google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, September 2, 2016, Mark Feldman

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Sep 2, 2016

Friday, September 2, 2016, Mark Feldman

Title: A spoonful of spoonerisms.

Mark Feldman returns to the LAT for his 10th puzzle and first since 2014. He also has 11 NYTs published but has been away there also. Mark gives us a classic puzzle to make you laugh taking two word phrases and reversing their beginnings to be clued with wit. If you are unfamiliar with Spoonerism, wiki says it is  an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis) between two words in a phrase. An example is saying "The Lord is a shoving leopard" instead of "The Lord is a loving shepherd." In addition to laughs, Mark includes OCTAVOS,  SKI POLE, LITHELY,  PLIABLE,  ICE BAGS, DISCERN, LIPSYNC, TORTILLAS and NEED A HAND as sparkly fill.

17A. Politically active fowl? : TRUMP DUCK (9). Dump Truck. Made me think of Donald Duck, but we make no political comments.

28A. Clever insect? : CUNNING ROACH (12). Running Coach. Made me thing of my old linguistics teacher but we make no obscene comments.

45A. Embarrassed avian? : BLUSHING CROW (12). Crushing blow. Made me think of Jon Snow, but he is everywhere these days.

59A. Street-wise amphibian? : ROUGH TOAD (9). Tough Road. Made me think of wild ride but on with the show.
And the reveal,
66A. Oxford don associated with slips similar to 17-, 28-, 45-, and 59-Across : SPOONER. The MAN.

Across:

1. Books in which each sheet of paper is folded into eight leaves : OCTAVOS. Latin for 8.

8. Factions : SECTS.

13. See 2-Down : TORTILLAS. 2D. With 13-Across, Mexican restaurant choices : CORN. When I was young and first exposed to Mexican food in New England, corn tortillas were the only choice. They were crunchy and messy- great for a kid.

16. Not likely to miss much : ALERT.

18. Eyelashes : CILIA. The Latin plural of cilium- 1. the eyelids or eyelashes.
2. small, hairlike processes projecting from epithelial cells on the outer surfaces of some cells, aiding metabolism by producing motion, eddies, or current in a fluid. In the lung, cilia wave mucus, pus, and dust upward. In the Fallopian Tube, they are an integral part of getting pregnant.

19. "A Chorus Line" number : ONE. The Finale.

20. Goddess with a throne headdress : ISIS.
22. Become clear : JELL. Thoughts can jell. They also can be discarded. 57A. Get rid of : SCRAP.

23. Flair : ELAN.

26. Easily bent : PLIABLE.  My latest mental picture...

32. Comfortable with : USED TO.

33. Dresden's river : ELBE.

34. Takes in : HAS.

37. Big hit : SMASH. Broadway.

38. Subside, with "down" : DIE.

39. Doozy : BEAUT.

41. Loan fig. : PCT. Percent.

42. "The Little Mermaid" prince : ERIC.

                                                                        The Story

44. The kiwi is the smallest one : RATITE. Any of the mostly large birds with a flat breastbone without a keel, therefore unable to fly, i.e., the ostrich, rhea, emu, cassowary, and kiwi, together with the extinct moa and elephant bird.

47. Fake it, in a way : LIPSYNC. I really like seeing this Friday worthy fill.

50. Pageant accessory : SASH. I have had this and Obi very often this year.

51. Sandy's home : UTAH. I had/have no idea; there is a Sandy City Utah? Not the dog....

52. Puts in place : SETS. Like a dinner table.

54. Achievement of many a CEO : MBA.

63. Birch of "American Beauty" : THORA. Birch was born in Los Angeles, the eldest child of Jack Birch and Carol Connors. Her parents, who have been her business managers throughout her acting career, are former adult film actors; both appeared in the film Deep Throat.

64. Require help : NEED A HAND.

65. Slender woman : SYLPH. Another wonderful word. One would move 24D. In a supple manner : LITHELY. Which is related to pliable; a mini-theme?


Down:

1. Anne Frank's father : OTTO. Somehow I remembered his NAME.

3. Loyal : TRUE. Be true to your love.

4. 20s dispenser : ATM.

5. Bigwig : VIP.

6. Dated : OLD.

7. Swinging about : SLUING. Not high on my list: verb (used with object), slued, sluing. 1. to turn (a mast or other spar) around on its own axis, or without removing it from its place. 2.to swing around.
verb (used without object), slued, sluing. 3. to turn about; swing around.

8. __ fly: productive MLB out : SACrifice.

9. Hebrew prophet : ELIJAH. A most important PROPHET.

10. Star : CELEB.

11. Operatic vocal effect : TRILL. When he retired in 2012, Bass Paul Plishka said, he could not do it any more. "The trill is gone."

12. Dated : STALE. Liker some humor!

14. Coolers, briefly : ACS.

15. Balancing aid on the slopes : SKI POLE. They never helped me to balance, but I was never a great skier like marti.

21. Piece at the butcher shop : SLAB. The sound is almost enough to make one a vegetarian.

23. Goals : ENDS.

25. Mayo is in it : ANO. The old Spanish pun- May is a month in the Year.

27. Swell applications : ICE BAGS. Swell literally, not like Archie.

28. Edge : CUSP.

29. Letters at N.C.'s Camp Lejeune : USMC.

30. Drink order : NEAT. Tinbeni CSO!

31. Clinton's first Labor secretary : REICH. A very interesting MAN, only 4'11."

34. Locks often gray : HAIR.

35. Aries or Taurus : AUTO.The K Car is long gone, but Ford Taurus is back.

36. Brood : STEW.

38. Make out : DISCERN. Simple, but took me a very long time to discern.

40. Make an impression : ETCH. Again, deception with a literal clue.

43. Hose problems : RUNS. Yes, White Sox cannot get enough runs this year, unlike their Boston counterparts. LINK. Or for Splynter

44. Stranded messenger : RNA.

45. C equivalent : B SHARP. I let those who speak music explain, I cannot.

46. Time units : ISSUES. The magazine, silly.

47. Hungers (for) : LUSTS.

48. Raring to go : ITCHY.

49. Given orally, as evidence : PAROL.

53. Golf club part : TOE.

54. Complain : MOAN. Stop your moaning and groaning; I guess more appropriate than any other definition. I have an acquaintance who made a living moaning for  porn movies.

55. Thorn in one's side : BANE.

56. Dely. destination : ADDRess.

58. Half a tuba sound : PAH. really, isn't it 1/3- oom pah pah?

60. Econ. yardstick : GDP. D or N? Domestic or national.

61. One-tenth of a Vietnamese dong, formerly : HAO. A very obscure clue, even with the formerly hint. A Vietnamese currency previously issued by the Vietnam National Bank. The hao, or hào, is one-tenth of a Vietnamese dong and can be subdivided into 10 xu. Neither the xu or the hao are currently in use in Vietnam.

62. E'en if : THO.

A slightly abridged version as I recover from a summer cold. Which is great because all of you can practice making comments on what I left out and linking all kinds of exciting stuff. Welcome back Mark and enjoy September; Lemonade out.

46 comments:

OwenKL said...

DNF. Avoided reading the reveal as long as I could, but fizzed out with SW, SE, and center E mostly blank. Once I read the reveal, it helped me with the two blocks to the east, but there was no theme entry in the SW, so that still killed me. It didn't help that I had nYmPH instead of SYLPH (which I would have sworn was spelt SLYPH anyway). Once reds told me nYmPH was wrong, I filled in most of the remaining, but PAR*L + TH*RA was completely unknown, so I just plugged in E, A, I, O until I got the ta-da.

{C, C-, C+.}

Making a taco needs a casing that's PLIABLE.
CORN TORTILLAS are usually quite reliable.
To fill them tightly,
Fold them LITHELY,
But eating them NEAT is hopelessly maniacal!

Some claim that poetry is OLD and is STALE,
Writing it today is to no avail!
And maybe that's right
But there's still some delight
In a line that rhymes at the poem's "tail"!

A meeting was called with a CROW and a DUCK.
The CROW had a worthy caws to discuss!
The DUCK thought it miscues,
Preferred ducking the ISSUES.
The RATITE ran around, giving quiet kiwi klucks!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Almost got through this one unscathed, but a stupid typo kept me from getting the *TADA* at the end.

Love SPOONERISMS, so the theme was a delight (once I figured it out, that is). "Running Coach" isn't nearly as common a phrase as the rest, which explains why it was the last one I got. But they were all good.

Had to guess on Prince ERIC and it took awhile to remember REICH and SYLPH, but nothing too bad. Sadly, I did not know HAO and that's where my typo came into play. ROUGTTOAD gave me TAO, which looked reasonable enough that I didn't notice my error. Oops.

Big Easy said...

"ONE is the loneliest number" (Three Dog Night) is a song I'm Familiar with but 'A Chorus Line' is a show I don't know. And after almost completing this Buddy Hackett puzzle I feel that I won't be lonely in that respect. I blew it at the cross of PAROL and THORA; 'Deep Throat'? Did she study her parents' movies? A,E,I,O,U & sometimes Y- one out of six odds and I picked the wrong one. I also filled TELL for 'Become clear' and didn't bother to cross check the perp-ELIJAH.

Dely. Destination- I thought 'Dely.' was a misprint when I saw it.

Lemonade- B-SHARP- there is not a black key on the piano to the right of B or E, which makes a C B-SHARP or an F E-SHARP. Your 'oom pah pah' is only true for 3/4 time, also know as a waltz. 'Oom PAH in 2/4 or 4/4 time.

OTTO and OCTAVOS were unknowns but they made their way in after the SOFT TORTILLAS changed to CORN.

HAO- I doubt Mr. Feldman knew that one. I guess he NEEDed A HAND Tto finish constructing. I have three Vietnamese friends with the name HA, two unrelated women and Ba HA's last name.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Gotta love a puzzle that begins with a SO at 1d. This one was smooth as a well-boiled icicle. Thanx Mark, and Lemon, too, for the well-researched post.

SLUING: Tower cranes are parked in sluing mode -- the swing brake is not set -- when not in use. This allows the crane to act like a wind vane. Safer that way.

THORA Birch: I remember her as Jack Ryan's (Harrison Ford's) and Anne Archer's daughter in Patriot Games and again in Clear and Present Danger.

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. Funny puzzle. I got the BLUSHING CROW before I arrived at finding William Archibald SPOONER (1844 ~ 1930). Still, this was a good challenging puzzle for a Friday.

I learned that Goals are not Aims, but ENDS. I also wanted ICE PACK before settling on the ICE BAGS.

Apparently SANDY is a suburb of Salt Lake City, UTAH. You wouldn't know if from its website, however.

Tinbini, even though we had ICE in the puzzle, we also had NEAT drinks! Hope you didn't get too much rain from Hermine.

QOD: After three failed marriages, I know what it’s like to be replaced. ~ Terry Bradshaw (b. Sept. 2, 1948)

desper-otto said...

Oops, forgot to mention...

SYLPH: This was a gimme from the tongue-twister of my ute: The slim sylph slowly sipped Schlitz. (Try it three times fast.)

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning,

Speedy check as I am off to tackle the day. Well done, Matt. I knew a lot, but also learned a lot today. That makes for a nice challenge.

Thanks, Lemonade, for the explications--a number of which I really needed. Thanks for linking ONE!

Have a good day.

Anonymous said...

"Given orally, as evidence : PAROL"

Makes it easy to skip breakfast.

Anonymous said...

WBES: What a lame abbr. for "delivery" is "dely."! How 'bout "deliv."? Or just "del."?

And what kind of clue for HAIR is "locks often gray"? Why not just "locks"?

CORN TORTILLA is redundant. A tortilla by definition is made of corn meal. Only when it is made of another grain is an adjective needed – e.g., "wheat tortilla."

Not only are C a B-SHARP and F an E-SHARP, but also B is a C-flat and E is an F-flat.

The city in UTAH is Sandy, not Sandy City.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe we're foonsped this drivel every Friday.

Betsey C. said...

Great puzzle! I am a fan of Rev. Spooner, so I was excited to see this theme. Thanks, Mr. Feldman, or should I say "Three cheers for our queer old dean!"

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Fun and fresh offering today (IMHO, others may disagree, of course 😈). I caught the theme early on which helped with the solve but there were still enough challenges to keep me on my toes. As Lemony pointed out, some of the fill was sparkling. I'm sure we've probably had a Spoonerism puzzle before, but I don't remember one which made this all the more delightful. Is there anyone who didn't immediately think of Tin at Neat? Or, for that matter, DO at Otto?

Thanks, Mark, for a rewarding romp and thanks, Lemony, for the steady guidance. The "Chorus Line" clip brought back many wonderful memories of living in Stamford and having such easy access to the Broadway shows.

I hope all those affected by Her-mine (or Her-mean) are safe and sound.

Have a great day.

Argyle said...

Sandy (officially known as Sandy City) is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. It is a suburb of Salt Lake City. The population was 87,461 at the 2010 census,[2] making it the sixth-largest city in Utah.

Lucina said...

Sparkly fill indeed! I liked this puzzle and was on Mark's wave length until the SW corner which was brutal! The unknowns THORA, PAROL and Sandy, UTAH gave me fits. After looking up THORA I was able to fill in the blanks.

I'm sorry but TORTILLAS can be either CORN or flour. They are not automatically CORN.

Of course NEAT immediately conjured up Tinbeni and OTTO, D-O.

Thank you, Mark and Lemonade.

Have a splendid day, everyone!

Yellowrocks said...

Delightful, fun puzzle. I love Spoonerisms. I started at the bottom and with no theme answers and just the S for 66A. I tried SPOONER, hoping that would be the theme. TA DA!
You can buy "corn" tortillas many places online and in supermarkets. "Corn" distinguishes them from wheat tortillas. For the same reason you can also find many recipes for making corn tortillas from scratch and for using corn tortillas in recipes.
I use ICE BAGS in bed last night for the first time in many months. I did nothing too strenuous, but my knees and shoulders ached so much I couldn't sleep. This AM I am recovering. We just need to remember the alternative to getting older. LOL.
I SCRAPped a year old very large lighted medicine cabinet this week. It had terrible hinges and the doors slipped down off the tracks. It sat in my garage for months due to my contractor's health problems. Then when he installed it he tossed the packaging before the faults were evident. No refund. It was expensive to replace, especially with the labor costs included.
I never heard of dely., all perps.

Lemonade714 said...

The official name is Sandy City not Sandy so that was the confusion for me. I understand people refer to two name cities by only one part (e.g. I am going to drive to Boca to the mall, knowing Boca Raton is the city). Would Boca's home be sufficient for Florida? How about Pompano's home? Hmm, Pompano the fish would make that really tricky.

TORTILLA is a Spanish word that means "little cake." While the suggestion that corn was the original meal used, the fact remains that now it is but one the choices available in a Mexican restaurant. I am asked every time I go to Azteca whether I want corn or flour. In context, there never was the use of "corn tortilla" in the clue.

Since "locks" has many meanings, the use of gray made the fill much easier.

While you all may hate it DELY. is in the dictionary.

Foonsped is very funny, but it is more pap than drivel.

Tinbeni said...

Lemon: Good Job on the write-up. Mark: Thank You for a FUN Friday puzzle.

Fave today, of course, was that "Drink order" NEAT ...

I've used ICE BAGS many times over the years. You play sports, you will sprain an ankle every so often.

Lucina, glad to hear about your 5 minute "Monsoon System" yesterday.
Hahtoolah, we didn't get "Too Much Rain" from Hermine ... 18 inches is "just about perfect".
Luckily, I'm about 18 feet above the Anclote River, and the "storm-surge" here was only a couple of feet.

Villa Incognito is "High-and-Wet."
Cheers!

Jerome said...

Please, friends, if you make tacos at home don't buy those horrible, hard shells from the store. Buy some white corn tortillas and fry them lightly in hot oil. Using tongs, place half of the tortilla in the oil and cook until it starts to firm up, but not crispy. Then fry the other half while you hold the tortilla in the shape of a taco shell.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Great puzzle, Mark. Tons of deceptive and very clever clues. Had oom before PAH Used puzzle dictionary for THORA. Not familiar with Sandy UTAH. 10d Star - had DENEB before CELEB. Finally , Thanks, Mark, for including RATITE. Been waiting a long time for that. We get rheas and emus a lot but no RATITE.
SLUING - our 40mm and 5" mounts did a lot of sluing.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

Love SPOONERisms. There's a lot to love in this puzzle.

Fell into most of the common traps.

Of course I thought of Jon Snow.

PAROL was a total unknown.

I might have seen B# once or twice. You'll never see it, nor A# nor E# in jazz.

I have TOADS living under my front stoop. They do look kind of ROUGH.

Great football game last night. Stevenson got a TD with 58 seconds left to go up 24-21.

Game ended with Stevenson intercepting a Churchill pass in their own end zone.

Very exciting.

Happy weekend!
JzB

Unknown said...

Very fun puzzle. Started out tough but got easier.

The first spoonerism I remember from school: "Mardon me padom, you are occupewing my pie. May I sew you to another sheet?"

The only Sandy that came to mind was SpongeBob's squirrel friend who lives in a DOME, but the perps took care of that fill.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Hand up for trouble with Parol. Otherwise, things were familiar, though it took a few beats for Ratite to get retrieved from its deep recess. Spoonerisms are certainly fun - my mom taught me that "Mardon me, padam..." version when I was little.

Howdy Lemon, thanks for the currency clarification. That short answer was all perps.

Yellowrocks said...

I found the following interesting. From Merriam Webster, regarding PAROL:

Since the 18th century, parol has been pretty much confined to oral contracts and the realm of law. No longer is anyone likely to refer to the "sweet parols" of a paramour, as in one 16th-century work. Parol brings to mind that other legal word, parole. Both words lack any connection with law in their original form. They come from Latin parabola, which means "parable" or "speech." The Latin, in turn, is from Greek parabole, meaning "comparison." The French created two words (which we then borrowed) from parabola: parol, meaning "spoken words," and parole, for "word of honor." Originally, a parole was a prisoner of war's promise to fulfill certain conditions on consideration of his release.

Jayce said...

Fun spoonerisms but a very hard puzzle otherwise. I learned some useful as well as useless information; for example I've already forgotten what that old unit of Vietnamese currency is.

I don't get why you, Lemonade and Jazzb, thought of Jon Snow. What does he have to do with crushing blow, or, for that matter, blushing crow?

Mayo and ANO completely went over my head. I get it now.

I can't decide if I like or dislike this puzzle. I guess I like some of it, and some of it just left me cold, such as Dely.

Wishes for safety to you all.

TX Ms said...

Lemon - thanks so much for the Sophie Dossi clip - I was amazed! Had to google other clips. She's only 14 years old. Since I've never watched AGT, did she "win" or whatever the term is? Thanks!

Apples said...

56d - What's a Dely.

AnonymousPVX said...

After some tough early week puzzles this one came together rather easily for me. I had the same reaction to "Dely" but as posted above is a valid abbr.
And so Saturday awaits.

Spitzboov said...

Apples - I took Dely. to mean Delivery to go with address.

Lucina said...

Jerome:
Thank you for that advice about making tacos. Everyone in my family makes them that way; they wouldn't dream of buying preformed shells which are tasteless and break on first contact. Hmmm. That reminds me . . .

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Refusing to waste these perfect golf days I worked this fun puzzle late.
-Me too, Lemon!
-I scrolled quickly to the grid to see I guessed wrong on TH_RA/PAR_L (kinda crowded in the SS Natick)
-I conjured up that obscenity as well, Lemon
-Folded paper was not ORIGMAI, which fit, and I had no idea on OCTAVOS
-We have to be ALERT for when neighbor’s huge dog bolts through his invisible fence while Lily is out
-Silly USED TO song (1:59)
-We took our young girls to SMASH Chorus Line at the Shubert Theater with the number One. Only later did we discover some of the play’s lyrics. Oh well, the girls turned out fine! ☺
-LYPSYNC is usually superior to Karaoke
-We had a reading recently with ELIJA and ELISHA. Don’t remember or care a whit about it
-We used to sing of “the mockingbird’s TRILL” in my yute
-Mayo is a big part of our BLT around here and not our ANO
-Dead tree subscription trends

Misty said...

Well, a Friday toughie, but a lot of fun--many thanks, Mark. Fortunately, I got CUNNING ROACH early on, which clued me into the theme, so that helped a lot. And in the end I cheated only once, looking up THORA, which helped me get that tricky Southwest corner. Only afterwards I realized I'd put LIGHTLY instead of LITHELY, so that messed up the middle west a little too. But no matter, it was still a lot of fun to do this puzzle, and thanks for the helpful explanations, Lemonade.

Also, thanks for explaining PAROL, Yellowrocks--never heard of it before.

Have a great Friday, everybody, and a good weekend coming up.

Yellowrocks said...

Dead tress? I subscribe to the online Washington Post. It will not load today so the online one is also dead.

Unknown said...

the intersection of PAROL and Thora was impossible especially with Sandy...unless you lived there. So the southwest corner was nearly impossible even when I iMB'd American Beauty. Great web site for faded celebs and obscure movie references. Seldom even try Saturday's but I am getting better on Fridays except for proper nouns and SLC suburbs !

Anonymous T said...

What-OKL-Said w/o the {A+ (COL*), B+, C+}.

3 cheats to get started in three corners (folios fits w/ 2 "L"s! Franz doesn't - 1st cheat) and still FIW - SW was the BANE of my final puzzling. I Longs for a Friday win...

Overall a learning day. Thanks Mark for the effort & challenge but you're above my pay-grade. Lem - good expo and thanks for the ansy. [see 56d]

WEES - SW was a bugger - LongS @47d didn't help a lick.

Other WOs: saw for 6d, sign @35d, dent @40d. I finally cheated on 44a to DISCERN that mess. 54a - MnA - Mergers & Acquisitions was what I was thinkin'. Anyone else spell ELIzIA? [that's how I hear it anyway...]. Hand up too for BLT!

Near fav: 44d - I thought the clue original.

Fav: 39a - I can link Bob & Doug & Rush doin' Take Off. A BEAUT(eh?) Way to Go...

Re: SPOONERisms: I've heard of 'me but didn't realize the exact word-play nor that it was a person.... Maybe my dyslexia extends auditorially too :-)

DO - SO you you! And, @6:58, I don't think I cant say that 1x slowly. I think it's a beer that rhymes with and tastes like...

@8:55 Anon - On a Friday, I agree. Locks is enough for HAIR. That clue made me over-think it. I knew HAIR was wrong until it wasn't. I'm gonna blame Rich :-)

Just for BigE - Three Dog Night singin' about ONE.

Tin - glad to hear all is right in your world.

Cheers, -T
*Chuckle Out Loud - #1 was cute+1

Credit Where Due said...

The writer never seems to get credit. One was a product of Harry Nilsson

Jerome said...

Lucina- One of my sisters lives in a small North Dakota town. I gave her my taco recipe over the phone a few months ago. A week later she calls back and says she had to make a two hour round trip to another town to find any kind of corn tortilla. Mexican food in the western states is a part of most people's lives so at first I was flabbergasted when she told me this. But I get it, it's not the west. At any rate, we now have a convert. And at least she won't be making tacos with lefsa stuffed with lutefisk.

Lemonade714 said...

AGT went on break for the Olympics so the finals are 2 weeks away, but Sophie was in the running.

In GOT Jon Snow was referred to as a crow. R-rated CLIP

The lyrics to One A Singular Sensation were written by EDWARD KLEBAN

Jerome said...

After thinking about it for a little bit I should clarify my love of Mexican food. My biggest worries are not health care, jobs, peace, or any of those critical things that really matter in my life. My biggest fear is that if things keep going the way they have, we'll have a taco truck on every corner.

Wilbur Charles said...

I had 1/2 (top) done relatively quickly but faced a sea of white down below. The cross of LYPSYNC and DISCERN led to an unlikely 100% finish which is making me very CHESTY.

Karl SPOONER was a Brooklyn Dodger phenom who hurt his arm and faded quickly. "Boys of Summer" chronicled his fate.

Jayce, piasters was the Vietnamese currency.

Ah, Lejeune and Camp Geiger and Surf city. Splynter, I might have been one of the few to be sent to Nam for my own protection. Thank God for Bill W.

Nothing like a slog through a hopeless puzzle and suddenly, fini!

Lemony, nice write-up, Mark: how about Provo next time. But the perps were there to be found. Owen, imagination Always rates an A for you.

Anonymous T said...

I just had the greatest trip to the pharmacy (Eldest needed Benadryl), like, ever...

Let me preface... I live in a very affluent area - crime around here is someone 'sketchy' (read a loud teen after 10p) in the 'hood.

1. Imagine a 6'+ muscular tat'd guy w/ his 5'nothing spouse (they're in their 40s I think). She's looking for ephedrine for her allergies. As I walk by TAT's explaining to her you can't get ephedrine OTC any longer. I quip "'cuz you can make meth out of it." He's faster in his response... "at 26 bucks a box, it's cheaper on the street."
I almost lose it.

2. At checkout w/ 20yro kid: Big hand-written sign taped above the payment keypad: "No Cash Back."
I go through all the motions to pay; I think I'm done. The kid tells me,
"It's asking if you want cash back."
I say, "But the sign says "No" in the 1st place..."
"Yeah, we put that up 'cuz we don't have that much in the register at night."
Me: "So,... my stick-up would be pointless?"
That took the the kid a second...

3. On the way home - A huge owl near the curb having a squirrel snack. That was awesome! I slowed down to see. The owl glances at my car with a look like "do you mind?"

I only had to pay $8 for that kinda entertainment!

Anyone from Tallahassee here? I can't get in touch w/ my Alfa buddy there. All good?

Cheers, -T

CrossEyedDave said...

Spoonerisms ?

With all this cutlery available, you think they could make Friday's a little more interesting...

Anonymous T said...

CED - and you just top'd my day! Thanks. -T

TX Ms said...

Thanks, Lemon @ 7:25 for the Sophie update - I'll try to tune in to AGT the next two weeks. Tomorrow AM I'll tune in to Anon-T and CED's blogs post-9PM tonight. Long day.

Anonymous said...

"Sandy is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah." Not "Sandy City." Thus saith Wikipedia. And so saith Rand McNally. Who's yer "official"?

And look it up in any reputable dictionary: A TORTILLA is made of CORN meal. Random House, Collins, New Oxford American.

Argyle said...

Look again!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sandy (officially known as Sandy City) is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States.

Wilbur Charles said...

Well, I just said a whole lot and lost the whole lot. AMEN TO THAT you say?

So. I had LDL not HDL. Doctors don't like to communicate details. They do like to tell you what to do and expect you to do it.

Close enough to make my day. Nice group of lmrcks from Owen, especially the last. I have a Platonian Limerick whenever old Plato makes an appearance.

Not to speak of my old Rib Room Hotel Sonesta ditty.