Theme: None
Words: 66 (missing Q,X,Z)
Blocks: 27
This
is my first puzzle from Mark Diehl, and when I checked, his last and
only two contributions to the LA Times were both Saturday constructions,
both before my blogging time. See here and here.
With no experience to go on, I simply plugged away at any clues I might
have had a shot at. Some proper names slowed me down, and ultimately, I
had to cheat for one cel with red-letters. Dang. Big chunky corners,
two 12-letter spanners and two 10-letter climbers;
26a. Formulation in Newton's "Principia" : LAW OF GRAVITY - I knew what we were looking for, but I waited to see where the word "GRAVITY" would fall
See "The Law" @ 2:05
35a. Height is an exception to it : "I" BEFORE "E" RULE - Height, weight, eight - yeah, it's wEIrd. More of a guideline, really
15d. "Paradise Lost" style : BLANK VERSE - I did not know anything about this style; it has no rhyme, but a steady meter
21d. One whose business is growing : DIRT FARMER - I filled in
the "FARMER" part, and waited. Basically a poor farmer. We have lots
of sod farms here on L.I., and after harvest, it looks like they're in
the dirt farming business
dOwNWARD gravity~!
ACROSS:
1. Studio department : CASTING - I contemplated "COSTUME", and that would have been 100% 42% correct
8. Fills with mortar, as tile : GROUTS - don't tell me - I just finished my bathroom, which I built from the plumbing up; I happen to like tiling, as opposed to just installing a plastic surround. Here's a pic; I noticed that "Picasa" is no longer - it's all about Pinterest now
14. Invite : ASK OVER - and they consistently, politely decline....
15. Traditional slow cooker : BEAN POT
16. 1963 Best Actor : POITIER
17. '70s-'80s sitcom roommate : LAVERNE - ah, yes, the other one was Shirley - and Lenny was their friend, played by Michael McKean, who played David St. Hubbins of Spinal Tap fame
18. "By all means!" : "INDEED~!"
19. Central California county : MARIPOSA - the second half was perps, the first half a WAG about a place that I seemed to have heard of before
20. Contract details : TERMS - oops, not ITEMS
21. Slips on : DONS
22. Put down : LAID
23. Latin I word : AMO
24. Pen output : OINK - I did not know which "pen" this was; the writer's ( BOOK, e.g. ) or the farm one; it was the latter
25. __ warning : EARLY - I had -A-L- and thought it was "FALSE" - but FASLE looked wrong....
30. Jokingly : IN SPORT - ooops, not 'in sHort'
31. "Coming Out of the Dark" singer : ESTEFAN - Gloria, half perps and WAGs
37. Stylish beach resorts : LIDOS
40. Sanctuary part : APSE - ah, but which the part of the church~? APSE or NAVE~?
41. Eponymous 2001 album : J.Lo
42. MBA subject : ECON - good WAG on my part
43. Part of a name on the 1989 album "Dr. Feelgood" : CRÜE - Nailed it - I can't help it - these guys defined the whole 80's big hair thing, and the music was good, too. In fact, the first puzzle Mark Diehl had for the LA Times featured "TEN SECONDS" as an answer - and here's Mötley Crüe's version
44. Congo jungle denizen : CHIMP
46. Sprint and others : TELECOMS - I went with TELCOMS, and found it too short
48. Ice cream baron William : DREYER
49. NSA home : Ft. MEADE
50. "You had your chance!" : "TOO LATE~!"
51. Certain permit holder : LEARNER - driving permits
52. Pitching pro? : AD WOMAN - ooh, nice gender misdirection.
53. Mahmoud's PLO predecessor : YASSER
54. Lose freshness : GO STALE
DOWN:
1. First person indicator : CAPITAL I
2. Without dissent : AS ONE MAN
3. Rundown areas : SKID ROWS - Ironically, I thought this was SKI related, but it certainly helped to correctly guess the first 3 letters
4. Revered emblem : TOTEM - popular lately
5. Brown is one of them : IVIES - I knew where this was going, but was reluctant to fill in "IVIES"
6. Triage basis : NEED
7. Lab warning : Grr - the LABrador breed
8. First, second and third : GEARS - and many more, depending on the car. My crappy work van has a hard time getting out of second gear; I have to get to 42mph. Reminds me of this song
9. Norah's dad : RAVI - it took a moment to remember Norah Jones' dad is Ravi Shankar; her Wiki
10. Like solitaire : ONE-PLAYER
11. Hue and cry : UPROAR
12. Uvula neighbor : TONSIL
13. Regular : STEADY
19. Bart Simpson's grandma : MONA - I dredged this one up from the cerebral depths
24. No gentle giant : OGRE
25. Novel ending : ETTE - novelette; I submitted a short story to Dan's Papers Literary Contest, but I didn't win - read more here, Sep 9th issue, pg 32
27. First book of the Great Plains trilogy : OPIONEERS - no clue, and the "P" was "H" for my first guess
28. Key chain attachments : FOBS
29. "Say no more" : "I SEE."
32. Roller coaster named for a mountain : FUJIYAMA - mostly perps and a WAG - not a big roller-coaster fan
33. Like some storage shelves : ALL METAL - and F%*&ing heavy when they ship thru UPS
34. Wetsuit material : NEOPRENE - nailed it - big help in the SE
36. Sonata, e.g. : OPUS - toyed with "AUTO", since it's a Hyundai
37. Heave : LET FLY
38. Summer beverage : ICE TEA - I've come to accept the missing "D"; look away, Tin~!
39. Middle Eastern stuffed vegetable dishes : DOLMAS - ah, yes, I've had them, and they're good - I get the vine leaf stuffed with rice
43. Software whiz : CODER
44. They're often involved in murders : CROWS
45. Serf of Sparta : HELOT
47. Mr. Peanut trademark : CANE
48. Doofus : DODO
50. Touch and go? : TAG - the game - "you're IT~!"
8. Fills with mortar, as tile : GROUTS - don't tell me - I just finished my bathroom, which I built from the plumbing up; I happen to like tiling, as opposed to just installing a plastic surround. Here's a pic; I noticed that "Picasa" is no longer - it's all about Pinterest now
15. Traditional slow cooker : BEAN POT
16. 1963 Best Actor : POITIER
17. '70s-'80s sitcom roommate : LAVERNE - ah, yes, the other one was Shirley - and Lenny was their friend, played by Michael McKean, who played David St. Hubbins of Spinal Tap fame
18. "By all means!" : "INDEED~!"
19. Central California county : MARIPOSA - the second half was perps, the first half a WAG about a place that I seemed to have heard of before
20. Contract details : TERMS - oops, not ITEMS
21. Slips on : DONS
22. Put down : LAID
23. Latin I word : AMO
24. Pen output : OINK - I did not know which "pen" this was; the writer's ( BOOK, e.g. ) or the farm one; it was the latter
25. __ warning : EARLY - I had -A-L- and thought it was "FALSE" - but FASLE looked wrong....
30. Jokingly : IN SPORT - ooops, not 'in sHort'
31. "Coming Out of the Dark" singer : ESTEFAN - Gloria, half perps and WAGs
37. Stylish beach resorts : LIDOS
41. Eponymous 2001 album : J.Lo
42. MBA subject : ECON - good WAG on my part
43. Part of a name on the 1989 album "Dr. Feelgood" : CRÜE - Nailed it - I can't help it - these guys defined the whole 80's big hair thing, and the music was good, too. In fact, the first puzzle Mark Diehl had for the LA Times featured "TEN SECONDS" as an answer - and here's Mötley Crüe's version
46. Sprint and others : TELECOMS - I went with TELCOMS, and found it too short
48. Ice cream baron William : DREYER
49. NSA home : Ft. MEADE
50. "You had your chance!" : "TOO LATE~!"
51. Certain permit holder : LEARNER - driving permits
52. Pitching pro? : AD WOMAN - ooh, nice gender misdirection.
this is one gorgeous ad woman
53. Mahmoud's PLO predecessor : YASSER
54. Lose freshness : GO STALE
DOWN:
1. First person indicator : CAPITAL I
2. Without dissent : AS ONE MAN
3. Rundown areas : SKID ROWS - Ironically, I thought this was SKI related, but it certainly helped to correctly guess the first 3 letters
4. Revered emblem : TOTEM - popular lately
5. Brown is one of them : IVIES - I knew where this was going, but was reluctant to fill in "IVIES"
6. Triage basis : NEED
7. Lab warning : Grr - the LABrador breed
8. First, second and third : GEARS - and many more, depending on the car. My crappy work van has a hard time getting out of second gear; I have to get to 42mph. Reminds me of this song
9. Norah's dad : RAVI - it took a moment to remember Norah Jones' dad is Ravi Shankar; her Wiki
10. Like solitaire : ONE-PLAYER
11. Hue and cry : UPROAR
12. Uvula neighbor : TONSIL
13. Regular : STEADY
19. Bart Simpson's grandma : MONA - I dredged this one up from the cerebral depths
24. No gentle giant : OGRE
25. Novel ending : ETTE - novelette; I submitted a short story to Dan's Papers Literary Contest, but I didn't win - read more here, Sep 9th issue, pg 32
27. First book of the Great Plains trilogy : OPIONEERS - no clue, and the "P" was "H" for my first guess
28. Key chain attachments : FOBS
29. "Say no more" : "I SEE."
32. Roller coaster named for a mountain : FUJIYAMA - mostly perps and a WAG - not a big roller-coaster fan
33. Like some storage shelves : ALL METAL - and F%*&ing heavy when they ship thru UPS
34. Wetsuit material : NEOPRENE - nailed it - big help in the SE
36. Sonata, e.g. : OPUS - toyed with "AUTO", since it's a Hyundai
37. Heave : LET FLY
38. Summer beverage : ICE TEA - I've come to accept the missing "D"; look away, Tin~!
39. Middle Eastern stuffed vegetable dishes : DOLMAS - ah, yes, I've had them, and they're good - I get the vine leaf stuffed with rice
44. They're often involved in murders : CROWS
45. Serf of Sparta : HELOT
47. Mr. Peanut trademark : CANE
50. Touch and go? : TAG - the game - "you're IT~!"
Splynter
48 comments:
DNF for me today. got the rest of it, but the NW was still largely white when I hit the red button. Once I saw the errors, I corrected them and finished the puzzle without further help. SHARIFF > POITIER, TORAH > TOTEM, ARF > GRR, SPECS > TERMS. No errors in the rest of the grid. I'd already corrected OHIO > OPIO... and CONS > OINK.
{B-, B-, A-.}
There once was a Yeti from FUJIYAMA
Who ignored his Yeti Daddy and Mama!
The LAW OF GRAVITY
Made him, Fall, and yet he
Survived by a misplaced CAPITAL and comma!
In Lilies of the Field, some nuns PIONEER
To build a chapel on the Southwest frontier.
If they hadn't been fails
With hammer and nails
There'd have been no Oscar for Sidney POITIER!
Here is the story, a real GhOST tALE
Of some campers round a fire, who heard a wail!
They ran from their fate,
But they did so TOO LATE!
(Campfire stories like these will never GO STALE!)
Morning, all!
Wow, toughie today! Fun, though, and ultimately doable. It took awhile, but I was finally able to dredge up (or guess at) stuff like LIDO, DOLMAS, FT MEADE, FUJIYAMA and O PIONEERS. Hand up for wanting SHARIFF before POITIER and ARF before GRR. Also add ITEMS before TERMS. But it all (eventually) worked out in the end with no red letter help needed.
One missed opportunity in the puzzle was the answer to "Latin I word." We so often see "I" used to mean "one" that the answer AMO was obvious, since it's a word learned in your first year Latin class. But I briefly laughed when I thought that the I was being used literally to mean the letter I case and that the answer was actually EGO (Latin for "I"). But, alas, it was not to be. Ah well...
Good morning!
Plenty of fox passes on this one, but I finally prevailed, and in good Saturday time. So it was ESTEFAN and not ESTELLE. Who knew? Thanx, Mark Diehl, wherever you are.
Splynter, hand up for ITEMS. Like my abdomen, Newton's LAWS OF MOTION gave in to GRAVITY. I really thought the song about your van was going to be this one: Beep Beep. Probably before your time. (If you don't remember the song, just fast-forward to 2:50--or thereabouts--and you'll see why it came to mind.) Nice tile job, BTW.
Mr. Peanut: I've got a 75th anniversary commemorative jar (1981) in the bathroom; I keep Q-Tips in it. It's a tip jar.
Tom you are obviously getting better with age- tip jar indeed.
Splynter if you parse it as O PIONEERS maybe you will recall Willa Cather with the final book MY ANTONIA . She is the pride of Nebraska.
Mark has been constructing since before Will Shortz became NYT puzzle editor. He has 50+ published there.
Fall is falling
Thanks Splynter, great pic choice, and Mark good to see you again. Back to back Marks
Tricky one today. Two fills starting with vowels-O PIONEERS and I BEFORE E RULE, one fill ending with a vowel- CAPITAL I, along with the 'murders' of CROWS. I aided my own misery by initially filling CLAY POT for BEAN POT and misspelling POITIER as PORTIER and ESTEFAN as ESTEBAN. As for FUJIYAMA, I had the YAMA filled but didn't know the ride but the two LATINAS- Gloria and Jennifer- got it for me. But I'm a slow LEARNER and don't have my crossword license yet- just my learner's permit.
I haven't seen HELOT around for a while. It was an Xword staple for years. DOLMAS-all perps.
SPECS,ITEMS, and then TERMS
LAVERNE- My wife always turns on The Today Show while she reads the paper, I don't know why. The regular people on the show reminds me of THE MONKEES- they claim it's a 'news program' but the show is about them. And when HODA and KATHY LEE come on, I refer to those two as LAVERNE & SHIRLEY.
Splynt- keep the LEGS coming and before it's TOO LATE don't let your comments GO STALE.
One disadvantage of using ink and paper is no red letters, and it never occurred to me that the ice cream baron would be anyone but BREYER (also William), so a doofus is a BOZO but what's an AZ WOMAN? Oh well.
DOLMAS was unknown, looks like golumbki without the pork.
This had all the challenge of a Silky, but was short on the satisfaction. Got through it all unharmed, but just didn't feel the love. Lot's to like, like Poitier and I before E rule. But other things seemed off. In particular Grout. I've never made grout from scratch, but I have made mortar. I don't think grout has any lime, and it certainly is of a different consistency, so I see that as a likely error.
But I guess all's well that ends, so I'll take the victory. Thanks Mark and Splynter.
And speaking of victory, I am very uneasy that the oddsmakers have the Huskers favored by 3 against the Ducks today. I guess we'll know more by 6:00PM. I'll be the one in red.
Hello Puzzlers -
I found this one hard enough to be worthy of a Saturday. Hand up for thinking Shariff or Shareef, til perps washed that away. Dolmas was a vague memory.
D Otto - smiled out loud at the tip jar!
Morning, Splynter, another good illustration. By the way, I had to order a half-dozen counterweights for my tractor, 50 lbs. each, via UPS...sorry!
There's still debate about the difference between a NOVELETTE and a novella, but at least one web site comes down specifically on the subject: A NOVELETTE (7,500 to 17,000 words) is longer than a short story (3,500 to 7,500) but shorter than a novella (17,000 to 40,000), and a novel must contain at least 40,000 words.
Both EX-CON and POETRY were too long for "pen output."
Difficult, but doable with one look-up, Great Plains trilogy. I am red faced because I should have known. I only read as far as the name Willa Cather before the light dawned. OPION---- looked so weird. I greatly enjoyed O Pioneers, Song of the Lark, and My Antonia. I don't recall them being called the Great Plains Trilogy.
I had BREYERS and BOZO at first, too.
Since I love butterflies, I am partial to the word MARIPOSA, Spanish for butterfly. Schmetterling, German. Papillon, Franch. Farfalla, Italian. We visited fabulous butterfly gardens in Niagara Falls, Canada and in Costa Rica. I have butterfly wallpaper in my bedroom, scads of butterfly jewelry, especially earrings, and my butterfly avatar. It seems to be my totem. My second choice would be angels, of which I have a huge collection. There is something about wings.
There is also the opera Madame Butterfly, Cho Cho San in Japanese. I once had to write the story of the opera in Japanese. I could no longer do that. I was too old when I studied Japanese. I recall less of it than I do of languages I learned in college.
Poitier was 1964! Sorry
Error averse -- Poitier received the award in 1964 for his Best Actor performance in 1963's Lilies of the Fields. I'd say the clue is fair.
Who knew there was DREYERS and BREYERS ice cream, especially since BOZO worked too (as per billocohoes)? My one bad Saturday cell rides again! LIDO/DOLMA was a fortuitous correct entry.
Musings
-How in the world did he get “I BEFORE E RULE”?
-DIRT FARMERS (hardly poor) will harvest a huge crop this year but low prices. That darn supply/demand thing!
-CASTING is easier when you have a famous director as a brother (17 movies)
-Mom cooked her “Navy Beans and Ham” all day
-Contract TERMS in vegan Paul McCartney’s contract call for chairs with no leather or even animal (MARIPOSA?) prints
-EARLY warning for hurricanes can be days. For tornadoes it can be minutes
-So you think you want a CHIMP as a pet…
-In a C.C. puzzle the Rundown area would be a base path!
-I have played two-handed solitaire (misnomer), which can get very spirited
-I’m in the “still have my TONSILS” group. You?
-O PIONEERS author Willa Cather’s childhood home in Red Cloud, NE
Good morning everyone.
The plus side: Very eclectic with lots of fresh fill. The minus side: Very difficult for me. Needed more assistance than usual for a Saturday. NW went well, though.
DREYER - We have no Dreyer's here; only Breyer's. Afterwards went to Wiki and found that Dreyer's is known as Edy's east of the Rockies. Good clue for LA types; not so much for upstate NY.
MARIPOSA was obscure, too, but good perps helped fill it in.
DIRT FARMER - I doubt the term is used by the farming community itself. More so by writers from the city who can't differentiate between crops. The clue did not imply the farmer was 'poor'. JMHO. Don't mean to be touchy.
Happy Saturday to all!
Flew through the top half of this puzzle in record time. However, I hit a brick wall when I moved into the southern half, and had to make a couple of trips to Google to finish. Thanks for a great puzzle, Mark.
Didn't know that Willa Cather's books were referred to as the Great Plains trilogy. By sheer coincidence, I am currently re-reading the third in the trilogy, "My Antonia".
Great expo and links, Splynter. Many thanks!
Enjoy the day!
Very grim start.... but after plugging away and with DH's help, was able to get 'er done. Thanks, Mark, for a nice challenge. Loved the IBEFOREERULE. Also put in BREYERS and BOZO before changing to DREYERS and DODO.
Nice write-up, Splynter. Thanks for all the Saturdays you explain!
Hi Y'all! This puzzle filled "by guess and by gosh" and lots of red letters. Too many obscurities for this DIRT FARMER to enjoy. Can't farm much without DIRT, so I guess the term is accurate, but unexpected in a crossword. Corn fit but turned red. If it keeps raining on my fields, my FARMER won't be able to harvest the corn or plant the winter wheat. Always a possibility I will be DIRT poor next year.
Thank you, Splynter for plowing ahead in this difficult undertaking.
First and almost last fill was GROUT. When I faced an almost blank grid after the first pass I almost quit.
Uvula neighbor wasn't TONgue. My TONSILs are long gone. (Age 8)
I read O PIONEERS many years ago, but didn't know it was part of a trilogy. Hated the ending. Too true to life.
Forgot the "Y" in FUJIYAMA at first which left the last half blank a while. Does anyone else watch "American Ninja Warriors"? I would never be able to get the hang of that sport. Yikes! Lots of good tries but in the end no one won.
Hand up for the wrong start to the ice cream name.
Hi Everyone:
This was a non-finish because I wouldn't let go of Breyer and bozo even though Az woman was nonsensical. Dreyer didn't occur to me even though its relationship with Edy's has been mentioned before. So, anyway, DNF, FIW, or just plain goofed, no tada today!
Thanks, Mark, for a very challenging Saturday and thanks, Splynter, for the tour. Splynter, is there any particular reason why my UPS man never, ever rings my doorbell to just let me know there is a package? The way my house is laid out, there could be zombies outside my front door and I wouldn't know it. It's not a huge problem but it is annoying to have to keep checking to see if a package has arrived. End of rant. 😇
Have a great day.
Tough one but doable. Had to check the spelling of "Estefan" - had a V instead of F, and had to check the FtMeade answer as I didn't know it and FTM didn't look right until I realized fort was abbreviated.
IM, around here deliveries set off the neighbors dogs, so I don't need a bell. But if I tune that out, or if it's a delivery for a different neighbor, I routinely pull up the tracking email to check if mine has been marked "delivered." Sure beats hunting around to see if a package has been left at the door, by the cars, on the deck, or in the case of lazy delivery people, closer to the street.
As Avg Joe said, there is lots to like in this puzzle, but for some reason I also didn't feel the love. SPECS -> TERMS, EGO (hello Splynter) -> AMO, ARF -> GRR, and BASES -> GEARS. At least I got RAVI, IVIES, TONSIL, FOBS, OPUS, CROWS, FTMEADE, and HELOTS to get me started. A very well-constructed puzzle.
Splynter, I didn't understand what I was looking at on page 32 of the Sept 9th edition of Dan's Papers. Also, that Speedo Limit 30 cartoon is funny; thanks for posting it.
Had my tonsils removed before I was 10 years old. It seems they were very quick to diagnose tonsillitis in those days; one sore throat and, whammo, out they came. My upper respiratory tract was no healthier after than before, or should I say, was no less healthy before than after. The ether they used as anesthetic made me sicker than my purportedly infected tonsils, and took me longer to recover from than the surgery itself.
Best wishes to you all.
In retrospect, it was a fairly easy Saturday. But it was sure tough during the actual solving phase. Very enjoyable and finished without any cheats. Tada.
HELP: I was hoping to find an answer to CROWS for 44D. I don't get it, got the word via perps.
Re: Iced Tea. I don't think anyone calls it iced tea. D & T can't be pronounced together without a pause, so everyone calls it icetea to keep it fluid. Same with dropping the T in Costco to keep it one word.
Lemonade, yesterday you called John Lampkin "my bug guy." How is he your guy? I don't understand.
A flock of crows is also known as a murder of crows.
A good Saturday slog. Got it after a while.
Here are a few other collective nouns:
quiver of cobras
rag of colts
rake of colts
bury of conies
cover of coots
flight of cormorants
band of coyotes
sedge of cranes
siege of cranes
congregation of crocodiles
float of crocodiles
storytelling of crows
murder of crows
herd of deer
leash of deer
parcel of deer
bevy of deer (roe deer)
Thanks, Argyle. Now I get it.
Thank you, Robert Emerson. I spent a good five minutes, doing the alphabet run, for that one square, "W," and just filled it in so as to complete the cw. Googled an article appearing in Audubon and felt better not knowing that term. Does "murder of crows" appear only in archaic literature?
http://www.audubon.org/news/no-its-not-actually-murder-crows
Found this an easy Saturday with no look-ups or verifications. Does anyone know what happened to Barry Silk?
Jayce. Everything lemony says is I, me or my. We all know it's his Friday puzzle and we merely just play along.
Woulda been DNF, 'cept for my cheats. A toughie, to be sure. Oh, I got the CROWS thing right away, as the names of fauna groups have been making the popularizing rounds of late.
But still it was that SE corner that gave my eraser blisters. First, I was held up by 44-A, which I so wanted to be SHEEP (in order to crack the expectation that Congo residents must be exotic); but then I couldn't decide--like many of my preceding colleagues--between BREYER and DREYER, and, yes!, I wanted the insulting BOZO instead of the blandly sympathetic DODO for 48-D. (I was quite willing to settle for AZ WOMAN as a resulting perp. Isn't Arizona proud of its female baseball league?)
Sorry, Irish Miss, and C6D6Peg (and others), who were with me on this. We just couldn't have our way.
Congratulations to Mark Diehl for confounding us--and to Splynter for the enlightenment.
Oh, almost forgot! That old I BEFORE E RULE is a natural fave of mine, for a reason that is probably obvious to my freinds: Ooops, friends.
We were taught a handy mnemonic in school, one that circumstances caused me to amend (cf. the last line):
"I" before "E"
Except after "C,"
Or when sounded like "Ay"
As in "Neighbor" and "Weigh"
Or in the name "Keith."
TxMs, it's my understanding that Barry Silk just became tired of the whole thing. It was no longer fun, and the pay is so low that nobody does it for the money.
My head is hurting badly from all the V-8 dents, especially in the NW! Three-fourths was a rough slog but it was completed without help. DREYER is a given here superseded in taste only by Tilamook, IMHO. FUJIYAMA worked out after I had the lower part, _YAMA. IBEFOREERULE was darned clever and stymied me for way too long. Kudos to you, Mark!
Woe is me for not recalling Sydney as the Oscar winner for 1963's Lilies of the Field. I lived in Denver at the time where we had a special showing of it at Loretto College and he made a personal appearance. Needless to say, in an audience of nuns he was enthusiastically received.
ARAFAT held me hostage for a while, too, until realizing that Mahnoud is a first name then others flooded in but not before I took a long break to recharge. Also, ATLANTA preceded FTMEADE and ICETEA reluctantly slid in place. I may have eaten DOLMAS somewhere but if so they are not memorable.
The really deep V-8 dent was inflicted by not knowing that OPIONEERS was part of a trilogy. Like MJ and PK I've read them but it was many decades ago. Time to reread, perhaps. The Underground Railroad is next on my list.
Thank you, Mark and Splynter! You both enhanced my day.
Have an excellent day, everyone!
Keith, what a clever addendum to the rule!
Anonymous @ 12:41 - No dogs around to alert me of Big Brown's arrival and, yes, checking on the iPad is easy enough, too, but I still think a one-second touch on the doorbell isn't too much to ask. Especially since none of my deliveries are "all metal" shelves that weigh a ton! 😈. On the other side of the coin, my FedEx delivery man carries my packages right into the house, which he probably isn't supposed to do but is certainly appreciated when they are heavy and bulky.
Argyle @ 1:08 - Thank you for solving my murder=crow conundrum. If I ever knew that connection, it's been long forgotten.
TX Ms @ 1:54 - I don't know where Barry Silk is but I wish he would grace us with his presence and puzzles soon. I, for one, miss his style.
OMK @ 2:09 Wait 'til next Saturday; we'll knock 'em dead! 👿
Well, if you have a field of ripe milo and a flock of crows swoops in to feed several days in a row they certainly MURDER the profit. When you see & hear the noisy things, you want to do MURDER.
Lemonade, I finally realized why you thought Brown Recluse Spiders are small. I remembered the Texas tarantulas which are huge. Next to them BRSpiders ARE small. Here BRS are among the local largest spiders and we don't have native tarantulas. Don't know what kind of arachnida you have in Florida.
Hi all!
Typical crash-burn-cheat-try-cheat-try-Saturday TDNF. Thanks Mark but I'm just not worthy.
GROUTS got me started leading to GEARS, STEADY, ----POT, ONEPLAYER, -----GRAVITY, DISS (@21a (50%)), OINK, DIRT FARMER, and smatterings about. The puzzle looked like winter-slush - just enough ink to make it not-white, but not enough to get even close to the win.
Thanks Splynter for the answers & expo. Best part, you connected the puzzle to Spinal Tap in 2 steps!
Re: those heavy-METAL shelves - I do consider the delivery guy before I click Buy and add helium to the order :-)
WOs - Ha! I couldn't even grok 1/2 the clues.
ESP - nothing - cheats prevailed
Fav: DOLMAS. No I didn't get it (only ink in that corner b/f cheat was ECON & FT MEADE - I was still thinking "races" for Sprint). But, I did learn that's what those grapeleaf-wrapped things I love are called and that alone is worth today's effort. I'm sure to mispronounce it (dole-mas w/ a short a? Or doe-mA-s(?)) next time I got to the Jordanian guy's eatery and end up saying "the grape leaf things."
Who else has totally embarrassed themselves mispronouncing words that you've only seen in print? My biggest was "deprecated." I said it like depreciated in a meeting - a good friend kindly corrected me later.
Mark - I didn't get the fill but c/a for CROWS is outstanding.
{B, B, A}
LOL re: (q)Tip jar DO.
YR - Yep, it happens. This CODER is still better at C and perl syntax than Java or Python. Learn young & it sticks with you; has something to do w/ brain plasticity Eldest tells me.
HG - TONSILS still in there somewhere - now I know, near the uvula.
OMK - funny I've spelt it right my whole life (and I'm a bad speller) but never connected Keith w/ the RULE. GRR - now I'm going to be more confused! :-)
Cheers, -T
Anonymous T, speaking of words one only saw in print, for years I pronounced misled as my-zled. I also pronounced Bode, as in Bode plot, as, well, bode (as in it doesn't bode well) until I heard someone say "Bow-dee plot" a few years ago. It kinda made me look like an idiot in front of my peers. And avoirdupois has always been and always will be, avoid her poise.
D-O, thanks for the Silk update. Don't blame him a bit - just thinking of constructing a c|w would give me migraine (and, luckily, I've never experienced one).
Anon-T, helium - [snorkle]!
Hope Houston doesn't get 'threshed' by KC (the Chiefs' fav team). 30-0 in the play-offs - worst NFL trounce in the last 40 years. Sports columnists are still writing about that game and interviewing the coaches and players about it. C'mon, guys, let it rest and move on.
Anon T & Jayce Dumas
UPS
In My neck of the woods
d-otto:
Cute about tip jar! LOL
Oh, and my tonsils are intact. In fact only one of my siblings had hers removed.
Greetings!
Thanks to Mark and Splynter!
Was a real slog. Several letter searches in my head!
Got it eventually.
Still have my TONSILS. Had "tongue" at first.
Hotter here today. About 90.
Cheers!
A little puzzlepropos story:
As luck would have it, youngest wanted gyros for eats. DW & Eldest weren't up to it so we took the Alfa! to the Syrian (don't ask me why I typed Jordanian earlier) guys' joint.
I got to the counter and we started ordering gyros and hummus.... Confidence -T, confidence... "Oh, and an order of DOLMAS." The kid (owner's son) looked at me and said, "Oh, grape leaves. I know what you mean, but that's more Greek. We just call them grape leaves." I looked up at the menu board... Sure enough. Can't win for losing sometimes :-)
Manac - LOL Dumbas
Cheers, -T
My favorite Dumb Ass. Clip.(0:50)
Me too with Bozo and Breyer. Also had ONO for JLO - not a fan of either. Googled Poitier, Estefan, Crue, Ravi, Blank verse, Mona, O Pioneers and Helot. Still not ready for Saturday crosswords.
Yellowrocks, I love butterflies too. A few years ago we were informed that the lovely Monarch butterflies were dying out and needed support as they made their way south in the summer to spend their winters in Mexico. We were encouraged to plant their favorite food, milkweed, and we did. We've had Monarchs around our house every spring summer and early fall since then, enjoying the many milkweed plants all around our house. They are so lovely, I'm praying they'll survive for a long time to come.
Jayce - thanks for your examples. I think we all do it but sometimes it feels like "just me?" My fav is DW's friend who thought X-ING (like Thursday's ELK) was pronounced zing. To her credit, she taught ESL in China for her mission (she was a Mennonite) so it kinda makes sense.
Misty - I read today they are moving south again. I hope they like my honeysuckle & jasmine.
Argyle - that's a good one.
TXMs - your [Snorkle] comment made me think of Tim Conway's elephant. I've posted it before but classic CASTING doesn't get old. For those still up, click & enjoy. C, -T
I finished about 8:00 this am. A long but rewarding slog. I was tempted to give up but another box and another got filled and finally, tada, with no FIWs.
I had the usual dead ends and CLAMOR and EYESORES. I lucked out on DREYER, thinking BREYER.
I also had EDITING. I was trying to think of SHARIF to go with ARF. With all the delivery talk didn't anyone try to work in UPS for Brown?
Well I just got buzzed, so thanks Mark and Splynter. Owen, you underrated yourself, especially no. 2. And I don't get no. 1.
HELOT and APSE were my only solids. I knew HELOT but the old brain took awhile to resurrect it.
And I see I won't be commenting on Sunday until tomorrow
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