Theme: Rocky Horrors, or Let's do the Time Warp. Allow the reveal to explain:
52A. Period needed to fulfill a request ... and a hint to words hidden in three long puzzle answers : TURNAROUND TIME.
The turnaround time for getting your car repaired when rats have chewed the main wiring harness to bits is three weeks. The dealer just called me to tell me my car is finally ready.
20A. Goal for some college-bound students : EARLY ADMISSION. (Day.) A higher percentage of early applications to the top schools result in admissions, vs. regular applications.
34A. Record-setting slugger in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame : SADAHARU OH. (Hour.) He olds the world lifetime home run record with 868. Like Babe Ruth, he started his career as a pitcher.
41A. Ocular organs of cephalopods, say : CAMERA EYES. (Year.) We have camera eyes too - apparently the octopus's version is superior to ours as the optic neve doesn't penetrate the retina, causing our blind spot in each eye.
Two genuinely obscure theme entries here (for me at least). It might be World Series fever time, but if you're going to throw me a fastball, a breaking ball, a curveball, a slider, a change-up and a knuckleball all in one baseball clue, you'd better be sure that the crosses are solid.
I'm also not a squid squint expert, so once again, please give me some help!
Fortunately, Mary Lou and Rich are good at this stuff, made tougher by the fact that five of the crosses intersect the two theme entries, Bravo!
Even when I'd filled in Mr. Oh, I simply couldn't parse his name. SADA HARUOH was my best guess, so I went to go look him up.
Let's see what else we've got:
Across:
1. Workbench gadget : CLAMP
6. Antlered beast : STAG
10. Glasses, in ads : SPEX. In comics, usually the X-Ray variety. I'd post you a punk rock link to the quite appalling Poly Styrene who had her 15 minutes of fame with the band X-Ray Spex in 1970's London. I quite liked them at the time, but the passage of time has not done them any favors.
14. Popular depilatory : RAZOR. Occam makes a reliable brand, I hear.
15. Campaign staffer : AIDE
16. Rochester's bride : EYRE
17. Part of the soft palate : UVULA
18. Lady of the knight : DAME
19. Concussions generally aren't visible on them : MRI'S
23. "What was __ was saying?" : IT I
24. Tie __ : ONE ON
25. Rat Pack member : LAWFORD. Peter. JFK's brother-in-law among other things.
29. Growing concerns? : FARMS
33. Like a used hibachi : ASHY
38. General on a menu : TSO. Never tried this concoction. Anyone?
39. Gadgets : DEVICES
40. One of 34-Across' 2,170 : R.B.I. Runs Batted In. I guess you'll get a ton of these when you hit a boatload of homers in your career.
43. Aspirin target : PAIN
44. Nocturnal carnivore : HYENA
45. Perambulates : STROLLS
47. Piece of cake : CINCH. Tried CRUMB, was wrong.
51. Poet's contraction : O'ER
58. Homey : COZY
59. Pack firmly : TAMP
60. "__ making this up" : I'M NOT
61. Spigot issue : DRIP
62. Site with tech reviews : C-NET
63. Trilateral trade agreement, briefly : NAFTA. North American Free Trade Agreement. Mexico, USA and Canada.
64. Tag line? : COST
65. Grinder : HERO
66. Speed units : KNOTS. Nautical miles per hour. The yacht I used to charter from Marina Del Rey would make somewhere around eight knots in a good sailing wind across to Catalina Island if the sails were trimmed just right. There's formula to calculate the maximum hull speed of a yacht, you can't just keep getting faster.
Down:
1. Mötley __ : CRUE. Should be pronounced "murt-ly" if we're going to pay attention to the umlaut, but of course we don't.
2. Fiery flow : LAVA
3. Bleu hue : AZUR. The French Riviera between Toulon and the Italian border is also known as the Côte d'Azur. The first time I saw it I couldn't believe a sea could be so blue, Growing up in England, I thought all seas were gray.
4. Placate : MOLLIFY
5. Beseech, as a deity : PRAY TO
6. Anti-DWI gp. : SADD. Tried MADD first, natch!
7. Venetian valentine message : TI AMO. This is a serious declaration in Italian.
8. Ones in charge, for short : ADMIN
9. Sixth-day Christmas gift : GEESE. A-laying. That's a lot of omelets just after Christmas.
10. Workshop : SEMINAR
11. One who likes to light up? : PYRO
12. "__ go bragh!" : ERIN. "Ireland Forever".
13. Chooses, with "in" : X'ES
21. Two-front, as a Coast Guard rescue : AIR-SEA.
22. Divans : SOFAS
25. Trunk piece : LATCH
26. Put a value on : ASSAY
27. Words before "Yeah, you!" : WHO, ME?
28. Brubeck of jazz : DAVE
30. Like much of New York : RURAL. Not "URBAN" then. Steady on there, Turbo!
31. Company with a longtime travel guide : MOBIL
32. They often have guards : SHINS
35. Self-help letters : D.I.Y.
36. Super-duper : ACES. I suppose that "aces" can mean "Super-duper" but I can't find a reference anywhere. Accept and move on.
37. 1959 Ben-Hur portrayer : HESTON. I think all that I remember of this movie is Charlton yelling "heYAR heYAR" at his horses in the chariot race.
39. Let out gradually : DRAIN
42. Use an Enigma machine, say : ENCRYPT
43. "Black Swan" Best Actress Oscar winner : PORTMAN. The very talented Natalie. Many people think she's related to British actor Eric - she's not.
46. Bad bottom line : RED INK
48. "No prob!" : NATCH!
49. Origami staple : CRANE. According to Japanese lore, if you fold 1,000 cranes in a single year, you will be granted a wish (or eternal good luck, depending on who you believe).
50. Reason to trot : HOMER. 868 reasons, in Oh-san's case as we heard earlier.
52. Corrida beast : TORO. Food! Oh, no, wait - that's tuna belly. Darn.
53. Israeli weapons : UZIS
54. Until : UP TO
55. Scoop : INFO
56. Suffragist Lucretia : MOTT. Her maiden name was Coffin, and her uncle, Mayhew Folger, was a whaling boat captain who found the last living "Mutiny on the Bounty" mutineer on Pitcairn Island. The things we learn.
57. RR station predictions : ETA'S
58. Govt. health org. : C.D.C. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Someone forgot the "P" in the abbreviation.
Oh look - here's the grid creeping up on me. I'd better skedaddle before I get flattened by it.
Steve
52A. Period needed to fulfill a request ... and a hint to words hidden in three long puzzle answers : TURNAROUND TIME.
The turnaround time for getting your car repaired when rats have chewed the main wiring harness to bits is three weeks. The dealer just called me to tell me my car is finally ready.
20A. Goal for some college-bound students : EARLY ADMISSION. (Day.) A higher percentage of early applications to the top schools result in admissions, vs. regular applications.
34A. Record-setting slugger in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame : SADAHARU OH. (Hour.) He olds the world lifetime home run record with 868. Like Babe Ruth, he started his career as a pitcher.
41A. Ocular organs of cephalopods, say : CAMERA EYES. (Year.) We have camera eyes too - apparently the octopus's version is superior to ours as the optic neve doesn't penetrate the retina, causing our blind spot in each eye.
Two genuinely obscure theme entries here (for me at least). It might be World Series fever time, but if you're going to throw me a fastball, a breaking ball, a curveball, a slider, a change-up and a knuckleball all in one baseball clue, you'd better be sure that the crosses are solid.
I'm also not a squid squint expert, so once again, please give me some help!
Fortunately, Mary Lou and Rich are good at this stuff, made tougher by the fact that five of the crosses intersect the two theme entries, Bravo!
Even when I'd filled in Mr. Oh, I simply couldn't parse his name. SADA HARUOH was my best guess, so I went to go look him up.
Let's see what else we've got:
Across:
1. Workbench gadget : CLAMP
6. Antlered beast : STAG
10. Glasses, in ads : SPEX. In comics, usually the X-Ray variety. I'd post you a punk rock link to the quite appalling Poly Styrene who had her 15 minutes of fame with the band X-Ray Spex in 1970's London. I quite liked them at the time, but the passage of time has not done them any favors.
14. Popular depilatory : RAZOR. Occam makes a reliable brand, I hear.
15. Campaign staffer : AIDE
16. Rochester's bride : EYRE
17. Part of the soft palate : UVULA
18. Lady of the knight : DAME
19. Concussions generally aren't visible on them : MRI'S
23. "What was __ was saying?" : IT I
24. Tie __ : ONE ON
25. Rat Pack member : LAWFORD. Peter. JFK's brother-in-law among other things.
29. Growing concerns? : FARMS
33. Like a used hibachi : ASHY
38. General on a menu : TSO. Never tried this concoction. Anyone?
39. Gadgets : DEVICES
40. One of 34-Across' 2,170 : R.B.I. Runs Batted In. I guess you'll get a ton of these when you hit a boatload of homers in your career.
43. Aspirin target : PAIN
44. Nocturnal carnivore : HYENA
45. Perambulates : STROLLS
47. Piece of cake : CINCH. Tried CRUMB, was wrong.
51. Poet's contraction : O'ER
Gliding o'er all, through all,
Through Nature, Time, and Space,
As a ship on the waters advancing,
The voyage of the soul—not life alone,
Death, many deaths I'll sing.
Walt Whitman.
58. Homey : COZY
59. Pack firmly : TAMP
60. "__ making this up" : I'M NOT
61. Spigot issue : DRIP
62. Site with tech reviews : C-NET
63. Trilateral trade agreement, briefly : NAFTA. North American Free Trade Agreement. Mexico, USA and Canada.
64. Tag line? : COST
65. Grinder : HERO
66. Speed units : KNOTS. Nautical miles per hour. The yacht I used to charter from Marina Del Rey would make somewhere around eight knots in a good sailing wind across to Catalina Island if the sails were trimmed just right. There's formula to calculate the maximum hull speed of a yacht, you can't just keep getting faster.
Down:
1. Mötley __ : CRUE. Should be pronounced "murt-ly" if we're going to pay attention to the umlaut, but of course we don't.
2. Fiery flow : LAVA
3. Bleu hue : AZUR. The French Riviera between Toulon and the Italian border is also known as the Côte d'Azur. The first time I saw it I couldn't believe a sea could be so blue, Growing up in England, I thought all seas were gray.
4. Placate : MOLLIFY
5. Beseech, as a deity : PRAY TO
6. Anti-DWI gp. : SADD. Tried MADD first, natch!
7. Venetian valentine message : TI AMO. This is a serious declaration in Italian.
8. Ones in charge, for short : ADMIN
9. Sixth-day Christmas gift : GEESE. A-laying. That's a lot of omelets just after Christmas.
10. Workshop : SEMINAR
11. One who likes to light up? : PYRO
12. "__ go bragh!" : ERIN. "Ireland Forever".
13. Chooses, with "in" : X'ES
21. Two-front, as a Coast Guard rescue : AIR-SEA.
22. Divans : SOFAS
25. Trunk piece : LATCH
26. Put a value on : ASSAY
27. Words before "Yeah, you!" : WHO, ME?
28. Brubeck of jazz : DAVE
30. Like much of New York : RURAL. Not "URBAN" then. Steady on there, Turbo!
31. Company with a longtime travel guide : MOBIL
32. They often have guards : SHINS
35. Self-help letters : D.I.Y.
36. Super-duper : ACES. I suppose that "aces" can mean "Super-duper" but I can't find a reference anywhere. Accept and move on.
37. 1959 Ben-Hur portrayer : HESTON. I think all that I remember of this movie is Charlton yelling "heYAR heYAR" at his horses in the chariot race.
39. Let out gradually : DRAIN
42. Use an Enigma machine, say : ENCRYPT
43. "Black Swan" Best Actress Oscar winner : PORTMAN. The very talented Natalie. Many people think she's related to British actor Eric - she's not.
46. Bad bottom line : RED INK
48. "No prob!" : NATCH!
49. Origami staple : CRANE. According to Japanese lore, if you fold 1,000 cranes in a single year, you will be granted a wish (or eternal good luck, depending on who you believe).
50. Reason to trot : HOMER. 868 reasons, in Oh-san's case as we heard earlier.
52. Corrida beast : TORO. Food! Oh, no, wait - that's tuna belly. Darn.
53. Israeli weapons : UZIS
54. Until : UP TO
55. Scoop : INFO
56. Suffragist Lucretia : MOTT. Her maiden name was Coffin, and her uncle, Mayhew Folger, was a whaling boat captain who found the last living "Mutiny on the Bounty" mutineer on Pitcairn Island. The things we learn.
57. RR station predictions : ETA'S
58. Govt. health org. : C.D.C. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Someone forgot the "P" in the abbreviation.
Oh look - here's the grid creeping up on me. I'd better skedaddle before I get flattened by it.
Steve
61 comments:
Not easy! I FIRight, but had to rely on a lot of ESP! What kind of ad uses SPEX? MRIs don't show injuries? RAZOR is a hair-removal cream? I can never remember if cephalopods are whales or octopi, but in either case, what do they have to do with CAMERAs? et cetera, etc.
FLORA>FAUNA>FARMS, HIT>RUN>RBI, ACHE>HEAD>PAIN, STRIDES>STROLLS, etc.
{B-, C, D+, C.}
Said the CRANE to the GEESE, "You're literate, I see,
Although it looks as if you only know 'V'!"
Honked the GEESE to the CRANE,
"It's really a shame
That you smell so gamey, since you're ORIGAMI!"
Does it seem strange when glasses are SPEX?
'Tacles' are X-ED, and replaced by just 'X'!
Or does it seem weird
When PYRO seared
There's no damage at all if they're made of Pyrex?
A CLAMP is designed to hold parts together,
A RAZOR is made for attached parts to sever!
Both these DEVICES
May COST different prices,
But this poem has no punchline whatsoever!
"NO PROB!", you may say, if the task is a CINCH,
A thing you can do it without moving an inch.
You're inclined to say "NATCH"
For a fact that, in fact,
Is a PIECE OF CAKE to prove in a pinch!
Greetings!
Thanks Mary Lou and Steve!
Nice Thursday offering.
Didn't know Mr. OH and had MADD before SADD.
Otherwise OK.
Am having trouble getting an ultrasound for my swollen foot. Have to see another primary doctor tomorrow.
Have a great day!
Morning, all!
Oh, hey -- new look to the blog! Looks nice.
This one was very challenging, I thought. Longest Thursday that I can remember. Couldn't figure out the them, didn't have a hope of guessing SADAHARU OH, and couldn't figure out how 41A could be CAMERA EYES. Oh, and the one member of the Rat Pack I apparently didn't know was LAWFORD. Elsewhere, it took forever to finally come up with SEMINAR based on the clue, since I was thinking "workshop" referred to a place and not an event. MOBIL makes travel guides? Who knew. And finally, ENCRYPTS was ENCODES for a very long time, which caused a lot of pain in the SW corner.
Tough all over, but eventually doable. It just took awhile to get there on my own.
Good morning!
Managed to muddle through to victory on this one, though when I saw SAD AHAROUH, I had my doubts. (Yup, tried MADD, Steve.) Tough one, Mary Lou, but fair.
Charlatan HESTON managed to cop the lead in most of the epics of his day. I guess once you can part the Red Sea, anything else is easy.
Took awhile to accept RAZOR as a "depilatory" -- I thought of a cream like Neet or Nair, not a device. But then, they all remove hair. I only shave on days when I'll be out in public. It's a result of the high cost of razor blades, not laziness. At least, that's my story...
I always thought General TSO's chicken, when delivered as standard Chinese takeout, was similar to sesame chicken, but a little spicier and without the sesame seeds.
Never really thought of the "X" in SPEX.
I remember it being said that Heston could find a reason to take his shirt off if he filmed a scene inside a freezer in Antarctica.
OH was about the only Japanese ballplayer I'd heard of before MLB began signing foreign players.
Yes, most of the acreage of upstate NY is at least RURAL if not Forever Wild in the Adirondacks. Not most of the people, though.
This darn near used up an entire eraser today. Breezed through the NW corner, but the rest of it turned out to be a gale force wind. Last fill was the crossing N for CNET & CRANE. It was a big time wag.
Knew SADAHARU OH, but had no idea how to spell it. Perps and wags filled it in eventually.
Peter LAWFORD never impressed me as a Rat Pack type. Wonder if he ever had anything to do with Angie D...?
CAMERA EYES new to me.
Kept trying to fit Net Loss into 46D, but it wouldn't fit. RED INK finally came to mind.
October may be over, but plenty of leaves remain. Usually finished with them by the week of Thanksgiving .
Good day to all!
This was a real slog for me today. The section around SADAHARU OH took forever to fill. Didn't get the theme until you explained it, Steve. Thanks for guiding us.
Enjoy the day!
I'm with you on this one Steve. I knew SADAHARU OH, just not how to spell his name. CAMERA EYES is a new one for me. I didn't gain EARLY ADMISSION to this class because even though I filled the theme answers, it was mostly through perps.
TIAMO, MOBIL, and especially NATCH and ACES were perped. I've never heard of them being used for 'No problem' or 'Super duper'. "piece of cake'- wanted SLICE and CRUMB before CINCH finally got there crossing the unknown NATCH.
D-O..I was also thinking of Neet and Nair. As far as shaving the last time my beard wasn't there was in 1970. I just trim it.
billocohoes- baseball's been signing Puerto Rican, Dominican Republic and other Caribbean players for years. Juan Marichal, Orlando Cepeda, Tony Oliva to name a few.
LAWFORD was a Kennedy in-law. Probably in charge of hustling women for Sammy, Frank, & Dean.
Thank you, Mary Lou Guizzo for this impressive challenge. Mostly it was a CINCH until Mr. HO's name. Perps all the way for that one. I had no idea about the theme and how eerie is it to have HOUR spelled backward in a name?
RBI and HOMER fit in nicely with last night's Cub's win. I'm not a sports fan but I was riveted to the game which was a nail biter. Congratulations to the Cubs.
Thanks again, Mary Lou and Steve. Your Occam remark had an edge to it.
Have a wonderful DAY, everyone!
Great Wednesday/Thursday level puzzle, Mary Lou. No problems or hangups. The only totally unknown was SADAHARU OH, easily perpable. CAMERA EYES was wagged from CAM---EY--, makes sense. Interesting expo, Steve.
I knew the slang, ACES meaning great. Everything is coming up aces. Everything is coming up roses.
I, too, looked for cream at first but soon switched to razor, which removes hair, too.
The Chinese/American dish General Tso's chicken is popular here, and is one of my favorites. It is deep fried chicken pieces in a sweet and slightly spicy sauce. I like mine extra spicy.
During indoor winter recesses during a very snowy winter my class folded 1000 cranes to send to the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima.
Link 1000 cranes
Good morning everyone.
Good puzzle today. Finally got the theme and was able to use it in spelling 24a, the Japanese baseball player. Last to fill was XES. Narrowly avoided having to look up a few. Nice job, Mary Lou.
RURAL - Briefly thought about 'paved' until it was clear what part of NY was in play.
50d - reason to trot - briefly thought of the Green Apple Two-step, but it wouldn't fit.
KNOTS - Steve, don't feel bad. Our LST's top speed circumnavigating Catalina Island over 4 days back in '58 was 11 KNOTS.
Have a great day.
DNF but I did about 90% or better. I missed a few in th NE corner and the center east. I had HIT and not RBI. Didn't know the ball player.
Now, getting back to Saturday, 10/29: HOSE HOLDER. I was viewing this on my phone so the picture was a bit small. I clicked on it hoping to enlarge it. Well, instead, it took me to a porn site. I always click the NOTIFY box so that it goes to my email. I found other readers' comments regarding that clue but no one else mentions the porn site. I was quite surprised.
Musings
-In the words of the Gershwin brothers, “Who could ask for anything more?” Clever cluing and a fun gimmick that needed the reveal!
-I knew the Japanese ballplayer but still put in HO at first. Couple that with ACHE/PAIN the East was a speed bump
-Trump had AIDE problems and now Hillary has them in spades
-Illl-read me always thinks first of this Rochester
-What was it I WAS… Look there goes a squirrel.
-JFK snubbed Sinatra by saying he couldn’t stay at Frank’s house where Sam Giancana, et al had slept. LAWFORD had to tell Sinatra and a furious Frank shut him out immediately and forever.
-I spent many a day running this TAMPER we called an elephant foot
-A wonderful WHO ME (Yeah you!) lyric in this infectious 50’s hit (2:18)
-Most of California is RURAL as well
-The chariot scene in Ben Hur still amazes
-An ENCRYPTED message Alan Turning sent as a child in The Imitation Game
-Who was told in song to “Look around you, all you see are sympathetic eyes , STROLL around the grounds until you feel at home”
-What a game last night for Nebraska’s governor Pete Ricketts whose family own the Cubs.
This was a tough one today from Mary Lou. Needed ESP and Red Letters to get through it. Steve's expo was very well detailed and provided the head slaps I needed after the puzzle was done.
Like others I had a problem with depilatory, but looking it up afterwards on Dictionary.com it just said "capable of removing hair." So I guess that creams (Neet & Nair,) scissors, and even the FLOWBEE shown on infomercials could be considered a depilatory.
Some other stumbling blocks were WARM vs COZY, TEAMO (Latin from high school days) vs TIAMO (Italian,) ? vs EYRE, MADD vs SADD (had to be one of them, just chose the wrong one,) SLICE (of cake) vs CINCH and ACHE vs PAIN. No clue on CAMERAEYES. Not even going to broach the unknown Japanese ball player.
Back when Service Stations gave away free maps (ancient history) I used to buy the Mobil Travel Guides when I was planning a vacation. Then I joined AAA and got theirs for free. The Mobil Travel Guide is now the Forbes Travel Guide. Everything is on-line today.
Today is National Men Make Dinner Day (first Thursday in November) with no BBQ or Grilling allowed. I'm going to go a step above PF & J sandwiches and make reservations and take DW out for dinner.
Everybody have a great day today.
Good Morning:
Well, this was a bit of a workout but strong perps pulled it all together. Had heard of Mr. Oh's achievements but had no idea of the spelling of his name. One silly entry I made was paper before crane! Ack! I did get the theme and found the "turnaround time."
Well done, Mary Lou and kudos to Steve, our wise and witty scribe!
From yesterday: oc4beach, the crab claws were delicious and will be again tonight! They come with a sauce but I make my own sans honey. And, yes, Gibbles chips are unique in flavor and oh so tasty! I think I may have to share with someone, as 24 bags is a lot of munching!
Also from yesterday, Bill G, thanks so much for that delightful link of the children being serenaded. Some of their facial expressions and reactions were priceless. The beautiful arias made this wet, gloomy morning a lot more pleasant. Merci beau coup!
Congrats to the Cubbies 🐻 and all of their long-suffering fans! ⚾️. Condolences to the Indians and their heart broken fans! 😪
Have a great day.
Nice to see Mary Lou on a more regular basis.
Also good to see Steve's cockney side, recognizing Sadaharu Oh " 'olds the world lifetime home run record with 868."
The sport may be called America's past time, but international players have been involved from early on and the number of countries supplying players is IMPRESSIVE .
HG: That would be Mrs. Robinson.
I, too, thought of Rochester from The Jack Benny Show, both on radio and TV, and remember how the commercials for Lucky Strike cigarettes were woven into the show's dialogue.
I have a college FR. so I can give all of you a little info on EARLY ADMISSION. The colleges would like you to think that all incoming freshman should do this because supposedly they get a leg up on the admission process and their chances of being admitted later on in the year diminish...wrong! If your HS Senior applies and is accepted for early admission they HAVE to commit to going there. My daughter's best friend EA'd for a school, got accepted in the middle of October actually for the following year, committed and 4 weeks later a FULL RIDE scholarship came in from another University and she had to decline it because she had EA'd the other school. I can't even begin to tell you how her parents feel paying 65k for a school that, rankings wise, is on par with the Univ. that she got the Full Ride from!
FOEREVER CUBS !!!!
I have not been able to publish after preview quite often lately. Any ideas???
Madame D is not interested in rewriting posts over and over.
Thanks
PS The Cubs won the World Series!! Did I really just write that?
Good morning all.
Up late last night. Still cannot believe that I fell asleep just before the end of the game. Wednesday afternoon through early last evening was a blur. Got a lot accomplished, but I was tired... Then, a couple of annoying problems on my laptop this morning. Downloaded an update from the manufacturer, but wasted an hour and a half...
Today's puzzle by Mary Lou Guizzo didn't take an hour and a half... The online clock says 22:58. Alas, a FIW (no melodic TADA upon filling in the last letter) for the third day in a row. 66.666667 % of the FIWs this week have been typos. Today the typo was hitting the S key instead of the D key while typing AsMISSION.
No real long delays, but I did have to think about many of the clues, and that added time.
Plus, had two entries that I didn't have to think about until it became obvious they were wrong.
- My use of the Enigma machine was to DECRYPT before I used it to ENCRYPT.
- When I got to 34A. "Record-setting slugger in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame", some neurons must have misfired because I auto-filled HIROHITO OH, and realized upon entering the last H that it was not Hirohito, it was SADAHARa OH. Much was written in the sports rags about OH's home run tally as Hammerin' Hank neared and passed The Babe. Anyway, RURAL made me change that last A to a U.
My "Poet's contraction" was EER before HESTON made me change it to our anthem's contraction OER. Wonder why they want to drop the V ? I neer would.
Liked the crossing of RURAL and FARMS. Liked that "Growing concerns" clue.
Liked the crossing of CINCH and NATCH. Both were relatively easy to suss.
Great job Mary Lou ! You too Steve. Enjoyed your review. And from yesterday, you too JzB. You guys rock !
desper=otto, "I guess once you can part the Red Sea, anything else is easy." Funny.
billocohes, like you, OH was the first Japanese player that I heard of.
hondo, Yup. Chasing leaves. John Deere died Tuesday afternoon. Can't pull the Agri-fab leaf sweeper without it. Had to get out the big Scag walk behind and Honda push mower and mulch them. BTW Casey looks great. Beautiful dog.
Madame D, I've found that entering my comments in notepad or word or any some such has saved much frustration. Comments entered directly into blogger seem to get lost for a myriad of reasons from time to time.
Currently, using the Preview function, followed by selecting "Publish Your Comments", will result in the nebulous error 400 "Bad Request" message. You can avoid that error by just publishing without previewing. CC has asked for help on the product support forum. Nothing definitive yet. I just checked.
I am happy for the Cubs fans and saddened for the Indians fans. Two heartbreaking Game Seven losses in twenty years. Hats off to the Cleveland ballclub. They showed their mettle.
Basic SAT vocabulary quiz .How will you do?
Link quiz
I agree with the solutions mentiomed. I have discovered writing and editing in WORD and then copying to the Comments section will let you avoid Preview which brings on the dreaded BAD REQUEST and dumps us from the blog.
OOPS. In my first post... shouldabeen "Tuesday afternoon through..."
OK, Cross Eyed Dave, here's one for you. Play the embedded video at Nov 2nd, 6:41 PM.
JJM, that's a sad story. You would think that the parents could get some seriously talented contracts law representation to review the Ts and Cs, and assess the viability of getting that early admissions contract voided.
I liked your SAT vocab quiz YR ! Missed five. DOH !
Hello Puzzlers -
WBS. The Japanese ball player was 100% perps.
For you puppy enthusiasts: I had to get help from C.C. and Husker in order to figure out picture posting, but here you go: Here's Persey!
TTP @ 1:05 - Cute cat clip! 🐱
Dudley @ 1:06 - Persey is pretty precious! Her coat is beautiful. 🐶
Glad to see some pet-picture parity. (Hint, hint Mr. Meow!)
Yellowrocks:
Tried the quiz. Some of the answers were as obtuse as this crossword's.
Nice to see DEMAGOGUE though - nothing to trump that one......
To ASSAY does NOT mean to put a value on, at least not directly. It only means to test or analyze something. One might then place a value on it based on its content.
Just a reminder for anyone traveling to Britain or the Commonwealth. In those lands, HOMELY does NOT mean unattractive, it means pretty much the same as HOMEY.
Challenging Thursday puzzle, Mary Lou. Had to work really, really hard on this one, and stopped to do a Sudoku to relax, forgetting that I had left two letters blank that turned out to be the X in XES and the D in DIY. Good thing, because I got everything else and would probably have messed up those two. So, Yay! not too bad for a tough Thursday.
Would not have gotten the theme without your explanation, Steve. And how cool of you to give us a (sad) Whitman verse after the WALT Whitman item yesterday. Have to admit I still don't understand how GRINDER and HERO are connected. Is it a sandwich thing?
Fermatprime, so sorry to hear you still haven't gotten help with your swollen foot.
Pat, Irish Miss, Dudley, and Keith, thank you so much for the kind words yesterday. It looks as though my face cancer thing is healing well, and I don't have to go back for any more work. But I was warned that if you have one of these, there are more in the offing, so I'll have to get checked out regularly.
Have a great day, everybody!
"No problem" = NATCH? I don't think so.
"Depilatory" = RAZOR? I don't think so.
"Chooses" = XES "in"? I don't think so.
"Super duper" = ACES? I don't think so.
WNCS: To "put a value on" is to ASSESS, not ASSAY.
TTP,great job, a respectable 87.5% is a B+. There were some choices where I thought it was a stretch or I had a better answer. However, as with crosswords, I stay flexible, accept what is given, eliminate the flat out wrong answers and choose the most likely. Open mindedness is key. Parsing it too finely and nit picking leads to trouble in this quiz and in crosswords. Also we need to watch out for words that have different meanings but are spelled nearly alike. I nailed it at 40/40.
Dudley, what a cutie!
Irish Miss, I'm glad you enjoyed the link late last night.
On the Vocab Quiz, I missed two (95 percent) but I made good guesses at a few of them.
TTP and Hondo - you are not alone! My own trees produce plenty of leaves, but now I gather up a few million more for the elderly neighbor next door. This is the first year I'm using a leaf vac with a long hose and a cobbled together trailer - it began as an experiment, and now I'm wondering how I ever got along without this equipment. The trick is that the vac is a shredder, and therefore it reduces the leaves practically to powder. You can cram a lot into a load.
Misty@1:38pm: Where I come from a GRINDER is the same as a SUB, HERO, POORBOY or HOAGIE that has been heated, either in an oven or a Salamander oven. QUIZNO's sandwiches are heated and can be considered Grinders.
I Googled one clue (for SADAHARU OH) but otherwise got it all with no errors, which is typical for me on Thursdays. However I didn't enjoy this one much. I just got an uncomfortable feeling that many of the clues were stretched to the breaking point. Kind of like going to a staff dinner and sitting next to the boss's biggest toady. In fact, for my money the best thing about today's trip here was Persey's beautiful picture. Good luck with her, Dudley. Our greyhound doesn't have much time left.
Misty - In Virginia, a grinder is a type of submarine sandwich. Hand up for mADD before SADD. Loved the reference to Occam's RAZOR in Steve's write-up.
It takes a big pleasure boat to have a hull speed of 8 knots. As displacement boats are pushed faster than hull speed they get lower and lower in the water. Lore has it that old time sailing ships caught in squalls were sometimes "sailed under", not being able to get enough sail area down in time and going faster and faster until the sea was higher than the gunnels. All hulls aren't the displacement type and aren't bound by hull speed. These are called planing hulls. Ski boats are examples. I once got my 33 foot sailboat going almost 20 knots for about 15 minutes on a plane going across the Chesapeake Bay. Most catamarans and trimarans are also not bound by hull speed.
Thanks Steve for the informative write up.
Good Thursday puzzle. Thanks Mary Lou and Steve.
I did not see the theme until I got here. I did look for TIME turned around and was stymied.
Hand up for Slice before CINCH, Madd before SADD, wanting Neat or Nair before RAZOR, and not knowing Mr. OH.
I enjoyed the timely baseball clues with last night's Cubs' win.
Also enjoyed your work today, OwenKL, especially the first and last verses.
We saw HYENAS on a nighttime safari in Kenya. Very scary, ugly creatures when seen hunting in packs, their eyes shining out of the darkness!
NAFTA was a given (although I wondered about the TA when Trade Agreement was in the clue!). Will the result of your upcoming election have any effect on this? No political discussion!
Sometimes I right-click, select all and copy before I go to Preview. Then if I get an error, I can just paste my comment again. (Glad that I did it today as this is my second entry so there must be an error problem today with preview - Thanks for the warning Madame D!)
Anon@1:41 I recommend open mindedness. A closed mind learns nothing.
Excellent pzl, Mary Lou Guizzo! You delivered everything I look for while still remaining within my solvable range. My first test is whether I can fill a diagonal from 1-A through the last bottom right, 66-A in this one. (This is my "secret" test, peculiar to me.) Next I look for a few necessary write-overs (MADD for SADD, SEMISET for SEMINAR). Then some foreign words (TI AMO) and lastly a complete unknown that only appears through perps--SADAHARU OH!
Like Steve and others, I had no idea of Mr. Oh, or Oh-San. Thank you for educating us. He seems to be quite the phenom. We often forget how widespread baseball is, especially in the wake of our World Series. (And what an incredible last game that was!) Oh-San not only holds the home run record but played his entire career for one team, the Yomiuri Giants. He then went on to manage the Japanese National Team in their victory over the Cuban team in the first World Baseball Classic in 2006.
Some of you know this, but it was news to me. Played every four years, the World Baseball Classic may not be the same as our World Series, but this "other" world competition reminds us that the game is truly international.
Thank you, Mary Lou, for the Thursday work-out. I had all the problems already discussed, but enjoyed it anyway. I needed your expo, Steve, to explain the theme and a few answers. Thank you for that.
Favorite clue/answer: 44a Nocturnal carnivore/HYENA. One of my nieces is in Kenya on a 12 month paid internship studying hyenas. Only 11 months left to her trip. She spent 6 weeks there last year so she knew what she was getting into. No electricity, no running water, wash clothes in the river pounding them with rocks. She'll have some stories to tell!
Dudley, that's one cute puppy! Give her a tummy rub for me, please!
Misty, good news about the healing!
TTP, I got an 85% on the quiz. Not too shabby.
Happy Thursday!
Pat
Nostalgia time. Steve, your reference to the AZUR or blue of the Mediterranean along the Riviera, or Côte d'Azur, took me back to 1972, when my wife and I were driving from Italy, just looking for touristy sights. The Italian coast was lovely, but there was something remarkably different about the light and color when we crossed into France. We skipped by the crowds in Nice and Cannes, thinking we might stop in St. Tropez. But that too was crowded, so we doubled back to a much smaller and quieter retreat, a village-like town called Ste. Maxime-sur-Mer.
I suppose it is built-up now, but back then it was a cozy hideaway right on the sea, that glorious deep blue ocean. You grew up in England where the water looked grey. I'm from San Francisco, where the beautiful Bay often looks choppy and both the ocean and bay are really too cold for pleasure swimming. The coves at Ste. Maxime were perfect in color and temperature. We ended up staying for two weeks in an ocean-view room in the Hotel Brutus, where I could practically leap from our front door into the sea. We'd nap in the afternoons, then stroll to a Vietnamese restaurant for supper. There was an outdoor dance band near our hotel and a few art galleries--but none of the more lavish (garish) tourist businesses that dominated the more famous towns.
I wonder how Ste. Maxime is doing these days...
From the dictionary:
assay
the testing of a metal or ore to determine its ingredients and quality.
examine (something) in order to assess its nature.
"stepping inside, I quickly assayed the clientele"
synonyms:evaluate, assess, appraise, analyze, examine, test, inspect, scrutinize, probe
"gold is assayed to determine its purity"
I didn't find this crossword too difficult, even though some of the clues/answers were a bit of a stretch as others have noted. I got it done in typical Thursday time or maybe a little less. I suppose it helped knowing Sadaharu Oh, although I had to leave the last syllable blank, waiting for perps. Fun puzzle and excellent write-up. Thank you two for both.
FWIW I agree with JIN's explanation of the various similar sandwich types. In Groton, CN a grinder is any sub that has been heated. No salad on top, please.
Hands up for the leaf-collecting woes. I went with a mulching mower for my last lawn tractor purchase, so I don't rake anymore. I just have to remember to lower the deck to give the mower the maximum mulching opportunity. Our yard at the Bluehen Bonanza is full of Saw Leaf Oak trees, and this has been a banner year for acorns. Brazilians of them. ("Uh, Murray, How many exactly is a Brazilian?") One pleasant side effect is that we have deer in our yard eating them nearly every evening. The squirrels, OTOH, prefer the wild bird seed that DW puts in our window ledge feeder. Go figure.
Thanks for the link to the vocabulary test, YR. I missed two. I should have slowed down. I take every test as though it is timed and my hair is on fire. I feel that I should have done better.
How 'bout them Cubbies! I know that somewhere up there my dad is looking down and smiling from ear to ear. Such a long suffering fan.
Enough for now. Cya!
TURN AROUND TIME ... was that a CSO to the Chicago Cubs???
Hmmm, Down 3 games to 1 (after Saturday's game) ... come back and won 4 games to 3 ...
Condolence to the Cleveland Indian fans ... it was a Great World Series.
(Largest baseball TV Ratings in 25 years, over 40 million watched last night).
Cheers!!!
ACES was a wag for me. MOTT was all perps, but I'm happy for her efforts. My wife and I occasionally negate each other at election time, but if I had to choose only one of us to vote, it would be she.
My fall leaves solution = lawn service. I used to fill nearly 200 bags of oak leaves at my former house. More and more I hire out what I can afford. This formerly independent DIY person has been tamed.My types A personality is leaning toward B+.
SPOILER ALERT: If you want to do the quiz and have an accurate score, do not read my comments
I always wondered why the standardized tests rely on misleading people in their answers? I do well on those tests so the quiz was not hard but some of the choices were stretches or misleading. For example MERETRICIOUS is to me sleazier than just gaudy which is only flashy. Vocabulary is often easier if you have studied Latin to recognize root words. In any event, I did feel the ravages of age in my response time to some of them. Thanks for posting.
Dang auto correct. Thesaurus gives valueless, tawdry, gaudy as synonyms for meritricious. The quiz is correct here. There are different shades of sleazinees implied by this word.
Just
Some
Silly
turn around time
links...
Jim in Norfolk- while hull speed should be optimal for a boat, it is not always the best use of fuel. I had a 41' Bristol boat with twin diesels. At 1500 rpm doing 8 knots it used half the fuel that doing 11 knots at over 2000 rpm. I found that anything over 1500 rpm just wasted fuel. It's a boat, not a plane so the time really doesn't matter.
Big Easy and others:
The power needed to drive a vessel through water increases as the cube of the speed. That's why cruise ships don't usually go above ~ 18 knots; probably a sweet spot when factoring in other overhead costs.
Our destroyer which could go 36 knots on 4 boilers, would transit at 13 knots and 1 boiler if operations permitted.
Dudley, thanks so much for your time in posting Persey's glamour shot. (And thank you, CC and HG for your technical support.) She's a real cutie and looks like she has quite a personality. I can tell from her rounded tummy and collection of toys that she is a pampered pooch, as all dogs should be. (Sorry, C-E-D)
Not being into baseball, I had not a clue about the Japanese HOFer; luckily the perps came to the rescue.
Happy for the Cubs - 106 years is a long time! D-O/Anon-T, bet the Astros can beat that record. (Oops, they haven't ever won a World Series to start with, so nevermind.)
Sorry, it it is "SPECS" in every ad,I've ever seen. And I wear them. Have never ever ever seen SPEX in an ad. Never.
And now we're supposed to know JAPANESE baseball players. Really? Maybe in a Japanese crossword.
I solved this with no joy. Sloppy cluing, made up answers. A really bad puzzle.
NJ has increased our gas tax by 23¢ per gallon for infrastructure improvement. A ballot question asks whether we want to dedicate these funds soley for road and bridge improvements. Many people plan to vote no,thinking to oppose this tax. This will not negate the tax, a done deal. A no vote will enable the state to use this tax for purposes other than transportation improvement.It is scary that voters do not always know what they are voting for. There is so much BS out there.
Iconic comic book ad for SPEX.
Yellowrocks - The pols have optimized their ability to fool the dumb masses. When I was a kid, our state sales tax was approved by voters largely because its name implied that it was a veterans support bill. Now, as an old man, I see TV ads supporting the expansion of our local debacle of light rail that show happy people riding to the airport and the US Navy base, neither of which are part of the proposal - it would only extend service to the Beach. We already have the dubious distinction of having the highest taxpayer subsidization rate in the nation, over $6 per ride. Sadly, the proposal very well may pass. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, I'm just an average voter.
Oh. My! Thumper and I will sit this one out . And I got most of it...but no pleasure.
Owen you saved the day! As usual. Today's offering was good. Yesterday's was marvelous!!.
where did my comment that I was wrong again go? I was wrong again
Hi all!
TIN - Great Theme / Cubs tie-in! How many gods did you PRAY TO? I think I got to 11 :-)
I was in KNOTS for hours, elated, nearly Tied ONE ON, and couldn't come down until about 3:30a after the Cubs win! I overslept this morning so I'm making it UP TO boss-man now.
Wow Mary Lou - that was hard (but fair). Last 2 squares were WAG'd - DA in Dave (28d). Almost nailed it but left an I in SADAHARU OH for iCES. Thanks Steve for catching my error and the fun writeup - I giggled at Occam.
WOs: WEES MADD@1st. ASSes b/f ASSAY and deCoded until I fixed the CRYPTIC tense.
ESPs: LAWFORD, PORTMAN, and 34a - I was really hoping RBI guy was going to be HU.
Fav: CAMERA EYE. Nothing to do with a cephalopod - it's RUSH. It's a neat song if you have 10 min and listen to the words.
{B+, C-, A, B}
Fermatprime - sorry to hear about your trials getting your foot fixed.
Oc4 - I made dinner tonight - last Sunday. We're still MOLLIFied w/ my veggie soup.
TTP - Fell asleep?!? So I guess that wasn't you on NPR being interviewed at 4a at Harry Caray's :-)
JJM - Eldest is College shopping now (OU!) - what is the penalty for breaking the EA commit? I'd love Eldest at OU but a free ride at U. State U. would be a no-brainer.
TXMs - Before the season started, Sports Illustrated predicted an Astros / Cubs WS. They was 1/2 right. If we don't blow up the team, the 'Stros have a good shot in '17 and '18.
Alright, back to work TAMPing out a quirk in my query.
Cheers, -T
YR - I kept trying to take the quiz but after 2 questions I was an "iPad Winner!" of likely iPad-malware. I did get both answers right both times (different questions too). Small sample but I'll take the small win :-)
JJM - Please let me know re: EA commit. I think Youngest just got an EA offer from Whatsamatta U.
CED - #3 LOL; TTP - I call fan interference!
Time for bed... Query quirk fixed. It's quasi-predictive re: who's planing on jumping ship and how much data do they plan to jump with. Wicked cool.
I've met Big Brother - IT is I.
Cheers, -T
This was a tougher than usual Thur. CRANE left me hanging. Any explanation of Origami and Cranes will be appreciated. I'll be back
I guessed they were looking for Peter Lawford but I needed a few perps to remember him. He was a friend of MM's and I believe discovered the body.
The whole mess involving MM,JFK,RFK,Ari,the Pack,the Mob etc fills terabytes on the Net.
The X at the top NE corner was last to fill. I knew OH but wagged the spelling.
WS is over, finally. Exciting as it was, I went to sleep when it went to extras. Maddon escaped Bartmanish infamy by winning.
Back to golf. I see Huh,Na,Brown,Kaufman are all playing in Las Vegas this week
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Oh. 80% on the Vocab quiz. Explains BESPACLED one might say.
WC in the ether again. I finished about 3:00pm but I read the blog etc and finally am posting.
Oh. Excellent puzzle, write-up and Owen, nothing less than B and I really liked #2
Origami Crane.
Thx Jayce. Today I learned about PALMs facing forward to convey"Enough already"
Did you get my golf "Joke". Think of Kaufman pronounced German style.
You will then have my permission to groan as loudly as want
After getting DAY and YEAR I was sure the mystery Japanese ball player had to have WEEK or MONTH (reversed) in his name. HOUR was slow to come to me!
Hand up for deCRYPT before ENCRYPT and MADD really had me stuck for awhile.
After so many puzzles with General TSO chicken, I finally decided to have some last week at my favorite Chinese restaurant. It was too sweet for my taste. Kung Pao is much better!
Agree that ACES as Super-Duper was an unknown to me. Got it as a WAG to complete the puzzle.
I also did not know LAWFORD was a rat pack member. Interesting story about JFK and one more mob story about Sinatra.
In 2009 I drove with my then-girlfriend from Boston to Niagara Falls. New York really is mostly RURAL!
And I also always, always do a copy and paste into Notepad any time I fill in a form on line! It is so frustrating otherwise to lose what has been entered! If it is a form to email a company I also save the file!
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