Words: 70 (missing J,Q,X,Z)
Blocks: 26
Today's
puzzle proved to be as difficult as it looked - whenever the symmetry
separates the corners (as in this grid) and makes each of the corners
independent, for me, that means either getting a foothold, or
falling short. I was able to fill in all the cells, but alas, no
ta-DA~! So I went back and found four red-letter mistakes. Still, a
solid effort on my part, and under my personal allotted time, as well.
7x7 chunky corners, two 9-letter crossings in the center, and four
8-letter "tie-ins";
35a. "Got a minute?" : "CAN WE TALK~?" - a certain catch-phrase for someone, too
21d. Prime example : POSTER BOY
HanWARD~!
ACROSS:
1. Where member golfers gather, familiarly : THE CLUB
8. Tybalt's house : CAPULET - Montague did not fit, and I was guessing he was a part of one of the main characters houses - either Romeo's or Juliet's
15. French roll : ROULEAU - I tried BAGUETE, which I figured needs another "T"
16. Cognizant of : ALIVE TO
17. Like some wake-up hours : UNGODLY - I like watching people's reactions when I tell them I am usually up for work at UPS about 2:30AM - they get that "It's unGODly~!" look on their faces - and in two weeks, it'll be 11PM for peak season
18. Wine product : VINEGAR
19. Biases : SKEWS - my initial Downs led me to try EDGES here
20. Corp. fundraiser : IPO - ah, a financial ploy, not a person
22. Greeted at the door : SAW IN - oops, not LED IN
23. Dollywood locale: Abbr. : TENNessee
24. __ door : STORM - I tried ENTRY first
26. Broadway seductress : LOLA
27. "__ tu": Verdi aria : ERI - learned from Crosswords
28. Oater accessory : TIN STAR - STETSON would fit, but clashed with CAVORT
30. Like half a deck : RED - I have been playing poker on Saturday nights for two months now, so this type of "deck" was foremost in my mind. I am up $6 for the eight weeks, with a $20 buy in, and my best night was a $61 take
31. French appetizer : ESCARGOT
33. Hall of Fame knuckleballer Phil : NIEKRO - a Yankee, and I dredged him up from the depths of my mental past
37. Ponderosa order : RIB EYE - I vaguely recalled that there was a restaurant chain known as Ponderosa, and it must have been from back in my Upstate NY or Cincinnati OH days; none around here
8. Tybalt's house : CAPULET - Montague did not fit, and I was guessing he was a part of one of the main characters houses - either Romeo's or Juliet's
15. French roll : ROULEAU - I tried BAGUETE, which I figured needs another "T"
16. Cognizant of : ALIVE TO
17. Like some wake-up hours : UNGODLY - I like watching people's reactions when I tell them I am usually up for work at UPS about 2:30AM - they get that "It's unGODly~!" look on their faces - and in two weeks, it'll be 11PM for peak season
18. Wine product : VINEGAR
19. Biases : SKEWS - my initial Downs led me to try EDGES here
20. Corp. fundraiser : IPO - ah, a financial ploy, not a person
22. Greeted at the door : SAW IN - oops, not LED IN
23. Dollywood locale: Abbr. : TENNessee
24. __ door : STORM - I tried ENTRY first
26. Broadway seductress : LOLA
27. "__ tu": Verdi aria : ERI - learned from Crosswords
28. Oater accessory : TIN STAR - STETSON would fit, but clashed with CAVORT
30. Like half a deck : RED - I have been playing poker on Saturday nights for two months now, so this type of "deck" was foremost in my mind. I am up $6 for the eight weeks, with a $20 buy in, and my best night was a $61 take
31. French appetizer : ESCARGOT
33. Hall of Fame knuckleballer Phil : NIEKRO - a Yankee, and I dredged him up from the depths of my mental past
37. Ponderosa order : RIB EYE - I vaguely recalled that there was a restaurant chain known as Ponderosa, and it must have been from back in my Upstate NY or Cincinnati OH days; none around here
40. Performer who must be from 5'6" to 5'10½" tall : ROCKETTE
- pretty good guess on my part; not that I knew of the height
restrictions. I think they must have "minimum leg requirements", too
44. No power can change it : ONE - ah, mathematics. I was thinking in terms of "power outage", and having no electrical power. Duh.
45. Calder sculpture : STABILE - learning moment for me. Alexander Calder "invented" the art form of mobiles, and the ones that don't 'move' are called stabiles. More from Wiki
45. Calder sculpture : STABILE - learning moment for me. Alexander Calder "invented" the art form of mobiles, and the ones that don't 'move' are called stabiles. More from Wiki
There's
an example right down the road from me that can be seen from NY 27,
Sunrise Highway - referred to as the "big deer head", its title is
actually "Stargazer"
47. Burgundy on screen : RON - good guess on my part - from the Will Ferrell movie "Anchorman"
48. Cookware portmanteau : T-FAL - "portmanteau" is one of those things I learned doing crosswords, as well - essentially, it's blending two words, like "SMOG" - smoke and fog. In this case, as I just learned, it's short for TEFlon and ALuminum
50. Took : STOLE - I hesitated, but was on the "burglary" form of "took" wavelength
51. Paris green? : PARC - I tried EURO, for the money kind of green; then it was BANC, and that seemed acceptable; but BOINT was not - it was my 42d that I guessed wrong
52. Wyandot people : HURON - OK, I cheated - I Googled
54. Tournament pass : BYE
55. Axle in a wooden toy : DOWEL - a complicated definition of a simple item - followed by this clue;
56. One of two nuclides with the same neutron number but different proton numbers : ISOTONE - uh, OK, so I decided isotoPe was good enough, but I was 1/7th wrong
58. Contest name coined by its eventual winner : THRILLA - in Manila, a boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier
60. London-based news agency : REUTERS - took half perps for this to come to me
61. Goes underground : TUNNELS
62. Elaine's home, in Arthurian legend : ASTOLAT - my second "A" was an "E" at first
63. Me time? : EGO TRIP
DOWN:
1. Board member : TRUSTEE
2. Geese : HONKERS - I tried "GANDERS", which was 100% 3/7ths correct
3. Concerned with good breeding : EUGENIC - I had HYGENIC, which in the Down looked right, but it's Hyg-I-enic; I've never actually looked at the eugenics definition until today
4. One who's not serious : CLOWN
5. Some arena displays, briefly : LEDs - Light Emitting Diode displays
6. O'Hare initials : UAL - why did I think this was ORD at first~? Because that's the Airport Code. When I looked up UAL, I was in Luau, Angola - the answer is the abbr. for United Airlines. Tricky.
7. eBay option : BUY IT NOW - the only way I will buy anything off eBay - I can't be bothered to watch how my bids are doing
8. Frolic : CAVORT
9. "Aladdin" prince : ALI - could have been tied into 58A. if you ask me
10. Strike victims? : PINS
The revenge of the pins
11. __ layer: eye part : UVEAL
12. Old-fashioned investigation : LEGWORK - these legs work for me
13. Noncash business : eTAILER
14. Phenomenon measured by the Enhanced Fujita Scale : TORNADO - I mentioned the EF scale in a puzzle last month or so
24. Small seals : SIGNETS - I was thinking seals, the 'animal' - but mixed up my CYGNETS
25. Handcuff : MANACLE
28. Printer inserts : TRAYS - I was thinking "please don't be REAMS" - I cannot get that much paper in my home printer, though I guess one could do so with a commercial unit
29. "The Book of Hours" poet : RILKE - perps
32. Top performer : ACE
34. Squeeze (out) : EKE
36. Grooming process : TOILETTE
37. Estate planner's advice : ROTH IRA - being in the DOWN, I stared at this for way too long before the V-8 can flew
38. Imbues : INFUSES
39. Back up : BEAR OUT - I was 'meh' about this, but then I figured out that you better "back up" your argument, or the facts won't "bear out"
41. Net user : TRAWLER
42. Baroque composer Giuseppe __ : TORELLI - perps and one goof
43. Embrace : ENCLASP - OK, but for me, meh. Clecho with 59d. Embrace : HUG
46. Ideally : AT BEST
49. Numbers game : LOTTO
51. Essential thing : POINT
53. Winter air : NOEL - air as in "tune" or "song" - but "COLD" did pass thru my thoughts
55. 1962 title villain played by Joseph Wiseman : Dr. NO - bang~! Nailed it, but I am a big James Bond fan
14. Phenomenon measured by the Enhanced Fujita Scale : TORNADO - I mentioned the EF scale in a puzzle last month or so
24. Small seals : SIGNETS - I was thinking seals, the 'animal' - but mixed up my CYGNETS
25. Handcuff : MANACLE
28. Printer inserts : TRAYS - I was thinking "please don't be REAMS" - I cannot get that much paper in my home printer, though I guess one could do so with a commercial unit
29. "The Book of Hours" poet : RILKE - perps
32. Top performer : ACE
34. Squeeze (out) : EKE
36. Grooming process : TOILETTE
37. Estate planner's advice : ROTH IRA - being in the DOWN, I stared at this for way too long before the V-8 can flew
38. Imbues : INFUSES
39. Back up : BEAR OUT - I was 'meh' about this, but then I figured out that you better "back up" your argument, or the facts won't "bear out"
41. Net user : TRAWLER
42. Baroque composer Giuseppe __ : TORELLI - perps and one goof
43. Embrace : ENCLASP - OK, but for me, meh. Clecho with 59d. Embrace : HUG
46. Ideally : AT BEST
49. Numbers game : LOTTO
51. Essential thing : POINT
53. Winter air : NOEL - air as in "tune" or "song" - but "COLD" did pass thru my thoughts
55. 1962 title villain played by Joseph Wiseman : Dr. NO - bang~! Nailed it, but I am a big James Bond fan
57. FDR program : NRA - yeah, uh, this makes more sense than "P.R.E."
Splynter
Note from C.C.:Splynter
Happy birthday to Rich Norris, editor of LA Times Daily Crossword. Often half or more clues of each puzzle are Rich's creation. Like many other constructors, I've benefited so much from Rich's patient & expert guidance. Rich has not made any puzzle for NYT since 2008, yet he's still the fourth most published constructor in Shortz era.
 |
| Rich and his wife Kim |
40 comments:
(wrongly placed on Friday Post)
As for Saturday, November 12's c/w, all I can say is ... AAARGGH!
Isotone???? Enclasp??? Astolat???
Wherever do people come up with these words? A puzzle should be reasonably solvable, by reasonable people -- or so I thought.
Beautiful grid. Too bad I made such a mess of it with so many wrong answers. Actually, I only messed up a small part of it with wrong answers; the vast majority stayed a pristine, unspoiled black and white grid. Totally unsolvable for me. I got about five correct fills, five erroneous fills, and the rest I couldn't even guess at, and it stayed white. Sadly, it has come to the point where most Saturdays are unsolvable for me. But this one beat them all. :-((
Good morning!
This was a WAGfest. Can't believe I got the whole thing. Yes, I tried ORD. Yes, I tried CFO. Thought the ballplayer Phil could'a been Rissoto -- but he would've been a "pasta" boy. NIEKRO finally welled up from somewhere. And, yes, I was looking at PRE, but the only FDR program I could think of that had an R in the middle was NRA -- so I changed it. Yay!!! Since I solve on paper, I came here fully expecting my comeuppance. Whew! I survived to solve another day.
Completed the center and both Eastern corners on my own, but needed extensive red-letter help in both Western corners. w/o included RED-EYE > RIBEYE, VIEWS > SKEWS, TEE CLUB > THE CLUB, PWA > NRA, COOL > NOEL, MADOC > HURON, ISOTOPE > ISOTONE*, CAMALOT > ASTOLAT*, and a natick at BEAR OUT + TFAL*.
*never heard the word before, that I can recall.
{C, C-.} Pretty bad, so I may try again later.
LOLA Okewpind was a gal from TENN.,
Alone in her apartment, she was sole L.,
But throughout her Zip
She got an EGO TRIP --
Everything marked "Occupant", she was the Addr.!
It's a strange coincidence, filled with irony,
That a member of the Board is a paid TRUSTEE.
While white-collar crime
Has men serving time,
But even in prison a TRUSTEE they'll still be!
Hello Puzzlers -
Technical DNF today. I went down the same rabbit holes as Splynter - Isotope and PRE, mainly. The intersection of two complete unknowns, Niekro and Rilke, didn't help a bit. Sigh.
Well said Michael
Good Morning:
This was the toughest Saturday in quite some time. I almost gave up after not gaining an inch in that SW corner, but I stuck with it and finally, finally made some inroads and got the much-appreciated Tada without help, but certainly not without exasperation. My time was 45 minutes which is way above norm but the satisfaction in completing it was its own reward. Never heard of rouleau, Astolat, or Stabile. I also went with CFO before IPO, misspelled Niekro and needed perps for Rilke and others. Whew!
Thanks, Roland, for the mental workout and thanks, Splynter, for putting it all in perspective.
Have a great day.
Phil Niekro only pitched for the Yankees for two years, he spent over 20 years with the Braves. I believe he and Joe have the record for most wins by a pair of brothers.
Elaine of ASTOLAT was Arthurian, and subject of two Tennyson poems.
Remembered my old watch and used LcD instead of LED, since both ROULEAU and ROULcAU
Never heard of TFAL.
Annoyed I didn't think of DR NO. Had assumed the contest was THe something and wondered what "THE ILLA" was
This was a very difficult Saturday beyond my skills as well; congratulations Tom.
I agree about Phil Miekro not being a Yankee, except for two years. He was the Atlanta Braves for so many years and he and his brother share many records.
ALIVE TO, Wyandot people : HURON, ASTOLAT, ISOTONE all a challenge. I enjoyed reading about the Wynadot and wonder if the twon my mother was born in - ATTAWAUGAN - might have gotten its name grom that linguistic tree.
No power can change it and small seals were very fun clues.
Splynter, the highlight was you brilliant
HANWARD!
Good day to all!
Today's puzzle was beyond me. My hat is off to those who were able to complete it without Google help or red letters. NIEKRO, RILKE, TORELLI, ASTOLAT, and ROULEAU were all complete unknowns to me. Hand up for "ord" before UAL. Loved the clue "No power can change it" for ONE.
Terrific expo today, Splynter. Thanks for being our faithful Saturday guide.
Enjoy the day!
Too tough for me today, but it was nice to kill some time with Google and the red letter facility in the LAT web site. Unlike other difficult puzzles, I didn't get the sense of learning anything fun (or even interesting). Maybe if I were French...
Had too many incorrect synonyms like Shackle instead of Manacle. "Vert" for Paris green too obvious and wrong. Was convinced 14d was Tsunami which wouldn't mix with Vinegar! Is Enclasp really a word?
I cried "Uncle!", too demoralized to get even some that in retrospect look doable. I have TFAL pans, but missed it. I knew Calder was famous for mobiles, but I forgot about the stabiles. I never thought of Reuters as being British. I thought of enclasp, but dismissed it. I was so sure of ORD that I Googled it and let it stand.This is an example of how letting discouragement lead to not thinking clearly. I think my never-say-die, yes-I-can personality is changing, but it helps to see that I was in some very good company. Thanks for sharing.
No power can change it/one and wine product/vinegar were clever.
It is really freezing this AM after yesterday's lovely morning. Time for the wool peacoat. I got up at an ungodly hour this AM to turned up the heat.
Musings
-The Last Train to Natickville left without me – STABILE/RILKE was right!
-Four mostly isolated corners did add to the challenge
-Is there a news outlet that has no BIASES?
-His view as they SAW him IN
-“Whatever LOLA wants…”
-I’ll bet you know the movie where he took off and threw down his TIN STAR
-Bob Uecker – “The best way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling”
-For an ISOTOPE, you’d switch proton and neutron in that sentence
-Am I the only one who had to erase CAMELOT?
-A monster who believed in EUGENICS
-EBAY? Not so much. Amazon’s got everything and I just order it!
-Even Hercule Poirot does some LEGWORK -sporting his utilitarian walking stick
-Panic in the teachers lounge – The printer/copier has broken down
Good morning everyone.
Happy Birthday, Rich.
Tough one today. Help was needed.
ISOTOPE - The clue has it bass ackwards. Isotopes have the same atomic number, so the protons must be the same and the neutrons are different. Husker is right. The answer was obvious, though.
What I wanna know is whether the ISOTONE is pitched higher or lower than the ISOTOPE?
We had Ponderosa Steakhouses but they moved farther west. We now have Longhorn and Out back.
Time for Alan's weekly mall trip for lunch and then to the Y this afternoon.
Apparently, I'm not 100 % with it this morning as I posted a belated Happy Birthday to Rich and it's not here. The logical explanation is I didn't hit Publish. Why I didn't hit Publish is another question. In any case, Happy Birthday, Rich! 🎂🎉🎈🍾🎁
Dear Argyle and CC:
My apologies for the timing of my earlier comment, posted yesterday for today's puzzle.
Here's the problem: I live in California, so it wasn't a "wrong" placement -- it was the only placement possible at 0030 PST, since the LA Times doesn't release the crossword until midnight local time, and the Saturday blog wasn't up until 0130 PST (0330 CST) and I was off in bed long before then.
Otherwise, I see I was in wise company!
Tough, tough, tough, and took way too long not to finish correctly! Thanks, Roland, for a challenging morning.
Nice write-up, Splynter. Figured you would get your "legs" on LEGWORK!
Happy birthday, Rich!
Congratulations to all you who managed this puzzle on your own. I did not! What I knew was: ROCKETTE, RILKE, RON, UVEAL, EGO..., and TOILETTE to start with. Then managed a few fill here and there but most of the clues are so obscure and general that I finally researched many of them. Not in a thousand years would I have known NIEKRO.
One of my friends likes to quote from RILKE so that was familiar. I enjoy a challenge but this was brutal and demoralizing I'm sorry to say.
Thank you, Splynter, for your always uplifting commentary.
Have a wonderful day, everyone! It's a perfect autumn day here. Temps in the mid 80s.
The Ponderosa clue was Kinda tough...
But I guess I can't complain about toughness on a Saturday...
Sorry Rich, but because I have never seen a post from you on this Blog,
I cannot post you a cake...
• Odd to see EUGENIC, esp. clued in the context of "good breeding", as the Nazis' perversion of this concept led to the Holocaust.
• ISOTONE is about as obscure as it gets. It was coined from ISOTOPE but does not seem to have any practical significance.
• Odd to see ROULEAU clued as a French roll, as it has an established meaning In English:
1. A cylindrical packet of coins.
2. A coil or roll of ribbon, knitted wool, or other material, especially used as trimming.
• Finally, 1 raised to the power of 1/2 (i.e., the square root of 1) = either +1 or -1
So the clue should have been "no integral power can change it".
I could not solve this one. A total natick for me was at the crossing of RILKE and NIEKRO, whom, like Lucina, I would never have guessed in a thousand years. I had to do plenty of alphabet runs and still couldn't solve the whole thing. Alphabet runs with red letters turned on was the only way I could go. As Jinx said, I didn't get the sense of learning anything fun (or even interesting). At least the clue for ONE was excellent.
A riddle for Owen et al.:
Like Mata Hari
There's a number of kinks
But I laugh with the best
And look at the times!
Who am I?
Yeah, what Michael said.
the obscure ENCLASP was next to the unknown TORELLI, so the SE corner was doomed.
The only Ponderosa I knew of sells timber and cattle on Bonanza reruns. I never heard of Ponderosa Steak House so I googled it. They are all back east.
I gave it a shot, but this puzzle was just beyond my ability.
I'm so glad I'm in good company! Wowee!
Sorry, but this is yet ANOTHER example of a puzzle construction that does NOT want you to solve. There were just too many clues that just didn't "bear out". French roll? Uh, how about English, not French (again!!!). Roth IRA - would be advice a retirement planner might give you, by the time you talk to an estate planner your IRA should have been funded for years. Nuclides? Are you kidding me?
Happy Birthday, Rich.
But please don't let them make Saturday puzzles this hard. I clearly wasn't the only one frustrated to the point where it was no longer fun. Saturdays should be hard, but still doable to a somewhat larger extent than this. Sorry about the complaint.
Just f'ing FOULS: ALIVE TO, BEAR OUT.
Hi all!
A tale of 5 puzzles today. NW [filled THE CLUB out of the gate], SE, and fly-over-country was easy-ish [needed some serious perpitude].
NE and SW - DNF! Does anyone else read a clue and have no clue what it even means? [see: 8a, 27a, 52a, and 40a was printed as "[...] 5'6" to 5'101/2" tall"... (?) - a space would have saved me from mathing 101/2/12]
Thanks Roland - it was fun playing but I'll take a Click and Clack's puzzler (best of is being canceled :-( ) any day. Esp if there's a dimly-lit quonset hut!
Thanks Spynter for the answers. Makes me feel better to hear you and others had a rough go of it too. Question: Why click BUY IT NOW when you can just get one from the back of your truck? < //ducks >
To answer yours: our office printers holds 4 or 5 reams.
1^∞ = 1, yet 1/0 = computer un-STABILE structure
Enjoyed 10d, 44a, and Fav: UNGODLY hour (@:25). I look at people quizzically when people say "let's meet at 7" and I respond, "PM, right?"
Finally - hate'd UAL. Not for the c/a but because they STOLE Continental from HOU. And I nailed REUTERS 'cuz, as a good consultant does, researched my client. (Not that in getting 60a cleared anything up for the downs...)
{D-, A}
Happy Birthday Rich. You and Patti are absolute pros who make puzzles way-better than submitted (and I know).
Cheers, -T
Anon T, you've made my day a little grayer. First the campaign and election. Now you're reminding me that there will be no more Prairie Home Companion and Car Talk. It all makes me sad...
This was hard, even for Saturday. I would be embarrassed to tell you how much fill i had on the first pass. Then, I decided to work each corner separately starting in NE working down, across, then up to the NW. That seem to work. Got to the center and then finished. Lots of guesses though, thank God I was doing it on the computer or else I would have no eraser left.
C.C. created the puzzle for today's Wall Street Journal. It's definitely NOT a fun sponge like the LAT.
Bill G. Some stations may still carry Best-of Car Talk (fingers crossed Siruis-XM 122 does!). Re: The new guy, Chris, on PHC: He's a little much with the mandolin but he's still trying to fill the RED socks, er, getting his sea-LEGS -- WORK to be done but he's not bad. BTW - my favorite, still-alive poet, Billy Collins, is on this weekend's broadcast. [link for Manac & CED to fight it out :-)]
At least we still have Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me...
How's Barbara doing? Dr.s doing good by yous?
Cheers, -T
I always hesitate to complain about the clues because I've had comeuppances in the past - well, duh!! But, really, "cognizant of" - "alive to" - I wanted "aware" somewhere in the answer. Perps completed it, but I had to confirm here that it was correct, really? Meh, meh, meh! It was a toughie though - Barry Silk, where are you? Got Niekro (confused him with Joe, the 'Stro), ungodly [hour] (yes, I'm with you Anon-T!), manacle opened up the east which led to Rockette. Not a movie buff, so I had to google Burgundy, 1962 title villain and Jos. Wiseman; also Giuseppe (knew Verdi, but never heard of this guy - poor soul), so technically, a DNF I'd have to agree with all of you on the difficult portions. Fav - trawler for net user. Forty years ago, I worked for a small-town criminal attorney who owned shrimp boats, and I was the one who bought the provisions for the trips out.
I was saddened when Tom died - I absolutely loved Car Talk every Saturday a.m. on NPR! Those two were riots. Still enjoy Ray’s column in the Chronicle - reprints - but some I've missed over the years.
Splynter, I always look forward to your Saturday commentaries – they always include something somewhat offbeat and humorous!
AnonT, Barbara's doing OK day-to-day. The treatment is making her feel lousy much of the time with little appetite. It will be worth it if the long-term result is good. Here's hoping...
I didn't get a chance to do the LA Times puzzle today-out of town- but I picked up a Wall Street Journal in the hotel lobby. And saw a puzzle by our fearless leader, ZHOUQIN BURIKEL. I worked it while watching LSU and Arkansas in the 2nd half.
It took my last fill-SOFT C- to get the reverse spelling of company names. Only had one unknown filled by perps- HASTY for 'precipitate'. Being a Chemistry major 'precipitate' was a solid substance that falls out of solution. Congratulations on your WSJ Saturday puzzle. Never knew the other meaning.
Happy Birthday Rich and Happy Birthday to ME (tomorrow)
Hand up for considering CAMELOT. Still no idea about ASTOLAT. Total unknown.
Hand up for ORD before UAL. I have made a number of flights between LAX and ORD on UAL.
Hand up for VERT before PARC.
I actually play baroque music so TORELLI was not a total unknown. Pretty obscure, though.
TFAL may be regional. Never have seen it except in puzzles. "Portmanteau" I remember from "Alice in Wonderland".
WEES about ALIVE TO, BEAR OUT and ENCLASP. Those terms that no one ever uses are worse in some way than obscure words.
Agree that ISOTONE is not only obscure, but it seems to have no useful scientific value. I did read the clue carefully and decided the answer would be ISO-something and waited to see what came. NRA was the only FDR agency I knew with R in the middle, so I put it in and it helped complete a very difficult puzzle correctly.
The Lily Maid of Astolat. Nice reading. Lancelot comes riding by with Guinevere's ? and LMA decides to SHOW him!
Yesterday, I posted that all I could fill was Niekro and it looked like an UNGODLY puzzle. I had no time yesterday, got some ink down before church and ruminated about the SE all thru the rosary.
Said a few beads for Misty.
Finally, went with TOILETTE sans toiletry(sic) Got rid of VERT and VITAL. Horrible inky mess
But. When I cottoned to ALIVE(TO) I never changed 10d from FANS. Don't you like FANS better for Strike victims?
When I tell people that the Latimes xwords have a POWER of 2 difficulty scale from M-Sat, this will be exhibit A.
I see everyone gave up way, way too
early. I finished a 6/11 in July sometime.
Owen. Way too hard on yourself. I liked both of them.
The Great U R
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