google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, August 19, 2016 Bruce Haight

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Aug 19, 2016

Friday, August 19, 2016 Bruce Haight

Title: Another @##% circle puzzle to irritate Barry!

We take a journey with back to back Bruce Haight Fridays. My memories of going to the ocean and looking for stones to throw were brought back. This time he packaged his effort in a rare 14 x 16 grid with a total of 70 theme squares. The 14s are grid-spanners and with so many letters in themers, there is not much room for sparkle. We do get  AM FM RADIO and  SALMON ROE.  Once again I will begin with the very clever reveal which tells us we are looking for stones in the skipped parts of fill, in the circles.

58A. Leisurely lakeside activity, and a clue for the circled letters : SKIPPING STONES (14).

16A. Reason kept to oneself : ULTERIOR MOTIVE (14). Limestone  is a sedimentary rock that contains at least 50% calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Because sedimentary rocks are made of various types of sediments, the other 50% of a limestone rock could be virtually any other mineral. Limestone originates in wet areas which mean it could also be composed of shells and waste matter from organisms.

22A. Wig out : FLIP ONE'S LID (11). Fieldstone. This is a building construction material. Strictly speaking, it is stone collected from the surface of fields where it occurs naturally. Collections of fieldstones which have been removed from arable land or pasture to allow for more effective agriculture are called clearance cairns.Coming from New England we know all about this. What movie comes to mind?

29A. Thorny thicket : BRIAR PATCH (10).  Birthstone. Am I the only one who always thinks about UNCLE REMUS?

42A. Johnny Olson catchphrase : COMON DOWN (10). Moonstone. This is an alternate birthstone for June, but also a gem used by

48A. Bum rap : FALSE CHARGE (11). Flagstone. These flat stones are popular for making paths etc. so here is how to DIY.

Across:

1. "Anaconda" rapper Nicki : MINAJ. I am not sure why but I knew this MUSIC (4:49).

6. Sizable chunk : SLAB. Of roast beef? Or Nicki?

10. "Yuck!" : EWW. Ok, I agree. So does 63A. "Yuck!" : BLEH.

13. Carne follower, in Mexican fare : ASADA. Grilled beef.

14. Roll at the airport : TAXI. On the Taxiway.

15. Former Vietnamese emperor Bao __ : DAI. This man. LINK.

19. Barack Obama, astrologically : LEO. He has the same birthday as my step-son.

20. Old Venetian magistrate : DOGE.  You should recall THIS.

21. Boy in the first family : ABEL. All the men had four letters.

25. Country singer Clark : TERRI. The only Clark I recall is ROY, not this tall Canadian.

28. Cold weather word : TEENS. Down here that would be freezing.

34. 1953 automobile innovation : AM FM RADIO. Introduced by a Mexican Company. HISTORY.

35. Catch something : AIL. Nice simple misdirection.

38. Put away : ATE.  Nice simple misdirection.

39. Some caviar : SALMON ROE. Traditionally, the term caviar refers only to roe from wild sturgeon in the Caspian and Black Sea (Beluga, Ossetra and Sevruga caviars). Depending on the country, caviar may also be used to describe the roe of other fish such as salmon, steelhead, trout, lumpfish, whitefish, carp,and other species of sturgeon.

43. West Indian sorcery : OBEAH. Hard to discuss this PRACTICE when we do not talk religion.

47. Young partner : ERNST. CPA firm.

53. Low-cost home loan org. : FNMAFederal National Mortgage Association.

54. Lug : HAUL.

55. Letters left of center? : EPI. Cute...left of mean a prefix.

62. "If __ again I meet him beard to beard ... ": Shak. : EER. Rar lay I do not know well, Coriolanus.

64. Whiz : MAVEN. It's back.

65. Carefree syllable : TRA. La La.

66. Fun : JEST.

67. Sarcophagus holder : CRYPT.

Down:

1. Stake-driving hammer : MAUL.

2. Part of a chain : ISLE.

3. Defense acronym : NATO. He must like this oraganization. North American Treaty Organization.

4. Thirst quencher : ADE. Thanks for the CSO Mr. H.

5. Rattle : JAR.

6. Bend : STOOP. My thought

7. Slow passage : LARGO. Musical term.

8. Guitar players, slangily : AXMEN. More likely AXE (not maul)
9. Dust jacket info : BIOgraphy.

10. Safe to put away : EDIBLE. My favorite clue.

11. Encourage to score, as a base runner : WAVE IN. Maybe not these RUNNERS.

12. Brandishes : WIELDS.

17. First name in despotism : IDI. Amin.

18. Zap : TASE.

22. Set up : FRAME. Central plot to many tv shows.

23. NYC commuter line : LIRR. Long Island Railroad.

24. Ordinal ending : ETH. This is used to create ordinal numbers from cardinal numbers ending in -y, namely the multiples of ten (other than ten itself): 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90; e.g. twentieth, thirtieth.

25. TV sched. uncertainty : TBA. To Be Announced.

26. Aunt with a "Cope Book" : ERMA.

27. Divide : RIFT.

30. El __ : PASO.

31. Maroon 5 singer Levine : ADAM.

32. Counter square : TILE.

33. Lake of Lombardy : COMO. You like this little home?

35. Auto company founder Citroën : ANDRÉ. He was an interesting MAN.

36. Golf bag item : IRON.

37. Not the best of times : LOWS.

40. Universal donor's type, briefly : O NEG.

41. Uvula doc : ENT. Ear Nose and Throat.

42. "Evita" role : CHE. Guevera.

43. Counterbalance : OFFSET. Time for the offset I?

44. Loan officer, e.g. : BANKER.

45. Twain's New York resting place : ELMIRA. This was the cemetery where his wife's family were buried. Twain lived in Connecticut and Mark Twain house is in Hartford. A high school classmate has written about the restoration and is still an ambassador. LINK.

46. "Make it snappy!" : ASAP. As Soon As Possible.

49. Country about 12 times longer than its widest point : CHILE.

50. Underwear brand : HANES.

51. Zero : AUGHT.

52. Literary monogram : RLS. Robert Louis Stevenson.

55. Green attitude? : ENVY. From the green-eyed monster in Othello. Twain also wrote of this. “It turned Brer Merlin green with envy and spite, which was a great satisfaction to me.” — A Connecticut Yankee.

56. Sound often not allowed? : PEEP. I do not want to hear a peep out of you!

57. "It __ Right": 1956 Platters' hit : ISN'T.

59. Lunchbox staple, familiarly : PBJ.

60. Cinephile's TV choice : TMC.  TCM? Or maybe AMC? The Movie Channel is owned by Showtime.

61. Tool sometimes used for steering : OAR.

Well this was fun, but I lost my write up and had to redo it all. Some changed, some did not but now it is time to wish you all well and best to all the Olympic athletes who have provided lots of entertainment. Lemonade out.


Note from C.C.:

Let's say Hello to Melissa's granddaughter Jaelyn, who was born yesterday. She was 6 pounds 13 ounces,  20.25 inches long. Congratulations, grandma Melissa!


58 comments:

Barry G. said...

Morning, all (and congrats, Melissa)!

Yeah. I solved this one as a pretty easy and pretty boring themeless, which is to say the lack of circles didn't really impact my solve in any way. I struggled a bit with some of the names (DAI, TERRI and even MINAJ, which I always manage to misspell as MANOJ for some reason), but the perps were solid in each case. Had FLIP ONES WIG before FLIP ONES LID and briefly considered CHINA before CHILE (apologies, C.C.), but that was really it for difficulty today.

OwenKL said...

FIWrong. Had a natick in the NW. ADOVA > ASADA (which would have been carne adovada if I'd spelt it right), NOLO > NATO (thinking of trial defense instead of military). Perps partially corrected each, but where they crossed was a pure and incorrect WAG.

The theme was no help. LIMESTONE is the only one I would have recognized. FIELD, MOON, and FLAG are obscure to me, though I've seen them before I'm sure. The remaining themer I misread as BIRCH, which had me baffled!

{A-, B-, B, B+.}

Pong Ping is a TEEN afflicted with drones;
He drones on and on to friends on their phones!
Most assign to him rings
That are just soft dings --
Whenever they're bored, they'll SKIP PING'S TONES!

You know all the rap 'bout the BRIAR PATCH,
Where bro Fox done met his match!
Tar Baby was a critter
From a 3-D printer,
So whenever, dude, you can print a whole batch!

When Nikki MINAJ wants to hail a cabby
She WIELDS a routine to fit her fancy!
She'll open, with a click,
A tube of her lipstick,
And use the bright neon shine to WAVE IN a TAXI!

Ducks had assembled from all around
To decide which one should wear their crown!
The favorite was the Eider,
But a Teal defied her,
So they raced, with the crowd quacking, "COME ON, DOWN!"

Hungry Mother said...

Getting the theme gave me FLAG, which led me to a successful solve.

OwenKL said...

Lemon: smooth, fitting both Brer Rabbit and Brer Merlin in, with a bonus cite of Mark Twain, too.
May I also add linking 38a (Put away) and 10d (Safe to put away).

The other stones are self-explanatory, but I looked this one up:

flagstone (n.)
"any rock which splits easily into flags," 1730, from flag (n.2) "flat, split stone" + stone (n.).

flag (n.2)
"flat stone for paving," c. 1600, ultimately from Old Norse flaga "stone slab," from Proto-Germanic *flago- (see flake (n.)). Earlier in English as "piece cut from turf or sod" (mid-15c.), from Old Norse flag "spot where a piece of turf has been cut out," from flaga.

floe (n.)
1817, first used by Arctic explorers, probably from Norwegian flo "layer, slab," from Old Norse flo, from Proto-Germanic *floho-, from PIE *plak- (1) "to be flat," extended form of root *pele- (2) "flat, to spread" (see plane (n.1)). Related to first element in flagstone. Earlier explorers used flake.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Forgot to look at the circles, and failed to read the complete clue for the reveal. Some things never change. Thanks Bruce. Enjoyed it.

Lemon, your MAUL looks like a splitting tool; not sure I'd want to drive a stake with that. In my ute we called a sledgehammer a MAUL. And yes, Br'er immediately pops to mind with BRIAR PATCH.

It wasn't an AM/FM RADIO in my dad's 1950 ambulance/hearse. Cadillac thought it would be a great idea to eliminate the tuning knob. It had only a "scan" button to advance to the next strong signal. I hated it!

Can anybody help me with this earworm? Is that a real song in the Chase commercial with the little white pig strutting on a leash? Sounds like the guy is saying "Bulloba loba."

Lemonade714 said...

How wonderful to see another beautiful girl in the Melissa B family. Congratulations

D-O you asked for it BOOMBASTIC

Anonymous said...

DO. The reggae artist Shaggy is a Jamaican born Canadian-American whose song from you 1995 he is about a great lover. The lyric is "Mr lover lover, r lover lover...." maybe his love skills are boom-bastic!

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. I easily got the long theme answers, but some of the clues in the southwest corner gave me trouble.

I was amused by seeing both Put Away = ATE and Safe to Put Away = EDIBLE in the same puzzle.

My favorite clue was Sound Often Not Heard = PEEP

I learned that Part of a Chain is not a Link, but an ISLE. Great clue in retrospect.

I thought of this Oliver Goldsmith play when I came across STOOP.

It will be months before there is recovery in south Louisiana. People have really been coming together to assist each other. I have been taking flood-damaged clothing that can be salvaged and washing it so at least some items of flood victims can be saved.

QOD: Don’t spend time beating on a wall hoping to transform it into a door. ~ Coco Chanel (Aug. 19, 1883 ~ Jan. 10, 1971)

Anonymous said...

EWW? BLEH? Do we just MAKE UP the spellings of sounds we never see in print?

A base runner is waved ON, not waved IN.

"Guitar players" are AX MEN? ANY instrument is a musician's "ax[e]."

To AIL is not to "catch something." You ail AFTER you catch something.

Who on earth is TERRI CLARK?

Who is Johnny Olson?

Big Easy said...

I struggled to the finish line today. Hard to get a toehold with some of the unknowns- MINAJ, Bao DAI, TERRI Clark, OBEAH (voodoo, ganja, rasta?), Aunt ERMA, ANDRE Citroen. I have two SLEDGE hammers (that can drive stakes) but knew it wouldn't fit in four spaces so I went with MAUL. Buy a log splitter. ISLE was the tricky clue, as my first choice was LINK.

After I filled the theme answers I wrote LIME, FIELD, BIRTH, MOON, & FLAG but the only think I could think of was STEPPING STONES but SKIPPING eventually came around.

IMHO I think the two fills for Yuck- EWW & BLEH- were yucky answers. EAT or ATE, BLT or PBJ. TCM, TMC, or AMC.

Owen- thaks for the 'flag' explanation; never knew what a FLAGSTONE was.
LEMONADE- the song starts like a take-off of Marvin Gaye's 'Let's get it on", but I have no idea what language the gibberish is.
Anon@8:15- Johnny Olson- announcer on many game shows. Let's Make a Deal, What's my Line, and many others.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Sorry to say but I have to invoke Thumper on this one. No fun=☹️. Perhaps my mood has been affected by a sleep-deprived night brought on by a continuously cramping foot and a bizarre nightmare about being held captive by the North Koreans! If certain foods trigger strange dreams, (as some believe) then I may never again eat a turkey club or a Kosher dill pickle!

Thanks to Mr. Haight for his efforts and thanks to Lemony for his expertise in explaining it all.

Congrats, Melissa, on the new addition.

Have a great day.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Thanks for the mental exercise, Bruce! Good one, Lemon, thanks.

Never heard of BaoDAI. ESP. Other ESP's: EPI, ETH

Didn't know TERRI Clark was still performing. I saw her on stage in the mid-nineties opening for another artist. Can't remember who now. I'd never heard of her before she came on stage. I remember her because my male colleague mooned over her for weeks ad nauseum.

ERNST filled without my reading the clue. That was my husband's middle name -- for his grandpa.

AUGHT is a word I haven't heard in years. My grandpa used it in talking about his young-man years. "We got married in 19Aught9 (1909)."

SKIPPING STONES: My most famous rock skipping feat was when at the lake I said to my nieces, nephews & my children: "Now watch me and I'll show you how to do this." Then I rared back and hurled the rock right into my son's temple. I'll never live that down. Luckily, my son wasn't hurt much.

Melissa, congrats on the new baby!

billocohoes said...

Anon at 8:15

No, a runner rounding third is WAVEd IN (to home) by the third-base coach.

The late coach for the SF Giants and Red Sox, Wendell Kim, was known as "Wave 'em in Wendell" because he never threw up the "Stop" sign

Tinbeni said...

Lemon: Nice write-up and informative links. Good Job!

Bruce: Thank You for a FUN (but tough) Friday puzzle that I solved in "Slog-Time."

Since I've done consulting with them, ERNST & Young was a gimmi.

Fave today was that "Part of a chain" ... ISLE. Hand-up for first wanting link.

Write-over at TCM before TMC. Plus I had quite-a-few WAGs (Wild-Ass-Guesses) that worked out.

Melissa, congrats of Jaelyn's arrival yesterday.

Cheers!

desper-otto said...

Thanks for the link, Lemon. It's a catchy song, just 3-1/2 minutes too long.

Yellowrocks said...

Cute puzzle. Olsen's catch phrase, COME ON DOWN, on the Price Is Right has become a tradition on that show and is continued today by new announcers as each contestant is called to perform.
Billocohoes, I agree that a base runner is waved IN at home.
BLEH reminds me of the Snoopy cartoons, although they spell it BLEAH
Snoopy
Congrats to Grandma Melissa. Welcome to the Grandma Club, one of the most treasured roles we can have.
Irish Miss, I sympathize. Those night cramps are horrible.

Bruce Haight said...

Great write-up Lemonade! I was quite surprised that Rich accepted this 14x16 odd grid. Too bad the circles don't show on some of the online formats- that would make figuring out the theme pretty much impossible I would say! My wife and I are huge VOICE fans so happy to work ADAM Levine in there! Bruce Haight

PK said...

Irish Miss: I had a restless night too with weird dreams. I think I watched too much Olympics. The most memorable part of the dream was Usain Bolt deciding to run in EVERY race starting with one of the women's races. They were all lined up and the announcer kept using the PA system to ask him to step out of the blocks because he hadn't registered for that race. How crazy is that?

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning!

I did well today with no idea why because this is my first puzzle this week. That usually does not bode well for a Friday. Thanks, Bruce. AND thanks for stopping by.

Thanks, Lemonade, for the tour and trying to assuage Barry. Nice links again.

Have a good day, everyone. Stay well. Congrats, Melissa.

Tinbeni said...

Just curious ...

Was this puzzle approved by the NASSA ???
(North American Stone Skipping Association)

Sailor said...

I agree with Lemonade that 10D (Safe to put away = EDIBLE) is the best clue in this puzzle. Made me smile.

OTOH, 28A (Cold weather word = TEENS) qualifies as a finalist in the "worst clue ever" event.

Lemonade714 said...

Tin I always thought it was ASSA, with the motto, "Don't be an ass join assa!"

Bruce, thank you for stopping by

Husker Gary said...

ELMIRA/OBEAH/FNMA along with cluing for ENVY, EPI and ABEL made for a slow go on the bottom in Bruce’s great Friday offering. Seeing BIRTH and FIELD made me think DAY as a theme element at first.

Musings
-Lemon’s summative paragraph works for me
-Lemon, I think your movie had a container hidden in a FIELDSTONE fence
-SKIPPING STONES made me think of a fun Elton John song named…
-No ULTERIOR MOTIVE
-There are some American swimmers today who are in trouble for making FALSE CHARGES
-We will soon be hearing this seasonal ear-worm song (3:11) featuring Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the CRYPT Kickers
-Anyone who WIELDS a wood-splitting MAUL is warmed twice by that wood
-Maroon 5 is fine and it features a family friend, James Valentine, from Lincoln but I would have preferred listening to the Marty Robbins’ EL PASO from the preceding clue
-BANKERS around here can be made nervous by bumper crops driving down prices while other expenses continue to rise
-It would be interesting to explore why CHILE is so long (2,700 mi) and narrow (217 mi). Hey, I’m retired…
-Welcome to the ranks of grandparenthood, Melissa, with such a lovely baby

Bruce Haight said...

My clue for TEENS was "Cold forecast", but Rich decided to toughen it up a little. He had the idea to link ATE and EDIBLE, which was a pro touch. I apologize for BLEH and EWW in the same puzzle, but I admit that I am drawn to terms with an "eye dialect" spelling like YECCH and ARRGH ! Bruce Haight

Lucina said...

An easy sashay today until I hit the SW and took a long time to suss. Finally, I erased everything but STONES and started over. The problem: I had TCM instead of TMC (Turner Movie Classics. AMC hasn't been a movie channel for years, BTW.

EPIcenter brought on a V-8 dent!

Agreed that EDIBLE had a great clue, TEENS did not.

Congratulations, Melissa and family on the new addition!

Thank you, Bruce and Lemonade for fun Friday.

Have an excellent day, everyone!

Argyle said...

I.m busy right now; can someone link the clip of skipping a stone on a frozen lake?

oc4beach said...


Definitely a Friday puzzle from Bruce. Good one. I used the Mensa site so I didn't have the circles. When the reveal clue came up I opened the LATimes site and tried to see where the circles were, but it was too much trouble and I didn't want to solve it on the LATimes site, so I didn't try to figure it out.

I used Red Letters today so I consider this a DNF even though I ultimately filled in all of the letters. There were a couple of WAGs with the YUCK clues and I wanted STURGEON ROE but it didn't fit. Since I had the S with perps I decided SALMON was the right entry. When I was a kid, we used SALMON (EGGS) ROE as bait for trout fishing.

Thanks to everyone for all of the kind words yesterday on my DW's surgery and recovery.

Have a great day all.

C6D6 Peg said...

Really loved this puzzle by Bruce. Got LIME and MOON and then FIELD and couldn't figure out how they all were linked, until I got the STONES, and then the light came on. Tough job to get the phrases with the letters of each stone in the right place. Great job, Bruce!

Thanks, Lemonade, for the tour.

Have a happy weekend to all!

Anonymous said...

Lucina said, "AMC hasn't been a movie channel for years, BTW."

The movie Outrageous Fortune with Bette Midler and Shelley Long is airing on AMC right now. Animal House is on next, followed by Footloose. Then it's The Breakfast Club, followed by Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Yellowrocks said...

Those of us in the wintry NE should have had no problem with the TEENS forecast. The T---- clearly suggested it. I can see how you in the warmer climes would not tumble to it.
EWW and BLEH seem common enough to me, not at all starnge.
EWW

Lucina said...

Ok. I stand corrected though it seems to me every time I try AMC something else is showing besides movies. Maybe it's the timing.

Jerome said...

President James Monroe was a pretty solid guy, but there was always something fishy about his twin brother, SAL MONROE

CrossEyedDave said...

Don't skip stones while tripping...

CrossEyedDave said...

DNF,

I would have had to be locked up on a 4 hour plane flight to finish this one
without peeking at the answers. Which is a shame, because it would have been fun
to pick out all those stones if I had an inkling as to what was going on...

Intrigued by how the chevron gears work, I went looking for a video,
but got sidetracked by this paradox...

Here is the paradoxical gear explanation?

Congrats Melissa!

Hmm,is this good enough reason to go looking for a cake?

Argent said...

It took me a bit to figure out what LIME and BIRTH could have in common! But circle clues are rarely helpful to me anyway. Thank you to Bruce for the unusual puzzle and to Lemonade714 for the informative walkthrough. The sidebars regarding car radios and André Citroën were very interesting! I'm not so sure I should thank him for the earworm, though ... Favorite clue: Sound Often Not Heard = PEEP.

I know I shouldn't feed the troll, but here's hoping that Anon at 8:15's mood improves. If I'd never heard of Terri Clark or Johnny Olson, I'd look them up rather than complain others are better informed than I. Yes, humans do invent the spelling of onomatopoeic words - how else would they get written down? My other half is in the music industry, and the only musicians who play an "axe" are guitarists and sometimes saxophonists. I was more peeved about the MEN-only part of that clue :)

Jayce said...

Whew, this puzzle made me think! Very enjoyable. I surprised myself for knowing MINAJ but was not surprised to know ERNST and CHILE. We have several earthquake monitors in Chile, and our dentist is from there.

The 14 by 16 grid size has revealed a flaw in the new LA Times on-line format. The format FRAME is exactly 15 by 15; for this grid either the top or bottom row could not be seen, i.e you could not see both the top and bottom rows at once. It required moving, or scrolling, the puzzle up and down within the "window" in order to solve it. This is another reason I have found this "upgrade," like so many in the software world, not to be an improvement.

I don't think briefly explaining what OBEAH is would be a violation of this blog's No Religion clause, no more than stating, for example, that Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president would violate the No Politics clause.

Big squishy congratulations to you and your progeny, Melissa, and best wishes to you all.

AnonymousPVX said...

Super crunchy Friday puzzle. I didn't think I'd finish it - I did - because I had plumbers in yesterday. They started at 3:30 PM and left at midnight. Had my hot water heater - a new one from GE replaced for free because the 6 year old one leaked - installed and also had all the PLASTIC shut off valves replaced with all metal quarter turn valves, 11 of them. Plastic and plumbing don't mix.

So I'm tired.

CrossEyedDave said...

Australia has Axe Women?

Misty said...

Well, a Friday toughie coming at the end of what has been a tough--but still very enjoyable--week for me. I actually got the reveal and most of the STONES pretty early on. But there were just so many unknowns (MINAJ, TERRI, Johnny Olson, Citroen, among others). On the other hand, TEENS as a winter term ("the temperature tomorrow will be in the TEENS")seemed completely logical to me. In the end I had to cheat only on a few items, and did have fun solving what I could. So, many thanks, Bruce--and especially for stopping in. And Lemonade, thanks for the encyclopedic info on all those stones.

Congratulations, Melissa!

So sorry to hear about the discomfort and nightmare, Irish Miss. Hope you have sweet dreams tonight, and not scary ones.

Desper-otto, I too don't quite get that Chase commercial with the music and the little white pig. The pig is a sweetie, but I can't imagine my Chase bank letting me bring my dachshund in with me, let alone a piggy.

Have a great day, everybody!

CrossEyedDave said...

Hmm, Axe Women seem to be a World Wide Phenomenon...

Spitzboov said...

Good afternoon everyone.

Tough one today but steady plodding got it done. Only 3 squares of white-out needed. Glad we had ASADO the other day. That helped. The STONES theme helped with the long fill. Thought the SE corner was very cleverly done. Can't help but wonder that judicious test solving helped ratchet up the tightness of the puzzle. Somehow remembered DAI from many years ago.
CHILE - L = 12W. Always learn something here. Norway w/ 6 letters wouldn't fit.

Congrats to Melissa on grandmotherhood.

I see the Bills are renaming their stadium to New Era Field. New Era made tons of ball caps for Navy crews back in the day. Plant located in Derby, WNY, between Eden where we used to live, and L. Erie. More grist for the puzzle makers.

Boo LuQuette AKA Boudreaux in Eunice, La. said...

I interpreted skipping stones as the letters are skipped inbetween the first words as in LIME FIELD BIRTH ETC. Red letter finish again.


Sun if finally out but the rain is still here at times. My rain gauge had 4 inches in the last 3 days.

Swampcat yes I am fine here but the towns south are still under water. All of southwest Louisiana is under water. !!!

Vendredi Enfin !!! Plus Tard from Cajun Country !!!!

Ol' Man Keith said...

Music? I think not. I appreciate Lemonade's instructive link, helping to educate those of us who weren't familiar with Niki Minaj's output. But I hope I am not too much the ol' geezer in suggesting that not all arrangements of sounds and sexual vulgarisms add up to "music." The selection is funny, clever, professionally edited, and undoubtedly a successful accompaniment to many parties, dances, and teen fantasies. I wish Ms. Minaj well and the full enjoyment of her millions. I would reserve the honorific "music," however, for slightly more complex and aurally adventurous compositions.
Just sayin'.
The theme came through nicely and certainly helped me finish today. At first scan, this looked nearly impossible, but with a lotta WAGs and one lookup to unlock a sector (for ANDRE) it all came clear. The only fill that stalled me for a bit was 51D "Zero." I couldn't "see" AUGHT for a while, even after AUG__.
But then, I did.
A hearty welcome to the new grandchild, Jaelyn! - and congrats to Melissa!

Anonymous said...

@Husker Gary: maybe the Andes Mountains have something to do with it... ;-)

Tinbeni said...

Whenever a baby is born, they (whoever "they" are) always tell you the baby's weight and length.

Soooooooo ...

Yesterday, beautiful Jaelyn arrived.
"She was 6 pounds 13 ounces, 20.25 inches long"

Is there a "minimum length" they have to be ... to be a "keeper" ???

(I know if I catch a Grouper, and it is not 24" ... I have to "throw it back")

OwenKL said...

Anon@8:15 -- Had you identified yourself, I would be more amiable in this response.

EWW & BLEH -- your exposure to literature is obviously snobbish and fragmentary. While hoity-toity highbrow stuff may not include such onomatopoeia, comic books, manga, and comic strips use it all the time, as Batman satirized on TV.

Tin: NASSA is real?!

TEENS: cold in both Celsius and Fahrenheit. Now THIRTIES that would have been unfair!

Anonymous T said...

W-CED-Said! Lock me out of the Interwebs for 4 hours and maybe, just maybe...

I ended up w/ 5 lookups and still ATE-it (DNF; I wasn't going for 6!) w/ the LIRR xing TERRI, never getting ERMA, and other blemishes.

Thanks Bruce for a puzzle I'm glad I didn't SKIP (learning day!). Thanks LEM for the expo.

WOs - I won't get into all of them, but SLEET was right out.

Fav: c/a for 56d. Theme was cool too.

{A, B-, B-, A}

Congrats to the new Nana! [what will be your nick-name Melissa?]

PK - Before pelting your son, you forgot to say, "Here, hold my beer." :-)

Gotta run, hope to play later.

Cheers, -T

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Couldn't finish today. Looked up the lovely Ms. Clark to finish it off, which got me to fix DASH RADIO. I am surprised that FM was that old. I do remember that the government forced radio manufacturers to include FM on all new radios sometime in the 60s. It was legal to make FM-only radios, but not AM-only. I think they did something similar with UHF TV equipment later, but I don't remember the details.

Bill G. said...

An an ex classical-style guitar player and music fogy, I've got to agree with Keith. The female guitar shredders were attractive to look at and were maybe skillful players too but I couldn't tell. They were doing something that doesn't seem like playing music to me. I will agree about their talent when they can make sounds come out of their instruments like Chet Atkins or Andre Segovia could. (Conversely, I'm sure Atkins could mimic their shredding sounds though maybe not Segovia.) :>)

Tinbeni said...

OwenKL @ 4:40 pm

NASSA is indeed very real.

There are things I might exaggerate about ... but when it comes to the
North American Stone Skipping Association ... we're talking Whole Cloth.

... I'm still wondering ...
It the baby was only 16" ... do you have to put it back in ????

Ahh, it is going to be a beautiful Sunset.
Time for toasting ... the first one is to Jaelyn!
Cheers!

Yellowrocks said...

Didn't we just mention the house used for the Brady Bunch TV show?
Brady Bunch house

Argent said...

I'm always so happy when I discover new music, so I'm glad to pass the following along to Bill G. and Ol' Man Keith.

For the Chet Atkins fans among us, I think you' might like female guitarist Muriel Anderson (who incidentally was invited to play at the Chet Atkins memorial concert):

For those of us who are Segovia fans, here are a few more female guitarists not from the world of shredding rockers. I hope you find something you enjoy.

Sharon Isben

Karin Schaupp

Ana Vidovic

Lemonade714 said...

Bruce what I love about blogging these Friday puzzles is getting a sense of what each constructor falls back on to fill a grid. I appreciate you sharing of your personal touches.

Anonymous said...

" If certain foods trigger strange dreams, (as some believe) ..."

This was a common belief in Victorian times. Hence Dickens ' Scrooge says to the ghost of Marley:

“You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!”

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks to Bruce and Lemonade.

Did this after I finally re-installed the OS and got the computer running!

Congrats to mb!

Feel better, Agnes!

Cheers!

Picard said...

Glad I did not try to figure out the circles this time! (No circles in my puzzle). Those are tricky connections to the theme. And they are not adjacent blocks. Fortunately, solving without circles was OK.

Hand up for thinking Brer Rabbit for BRIAR PATCH. Never heard it anywhere else!

Struggled with OBEAH/ELMIRA Natick, but I did WAG it correctly.

Likewise struggled with MAUL/MINAJ crossing.

Agree with Anonymous that BLEH/AUGHT crossing not very fair. I have never seen BLEH before.

Abejo said...

Good Saturday afternoon, folks. Thank you, Bruce Haight, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, for a fine review.

Congrats, Melissa Bee, on your brand new grand child. May you have many more.

Puzzle was double tough. I worked on it Friday and also this morning. Finally finished this afternoon.

Really liked the theme. Great job!

My newspaper looks like a giant inkblot I made so many changes as I worked through it. Too many tough words to list them all. Since I am a day late reporting, I am sure no one will read this anyway. It was a fun puzzle, however. When you complete a tough one, it make it more fun, indeed!

See you later today with Saturday's puzzle, maybe.

Abejo

( )

Wilbur Charles said...

I have found that a banana a day keeps the cramps away. I get them at Wawa for .49.

As an ex Nashuan "Teens" is a common weather word.

I wanted ADE for a 3ltr thirst quencher but couldn't make head or tail of Nicki nor the Carne thingey. Finally got ISLE while driving.

Lemony, that's a great write up and excellent puzzle. The long crosses were gettable which helped. Jaelyn is a very pretty name which Google just tried to change to Marilyn.

Oh. And of course, Owen. Most amusing and entertaining.

Oh. In the SW I thought Bruce had been thinking of our Abejo as I had JUMP for ASAP.
GUR