google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, December 13, 2016 C. C. Burnikel

Advertisements

Dec 13, 2016

Tuesday, December 13, 2016 C. C. Burnikel

Theme:



17. Of the poorest quality : THIRD CLASS. Skip class.

35. Novel or short story, say : LITERARY WORK. Skip work.

43. Fashionable dude : MAN ABOUT TOWN. Skip town. I saw the M and thought METRO SEXUAL. Nope.

62. Well-hit line drive, in baseball jargon : FROZEN ROPE. Skip rope.

50. "Never mind" ... or what one might do with the last word of 17-, 35-, 43- and 62-Across : SKIP IT

Melissa here. Another stellar offering from our C.C., with a clever theme. A mostly smooth ride, save for a few wrong turns that sorted out pretty easily.
 
Across

1. "And another thing ... " : ALSO

5. Up on the latest info : AWARE

10. Not yet paid : OWED

14. California wine valley : NAPA

15. Gathered, as autumn leaves : RAKED

16. Tree fruit : PEAR

19. The "I" in MIT: Abbr. : INST

20. Long stretch : EON

21. Communication syst. for the hearing-impaired : ASL

22. Jury __ : DUTY

23. Southern speech quality : DRAWL

25. Heart exam: Abbr. : ECG

28. One of the five basic tastes : UMAMI. From Wikipedia: a savory taste, is one of the five basic tastes (together with sweetness, sourness, bitterness, and saltiness). A loanword from the Japanese (うま味 ?), umami can be translated as "pleasant savory taste."

30. Inventor Howe : ELIAS

32. River through southern Russia : URAL

34. Armed conflict : WAR

38. "If I may cut in ... " : AHEM. First snag, needed perps.

41. Typically reddish-brown ape : ORANG

42. Varieties : ILKS

46. "The A-Team" muscleman : MR. T. Without the period, it doesn't make much sense does it? Our new kitten is responsible for the missing period key on my keyboard - now all my sentences will be run on sentences I mean I could just use other punctuation but I'll be questioning everything or exclaiming it, my posts will all become inquisitive and philosophical or just very exciting or I could play the semicolon game; but honestly who uses it like what does that even do you can't just end a sentence with a semicolon that's it I'm screwed;

47. Pet food brand : ALPO

48. Bottle parts : NECKS

51. "Waiting for Lefty" playwright Clifford : ODETS. Wikipedia.

  
53. Capote nickname : TRU

55. Calendar periods : WEEKS

57. Canadian tribe : CREE

58. Sgt., e.g. : NCO

60. Zero : NIL

61. Dog treat : BONE

66. Choice on the fairway : IRON

67. Ruined : DID IN

68. Big Apple stage award : OBIE. Honoring excellence in off-Broadway and off-off Broadway theatre.

69. Like morning grass : DEWY

70. Well-practiced : ADEPT

71. Politician Romney : MITT

Down

1. Fed the pot : ANTED

2. Pakistani city : LAHORE

Second largest city in Pakistan, and home of the famous Liberty Market:


 3. Kind of column or cord : SPINAL. Or tap.

4. Dinghy blade : OAR

5. Fly ball paths : ARCS

6. 2008 Pixar robot : WALLE

7. Letters before an alias : AKA

8. Hi-__ graphics : RES. Tripped up here with DEF first.

9. Magazine VIPs : EDs

10. Poppy narcotic : OPIUM

11. Left the 44-Down sans permission : WENT AWOL

12. Patsy : EASY MARK

13. Richard Gere title role : DR. T

18. __ Lama : DALAI

 22. Fittingly : DULY

24. The name Fred yells at the end of "The Flintstones" closing theme song : WILMA

26. Museum manager : CURATOR

27. Research funding : GRANT

29. Bugs : IRKS. Nice crossing of ILKS and IRKS.

31. Happy hour perch : STOOL

33. Noble gas : ARGON

36. Blow up : ERUPT

37. Pained reaction : WINCE

38. Rifle range rounds : AMMO

39. Dyed-in-the-wool : HARDCORE

40. Words to click on at a sweepstakes website : ENTER NOW

44. Army outpost : BASE. Not FORT.

45. Cry of victory : WE WON

49. Jedi Master Obi-Wan __ : KENOBI

52. Itsy-bitsy : TEENY. W or T?

54. Open, as a parka : UNZIP

56. Icy precipitation : SLEET

59. Small change : CENT

61. eBay action : BID

62. Big Pharma watchdog: Abbr. : FDA

63. Cleared (of) : RID

64. Poem of praise : ODE

65. CD-__ : ROM


51 comments:

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks to CC and mb!

Cute theme.

I always spell UMAMI wrong the first time. No nits.

Had long trip to ophthalmologist and back is killing me.

Have a great day!

OwenKL said...

My Firefox keeps freezing, so after 3 hours last night (during commercials, starting with MARS on NatGeo) I gave up, and switched to the new Chrome I downloaded just yesterday. Then Cruciverb jinks out, and no .puz file!? First time working the new app at the LAT website, and it's on a new browser?! Didn't get the theme before the reveal, but was distracted by the new interface, so didn't try as hard as I might have.

{R, B-, B, C, B.}

Are you ALSO AWARE of how much is OWED
To a pair with a PEAR, and the cuz of a toad?
Where Adam was alone,
Till he gave Eve his BONE,
And his snake did its work, and got RID of a load!

A LITERARY WORK once flowed by ink from a pen.
Then changed to typer ink, then changed again!
Now novel dreams
Are ions on screens!
Next gen will be UMAMI -- "Pour a story? Say when!"

When your vertebrae WENT AWOL, it felt homicidal!
Standing was vetoed by pains that were SPINAL!
It all felt like heck
From coccyx to NECK!
But compared to my paper-cut, that hurt was a trifle!

DR.T and MR.T weren't going anywhere.
Mrs. T and Ms. T were fussing with their hair.
Said dad to son,
"They're never done
But of what they do, no man's AWARE!"

ELIAS RAKED his lawn to get
It looking like a movie set!
He felt his DUTY
To make such beauty --
At shaming his neighbors, he was ADEPT!

Hungry Mother said...

This one played a bit tough for me, with MANABOUTTOWN being my main problem.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Didn't notice that this was a C.C. puzzle until Melissa reminded me. Where was the baseball stuff -- OK, FROZEN ROPE and "Flyball paths," but even I managed to get those. Thanks, C.C. Melissa, I enjoyed your frustrated dissertation on punctuation. You're going to have problems addressing email and entering URL's in your browser. No fun. Period. :)

Anonymous said...

Funny way to spell KURATOR.

TTP said...


Good morning all. Thank you CC and Melissa Bee.

Nice clean puzzle. Thought the theme would have something to do with the second word in the four long answers, but couldn't quite figure it out until I filled in the reveal.

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Melissa and friends. Easy Tuesday puzzle. I am not familiar with the term FROZEN ROPE, but I knew that Rope was something that could be SKIPed, and the perps helped with solving the FROZEN part.

Funny to see both Dr. T and Mr. T in the same puzzle.

QOD: Every morning I have something to do, I’m better off. It’s bad to get up and not have something to do. ~ Dick Van Dyke (b. Dec. 13, 1925)

Oas said...

Ekg got me untili looked up the defintion Ekg and Ecg are both right abbr for electrocardiogram. Umami was unknown , makes sense it would come from japanese. Fun puzzle fairly quick solve thanx

thehondohurricane said...

This SKIP came very close to saying S...W IT today!

UMAMI, DRT, WALLE, KENOBI, RES (or is it kES?) Liked awake for a while, but AWARE came around. The north was a wag fest today and rather then considering myself successful, I'll go with lucky. Knowing it was a CC offering, in addition to the previous unknowns, her baseball clue might be an obscurity such as "name the only midget to play major league baseball?"

Still think OWEs is a better fit then OWED for 10A, but I did go with the D.

Thank you Melissa for the write up, should have read it before starting the solve. Would have finished it a lot quicker.

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning.

It's been a VERY busy week here. Cooking, knitting, and shipping. Did I mention knitting!? I'n not sure when I will ever learn that an idea for Christmas should be cast on when the idea emerges--June, July--but not December! Plus I have missed my puzzles and Jeopardy all week. If I can Binge Watch Jeopardy, so it follows, I could Binge Solve!!

Thanks, C.C., for a delightful Tuesday. I love baseball jargon--the best of any sport, so FROZEN ROPE was a gimme. JURY DUTY came in a flash as I just received notice to appear at our criminal courthouse. I asked to be excused in October because we were leaving for a trip. That notice was standby. No such luck this time. It will be the first week in January. There's almost no court action in Cook County during the holidays.

Thanks, Melissa for the explication.

Tinbeni said...

Good Job on the write-up Melissa.
Thank You for a FUN Tuesday puzzle C.C.

Fave today, of course, was that Happy Hour bar STOOL, go figure.

Needed ESP to get the basis taste UMAMI otherwise a speed-run.

Cheers!

Big Easy said...

Good Morning. I never SKIPped CLASS, WORK, TOWN and was pretty bad at skipping ROPE. I never caught the theme or knew who the constructor was until I clicked on this site, but the FROZEN ROPE fill baseball clue hinted at C.C.

UMUMI- okay, but I thought there were only THREE basic tastes for the MAN ABOUT TOWN- WINE, WOMEN & SONG.
MR. T. & DR. T- Everybody knows who MR T is but DR. T was a total unknown to me.

Pixar- I always thought the company was started by Steve Jobs but I was reading an article yesterday that it was GEORGE LUCAS's company, who sold it to him in 1986.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

I saw that CC was our creator today, and assumed it would be high quality and a bit crunchy for a Tuesday. I was right on the first part but dead wrong on the second. I did erase yEarS for WEEKS. The unknowns - UMAMI, Clifford ODETS, LAHORE and WALLE - were easily dealt with by the perps.

My favorites today were MR and DR T. Couldn't find a least favorite today - no surprise with CC at the helm. My favorite part of Melissa's tour was the cat story. Thanks to both for a fun morning.

unclefred said...

Started quickly then bogged down in middle so went to bottom and worked my way up. Didn't know UMAMI, needed perps. Thanx CC for a terrific, fun CW! Thanx MB for a great write-up.

inanehiker said...

Quick solve today - learning moment WEES about FROZEN ROPE, but easily filled with perps.

Happy Tuesday!

Thanks Melissa and CC!

Chief Petosegay said...

Went very smoothly this morning. Nice puzzle.

Seeing NECKS and having just watched It's a Wonderful Life on Saturday, I thought of the scene where George states his plans for the evening.

"All right, Mother, old Building and Loan pal, I think I'll go out and find a girl and do a little passionate necking."

Anonymous said...

2016 income taxes are not yet paid. They are still owed.

MJ said...

Good morning to all!

Great puzzle today. Have never heard the term FROZEN ROPE, and though I've probably seen the word UMAMI before, I needed 100% perps to fill it in today. Thanks, C.C., for the puzzle, and thanks, Melissa for the tour.

Enjoy the day!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Just what the doctor (Not Dr. T.) ordered: a clever theme, fun and fresh fill, and a surprising reveal! You hit a Grand Slam with this one, CC, I really enjoyed it. I don't think I had any write-overs, so all went smoothly. Umami is referred to quite often on the cooking shows. I used to watch the Food Network and The Cooking Channel a lot but not anymore; they started out by teaching culinary techniques but morphed into dollar-driven entertainment venues. However, PBS still offers several shows worth watching, even though most of them are repeats.

Well done, CC, you made my day and thanks, Melissa, for the guided tour.

The good news is that the Mayor's proposed budget requiring a 28 % property tax increase was defeated; the bad news is that the increase is going to be 14.5 %, still a harsh blow. The irony in all of this is that the previous mayor, who just left office this year, was an accounting professor at a local college. I hope his teaching ability is better than his fiscal management skills. Oh well, as my husband used to say, "It's only money!"

Have a great day.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-A lovely Tuesday puzzle whose theme escaped me until the reveal
-SKIP CLASS – “Hey, it’s at 4 o’clock on Friday afternoon”
-AWARE – Just because it’s on the Internet…
-A wonderful passage about being OWED (mostly ignored today)
-PUZZLE in ASL
-I remember Ed McMahon pitching ALPO on The Tonight Show
-What a corn detassler wears in a DEWY field
-Because of her daughter, my 94-year-old MIL is not an EASY MARK
-Wanna be IRKED, Google the stupidest things that get gov’t GRANTS
-Our kitty wants to go for a walk in this 16˚F weather. I’ll be right back!

desper-otto said...

IM, here in Texas many municipalities (including the one where I live) freezes property taxes at age 65. The valuations still change, but the actual dollar amount of the tax does not increase. My county, school district, community college and city taxes are all frozen. Only taxes for the MUD and the Emergency Services district can go up. Because we have no state income tax, property taxes are generally pretty high here. Having frozen taxes (not ropes) is a good deal for the oldsters.

Madame Defarge, oldsters here have the option to decline jury duty beginning at age 70.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Liked the puzzle, liked the theme, and liked the difficulty or relative lack thereof. Nice mix of fill.
Saw the WALL-E movie. so this was a gimme.

Bill G. said...

It used to be that properties were reassessed here every couple of years and property taxes would climb by leaps and bounds. Then along came Proposition 13 and put a cap on property tax increases by long-term owners. (We've owned our house since 1969). If someone buys a house, it is re-assessed at fair market value.

Misty said...

How exciting to wake up to a C.C. puzzle! Yay! And this one was fun and doable, which was great because I have a busy, busy morning--getting my hair cut and new glasses for my up-coming trip to Austria next week. So it was great to solve this smoothly and easily, with my only pause at WALLE, although I figured it had to be ECG and not YCG.

I, of course, loved seeing "LITERARY WORK" and "ODE", and my doxie Dusty loved seeing ALPO and BONE (although I actually feed him Eukanuba, which I hope never appears in a crossword puzzle). UMAMI puzzled me for a moment, but then I remembered we used to have a restaurant in town by that name, so I figured it was probably correct. So lots of fun all around, and many thanks, C.C., and Melissa!

Have a great day, everybody!

Montana said...

Late to the puzzle today but what a great puzzle it was. Thanks, CC!
I struggled yesterday (on a Monday!!) but today's was as if it were a Monday puzzle. I zipped right through it.
Good time to be in CT instead of MT. It's pretty cold back home & snow is forecast.

Loved the QOD today. Thanks.

Montana

Lucina said...

Not much time today as I had to take a friend whose hand is broken to a drs. appt. Just wanted to tell C.C. how much I like her puzzle and enjoyed solving it. I even got the theme! Ooh, SKIP CLASS; that's a no, no im our household. The mother of my daughter's good friend and playmate would allow her children to stay home on their birthdays, something I never permitted to the disappointmet of my daughter. But now she has a Master's degree while the former playmate has a low paying job.

Anyway, this was fun and though I have no idea what FROZENROPE has to do with baseball, it emerged easily enough.

Thanks, C.C. and Melissa. I'm sorry about your periodless keyboard. That will be a pain as cited by d-o.

Have a wonderful day, everyone! 75 here today.

oc4beach said...


Nice satisfying puzzle from CC and enjoyed MB's expo.

Only a few hitches along the way today. Had to wait for perps to determine if it was ECG or EKG, WEEKS vs YEARS, and CREE vs OTOE. The Theme entries all required some perps but they became apparent very quickly.

Big Easy @ 7:38am: Dr. T and the Women is a movie about a Dallas Gynecologist whose life falls apart because of "his" women. Also when I was younger my uncle advised me that if Wine, Women and Song got to be too much, I should quit singing.

I've heard about UMAMI but can't identify it when I'm eating. Maybe it is what tastes good. So for me the basic tastes are Sweet, Sour, Bitter, Salty and Good.

Melissa: You can enter text and punctuation by using the on-screen key board. Just go to Help and enter "On-Screen Keyboard" which will give you a link to open the keyboard and then you can use your mouse or keypad to enter the "period." Another trick is to copy a period and then paste it when you need it.

More snow on the way this afternoon. Enjoy your weather and don't overdo the shoveling.

AnonymousPVX said...

Nice well clued and structured puzzle. Had HARDCASE for a bit but that got straightened out in short order.

WALL-E is a wonderful film even though it is animated, I saw it and then bought it. I'm no kid, either.

Jayce said...

Fun puzzle; clearly of the usual high quality that C.C. produces. Nice and Tuesday-easy, with some nice fill and cluing. Hand up for noticing MRT and DRT.

Melissa, I laughed out loud at your missing-period story. Thank you for it.

I wonder how Marlon Brando would howl "Wilmaaaaaa!"

I'm still not convinced UMAMI is really a basic taste, i.e. that the tongue alone can detect in the total absence of the olfactory sense.

Owen, sorry you have been having browser problems. Unfortunately I have no suggestions or advice to give you.

Madame Defarge, I like your knit wit.

Best wishes to you all.

Jayce said...

Speaking of taste (and anybody who isn't interested in Scotch whisky can SKIP reading this,) LW recently bought me a bottle of Bowmore "Small Batch", which is an Islay product, even though she knows I am a HARD CORE Speyside guy. Well, frankly, it smelled like band-aids, you know, that sort of iodine-y, hospital-y smell you get when you first open a band-aid package. Worse yet, it tasted like that, too! We're now asking all our friends if they'd like to have the bottle; it is only missing about an ounce of liquid, and it still has the box it came in. By the way, when I asked her why she bought it, she said, "Because it was on sale." I tell ya, folks, we have bought far too many items we don't use or don't like simply because they were on sale. To paraphrase the old folk song, "When will she ever learn?"

Wilbur Charles said...

Jayce, Tin might be able to force it down in a PINCH.
Melissa, a parrot chewed out U,I and 8. I was going to mention the on screen keyboard. You can use ; and when completed change to .

After a year in 'Nam I walked into the officer's club in Okinawa and the bartender spotted me and shouted "hey you, NO SINGING!!"

The XW;. I'd peeked and noticed we had a CC. Smooth, perhaps easier than Monday.

Owen. No C's from here. Ingeniously creative mind.

CURATOR is indeed spelled with the C but probably should use K. There's a thingy called a cedilla which englisg doesnt use.

Missy. There's a Nero Wolfe story: Death of a Doxy". I don't think it was about a dog though. I thought WE WON might be WOOHOO.

Madame Defarge said...

D-O at 9:21:

I like the frozen property taxes. That won't be happening in Cook County Illinois. We work too hard at rampant corruption in the state where our governors make our license plates.

Illinois does have release from jury duty at age 70. I'm just a kid with a year left for that exemption. ;-)

It seems a bit chilly in Texas these days. I watch the weather because my daughter and her family live in Dallas. Stay cozy!

Madame Defarge said...

Thanks, Jayce.

Because I knit, I still have a bit of a brain. That and CW's.

Have a good evening.

Tinbeni said...

Jayce
I googled the Bowmore Small Batch ... looks too 'light' for me, like weak tea.
I tend to like the 'darker' Scotch's ...

Never been disappointed with Pinch, Chivas Regal, Duggan's Dew, Black Bottle (recommended by Chairman Moe) Famous Grouse, Black Grouse, Black Label, Dewar's (Irish Miss fave) ... I could go on and on ...


Hmm, that gives me an idea ... and it is Sunset in 35 minutes ...
Cheers!

Irish Miss said...

Jayce @ 2:46 - I can relate to your wife's "because it was on sale" syndrome, as I have a BIL who drives my sister crazy when he goes to BJ's (like Costco and Sam's Club) and comes home with scads of items that she neither needs nor wants. If he has a coupon, he buys the item, no matter what it is. And if something is on sale, full speed ahead! I asked him once if alligators were on sale, would he buy some and he said yes. (Not totally convinced he was kidding, either.)

DO, in New York, I think we pay taxes on just about everything but the air we breath. As far as I could determine, the age for jury exemption here is 75.

Tin, yes I do like my Dewar's. It's almost time for a delivery, too.

oc4beach, I'm on my second order of Gibble's chips!

Lucina said...

AnonT:
AKA in today's puzzle!

melissa bee said...

fortunately it is easy enough to purchase replacement laptop keys online, and a new period key is on it's way for under $5. i was truly shocked i could find a replacement key for this particular laptop, which is a special edition that wasn't made very long and probably 8 years old. with a little effort i can still coax out a . or > though it definitely slows my typing speed.

Wilbur Charles said...

Hondo, I recall Eddie Gaedel and Bill Veeck's famous stunt. And I know the pitcher for the Tigers that day, but the old brain won't regurgitate.

And it was the old St Louis Browns. Veeck wanted to relocate but MLB wouldn't let him. When he sold the Browns they immediately moved to Baltimore.

Don't ever, ever feel sorry for MLB owners.

thehondohurricane said...


Wilbur, the pitcher was Bob Cain. He was the only Baseball Rep that attended Eddie's funeral. I took a creative writing course at a local community college a few years ago and did a paper on Eddie.

Anonymous said...

You should've seen the look on Melissa's husband's face when he heard about her missing her period!

Magilla Go-Rilla said...

I got trapped wanting to write EKG, but I knew it was CURATOR and remembered that there is also ECG.

Misty said...

Wilbur, thanks for warning me about the Nero Wolfe book. Just in case that poor doxy is a dachshund, I think I'd better stay away from it. Could be way too sad for me!

CrossEyedDave said...

Anon @ 6:21 LOL!

Are you sure it was the kitten that did that?

No worries with the puzzle,
my only problem was 38d, I misread the clue as rifle range Sounds?

Ammo?

I need some %^%$%$# Ammo!

CanadianEh! said...

Very late to the party today but I wanted to say thanks to C.C. and Melissa bee.
Great theme.
WEES about FROZEN ROPE. This Canadian loved ECG (although I waited for perps to decide. (Same for URAL or Aral.)

I learned UMAMI doing crosswords but was not sure of spelling. Perps again.
Good evening all.

oc4beach said...


Irish Miss: Glad you are enjoying the Gibbles chips.

Anonymous T said...

Hi all!

A fun Tuesday offering from C.C. with an mb chaser - first CLASS efforts from both 'yas. Thanks!

WOs: LITERAtu...; ARGON fixed it. ALSO, I had Coin b/f CENT
ESPs: LAHORE; ODETS.
Fav: No c/a really jumps out; SKIP IT.

Enjoyed C.C.'s trademark baseball c/as. I've heard a FROZEN ROPE and 'he hung it on a clothes line' among others for a blistering-drive.

There's a story in the grid if you UNZIP it...

The BASE's NCO at the AMMO store
Wasn't very HARD CORE.
In WAR, DUTY did call
But he WENT AWOL
AKA, a MAN ABOUT TOWN no more.

[Title: Ft. Leavenworth :-)]

UMAMI - I was listening to Splendid Table (I think) and the guest said UMAMI, like, 50 times. I still needed 3 perps.

{-, C+,A-,B-,A}

mb - LOL'd @SPINAL (tap)
Lucina - LOL'd @AKA!

Don't start me on Taxes... Not only what DO listed but we have HOAs that brighten the Holliday w/ notices that ~1k is due right after Christmas. Other than sending nasty-grams [e.g. telling you that you put out the garbage a day early...(I know, I was going out of town!)], I don't know what they do.

A Mr. T catch-phase mashup I found. If you really care, he seems like a nice guy.

Cheers, -T, Mr; 1 ea.

Magilla Go-Rilla said...

I read it the same wrong way but could only come up with AMMO as an answer that would fit.

Bill G. said...

I prefer Jack Daniels to scotch but... have you tried Laphroaig? It's made in an area in Scotland with very 'peaty' water. It tastes, to me, like it's been strained through dirty socks but serious single malt drinkers think highly of it.

Bill G. said...

My mind doesn't just wander... Sometimes it walks off completely.

Anonymous T said...

Bill G. I like a good Single Malt [don't know that one - Laphroaig]. Some are quite peaty and some are smokey and some are just smooth...

I was flying back from Aberdeen and had a wonderful scotch in Biz. CLASS. I let it roll around my mouth with each sip to savor the UMAMI(?) - and nodded off...
Note to self: Don't keep scotch in your mouth for an hour; you'll get Cap'N Crunch mouth. [mb - I like semicolons! :-)]

Christmas party 9 yrs ago: A buddy's wife was a sheet-to-the-wind and decided to try scotch... "This tastes like the tape! Is that why they call it that?"

My buddy wasn't able to to stop her in time and his face matched his Santa hat.

I'm looking for "Hot" Christmas gifts for peeps but I feel like I keep striking out... It's affecting my Elf-esteem...*

Cheers, -T
*I know, I stole a groaner from the paper. I Cant'a** say I'm proud.
**say it w/ a soft C and groan again :-)

Abejo said...

Good Wednesday morning, folks. Thank you, C.C., for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Melissa Bee, for a fine review.

Finished the puzzle late last night and was too tired to log on. So, here I am.

Enjoyed the puzzle. Theme was fine.

Tried COIN for 59D. Fixed that later to CENT.

Got UMAMI with perps. Did not know WALLE, the robot. Perps.

Did not know FROZEN ROPE, but got it after a few letters, with a Wag.

CURATOR gave me ECG. Wanted EKG, but held off.

6 degrees here now. Getting set to Guard the Crossing.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )