google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday July 30, 2016 Kevin Christian

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Jul 30, 2016

Saturday July 30, 2016 Kevin Christian

Theme: None

Words: 72 (missing Q)

Blocks: 29

C.C. here. The tool we use to analyze & write each puzzle is broken and Splynter needs to work this morning. I'll just publish the skeletal entries now. Will be back later with detailed writeup.

(Updated now. Thanks for the patience.)

Kevin's puzzle features a pair of double-stacked 15's, which are his seed entries. Constructors plant seed entries at the very start of each themeless grid. Sometimes secondary seeds are sowed if the grid allows.

The four spanners are:

15A. "Be right with you": HOLD ON ONE MINUTE

17A. Serious request for help: I NEED A HUGE FAVOR. Both of the top 15's are debut entries, never used in any puzzle before.
 
54A. Parker or Getz: JAZZ SAXOPHONIST. Look at the crossing words of  J, Two Z's and X, all solid words. You rock, Kevin!

Kevin Christian, XWord Info

58A. Ancient: OLD AS METHUSELAH 

Once the four sparkly spanners are placed, Kevin's primary goal is to have clean fill. He was also  able to give us two nice 11's:

28A. Suzanne Collins trilogy, with "The": HUNGER GAMES 

39A. Loreena McKennitt genre: CELTIC MUSIC

Across:

1. Like some glass: STAINED

8. Black Friday store opening event? MAD DASH. Great clue/fill.

18. Island where Dionysus discovered Ariadne: NAXOS. Oh, I did not know that. So pretty.

19. Burden: TAX

20. Disney’s "__ & Stitch": LILO

21. Hebrew for "skyward": EL AL

22, __ owl: BARN

24. "At Seventeen" Grammy winner __ Ian: JANIS

25. Spender of rials: OMANI

27. Name: DUB

32.Rebus pronoun: EWE. You.


35. Waste management word: RECYCLE

36. Beats: OUTDOES

38. Isr. neighbor: SYR

41. Big name in jewelry: KAY. Our Kazie's real name.

42. Dizzy: AREEL. Not a word I use.

43. Half a '60s pop group: MAMAS. And Papas.

46. Lesage hero Gil __: BLAS. Easy fill-in-the-blanks.

47. Pad: CRIB

51 __ I: Jewish month added in leap years: ADAR. New to me. I know ADAR is the 6th month in Jewish calendar.

52. Watch chain: FOB

53. See 45-Down: MIATA. And 45. With 53-Across, Japanese roadster: MAZDA 

59. Put on again: RE-AIRED

60. Usually not the best way to marry: IN HASTE 
 
Down:

1. Excel: SHINE

2. Like Romantic music: TONAL

3. Singer/songwriter __ Ray Joel: ALEXA. Here with her parents.


4. Belief system: IDEOLOGY

5. Acceptances: NODS

6. Commercial suffix with wheat: -ENA. Not familiar with Wheatena.

7. Word from Homer: D'OH! Homer Simpson.

8. Mullally of "Will & Grace": MEGAN

9. Blue Cash Everyday card co: AMEX

10. "What’s the __?": DIF

11. "CSI" facility: DNA LAB. Both DNA LAB and DNA TEST are grid-friendly, hence their frequent appearances in crossword.

12. How coq may be cooked: AU VIN. I recall this was the specialty of Misty's husband Rowland.


13. Absolut alternative, familiarly: STOLI

14. __ welcome: HERO'S

16. Semiaquatic rodent: NUTRIA. I learned this rodent in the old Tribute Media Daily puzzle days.


22. Brewer’s supply: BARLEY

23. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" spin-off: ANGEL. Learning moment to me also.

24. "I’m alone": JUST ME

26. Big attractions: MECCAS. Zara is finally coming to Mall of America in December. I visited their store in Vegas last Feb. So many shopping meccas in the desert.

27. Wild things?: DEUCES. Oh, Deuces Wild.

28. Some game enders: Abb,: HRS (Home Runs)

29. Pike no-no: UEY

30. ATM giant: NCR

31. Actress Kelly: MOIRA. I forgot. We had her before.


32. Aurora’s counterpart: EOS

33. Either of two Chinese dynasties: WEI. The second is actually called Bei Wei.

34. Bailout key: ESC

37. Don Quixote’s unseen love: DULCINEA

40. Screen Actors Guild co-founder Lyle __: TALBOT. Stranger to me.

41. 2000s-’10s Afghan president: KARZAI (Hamid).

43. Not at all trivial: MAJOR

44. Allan-__: Robin Hood cohort: A-DALE. Partial.

46. Ready to be shipped: BOXED 

48. Tracks: RAILS

49. Where __: IT'S AT. Partial. Two partials are allowed in each grid.

50. Come clean?: BATHE. Another nice clue.

52. Notability: FAME 

53. __ pit: MOSH

55. Georgia, once: Abbr.: SSR

56. Upsilon follower: PHI 

57. Fifth-century invader: HUN 


Alright, Splynter and his legs will be back next Saturday.

C.C.

44 comments:

  1. Quite a week for @Kevin Christian, since he also had the Monday New York Times puzzle. C.C.'s review pointed out a lot of the strengths of today's puzzle. Every time I see NAXOS in a puzzle, I think of a Richard Strauss opera that I jokingly dub "Ariadne Obnoxious."

    A dear Minnesota friend recently celebrated a major life event, and is about to undergo major surgery. Our thoughts are with this Lucky Guy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Y'all! This puzzle was not fun for me! At first it seemed like all naticks. Too much I didn't know, never heard of. I finally got some fills at the bottom and worked back up, but too many red-letter runs to enjoy it. First long fill was OLD AS METHUSALAH. That's how I feel this week.

    EXCEL: thought this was the business app and doing well with something had two "L's".

    WHEATENA? Never heard of it. Thanks for the picture, C.C. & for taking over for Splynter.

    One answer that came easy was BARN.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Morning, all!

    Got through most of this in decent enough time, but the entire NW corner nearly killed me. It was a sea of white except for the two answers I was sure of: GIVE ME ONE MINUTE and IES (as the "wheat" suffix). At the end, I finally just nuked everything and started over with a fresh set of eyes. Never heard of WheatENA, never heard of ALEXA, but without those wrong answers in the grid I was able to guess I NEED A HUGE FAVOR and NAXOS and STAINED and NOD and everything else.

    Sadly, I didn't get the *TADA* and finally had to turn on the red letter help to discover that EYE should have been EWE. I thought YEI seemed a bit odd for a Chinese dynasty, but what do I know...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Technically DNF, since I still had much of the NW and CE blank before I gave in and turned on the red. At which, the NW changed to ALL white and red! With red turned on, I got the rest, but it doesn't count that way.

    Lot of names I didn't know, but LYLE TALBOT I knew. ARIADNE auf NAXOS was another.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wonderful challenging puzzle that had me going in circles. Thank you Kevin Christian. Thank you CC ! You rock too !

    IN HASTE, I had MAZDA where MIATA belonged and vice-versa. Talk about slowing down your fill. D'OH !

    Also remembered KARZAI, but couldn't remember where the H went.

    Wild things was not DEMONS, but it fit and made sense to me. I thought one-eyed Jacks were wild.

    Don't NOD at the auctioneer or one of his spotters unless you are intending to bid. He's not looking at you to say hello.

    Where IT SAT... or Where IT'S AT ? Meh. Dizzy should have been AT SEA. It's currently so topical in the puzzle world..

    I remember the Canon EOS. Not to be confused with say, your Canon Powershot A540.

    Common sense in the big city should tell you not to answer "JUST ME' to a stranger asking "Anybody home ?"

    Shouldabeen WHEATIES. WHEATENA ? Are you kidding me ? I want my MAYPO !

    On this continent, I don't see any advantage in carrying an AMEX card.

    Why was Belief System not THEOLOGY ? I wanted THEOLOGY.

    DULCINEA reminds me of some kind of zither.

    Homer was a leading character in an epic. Can you name it ? Here's a hint. He was often quoted as saying "D'OH !"

    UEY is one of those words that should be said but never spelled. It's an answer that reminds me of the many odd puzzle answers that are sounds. Use spelling variations as needed to complete your grid.

    There are too many Greek islands. Can we stick with just a few ?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Good morning!

    D'OH! DNF. With ALE_A and NA_OS in place, I wagged a T -- I've heard of the name ALETA. Bzzzzt! Wasn't familiar with ALEXA, nor her son Advil nor her daughter Tylenol. Ya got me, Kevin. Thanks for filling in, C.C. I could not figure out how hours (HRS) could be game enders. Double-D'OH!

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  7. {B, C, B, F, F, F...}

    HOLD ON ONE MINUTE, I NEED A HUGE FAVOR.
    I had a falling out with my tailor.
    Now I'm going berserk
    In this custom hair shirt!
    Trade me your blouse, you'll be a lifesaver!

    The JAZZ SAXOPHONIST was a odd sorta fella,
    He had no other phone, not even a tele-!
    Said, "I trust no horn
    Made since I was born,
    I play a ram sax, as I'm OLD AS METHUSELAH!"

    At the CELTIC GAMES, DALE threw the caber,
    Which landed, alack, on the foot of the MAJOR!
    The MAJOR arose,
    Sans two left toes,
    Picked up the log, and returned the FAVOR!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Nice, challenging puzzle. Did not know all of the proper names, but I did know "Wheatena". I was on a best-selling diet book diet back in the day, and Wheatena was one of the hot cereals allowed. It was putrid without a ton of sugar. Diet fail!

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  9. Good Morning all,

    Thanks Kevin for a challenge with lots of possibility. Oh, that Homer! DOH! Favorite: JAZZ SAXOPHONIST--maybe because it was my first long fill. I love that sound.

    C. C. thanks for filling in. Great links. Only missing legs, so we know for sure Splynter didn't write our expo.

    Have a good weekend everyone!

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is the fastest I've done a Saturday in awhile --lots of answers "in my wheelhouse" e.g My junior high put on "Man of La Mancha" so DULCINEA (one of the songs) was a gimme and Charlie "Yardbird" Parker was from KC, my hometown, so I knew he was a JAZZ SAXOPHONIST. A few slowdowns with OTTER instead of NUTRIA at first (especially since I had the T filled in first) and WEES about IES before ENA.

    Thanks CC for filling in and Kevin for a fun puzzle!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Musings
    -A fun struggle. NA_OS/ALE_A, IRANI/OMANI and EYE/EWE made for four bad cells. I had to change GRACE to MOIRA (hardly interchangeable) but at least I didn’t bite on wheatIES
    -C.C.’s write-up and “peek behind the curtain” are always welcome
    -Web yesterday and Excel today initially ginned up computer terms for me. Dern technology! ☺
    -My professional musician SIL named his first son PARKER after Charlie Parker. His Parker is a drums and trumpet prodigy.
    -There are few songs that portray teen angst better than At Seventeen. While not necessarily true, the lyric “I learned the truth at seventeen That love was meant for beauty queens” still touches me
    -FOBS as a word has been resurrected for the name of remotes for cars
    -Is any show REAIRED more often than this seasonal favorite?
    -BARLEY pop is a familiar euphemism around here
    -Baseball’s most famous game-ending HR (1:41)
    -I’m not sure any one person can lead a tribal country like Afghanistan
    -Where IT”S AT (1:41)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Liked the puzzle................but I always like to read what Owen writes.............He amazes me!

    ReplyDelete
  13. PK, my view matches your first paragraph exactly. This is the first puzzle I have worked since Monday. Either I am out of practice and out of patience or this was not in my wheelhouse. The bottom was okay, but even with red letters I did not enjoy the top.
    Alan and I spent the last four days on a bus trip to Niagara Falls, Canada and Toronto. It was fun and the falls are awesome. We could see the spectacular Horseshoe Falls and the fireworks well from our hotel room window. Alan's only bad day was Wed. when we were scheduled to see the major falls attractions. He soldiered on to do the full schedule, but he was not really into it that day. I felt sorry he couldn't really enjoy the part he was so excited to see. The other days he was okay.
    Thurs. evening we saw the dinner show "Oh Canada, Eh?", very enjoyable. I was thinking of you Canadian Eh.

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  14. I appreciated the surprisingly clean fill in a grid with four 15's. Kudos, Kevin! I enjoyed this, in spite of several entertainment-related names that were unknowns to me.

    The NW was challenging, with the unknown ALEXA/NAXOS proper-name cross, and ENA, which was by far the most unpalatable 3-letter fill in this puzzle.

    I'm thinking that WheatENA must have been a regional product. I was a post-WWII baby boom child, raised in the Midwest on Cream of Wheat, Malt-O-Meal, Maypo and Quaker Oats. If I had ever heard the name Wheatena, I had no idea what it was, until today.

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  15. Good Morning:

    I must have been on KC's wavelength because I was sailing along, filling in the spanners 1-2-3 and just generally coming up with the right fill. There were a few hiccups, for sure, but, overall, I finished in less than usual Saturday time. However, it was a FIW because of the incorrect and unnoticed misspelling of Methuselah and Dulcinea. That aside, I enjoyed the cluing, fill and the solve!

    Thanks, Kevin, for a Saturday challenge and thanks, CC, for pinch-hitting for Splynter.

    Have a great day.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Thanks, Kevin, for a thought-provoking morning wake-up! Guessed right on ALEXA and NAXOS.

    Thanks, C.C. for filling in for Splynter. Nice job, and enjoyed the pic of NAXOS!

    ReplyDelete
  17. The theme answers were fine/guessable, but.... while I can handle/enjoy MAMAS, KARZAI, AMEX, METHUSELAH, EOS, NUTRIA, even MAZDA MIATA....

    there were FAR too many modern/obscure actors/singers/places/books/TV tie-ins/breakfast cereal/Disney, to name a few, which really spoiled the fun; as well as some overused stuff - SSR, NCR, HUN, EOS, ESC; and a smattering of pure crosswordese (AREEL, UEY). This was not difficult because the clues were clever (although DEUCES was good), but because it felt like a hybrid between a real LA Times Crossword and ones of those you find in the TV guide.

    On a positive note, BARLEY reminded me of that wonderful song, FIELDS OF GOLD. I feel much more relaxed after listening to that and apologize for the above polemic.

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  18. Good morning everyone.

    Needed red letter help in the NW but got the E and S 80% unassisted. Too many variations possible in the phrases @ 15 and 17a.
    Had ies before ENA at wheatENA. Liked it as a kid. Only hot cereal I eat now is oatmeal.
    Too many authors and music types I didn't know to make this fully enjoyable. Did get HUNGER GAMES and CELTIC MUSIC from perps.
    Liked the EL AL clue. Makes sense.

    ReplyDelete
  19. A terrific construction, but too hard for me. Red letters and a couple of alphabet runs were required. I feel the same about the puzzle as Nice Cuppa, especially about all those 3-letter entries. I wanted INA as the wheat suffix, thinking of Purina and semolina; never heard of Wheatena. What TTP said; great comments, Mr. Plunge.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Being a Saturday, I attacked this with the red letters on...
    good thing too, because having grown up in Brooklyn,
    my 1st thought at 54A, Parker or Getz was
    "Subway Vigilantes."
    (I know Bernie, but who is this Parker guy?)

    29D rang a bell as well, we have a road in New Jersey
    called Shunpike. I only recently found out it was named that
    in order to offer a way to avoid the newly finished NJ Turnpike.
    Sometimes you gotta dig deep to find interesting historical names...
    (I am sure there is a deeper story here...)

    OwenKL, I am often perplexed
    at your rating system.
    I feel you undervalue your poetry consistently.
    However today, @ 7:48 things seem to be a bit overrated?

    This Lyle Talbot guy looks interesting,
    However when I went to link him, I found tons of full length movies on YouTube!

    Hmm, after this, I think I will pop some corn & watch some of them...

    Rebus Ewe,, Heh Heh!
    I could not find the complete card, so here it is piecemeal...
    Link#1
    Link#2
    Link#3
    Link#4
    (too bad it is not somebody's birthday...)

    & finally, in a tribute to dear Splynter... Missing your write up add ons...

    ReplyDelete
  21. Whew! No red letter help for me, but as usual with a few letters in place I can work out the rest and this was fun to finalize. It has been many decades since reading Don Quixote, so DULCINEA was slow to ooze out of my brain cells but I had the lower part, -CINEA and clinched it.

    Luckily, HUNGERGAMES was fresher in memory and that opened the entire west central for me. Then Big Sale was replaced by MADDASH and though I didn't know JANIS I did know LILO, AUVIN and DNALAB. HEROS welcome; talk about generic clues! Finally to the NW where I had enough of the endings to finish 15 & 17A. Surprisingly, I recalled Billy's and Christie's daughter, ALEXA, who, I've heard, is an accomplished pianist.

    However, I forgot to erase the i from IES, drat! ENA is also Bambi's aunt. That would have been a less weird clue, IMHO. But then, it's Saturday and this was a great challenge.

    Thank you to Kevin Christian for that and to our lovely C.C. for taking Splynter's place and illuminating us.

    Have a gorgeous day, everyone!

    ReplyDelete
  22. C.C., I'd forgotten to mention that earlier this week I finished your "Getting connected" puzzle from Sunday since my newspaper carrier was kind enough to leave me Sunday's paper after I returned home.

    I don't know what others had to say about it but I was enthralled. Thank you! The USB connections appeared early on and that helped later. There was so much fill I loved, PALO Alto, OXEYE daisy, Will GEER. PENIN made me laugh because it was just one letter away from what could have been another word.(?)

    And what weekend puzzle isn't complete without the inclusion of that villain, IAGO? I could go on because it was so rich in many ways with even a shout out at yourself, C.C., GENIUS because I believe that is what you are!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Hi, this is Kevin, I made today's puzzle.

    Here's how this puzzle came to be...

    I keep a spreadsheet with possible 15 letter answers that have never been in a crossword before, and that I think are interesting and therefore should one day be in a crossword.

    I went through them to see if any pair of them had consonants and vowels in opposite locations, because if they did, then they could probably be stacked. This is how I placed HOLD ONE ON MINUTE with I NEED A HUGE FAVOR.

    I put JAZZ SAXOPHONIST in the grid because I liked it a lot and it has a J, X, and Z in it. OLD AS METHUSELAH fit nicely next to it so I put that there.

    I tried a bunch of different grid patterns for the middle, most of which did not have any answers as long as 11, but once I figured out that I could include two 11's and put HUNGER GAMES and CELTIC MUSIC in those spots, then I went with that.

    I tried to include a Q somewhere in the grid so I could get the pangram, but it didn't fit naturally without forcing it, so in the end I left it out.

    Thanks for solving!

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  24. Wheatena was one of the hot cereal I had growing up. I haven't had it in years. I prefer oatmeal and Cream of Wheat. I like it OK with a little brown sugar and Half and Half, the same way I enjoy the other two.

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  25. Apparently one either was on the correct wavelength or not. I'm a not, no love for me here. The NW was and stayed blank before I just decided to stop. Can't win them all I guess

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  26. My goodness! What a wild ride this morning. I saw those grid spanners and almost gave up right then and there. But I did get DULCINEA and BLAS and eventually LILO, though (I'm embarrassed to say, C.C., not AU VIN until much later. Rowland must be groaning up there in the sky). Eventually, I cheated and looked up the two top words, STAINED and MAD DASH, and then miraculously, if slowly, almost everything started to slowly fall into place (including AU VIN--Yay!). I got JAZZ SAXOPHONIST pretty early on, which was pretty exciting with those two ZZs and that X. Anyway a huge, fun experience on a difficult Saturday, so many thanks, Kevin--and how cool of you to stop in and explain how it all worked--very exciting!

    C.C., you can't imagine what a lovely surprise and thrill it was to see that photo you posted of Rowland and me on our patio--enjoying his COQ AU VIN, probably. Almost made me cry, and definitely made my day! Thank you so much for that!

    Yellowrocks, how great that you and Alan had such a nice trip to Niagara Falls!

    George B., I hope your friend's surgery goes well.

    Have a wonderful, wonderful weekend, everybody!

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  27. YR: missed you. Glad to know you were on a nice trip and not having more problems.

    ReplyDelete
  28. I'm with C.C. on this one... a fabulous puzzle! I believe most constructors would think you were out of your mind if you asked them to make a Saturday puzzle with two stacked 15's, one of them never before used, and toss in 20 of the 26 letters of the alphabet, including an F, V, J, Z, and X. This puzzle is not only fun, it's very impressive in it's creativity.

    I'm quite sure Packer fans, or anyone else, won't be impressed by-
    O, FAVRE, I NEED A HUG

    ReplyDelete
  29. A real toughie from Kevin Christian. It was enlightening to read CC's praise of his particular skills.
    It was easy to slip into misspellings or other near misses. My initial errors were INA for ENA, DELOS for NAXOS, IRANI for OMANI, ADAIL for ADALE & MOB for MAD in MAD DASH. Small mistakes all, but each befouling perps in both directions.
    On the plus side, it was fun noticing the answers that seemed to "pop in" from nowhere, answers I didn't know I knew - but did. Like BLAS, MOIRA, and TALBOT, all of them proper names I was never aware of learning.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Kevin:
    How nice of you to stop by and explain your constructing process. I loved your puzzle!

    YR:
    Yes! I missed you and am so glad you and Alan enjoyed the trip. It is grand, isn't it? It's too bad Alan was unwell during that special part of it and hopefully he has recovered. He has so many challenges and you are the perfect care giver.

    ReplyDelete
  31. I quickly came up with some answers I was certain were wrong, because they contained too many letters unfriendly to crossword puzzle constructors: z, j, x etc. Nicely done, Kevin Christian!

    I stumbled through today with a little red-letter help. Wheetena I knew but spelled it "ina," for example.

    Trivia time! Lyle Talbot definitely was an interesting man, CrossEyed Dave. Here's a brief overview of his life. It's impressive to notice that the union he helped create now has over 160,000 members, too. He was one of the handsome stage actors who moved into film when they added sound, and told how Harry Warner (of Warner Bros.) would say,"My God, who wants to hear actors talk? They're silent the way they should be!"

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  32. Anon-T @ 1:37 from yesterday - just read the posts. I second what you said about Big D vs Houston. Dallas has always considered itself more "cultured" and better than Houston. And don't get me started on the Cowboys. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  33. Thanks for the look under the hood of your great puzzle, Kevin!

    ReplyDelete
  34. TX Ms, your comment reminds me af a comment attributed to Bum Phillips back in the 70s. The Cowboys had adopted the title "Amarica's Team" on that, Bum said "Whelp, that might be so......But Houston is Texas's team!"

    Tough sledding today and got beaten up in the process. 3 Googles and 2 wrong cells. The only claim I can make is that the grid was full.

    ReplyDelete
  35. I had trouble with the south. Wanted OLD AS THE HILLS but that didn't fit Left OLD AS in though

    NUTRIA went in naturally as we have MILLIONS of those down here. I knew Getz was a sax player but could get the wording that fit in the span.

    Red Letter finish for me. GREAT Puzzle tho.

    Bon Apres Midi From Cajun Country ~!~!

    P.S. I didn't see Tin comment today. Must be a ICE hangover from the last 5 days LOL.

    Cheers Tin ~!~!

    ReplyDelete
  36. Argent @2:54,

    You pressed my trivia button with that mention...

    It took a while, with a sidetrack to the story
    of his 2nd wife, Abigail Adams. (too sad too link here...:(

    Aha! I found your reference:
    "one of the founding members of Screen Actors Guild (membership card Number 21)"

    (Woohoo, it's like I just completed another puzzle...)

    ReplyDelete
  37. "Romantic" = TONAL? I guess classical, baroque, popular, jazz and rock 'n' roll aren't. . . .

    WTTPS about UEY. WEES about ENA.

    This whole puzzle was a CROCK.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Avg Joe @3:34 - Thanks for the Bum Phillips quote - he was such a character. I miss him (gone for almost three years) and Earl (still living). A favorite Bumism: "There's two kinds of coaches, them that's fired, and them that's gonna be fired." I haven't learned how to link but here's a short list of his quotes.
    http://247sports.com/Coach/Bum-Phillips-3616/Quotes

    ReplyDelete
  39. Well, I stuck with it. Had to perp Alexa Joel so it's a DNF but

    Was it just me or was this a beaut
    Lost in a sea of white but
    HOLDONONEMINUTE
    I may be old as Methuselah
    But I remember MAMAS,MIATAS and Gil BLAS
    All done, OMANI'm so astute

    D-

    ReplyDelete
  40. One thing that held me back 28d. I went with football, OTS, FGS and finally HRS.

    So I have K _ Y. And I'm lost until I do that alphabet trick. Didn't take long

    ReplyDelete
  41. I finished smoothly...until the Jewish Month...but luckily, Robin Hood saved me. Nice puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
  42. OK, I give...

    I started when the paper dropped but figured I was just too tired to "get it." Nope, just too dense. I do Sats just to read Splynter. Today it was C.C., who's always a treat (thanks for the expo!), but forgot the legs. Thanks CED for taking one for the team.

    Thank goodness for my kids - HUNGER GAMES came immediately. Both girls make obscure (to me) references to the books' characters and then insist on explaining.

    East coast was my crash & burn - I was sure 39a had something to do with romantic music... CELTIC never crossed my mind. [CEL_ROMAN_C is my ink]. There's a blizzard of white/err over there.

    Thanks Kevin both for the puzzle and inside-baseball. Your spreadsheet idea is something I just stole.

    Fav: MOZDA MIATA X-ref.

    Welcome back YR; glad you & Alan had fun at the Falls.

    Nice Cuppa - A song from Sting? You just got a +1 in my book.

    TXMs & Ave Joe - Bum was before my time in Houston (I moved here in 98) but I loved learning the lore. I lived 5 blocks from Warren Moon in our 1st house here. He had epic garage-sales every year (no, I never met him). Here's TXMs' quotes link.

    Tomorrow's Lurker, -T

    ReplyDelete
  43. D'OH - I meant MAZDA. Cheers, -T

    ReplyDelete

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