Time for a cold one : BEER O'CLOCK. This is actually in the 2015 Oxford dictionary.
13. Skirt feature : SLIT.
18. Web feed document letters : RSS. RSS (Rich Site Summary; originally RDF Site Summary; often called Really Simple Syndication) uses a family of standard web feed formats to publish frequently updated information: blog entries, news headlines, audio, video. Wiki. Unknown to me.
25. Military support gp. : USO. Think Bob Hope.
27. Memory aids : LISTS.
28. Intensify : AMP UP. C.C. has clearly amp-ed up her game presenting more Friday and Saturday offerings.
29. Brain-controlled transportation devices : BIONIC LEGS. Two more exquisite fill.
30. "Something's fishy" : I SMELL A RAT. So cool.
32. Adversity, in the RAF motto : ARDUA. Per ardua ad astra. From adversity to the stars. Good to know some Latin. This was chosen in 1912 for the first royal flying corps.
33. "We R Who We R" singer : KESHA. I have only heard of her as Ke$ha. The song...
35. Catty remarks : MEOWS.
39. Actively operating : IN MOTION.
42. Hit, in a way : SLAP.
43. Mollycoddles : COSSETS. I only know this word from reading scads of British mysteries.
45. West Bank initials : PLO.
46. Not a hard nut to crack : EASY JOB. Seems like a random phrase and clue.
48. "Les Misérables" inspector : JAVERT. A great J word to finish.
52. EVINE Live competitor : HSN. Home Shopping Network. QVC just would not work.
53. Libya neighbor : CHAD. Think we will ever learn African Geography?
55. Archaeologist's handle : ANSA. My son has been on numerous digs but I have no clue what this means
57. Severe blow : GALE. Refers to winds blowing.
58. Pure propane's lack : ODOR.
59. Come to a halt : REST.
62. Intl. broadcaster since 1942 : VOA. Voice of America.
63. Hurdle for srs. : GRE. So many tests...
What an odd ride for me, so much to love, so much to confuse...maybe C. C. will stop by; if not I gave my best shot....Lemonade out.
FIW. The natick at ARD_A + _NSPEECH got me. If I could have remembered 'arduous' as a conjugate I might have made the correct WAG, but while it was on the tip of my brain, it was overshadowed by 'ardent'. Ban delivery I didn't get at all.
ReplyDeleteCute theme, but for once I was looking for the reveal -- not because I needed it, but out of curiosity of what it would be!
I wonder how Michelangelo liked PITAS?
As an Italian he surly was fueled by pizza!
As he sculpted a TORSO,
Did he nibble a morsel?
Was it pasta and pesto that powered the Pieta?
BIONIC LEGS are new tech on the block,
Will they reach the pub faster when the time's BEER O'CLOCK?
Could we cure a head pain
With a bionic brain?
Will the bionic man have a bionic, uh, elbow?
Something's rotten in Denmark, I SMELL A RAT!
As they say it in Russia, there's a fire in the hat!
It's crazy as a coot,
It just does not compute,
But that's how it is, and that -- is that!
[As I was transcribing this poem, I was expecting the last line to reveal the subject. When it didn't, I was disappointed. Can you suggest what the final line should have said?]
QOTD from Dolly Parton: "I might as well just run [for President] myself ‘cause I’ve got the hair for it, it’s hyuuugggee!"
It's a PITA in a LAT... KE
DeleteMorning, all!
ReplyDeleteGot through this clever puzzle eventually, but it was touch and go there for a bit. UN SPEECH almost got me because (a) I thought it was long enough to be a theme answer and (b) the clue really had me scratching my head. I had UNSP____ and didn't think to parse it as two words. The light bulb did finally go on after enough perp help, though, and it was a satisfying feeling.
I figured out the theme about halfway through and kept waiting to hit the theme reveal, but my hopes were to no avail. Pity, that.
ANSA! Took awhile to dredge that up from my memory store of obscure crossword terms, but it was still there where I left it.
BEER O'CLOCK was new to me, but it certainly made sense.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteTough one from C.C. Didn't know BRASI, KESHA or Ban (might have got it with Dag). Never heard the expression BEER O'CLOCK -- we always called it Beer-Thirty, and that fit! Naturally, I tried PULL before PUSH elbowed in.
So PICO wasn't the baby sister of Ernest and Julio? Wasn't too many years ago that none of the Mexican restaurants in Houston were serving PICO due to an e. coli breakout. Took the "zing" out of the fajitas. We started calling it Pico de Coli.
One of my favorite scenes from Les Miz is The Confrontation. The face-to-face meeting of Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert -- both voicing their opinions and neither listening to the other.
Lemon, thanks for your yeoman service, and for 'splaining the elusive RBS.
Lemon: Thanks for explaining my INK SPOT ... D-N-F.
ReplyDeleteC.C. I did have FUN solving your themes ... but ya-got-me.
Fave today, of course, was BEER O'CLOCK ... though I prefer Scotch O'clock.
Cheers!
This one was a very slow solve - except for the theme it felt like a Saturday. Enjoyed the clever theme substitutions. Unusual for me solving the theme clues was quicker than the fill. Even after I solved UN SPEECH - I thought it was a speech given for a ban on weapons or testing, thanks Lemonade for clarifying! And I thought the "handle" for ANSA was maybe the name of a famous archaeologist instead of an actual handle on a vase that is discovered during a dig.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a good mind wake up for a Friday!
Thanks CC and Lemonade!
Well Lemonade, I'm glad you wrote some explanations because there were too many unknowns that kept me from completing this puzzle. I KESHA-LATKA cross beside BEEO O'CLOCK, and the UN SPEECH slayed me. I was stuck on BAN deodorant or prohibiting something and there was no way ARDUA would have filled without five crosses. Never having seen 'Taxi' or the HSN network didn't help either.
ReplyDeleteAs for the SH being replaced BY j, I caught it after PILLOW JAM. But ANSA was another unknown and misspelling JA'B'ERT didn't help matters so I gave up.
C.C.- you beat me today.
D-O, I also have never heard of BEER O'CLOCK.
ReplyDeleteGot the clever theme with the first theme answer, but still crashed and burned. Too many unknowns. I had only about 85% of the fill.
ReplyDeleteI parsed UN SPEECH as nuclear test ban, too.
I often wondered why PICO DE GALLO was named after a rooster's beak. Thanks.
I knew what ANSA means but never thought of it. A looped handle on pottery, such as a vase.
I don't know Alice Munro, but I did read Still Alice by Lisa Genova about her early descent into Alzheimer's. Very moving, because my mother also had Alzheimer's.
Great puzzle and expo even though I blew it.
BEER THIRTY is a song sung by Brooks and Dunn.
ReplyDeletere: Beer O'clock
ReplyDeleteDid a google search and found out that "Wine O'clock" has also been added to the OED.
... alas, Scotch O'clock hasn't (YET!) been added to the OED.
... but it is use at Villa Incognito ...
Cheers!
Theme: Shoeless Joe?
ReplyDeletewhat a disappointment, today.
ReplyDeleteGood morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteTook longer than I wanted, but other than ARDUA, got it without googling. Had 'add to' before AMP UP. Also had 'A Wild' before ABIE'S. And so it went. Also had split before END IT. Got the schtick before finishing. Favorite clue was for BRETHREN
BRETHREN, oxen, children - few English nouns form the plural by adding EN. In Dutch almost all plurals take the EN ending.
Have a great day.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteAnother fine example of CC's creativity and craftsmanship and, I must say, devilish, devious deception in cluing. (That is most definitely a compliment.). As I said the other day, my brain needs a rebooting post haste! It took me about 10 minutes after I finally completed the puzzle for the penny to drop as to the theme. I just hadn't made the J replacing the Sh sound gimmick. Double Doh! And Triple ACK, I hit many bumps along the way but, eventually, I finished w/o help but with a big sigh of relief. My most egregious misstep was thinking Ban delivery meant prevent someone from speaking as in "unspeech" which was ridiculous but there it is.
Thanks, CC, for a really difficult challenge, for me, anyway and for the satisfaction of completing it and thanks, Lemony, for explaining it all, especially the UN speech entry. (My face is as "red as a beet" over that parsing!)
Almost forgot to mention the CSO to Mr. Meow(s)! 🐈
Have a great day.
"Puzzling Thoughts":
ReplyDeleteWEES, CC got me today, big time! I had to google several answers to get even a small foothold - oddly, I got most of the NW and NE to start, which usually for me are the toughest corners to solve when you have a difficult puzzle.
Things quickly slowed down as I had random answers strewn across the S and central parts of the grid. Unknowns were: JAVERT, ARDUA, ANSA, MAJA, KESHA, COSSETS, and the UNESCO/U.N. SPEECH. I thought it quite clever, though, to have the 41a row contain two references to the United Nations
BRETHREN for 6d was a clever clue/solve - definitely a Fri/Sat entry
Also, it was strange that in Thurs puzzle the clue "support" = BRA had me wondering why we never see the word JOCK used (for similar meaning), and today CC had it in hers, albeit with a differentdefinition
I guess this makes up for the easy time I had with yesterday's Xword ...
-Shirley Temple description, what a treat/torture! The cluing was beyond clever and the gimmick was a big help! Wow!
ReplyDeleteI’ll take my one bad selection from the vowel bin (ARDUA not ARDEA) and call it a day as ENSPEECH seemed plausible and U.N. SPEECH by BAN seems to be on the edge of Obscureville.
Musings
-Lemon’s summative paragraph need not be repeated
-When C.C. uses BEER O’CLOCK, I’d say she’s got the culture down pretty well
-Luca’s final resting place (:18)
-Of the top 10 all-time TD scorers, half are WR’s and half RB’s
-I intuitively PUSH or PULL before reading the sign
-When you END IT, don’t you owe the other person a face-to-face?
-New sign on the door
-DST pushes fireworks to deep into the evening
-Attempted AUTOPEN scam
-They are my BRETHREN and CISTERN! Wait a minute…
-Wheels are IN MOTION to get our town a $300,000,000 Costco chicken processing plant
-COSSET – Have you been to an adolescent baseball game recently?
-A ball coming to REST on a boundary line is in play in baseball and out of play in basketball
Thanks CC (with a little help/misdirection from RN).
ReplyDeleteNo JACK JIT, enjoyable other than the reliance on proper names/TV tie-ins.
• Given that a RADIO JACK is an actual device, it did not quite match the other themes.
• What's the ANSWER? ANSA! DIG? [May this serve as an Aide-Memoire?]
• AMP UP? I am familiar with the phrase RAMP UP with the same meaning.
• No reason why TORSO needs to be SCULPTED. Surely a TORSO is a TORSO, regardless of IN TOTO ROLO intake.
• Must admit, I did not parse UNSPEECH until I came to this blog. It sounded quite ORWELLIAN to me.
Lemonade, thanks for explaining UNSPEECH
ReplyDelete"Through adversity" would be a better translation of PER ARDUA. Latin teachers told me "from" was used for "ab" (away from) "de" (down from) or "ex" (out from)
C.C. thank you for stopping by and pointing to a couple of Rich's clue which were quite difficult.
ReplyDeleteUA Alum, you are correct, I was being lazy again.
Good morning, folks. Thank you, C.C., for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, for a fine review.
ReplyDeleteThis one took me about two hours, which is pretty good for me for a Friday. I have spent much longer many times.
Caught the theme after CULTURE JOCK. That helped with the rest.
I also tried A WILD for 26A. ABIE'S popped in later.
I misread Stern rival as Stem rival. That slowed me down in the NW.
Remembered LATKA.
MAJA was unknown, even though I have seen photos of that painting.
I winged it with BRETHREN and it worked.
Spelling of JAVERT took me some wags.
EBERT was easy.
KESHA unknown. Five perps and I had it.
Off to my day. More yard work.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
When did C.C. stop by? Am I missing something?
ReplyDeleteC.C. Great Job! Loved the theme, and even though FIW, loved the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteNice write-up, Lemonade! Thank you!
The unstoppable C.C. does it again and AMPSUP the obscurity! Yet I understand it was mostly Rich's doing which gave us the wicked Ban at 44A. Who even knows the U.N. General these days? I should have been able to suss ARDUA but was too frustrated by then. I went for ARDeA. FIW!
ReplyDeleteOtherwise I enjoyed the clever theme and got it with CULTUREJOCK (SHOCK).
Inspector JOVERT is a familiar to me but I really wanted JOBERT. VATS set me straight. Then YGOR nor IGOR was another write over. And does the VOA still exist?
Thank you, C.C., for another challenge and Lemonade for lifting the fog.
Have a splendid day, everyone!
This puzzle was exceptionally hard for me, but I think it is very high quality. I had to look up many things, without which I would never have had a chance at solving. Didn't understand UNSPEECH at all, and like Nice Cuppa I thought it sounded Orwellian. Totally forgot ANSA. Had no idea about ARDUA. I suspect C.C. used plenty of reference sources to come up with this stuff. A hearty handshake for you and best wishes to you all.
ReplyDeleteC.C. inserted comments in my write up.
ReplyDeleteTough, almost Saturday tough, but solvable. But what does Saturday bring?
ReplyDeleteWhat Jayce said. Hopefully I'll remember some things from my google searches today. Never heard of BEER O'CLOCK but really like it! That's one I don't think I will forget. Thanks for a fine puzzle, C.C.!
ReplyDeleteLemonade, thanks for the expo, and thanks for your warm words of (re)welcome Sunday night .
Enjoy the day!
Wow. Wow. I breezed through this one. Record time. Got 30 down and 31 across first. Then smooth sailing. This weeks puzzles were hard for me but not this one.
ReplyDeleteHi All!
ReplyDeleteSHesus! That was hard C.C. (& Rich). WEES on 32d xing 44a. It was Latin so why not END IT in eA? 'Cuz it's wrong, that's why. Thanks so much for this 'Joe'-me-the-answers-please puzzle. It was fun. Thanks Lem for UN-raveling 44a - Ban == Ki-moon never crossed my mind.
Got 17a 1st and that really helped break up the West coast w/ PILLOWJAM (not as tasty as Strawberry from yesterday :-)). But alas, FIW w/ 3 bad squares for 5 bad answers. I put in TONGO for Sculpted trunk [my thought process: trunk = elephant = Africa ; don't sculpt those... Trunk == put stuff in, from Africa == TONGO. Bzzt. IM, my brain needs a reboot too!]
WOs: Him b/f HER @60a; and dumb-dumb me put in auDIO (3/5ths right!) JACK. Took a few minutes for the V8 SLAP. Big INK SPOT there.
ESPs: Names & Latin (though I did wag KESHA with KE--A, how I know of this? I don't know)
Favs: BEER O' CLOCK - 1p on Fridays! I'm enjoying a Saint Arnold Summer Pills as I draught. Other fav - MISNOMER as a word and as clued. Awesome. Runners up: AUTO PEN and BRETHREN - more fun words.
{A, A++, B}
Lem - never had PICO with orange in it. Is that a FL thing? BTW, D-O & Tx Ms, H-E-B pico is pretty good - I had some last night.
HG - LOL on cistern!
Lucina - VOA still exists. It was also the title of a Sammy Hagar song in the 80s. I liked it when I was 12; I've grown :-)
Jayce - this is your fault... Gratuitous Blazing Saddles link.
I suppose w/ 2 Googles (32d & 48d) I coulda had a win but I like knowing what I know and don't know if you know what I mean. Apparently it's JACK Jit*.
Cheers, -T
*Thanks Cuppa
Greetings!
ReplyDeleteThanks to CC and Lemon!
Cute theme!
Difficult puzzle. Spelled LATKA incorrectly as LATKe. Never heard of KESHA. Otherwise OK. Scratched head at UNSPEECH.
Another doctor's appt. this aft.
Cheers!
I have never been so frustrated by a puzzle!
ReplyDelete(sorry CC, I never got a chance.)
On VK, & away from access to my dead tree version,
I tried on my iPhone.
Many interruptions, so I saved it....
(i lost it..)
Watched the $&@?! ad again, got interrupted, saved it,
& it worked!
Played some more, got interupted, saved it,
($&@?! Stupid ad that freezes again!)
Ten minutes later,,, I find out I Got screwed again...
Gave up on that (cannot passs the breakfast test wordage here..) stupid ($&@?!) website and went to my iPad .
It makes me watch the ad, but freezes upon load.
3x of this l8tr...
I threw my iPad at the wall,
& went to the blog to finally enjoy cc's puzzle via the write up...
Just admiring the puzzle again... OK, who else wanted mnemonic @27d? That w/ MISNOMER... In the same puzzle??? Rock your SOCks off... -T
ReplyDeleteWithout red-letters, I wouldn't have had a chance here. Did get the theme early with CULTURE JOCK which made me laugh. Helped on the others. I did many red-letter runs to get a toe-hold on many unknowns. WEES. Thanks, C.C. for a mental stretch. Thanks, Jason, for splainin' some of it.
ReplyDeleteSeeing what many of you eat is a CULTURE J(sh)OCK to me. No eels out here in the boondocks. Had to look up jicama. I've heard of PICO de gallo, but didn't know what was in it.
Hand up for BEER Thirty, but soon CLO perped in. AHA!
Can't let 24a go w/o Larson's school for the gifted.
ReplyDeleteCheers, -T
Lemonade:
ReplyDeleteYour comment about pico de gallo being uncooked like salsa intrigued me. Explain please? I'd like to know more about cooking salsa. Mine is always uncooked.
Thanks, C.C. (and Lemon too) --
ReplyDeletefor really challenging us. This knocked my socks off, definitely not an example of "not a hard nut to crack."
The cluing was so generalized in places (the "nut" quotation being a prime example) that solving demanded a heavier than usual reliance on perps. I admit to losing patience and cheating several times, just so I could stay interested.
I enjoyed seeing unusual words like COSSETS and ARDUA, but there were not enough single word "learning moments" for my taste.
Still, a worthy Friday test of our wits...
This was fun. Never heard of Abies, though. (I got it indirectly). Not too hard, a nice Friday.
ReplyDeleteThanks, C.C. And lemon! I lost but it was fun.
ReplyDeleteOwen....all A's... Good work.
Off to beddy -bye!
Re: Lucina @6:11
ReplyDeleteDitto re: cooked salsa
Took a while,
( how do you ctrl F in an IPad?)
But I finally reread Lemon's Pico comment,
Curious,,,
Wouldn't cooked salsa be a sauce?
P.s. I found out how to ctrl F on an IPad.
ReplyDeleteJust type yr search parameter jnto the search bar,
And at the very bottom of the results is an "on this page option."
(it's like learning how to walk again...)
Lucina - I've had cooked salsa - it comes out warm and is "mushy" and doesn't taste fresh (but can still be hott'r than blazes!) like PICO or fresh salsa. I have no idea how to make it (I just googled recipes and found JACK squat) - maybe it's just stewed pico de gallo? C, -T
ReplyDeleteCrud, I forgot my link for JACK squat. So that's 5. IM OUT, -T
ReplyDeleteIn archaeology, the engraved and ornamented handle of a vase
ReplyDeleteI liked the misdirection of "Ban delivery" and enjoyed the aha moment when I was able to parse the answer.
ReplyDeleteAnd the theme was a fun idea.
But way too many unknown names that seemed obscure to me. Never heard of "EVENING shADE", BRASI, EVINE Live, POM or MAJA which were bad enough.
But the unknown names crossing of KESHA and LATKA was simply impossible.
I had not heard the EBERT quote before, but I respectfully disagree. Many films that would have been excellent at 90 minutes are a fun sponge when they drag on to 150 minutes.