For the few remaining regular posters who go back to the Tribune Media Services puzzles which inspired C.C. to become a blogger, this is a blast from the past. Every Thursday we had a quip/quote puzzle from Mr. O. The fourth puzzle that was blogged by C.C. at her Corner was this ONE which predates all of us. As C.C. honed her interviewing skills, she presented us with this GLIMPSE into his mind. The quip:
"20A. Start of a quip : IT WON'T MATTER (12).
29A. Quip, part 2 : HOW FAR YOU (9).
38A. Quip, part 3 : PUSH THE ENVELOPE (15).
45A. Quip, part 4 : IT'LL STILL (9).
53A. End of the quip : BE STATIONERY (12)."
I think the ER is funnier.
His version is used to protect the symmetry of the clues.
As with most of these type puzzles, the quip is based on a pun - stationery / stationary. It feels strange to be back in the day; I hope you enjoy the trip. It is interesting how many constructors are resurfacing after an extended absence.
Across:
1. Did one part of a typical triathlon : SWAM. A sport with swimming, cycling, and long-distance running.
5. Overwhelm : SWAMP.
10. Camera output : SNAP.
14. Tuscan waterway : ARNO. The RIVER. More river talk. 51A. Swiss waterway : AARE. A fun tour by ORANGE (Amy Renaldo).
15. Smoothes : EASES.
16. 1899 gold rush town : NOME. 50 years later.
17. It's nothing to Noelle : RIEN. Just French.
18. Pines, e.g. : TREES. Sometimes the simple answer is right even on Friday.
19. Wavy lines, in comics : ODOR. There are ORGANIZED rules?
23. Stuff in a sack : LOOT.
24. Dough shortage consequence : DEBT.
27. "Chicago P.D." detective Lindsay : ERIN. A pretty young lady who is played by Sophia Bush
34. Speaks : ORATES.
36. Durango day : DIA. This time the language is Spanish.
37. Rotation meas. : RPS. Revolutions Per Second? Certainly not RPMS. Hmm, rock, paper, scissors? Nit pick?
42. Pranks, in a way, informally : TPS. Good symmetry with the questionable RPS. NC questions whether this is really done in America; yes it does happen often.
43. Browser's find : URL.URL is the short version for : Uniform Resource Locator, previously Universal Resource Locator – usually pronounced by sounding out each letter. URL – is the unique address for a file that is accessible on the Internet. Various sources.
44. Privileged groups : ELITES.
49. Wrapped up : OVER. That story arc was finally wrapped up.
50. See 52-Down : SEAT. 52D. With 50-Across, flier's option : AISLE.
60. Hook for landing large fish : GAFF. Is this a GAFFE?
63. Wines named for an Iberian city : PORTS. Tell them all about it Chairman.
64. Pivot around : SLUE.
65. Plot measure : ACRE.
66. Mexican Academy of Film award : ARIEL. Interesting LINK.
67. McCain's alma mater: Abbr. : USNA. United States Naval Academy.
68. Casino device : SHOE. They like the 8 deck version in Las Vegas to defeat the card counters.
69. Spider's web, e.g. : SNARE.
70. Jury member : PEER. Only the British could have started something that became so different.
Down:
1. Asian garment : SARI.
2. Legal paper : WRIT. More law 13D. __ stirpes: estate law term : PER.
3. Once more : ANEW. 7D. Europe-bound, perhaps : ASEA.
4. Yosemite's El Capitan, e.g. : MONOLITH. people actually climb this for fun!
5. Scrape : SET TO.
6. Affection : WARMTH.
8. Athletic contest : MEET. an organized event at which a number of races or other sporting contests are held. "a swim meet."
9. "Hey, you!" : PSST.
10. Common nocturnal disturbance : SNORER. Syntax? Isn't it the snoring that is the disturbance?
11. Wordless opinion : NOD.
12. Te-__: cigar brand : AMO.
21. Good-sized combo : NONET. Nine pieces.
22. First name in childcare writing : EDA.
25. How many learn : BY ROTE. Memorization without thought.
26. High hat : TOPPER.
27. Rages : ERUPTS.
28. Brawl in the sticks : RASSLE.
30. Former "Access Hollywood" anchor Nancy : O'DELL. Too political.
31. When repeated, mutually advantageous : WIN. Much of what I do now is win-win where a buyer and seller of real property are both very happy at the closing.
32. Most liked, casually : FAVE. I have a cousin who loves this word.
33. Versatility list : USES.
34. Eye opener? : OPTIcal e.g.
35. Close : SHUT.
39. NW Penn. airport : ERIe. The universal code for airports. This ONE really is not in Erie is it gentleman?
40. Ecuadoran gold region : EL ORO. El Oro province is the southernmost of Ecuador's coastal provinces. It was named for its historically important gold production. Today it is one of the world's major exporters of bananas. Wiki.
41. Cheers : LIVENS UP. Nice fill that liv...oh never mind.
46. Tuition add-on : LAB FEE.
47. Abbr. in some Canadian place names : STE. A female saint. more French.
48. LDS part : LATTER. It is religion; some say Mormon, but in 1834, the church was being referred to as the "Church of the Latter Day Saints" in early church publications, and in 1838 Smith announced that he had received a revelation from God that officially changed the name to the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." wiki.
54. Therapeutic resorts : SPAS.
55. Ambivalent : TORN. You think?
56. One of a tenor's repertoire : ARIA.
57. Word suggesting options : ELSE. Back again.
58. Ancient character : RUNE. Not Mel Brooks.
59. Sentence component : YEAR. Penal system not classroom.
60. Yakking : GAS.
61. German gripe : ACH.
62. One way to sway : FRO and to? Another way to go is over and out, which is a good segue into my saying thank you Mr. Olschwang for a different ride. It is not our first LAT quip but we do not see many. Hope you all enjoyed and come back and see us next time. Lemonade out.
41 comments:
Think I'll have to take a FIW on this. Had one cell left in the NW with no idea what it might be, so hit the check button. Two bad cells. In the East I had RPs > RPM, and hadn't noticed the perp didn't match. And in the NW dON'T > WON'T, which gave me my natick, ANEW < AN?d + unknown RI?N.
Got the theme about half way thru, and it was a big help with the remainder of the puzzle.
What travels the world without ever leaving its corner?
{B+, B-, B, A-, B.}
IT WON'T MATTER a bit to the schemes of kings,
HOW FAR YOU can send what the mailman brings!
PUSH THE ENVELOPE away
IT'LL STILL BE there to stay --
The stamp's on the corner, a STATIONaRY thing!
He SWAM in the SWAMP, although it was damp;
It was easier than trying on the surface to tramp!
Mangrove TREES SNARE and trap,
Alligator jaws SNAP,
But the worst is the political sycophant!
She packed too many clothes, her luggage won't SHUT!
With each SARI and SHOE, it threatens to bust!
The catches won't do,
They're stressed so they SLUE,
SET under her SEAT, it'll cause upward thrust!
A man there was up north of NOME
Who felt no WARMTH, he was all alone.
He mailed an ENVELOPE
To his gal: "Let's elope!"
She replied, "Only if we can do it by phone!"
Nine players make up the instrumental NONET.
They'll play high-end music every gig they can get.
Once the party's off the ground
It LIVENS UP to their sound --
They play the top tunes, and work with NO NET!
Thanks Alan, thanks Lemonade.
I'd never heard that quip. Cute.
GAFF, ACRE, ACH and FRO came within seconds, but SHOE only came because of LAB FEE.
Yeah, I had SNOREs until the R was obvious.
Had cymbal for high hat.
I never knew how to spell RASSLE. I would have spelled it wrastle if I had to guess. I would use wrestle before either. In the puzzle I wanted tuSSLE.
Without perp help, it could be LATTER or it could be SAINTS. The latter lost to the Panthers last night, 23-20.
MOUNTAIN before MONOLITH. But starting the quip with letters ITWN wasn't going to cut any mustard.
Bill G,
Doubling Down Monday Nov 21st 5pm | 4c
Good morning!
I started out ready to complain that El Capitan is not a MOUNTAIN -- and it wasn't. It seemed obvious that LDS would be Low Density Something. D'oh! Otherwise, this one was quicker than your average Friday pzl.
TTP, don't know where you got that "wrestle" idea -- it's always been RASSLE.
Oh no! Just realized this was a DNF. I had A_IEL for the Mexican award, and decided to wait for the perps to decide. Still waiting. Dang!
One error -RPm for RPS, also my least favorite entry of the day. One look-up - ARIEL. One failed look-up - Iberian wine city didn't return PORT.
Fun, tough Friday puzzle. As a relative newcomer to crosswords, Olschwang's previous works were before my time. I like his style.
I got hung up on the quip - I originally had "It dON'T..." before I finally had the V8 moment. For some reason I got in my mind that this was going to be a Satchel Paige quote.
Erased saints for LATTER, casino rake for SHOE, athletic race for MEET and I tried to force fit sleep "apenia" instead of SNORER.
Favorite today was "yakking" - noun - for GAS. I also liked the cluing for ARIEL, even though it made me use Google. The usual animated film heroine clues are so trite.
Thanks Lemonade for another fantastic tour through the grid.
Loved the punny quip. Easier than usual for a Friday, but I had one bad cell, RP-, a wait-and- see cell, which I never returned to. Most of the time I make a mark by these cells. My excuse is I drove home from breakfast at the diner in kinda a snit and finished the puzzle later.
Speaking of snit, I think a person can be an annoyance, a snorer for one.
NOME- I intend to read Michener's ALASKA. I have read most of his oeuvre. I did read his Journey, a Novel, about the gold fields in Canada. For those intimidated by Michener's 1000 page novels like Alaska, this one has only 300+ pages. Gripping.
I pronounce URL as EARL in my mind. I have to be very careful not to say it aloud and seem ignorant. If NATO is pronounced nay-toh, why not EARL?
RASSLE is part of Li'l Abner's argot.
And my usual gripe (same as the first, a little bit louder and a little built worse), ACH was used in a positive sense many times a day by my relatives and neighbors much more than in a negative sense, such as gripe.
SAINTS or LATTER? Wait and see, but be sure to return to it.
Only new word was ARIEL in this context.
Lemon: Nice, informative write-up & links.
Alan: Thank You for a FUN Friday puzzle. (Though I abhor "Quip" themes).
Fave today, of course, was FAVE ... go figure.
Needed ESP to get ERIN and O'DELL ... and the perps also got me ARIEL, wouldn't have got it from the clue.
Misty, I hope you enjoy your trip ... I'll be ruffing it in Tarpon Springs, may "hit" 73 degrees today.
Guess I should take a walk on the "Dog Beach" at Honeymoon Island.
Cheers!
I was thinking HOW FAST the ENVELOPE would go, but there weren't enough spaces. Anyway I had trouble due to the unknown actors, law term, cigar, 'Frawnch', movie award, and Iberian city; RIEN, ODELL, PORTS, ARIEL, AMO, PER, ERIN, ERI- all perped.
Jinx- my LEAST favorite today-'Yakking'- it's hard to imagine its use as a noun. 'He's just full of yakking'?
Lemonade- Organized rules for comics? Not for the stand-up types. There are no rules as everything and everybody is fair game.
Good morning everyone.
A blast from the past like Lemonade said. I remember Alan from before coming here. Always a formidable puzzler with sparkling content.
Eventually got most of the quip OK, but had wish before PUSH, and so had trouble parsing FAR. NOME eventually clicked; was first trying for a 4 ltr burg in the Yukon terr.
RIEN - Always liked this short terse word. Don't seem to see it much in puzzles.
RPS - Agree with hesitation by some, but we've had it before. I guess it makes sense if, say, you were calculating horse-power which can be expressed in ft-lb/sec units, of a prime mover; RPS x torque would give the desired units directly. JMHO
Thanks to yesterday's late bloggers for their good wishes.
"Puzzling thoughts":
Lemon, Port Wine can essentially be made from any grape. The short explanation is that when making port, the fermentation process is interrupted when a clear liquor (aguardente) is added to the wine before all of its sugar is converted to alcohol. This maintains the sweetness in the wine and allows the alcohol by volume (ABV) to increase from 12-14% to 19-20%. Ports are great to drink after a meal or with ripe cheese or walnuts. I enjoy mine with a good cigar! 😜
As for the puzzle, well, even after cheats and write-overs and smudges, I FIW. Too many mistakes to enumerate. Excellent theme, being the punster that I am, but too many proper names that I honestly don't know or can't remember. Nice recap Lemon.
Owen, your last poem/limerick was the best
This one has NOTHING to do with the theme other than the pun at the end. TGIF!
The biggest surprise in this recent election,
Was none other than the swing state of Wisconsin.
Trump promised placing a freeze
On imports of shredded cheese;
As he wants to make America grate again.
Happy weekend, all
Musings
-A worthy puzzle where the gimmick morphs from a hindrance to an aid
-A great song about finding gold a little SE of NOME (3:05)
-A dye pack can ruin that LOOT
-All the ORATIONS are OVER and the pols can get back to being ineffectual ELITES
-Benign “TP-ing” houses is a big deal for homecoming around here
-We arrive early for AISLE SEATS at a movie and remain STATIONARY
-Getting SLUE/RUNE with no other letters speaks to my vocab expansion from cwd’s
-ROTE memorization passes for learning in some HS courses
-A slideshow with 55 alternate USES for common household items
-Nebraska’s “good time credit” law can cut YEARS of a sentence in half
-You probably know one of my FAV movies that featured this MONOLITH
"Puzzling thoughts 2":
Ok, I'm gonna "push the ENVELOPE" with this pun:
Our new postmaster spent time in jail;
He is technically now, out on bail.
When he was in the can,
Proved to be toughest man.
All the inmates called him "alpha mail"
I got the Quip after enough perps showed up to give me a toehold with Alan's puzzle. I still had to use Red Letters, so officially a DNF. Lemon's expo splained it nicely.
Had a few hitches before I got done. SLOT before SHOE, RPM before RPS, LARGE before NONET (thinking about an Upsized McDonald's Combo,) MOUNTAIN before MONOLITH, and the usual gripe about the 4-letter European rivers. Perps were a big help.
I pretty much agree with Big Easy on the other words that needed Perp help, and YAKKING gave me gas.
Today is the Great American Smokeout Day. Don't smoke em if you gottem.
Have a great weekend everyone.
That was a very pleasant Thursday challenge. Thanks Alan and Lemon.
TTP, thanks. I had no idea it was on again. I guess their show segment is being repeated every now and then. I've seen it a couple of times; Barbara's probably watched it closer to 10 times. Thanks again.
I used to think TPing was a harmless little prank until an ex-student and her friends did it to our house including the big tree in the front yard. When it got wet and soggy, it was a real mess and took a lot of effort to clean up. Rats...
Well, my snit was unfounded. Is my face red? I just returned from Alan's GP. Sore throat, bronchitis without coughing, stomach virus. His complaints are usually quite inarticulate and ill defined. To make it much more difficult, he plays me when he wants to stay home from work. I can sometimes call his bluff by saying we will see the doctor and he says never mind. So we went to the doctor today. More upsetting than the maladies is the constant, it seems at least weekly, uncertainty about what is wrong and how serious it might be. Usually I err on the side of being a mark. Today I erred on the side of being insensitive.
Enough of this YAKKING.
Spitz, best wishes for your good health.
Even my electric oven has a shoe shape gizmo under the burner to vent the oven.
I am going to get a haircut now. My SIL usually says, "While you are at it get all of them cut." LOL
Apparently I'm in the minority in disliking puzzles with quips. Yes, it's clever and the quip itself is cute, but I still don't care for it. I like a straight forward words only puzzle.
In this one ERIN was a complete unknown and ODELL I knew only because of her recent appearance during the presidential campaign.
In Portugal we toured a PORT winery, one of many wineries I've seen and they are always fascinating, especially the immense number of barrels stored for aging. They are carefully marked by year and type.
RPS surprised me as I had RPM first but USES required the S.
OwenKL:
Usually I forget to comment on your poetry, but I always enjoy it and today was exceptional. Thank you for that daily treat.
Have a special day, everyone! Temps are falling here! They're in the 70s.
Good Morning:
I wouldn't want a steady diet of this theme-style but I did enjoy this and found the quip funny and helpful with the solve. Had RPM first and Slot and Astis (which was silly) but perps solved everything and were needed in several areas. Erin was a gimme as Chicago PD is one of my fave shows. (The backlog in my DVR queue demands some serious catching-up time!)
Thanks, Alan, for a nice change of pace and thanks, Lemony, for your gracious guidance.
Spitz, best wishes for a clean bill of health.
Lucina, belated commiseration on the tamale disaster. That would be enough to make anyone cry!
Have a great day.
Thanks, Alan, for an enjoyable challenge today. Quip puzzles are more difficult to guess the empty blanks, but this one fell into place.
Nice write-up, Lemonade. Very informative intro. Thanks!
Totally off my wavelength today,
I had a very difficult time trying to match answers to the clues.
However it was refreshing to tackle something completely different for a change...
(hmm, when was the last time you tried to think differently?)
However,
Yakking = gas?
(must be a regional thing)
(or do Yaks contribute methane to global warming?)
(hmm, maybe I should try to stop thinking differently...)
why is every one so pushy anyway?
just lighten up people!
Plus you never know what you might find in the mail...
Lucina,
forgive my curiosity,
but why were the Tamales a total loss because the freezer door was open?
(DW {dear wife, not dishwasher} is the same way about stuff out of the freezer...)
I don't get it,
I would just throw them in the oven again & recook them,
kills all the bugs,
besides, with enough hot sauce, even a bumper tastes good!
I wonder if TPS would ever be clued with a reference to the cult classic, Office Space ?
For those not it the know, it is a movie that many in the cubicle world of boring, workaday, monotonous lives quote weekly, if not daily. It is a hilariously understated humor product from the creator of 'Beavis and Butthead', Mike Judge. Those of a certain generation probably are not familiar with it's pop culture references but, for me and my PEERs, neither is Nick, Nora or Asta.
So, yeah, Rich, if you could just think about that from now on, that would be great. Thanks.
CEDave
When masa (which is the main ingredient of tamales) spoils, it turns sour and unfortunately nothing can save it. We don't know how long the freezer door was open but it had to be at least a week. Other than a couple of other items, the tamales were the only things in there and there would have been no reason to check it. Two weeks after we made them, my niece wanted to obtain some and that's when she discovered the problems.
Thank you, Irish Miss.
YR, sorry to hear about Alan's continuing health issues.
Lucina, how devastated you must've felt. I don't think I could've pulled it together to make another batch, albeit a smaller one.
Range of ACH meaning:
ACH the interjection or adverb can range from a complaining tone to joy and excitement.
ach
1 interj oh
poet auch O , (bedauernd auch) alas old liter
ach nein! oh no!, (überrascht) no!, really!, (ablehnend) no, no!
ach nein, ausgerechnet der! well, well, him of all people
ach so! I see!, aha! (=ja richtig) of course!
ach was or wo! of course not
ach was or wo, das ist doch nicht so schlimm! come on now, it's not that bad
ach was or wo, das ist nicht nötig! no, no that's not necessary
ach wirklich? oh really?, do you/does he etc really?
ach je! oh dear!, oh dear(ie) me!
2 adv
geh ach so schnell/schön etc oh so quickly/lovely etc
It also has noun usage, at certain speech levels, but, at home in my youth, it was not used this way.
Ach nt
mit Ach und Krach inf by the skin of one's teeth inf
eine Prüfung mit Ach und Krach bestehen to scrape through an exam (by the skin of one's teeth)
ich habe die Behandlung überstanden, aber nur mit Ach und Weh I had the treatment but I screamed blue murder (Brit) or bloody murder
Ooh! Lucina!
I love sour!
(I just discovered Tomatillos, awesome surprise in a salad!)
I hate sweet,(except dark chocolate)
which is why I do not care for Birthday cakes (believe it or not...)
Next time you spoil the Tamales, Please send them to me!
(hmm, I am drooling already...)
(A little hot sauce, noprob!)
(but they might give me gas, does that mean I am yakking?)
Spitz!
The only Ach! I am familiar with is:
Ach du lieber!
(I had to Google another Blog to refresh my memory)
(& thisiswhat I found:)
Errr, Ach, du lieber... is actually Oh my dear ...
As in Ach, du lieber Gott in Himmel. Oh, my dear God in Heaven.
I don't know if you want to use the one above which is "Oh, you S hit"
Transliteration wouldn't really be advisable, because the idiom is different, you see.
Let me see, Dave : Wait , where's my coffee?
John : Lieber Gott! Nahe der Kuhlschrank.! Beloved God!, near the fridge!
This would be better, actually, because here it's like "God give me Patience with this dumbkopf Dave."
Not too precise, but, close to what you want. and you'll need to umlaut the "a" and the "u" in nahe and kuhlschrank, because I don't have the German keyboard.
Sorry I could'nt help better.
Lone Wolf · 7 years ago
(Hmm, I don,t remember working with "a lone wolf" 7 years ago...)
Dave...
Actually, Anon-T might appreciate this:
While we have had many Monty Python Links in the past,
you can't truly appreciate silliness without remembering Benny Hill.
(& his naughty bits...)
If you can stick with this, around the 8 minute mark you might exclaim
Ach du lieber!
Well, what with packing for my trip, I didn't get very far on this puzzle and had to cheat excessively in the end to even hope to finish it. But the quip is funny so I still enjoyed it. Many thanks, Alan and Lemonade.
Tinbeni, many thanks for the good wishes and I wish you a good Thanksgiving vacation too. That goes for all of you.
Yellowrocks, interesting day for you. Hope Alan feels better soon.
Surprising lot of German generated by that little ACH. My grandmother used "ACH und KRACH" all the time.
Well, I will really miss the puzzles, the blog, and all your comments next week. But I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving, and on the day will give thanks for the pleasure of being on this blog. C.C. special wishes to you and Boomer for a great time!
Dear Chairman Moe:
The other great thing about port wine, is that when you're looking for a toddy to drink on a cold night -- but don't want tannic or citric acid, or tea -- you can take a coffee cup, half fill it with port, top it off with water, nuke it for 30 seconds or so, and you've got a perfect nightcap.
Especially handy now that this morning's low was 39!
CED said in part "because I don't have the German keyboard."
Actually, with IMac, one has the Option key with its sequences.
Microsoft has a character set methodology.
Sometimes the easiest is to find an example on line, and edit-paste it into your blog editor.
No joy for me. Had no idea of the TV shows, I dont speak Spanish (or French - this puzzle is in English, yes?) and bad enough to have a phrase but it's a puny phrase, please save me. My least favorite puzzle, the gimmick puzzle. No Sale.
Pretty good puzzle today. Usually I can't get quip or quotation puzzles until 70-80% of the quip is otherwise filled in. This puzzle was no exception. Apart from that, I fell into most of the same pitfalls many of you did.
I don't understand why the mere mention of Nancy O'Dell's name is *gasp* "too political" while it is okay to write a 55-word paragraph about a religion, even including the word "God."
Best wishes to you all.
Hi All!
Alan ate my lunch today. I'm not familiar w/ the Quip nor Ecuadorian regions, EU rivers, and, of course, foreign languages and actor names are right out. My small wins were the NE and SW and smatterings about b/f Google started the rescue. Thanks Alan but way above my pay-grade. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the final (finished) grid I just couldn't solve your pzl.
Lem, thanks for letting me look over your shoulder to keep playing with words. I enjoyed your expo.
Epic fail: Scuff (4/5ths wrong) @5d, leading to cArES at 15d and uRgES @18a. All that made me stuff a gifT into a sack. Oy! That didn't even fit octet! (my idea for 21d).
WOs: Really?. You need to ask? I even put in Spin @64a!
Fave: I learnt it ain't Fav :-)
TORN(?) - To me if you're TORN you do care (at least a little)[@1:10], otherwise, you pick one, move on, and see what sticks.
{A+, B, B, A-, A}
C. Moe, LOL #1 - A+
SWAMPCat - where've you been?
Lem - DW had Mort's book in a "Graphic Novels" class she took in grad-school. I was so jealous.
TTP - MIL and I both agree: wrastle is how you hear it. 'Corse we both do our best oater impression sayin' it.
CED - Benny Hill was at the forefront of BBC Comic genius. That said, I'm w/ Lucina on the tamales... When in doubt, throw it out! [hum, Quip puzzle idea?].
Not quite apropos but Learning to Fly (metaphorically) is PUSHING THE ENVELOP and getting OVER the little world one's Learned BY ROTE. And that's my URL* :-)
Cheers, -T
*YR - Techies spell it out... U-R-L ala "You Are Ell." However, WWW is pronounced "waa-waa-waa," "dub-dub-dub," or, "Dub-dub-ubyah."
Funniest thing was that last night while watching the season finale of CHICAGO P.D. (delayed a day on DVR), I made a conscious effort to memorize the characters' names. I often forget who is who, and I wanted to be ready when the series resumes in January. Today's pzl must have read my mind, to include 27-A among the clues. SO ERIN Lindsay (played by Sophia Bush) was a snap.
I thought this was a DNF because I couldn't understand/believe OPTI as a proper answer for 34-D, but Lo-and-Behold, Lemonade saved my butt with his explanation.
Anyway, on first view I feared I'd need a few cheats or at least a couple of sly look-ups, but No! This one took a bit of time and patience, but it fell into place. The quip drew a smile (thanks, Mr. Olschwang!), and all's well in Keithland.
I wholeheartedly agree with Tin, Lucina, and PVX - I always cringed years ago when I saw those puzzles with Quip, part whatever - even when I was able to get the solve. Thanks, Lemon, for the reason (Tribune Media) why we have been spared these years. When did the quip puzzles thankfully fade out? Lemon, always enjoy your informative 'splainin.' Never heard of a shoe with regards to a casino before. Well, maybe because I've never been in a casino.
Gas for yakking??? Really!-that clue is one for the books! But I had G-A downward, and "H-O-E across, so what else could it be? I've heard of a person blowing hot air (through one's mouth only), but gas? I did snicker at y'all's comments though.
Lucina, I was thinking your freezer door had been ajar for maybe a day - but at least a week! Yikes is right! A real testament to your fortitude in completely starting over - I would have cried for hours (at least). The Chronicle food section once printed a recipe for tamales - it was a full page! No way! The recipe did say making tamales is definitely a team effort. But they are my favs (not faves).
Have a good weekend, everyone, and stay warm (well, except Tin in FL!)
Anon-T @ 3:35 - "www" - thanks for the phonetics used in the tech world. The last one got me though - Dub-dub-ubyah - sounded like a hesitant Bush supporter! (sorry, I know, no politics)
TX Ms,
I have head of GAS as a synonym to the gerund, Yakking, as well as to the verb, to yak. Am I missing the point of your demurrer?
OMK-checked the Free Dictionary-one of the first links when I googled "yakking gas"
YAK
. . . .
Slang: gab, GAS, jaw. (Tx Ms: emphasis added).
Well, I learned something tonight, but I don't think down here in Texas we'd ever use the word "gas" to mean even yak or yakking, slang or no slang. Thanks, OMK! :-)
TXMs: I'm w/ you on Gas as Yak esp. when clued as an 'ing.' I know Gas as, well, gas, er, petrol, nat gas, fart, air, and a riotous good time as in Stone's Jumpin' Jack Flash. Thanks for looking it up for us - we both learnt something.
BTW, all my phonetic spellings for WWW are meant to be said quickly as you're hurrying over what everyone knows... That is, we all know web addresses start w/ WWW. I recall back in the early 90's we'd say each letter 'cuz it was new... "Now, type w w w dot O U dot e d u." Even then some would type 'dot' instead of ',' :-)
Cheers, -T
Zoomed in and saw the slip o' the pinky - should have been 'dot' instead of '.' -T
I just couldn't make any progress today. But I slogged along and finally got rid of TRUMP and EVENS. Getting the quip helped a lot.
Then when the white disappeared I went searching for FIWs and found LDS and the V8 struck.
I had TOYS for LOOT. And a few LIWs snuck in. This was one of the hardest Fridays I can recall. Although XW difficulty mirrors brain weariness. Mine's a sieve these days.
Had the ubiquitous religious sign carrying zealot on the street today although the atheists are right there with them.
Btw. Tim's going to need some of that mulled PORT Sunday morning. Lows in the 40s.
WC in the free wheeling ether
Ps. Poetry and Lemonade's write-up up was excellent all around. Bon voyage, Misty
TX MS and anyone else. Shattering though it was to lose all our efforts of time, money and material it would be unthinkable to not have tamales for Christmas! So even if we only made half of the original number, it's enough to supply just the family.
And yes it's definitely a team effort to make and assemble tamales but my mother made them for years without any help. She had a specific list of customers who ordered them every year and she usually made 150 dozen.
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