Title: Any PORT in a storm. Maybe we can go drinking at that place on the left in Oporto, where they hook you to an IV to get you the liquor quicker.
We also continue our trend to bring back constructors from the past, this time with Lt. Col. (ret.) Beisner who had ONE previous publication that I have located. He did stop by to say hello that day, perhaps he will again. With all the gridspanning you would expect little room for long sparkly fill, but we do have ESCROW, TUNEUP, FANNED, AWAY TEAM, TARHEELS, PRINCESS and ROSE OILS. Now it is time to look at the theme:
20A. Port : CITY WITH A HARBOR (15).
25A. Port : AFTER DINNER WINE (15).
43A. Port : LEFT SIDE OF A SHIP (15).
48A. Port : CONNECTION POINT (15).
A nice set; now the rest.
Across:
1. Cabo's peninsula : BAJA. Cabo San Lucas, a resort city on the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, is known for its beaches, water-based activities and nightlife. Playa El Médano is Cabo’s main beach, with outdoor restaurants and numerous bars. Past the marina is Land's End promontory, site of Playa del Amor (Lover's Beach) and El Arco, a natural archway in the seacliffs.
5. Stupefy : BESOT. Getting drunk with love.
10. Earthy shade : ECRU. They really do not agree on this simple ("Raw") color.
14. "Don't have __, man!" : A COW. Bart must be a fan of his namesake Simpson. A nice subtle Selfie SO.
15. Jennifer Saunders' "Ab Fab" role : EDINA. The frumpy one; Patsy was Joanna Lumley who was a replacement for Mrs. Peele when they tried the New Avengers.
16. Room service challenge : SLOB.
17. Simba's mate : NALA. Disney's Lion King Queen.
18. Pack animal? : HIKER. This was hard for being so easy.
19. Shrewd : CUTE. I understand it now, nut also hard to suss.
23. Heavy weight : TON.
24. It may need a boost : EGO.
34. "Mean Girls" actress : LOHAN. Rumored to be trying to get a sequel going to revive her now dead career.
35. Instrument heard in the Doobie Brothers' "Black Water" : VIOLA. Their producer, the great Ted Templeton did not see it as a hit.
36. Lived and breathed : WAS.
37. Uncompromising : GRIM. Hmm.
38. __ nus: barefoot, in Bordeaux : PIEDS. High level French. A very pedestrian clue.
39. Hilarious one : RIOT.
40. Scotch datum : AGE. I pass this to the Tinman to explain.
41. Construct : ERECT.
42. Friend of Jerry and George : COSMO. Kramer.
46. Org. with a square-rigger on its seal : USN. See the square-rigger? You all can discuss.
47. Jungle swinger : APE. I always heard it was tarzan who was a swinger who would go both ways.
57. Ointment additive : ALOE.
58. De Valera of Ireland : EAMON. The perps were solid and I needed 'em all. New York City native, Éamon de Valera was a prominent politician and statesman in twentieth-century Ireland. His political career spanned over half a century, from 1917 to 1973; he served several terms as head of government and head of state, as taoiseach (prime minister; 1932–48, 1951–54, 1957–59) and president (1959–73) of Ireland. (various)
59. "Dies __" : IRAE.
60. Array of options : MENU.
61. Urban air problem : SMAZE. No thanks, this all sminks to me.
62. Reposed : LAIN.
63. Rear deck : POOP. Is that why we call...oh never mind.
64. Blush-inducing H.S. class : SEX-ED.
65. House meas. : SQ FT. Why are square feet not square? Why not call them SQUEET?
Down:
1. Judicial seat : BANC. Literally bench in French (take that Owen and Moe!)
2. Smoothie fruit : ACAI. Ah I See
3. Cola named for its intended effect : JOLT. A Louisiana slant.
4. Football squad in white jerseys, typically : AWAY TEAM. Why? Television I bet. LINK.
5. Lagging : BEHIND.
6. Time change? : EDIT. huh?
7. Turbaned Punjabi : SIKH.
8. Selective Service classification : ONE-A.
9. Blue Devils' rival : TARHEELS. Duke University and U. of North Carolina. ETYMOLOGY.
10. Homeowner's account, perhaps : ESCROW. Most financial institutions require borrowers to pay into such an account every month to insure money is available to pay taxes and insurance on property. It also is where we hold deposits until closing.
11. Kind of sandwich or soda : CLUB. Or something I can hit you with, or deal to you.
12. Tiller opening? : ROTO. Want to know how to BUY one?
13. Taxi alternative : UBER. How many of you have used Uber or Lyft?
21. Unlike new clothes : WORN. Most of my new clothes get worn...
22. Indian tourist mecca : AGRA. Want to book a TOUR?
25. Like some pond growth : ALGAL. I know it is probably legit but all I see is
The POEM.
26. Blacksmith's need : FORGE.
27. Copper? : THIEF. A nice reversal here, as the copper is not the cop but the one who cops what is not his.
28. Like Wrigley Field's walls : IVIED.
29. Many a flower girl : NIECE. Mine was a granddaughter.
30. Acknowledge, in a way : NOD TO.
31. "It'd be a dream come true" : I WISH.
32. Judd matriarch : NAOMI.
33. Legally prohibit : ESTOP. We also obtain estoppel letters from Condo associations etc.
38. One of Disney's official eleven : PRINCESS. As of 2015, the eleven characters considered part of the franchise are Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel and Merida.
39. Perfume staples : ROSE OILS.
41. Forum infinitive : ESSE. Latin to be.
42. Yokum cartoonist : CAPP. Alfred Gerald Caplin, better known as Al Capp, was an American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip Li'l Abner, which he created in 1934 and continued writing and drawing until 1977. Wiki.
44. Garage service : TUNE-UP.
45. Agitated : FANNED. Fanning the fire? Again, not me.
48. Where much tie-dyeing takes place : CAMP. Really?
49. Kitchen bar : OLEO.
50. Prohibition : NO NO.
51. Tone down : TAME.
52. Camera that uses 70mm film : IMAX.
53. Move like honey : OOZE.
54. Modern-day Mesopotamia : IRAQ. Iran is Persia.
55. Newbie : NAIF. The same root as Naive.
56. Commonly anchored shelter : TENT.
Well it is time for me to fold my tent and rest my weary legs. Lucky 13 to all, thanks and come talk Bart. Lemonade out.
Greetings!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bart and Lemonade!
A bit chewy, but got her done, finally.
I thought that the finale Tuesday of Good Behavior was interesting. Does anyone know how Javier got away from the FBI?
Have a great day!
Way too essy. Did in 4 minutes
DeleteGood Morning, Lemonade and friends. This was a very easy Friday puzzle. It's always a good sign when I can immediately
ReplyDeletefill in both 1-Across and 1-Down on a Friday puzzle.
My favorite clue was It May Need A Boost = EGO.
ÉAMON De Valara's name was somewhere in the back of my brain.
I first tried Build before ERECT, but the NIECE set me straight.
There is something wrong with the formatting of the blog. It seems to be embedded within itself.
QOD: Living most of the time in a world created mostly in one’s head does not make for an easy passage in the real world. ~ Sydney Brenner (b. Jan. 13, 1927), recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
FIW¡ Thought 6d was an anagram of TIME => EmIT, And EmINA made as much sense as a name as EDINA would have¡
ReplyDelete{B+, B, C.}
The HIKER learned how to ERECT a TENT
At CAMP while attending a V CLUB event.
The stakes should be wood
'Cause metal's no good
When hunting Vampires is your intent!
The VIOLA was copped by a stealthy THIEF
Who tried to give the instrument to his CUTE NIECE.
"I thought I was crystal
That I meant a pistol
When I told you I wanted to play WITH a piece!"
The prospect was GRIM for the city in RIOT.
Any NOD TO the law was just to defy it.
But one valiant NAIF
To TAME the Black Friday pace
Broadcast "Online virtual is better, just try it!"
I agree with Hatoolah that this was an easy Friday fill though that wasn't my first reaction. EDINA and TARHEELS as well as PIEDS remained blank for a time while I worked around them. A light bulb went off when realizing that Time referred to the magazine and EDIT made sense.
ReplyDeleteEDINA is usually a city in Minnesota but it was a guess this time as Ab Fab meant nothing to me. EAMON De Valera was much in the news during his tenure.
Many questions surround the meanings of CUTE and THIEF as clued but I get it.
USN seems like an appropriate fill with 20A and 43D relating to ships.
It was announced on the news that Disney is considering adding PRINCESS Leia to its official roster.
Thank you BB and Lemonade for a satisfying Friday romp.
Have a fantastic Friday, everyone!
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteSeemed pretty easy for a Friday puzzle. Hand up for thinking of the connection to Bart Simpson at 14a. Misread the clue number, and thought LOHAN was a weird answer for "might need a boost." Nicely done, BB and L14.
Good day to all!
ReplyDeleteI agree with others that today's puzzle seemed easier than a typical Friday. Even so, I needed 100% perps for EAMON De Valera and EDINA from "Ab Fab". FANNED for "agitated" is unfamiliar to me. Over all, an enjoyable solve. Thanks for the puzzle, Bart, and thanks for being our tour guide today, Lemonade.
Enjoy the day!
I, too found this easy with the exception of IMAX. I never even considered IMAX. My perception of IMAX is "(Film) trademark a process of film projection using a giant screen on which an image approximately ten times larger than standard is projected." I see now it is also a camera. And De Valera could have been EATON or EASON.
ReplyDeleteEDINA was perps and wags. That and EAMON were the only unknowns.
SHREWD/CUTE was oh so cute.
My older son's political views are totally uncompromising, but more maddening than GRIM. He answers any argument from the other side with talking points that don't answer the argument. He is like a TV, all talking and no listening. He imputes all kind of beliefs to me that only his most radical opponents espouse. I am a moderate, leaning in the other direction from him. So, we don't talk politics any longer.
I need to get that ladder out now and fetch down the window candles from the high sill while I am still fresh.
Good morning all!
ReplyDeleteHahtoolah- I also had trouble with the blog with it being embedded with several versions of itself. Couldn't load it at all on my iPhone, I managed to finally read it on my iPad but it was difficult with so may "layers" and the comment section wouldn't load. So here I am on my trusty ( and dusty, from lack of use) laptop running it on Chrome. Maybe an issue with Safari?
Anyway, this was a fast Friday for me but really enjoyed the theme and fills- thank you Bart!
Lemonade- a treat as always with you at the helm :)
Had trouble with FANNED because EAMON was unknown, I had ON A SHIP not OF and have never heard the term SMAZE.
Another hiccup was in the SW corner (seems to be a problem area for me this week!) I had 'hips' for ROSEOILS and couldn't think of NAIF
Funny that we had Sammy Hagar earlier this week - he is known for his 'Cabo Wabo' Cantina on the BAJA Peninsula. Evidently, there is also a tequila with the same name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabo_Wabo
My favorite clues were NIECE and VIOLA. I was the flower girl in my favorite aunt's wedding when I was four. Her name is VIOLA Ann ;) Even though that took place many years ago, I remember it clearly and fondly. Especially liked that the fills were crosses.
No chance to fire up the grill yesterday as the temps quickly dropped and we had rain on and off. Back to freezing this A.M. Sigh...
Happy Friday- have a great day, everyone!
Bunny
My post at 8:18 should have read "trouble in the SE corner" not SW. I do believe I need more coffee ;)
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteNot so easy for me, but what else is new? Had to give up due to scheduled appointments this AM.
Lemon, you can't blame TV for visitors wearing white uniforms. Football & basketball were employing the discipline in the '40's. My family went to Yale Bowl at least two or three times a year and the visitors always wore white. High & college basketball the same. Probably initiated to assist game officials.
ReplyDeleteLast sentence.... should be HIGH SCHOOL
The theme helped a lot today for me. I was able to get those answers quickly and then was able to do the rest.
ReplyDeleteTrouble in the SE when I entered it with ROSE hIpS instead of OILS.
ReplyDeleteSMAZE - because "haze" is sooooo different from "fog" that it requires another portmanteau?
Tie-dying was after my time, but I could definitely see it as an activity at summer camps and day camps.
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteGood intro, Lemonade, as always.
Got a Friday solve with only 3 white-out squares, today. Had 'firm' before GRIM. Lots of fresh fill so it was fun to work on. Perps were helpful with the proper names.
USN - Both my Commission, and Certificate of Retirement have prominent seals with the square rigger.
PORT wine - Yesterday BH made "Pears sautéed in PORT reduction." Utterly delicious.
POOP - Our destroyer did not have a POOP deck. The evolutions to which Lemon alludes, would be done at the 'head' of a sailing ship. You want to be very much downwind from the rest of the crew during this, since the relative wind comes from astern. Even today, in the Navy, a latrine is called a "head'. Definition: - - The toilet or latrine of a vessel, which in sailing ships projected from the bows and therefore was located in the "head" of the vessel.
Hope this is not TMI for anyone.
ReplyDeleteUnlike others, this was more of a typical DNF Friday for me. I did get it filled in with a heavy reliance on Red Letter help and alphabet runs.
Hitches include:
- EDINA and "ab fab" were total unknowns for me. I did put in the D when perps gave me E_INA since we had EDINA in CC's puzzle the other day.
- I didn't see CUTE for Shrewd.
- EAMON didn't register until perps filled it in. I was looking for a title vs a name.
- SMAZE was not in my Lexicon. SMOG was.
- Pack animal got me. I tried BURRO, MULES, CAMEL, etc. which didn't fit. Never thought of the 2-legged animal.
- ALGAE before ALGAL left me scratching my head on the third Port clue for a bit.
- ROSEHIPS vs ROSEOILS slowed me down for a bit.
All in all an interesting puzzle, but I wasn't on the same wavelength as Bart. Looking at the puzzle after it was all filled in, it made sense and came together for me.
It's Friday the 13th, so I think I'll go look for a ladder to walk under or a black cat to tempt fate.
Have a safe day, everyone.
Fairly smooth sailing for a Friday. The SE corner was my main slow up as I had ROSEHIPS before ROSEOILS and IRAN before IRAQ.
ReplyDeleteReally didn't like SMAZE even though I filled it in.
Funny day here- we are supposed to have THE major ice storm of 2017 starting about noon, but right now there is no precip, but we are a hilly area and ice is scarier than snow so all the schools are closed already as is my medical group and my favorite coffee shop. Teachers and kids are happy with Monday already off for MLK, it's a 4 day weekend for them.
If you haven't seen it - this parody of Adele's song "Hello" by a teacher on the snow day theme is hilarious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnIRfvFLiWQ
I just hope the electricity stays on- then it will be a cozy weekend of reading, games, and football!
I worked this one NW to South but came to a halt at the bottom. I had filled _IEDS and didn't know either EAMON and had never heard of SMAZE. PRINCESSes were unknown and it was hard to make FANNED appear. Somehow I managed to unscramble by brain and figure them out. SEX-ED was easy; my wife taught it.
ReplyDeleteBut the SE corner almost made me give up. I had filled ROSE HIPS for OILS and just filled PAIN instead of LAIN. 'Reposed'- only knew it as being in a state of calm or peace of mind, not as a physical position. I hadn't filled CONNECTION yet and the PHINT at the end of 48A had me stumped. So I held the newspaper at arms length, looked back at the clue, 'Port' and the V8 moment hit. Over and done.
This was one lame puzzle. A HIKER is a pack "animal"? Shrewd is CUTE? SMAZE? FANNED? "Kitchen bar"? Jesus! Let's get back to WORDS!
ReplyDeleteMusings
ReplyDelete-ROSEHIPS and not checking my work cost me two bad cells but I had a good time!
-I tell my ex-USN golfing friend, “You missed that putt on the PORT side, ensign.”
-I have used nearly all these PORTS
-Mom – “Don’t get CUTE with me!”
-Major differences on whether to ERECT here
-I watched a SEX-ED tape while subbing and I saw no kids blushing
-When I played, HOME TEAM jerseys were white with even numbers where both digits were less than 5
-CLUB sandwich? You had me at bacon!
-I have used my ROTO tiller twice a year for 20 years and never changed the oil
-Where a FORGE is a star (:50)
-Our HOA could ESTOP us from putting up a clothesline, which is a NONO in our covenant
-A raptor expert brought some to our school and told the kids, “These birds can not be TAMED! They will never be your friend.”
-Can you imagine this in IMAX? (:53)
-Not a trace of this with me!
Hello Puzzlers -
ReplyDeleteHas anyone else been having trouble with the main blog page today? I saw Hahtoolah's comment at 5:30, but nothing else.
On the iPad and phone, the main page was overlaid upon itself a few times, then it would crash and reload. On this creaky old PC everything seems about normal.
Mist and fog are caused by water droplets in the air, and the only difference is how far you can see. Haze is the reflection of sunlight off air pollution, while smog is what happens with fog mixed with pollution caused by low-lying ozone, smoke and other particles. SMAZE is a combination of haze and smoke similar to smog in appearance but less damp in consistency.
ReplyDeleteCUTE can mean clever or cunning, especially in a self serving way, so we get SHREWD. "Don't get cute with me!"
As Lemon said, the expression is FANNED the flames or agitated. Hitler fanned the unrest and malaise felt in Germany after WWI to win people to his movement.
A bar of OLEO is found in some kitchens. Oleo, like butter, is sold in quarter-pound bars.
Did you ever see a through-hiker packing loads of equipment? Since the clue, animal? has a question mark, you can tell not to take it too literally, a kind of stretch. But humans are classed by science as part of the animal kingdom, so no harm, no foul.
What an opportunity to play with words and stretch the old bean!
Friday checklist:
ReplyDelete- A opening run-on sentence that has to be read a few times to understand? Check.
- Formatting error that embeds entire blog? Check.
- Typos? Discount double check!
- Gratuitous pic of lemony, granddaughter or sons? Check.
- Misuse of similar words such as insure vs. ensure? check.
- Obvious cut and paste of Wiki or other sources with no acknowledgement? Check.
Nice job, Lemonade.
If you dislike Friday blogs, why not just skip them?
ReplyDeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, this was a FIW due to Miss Edina being Miss Emina to me. I, also, thought the Time clue called for an anagram, Emit, rather than Time (magazine) needing an Edit. Only the lack of a tada alerted me to the error of my ways. The SE corner had me hung up for ages because of my reluctance to remove hips which, when I did, helped me suss out the rest of the fill. Overall, I had more bumps and hiccups than usual for a Friday offering, despite the obviousness of the theme. (Maybe all of the recent _ _ _ -related chatter caused brain freeze!) I had llama/hiker, Iran/Iraq, and algae/algal. Wasn't fond of smaze, nor is auto-correct. Eamon was a gimme; I have a friend, Eamon.
I had the same problem that others have mentioned with the grid. I must have tried 10 times before I could actually read the write-up and several more times to get to the comment section. More glitches to test CC's patience!
Thanks, Bart, for a tough but enjoyable solve, Edina notwithstanding and thanks, Lemony, for being our "port in a storm!"
The latest scam/phishing email arrived yesterday from "Netflix." It was addressed to: Dear Costumer. I received one last week from "iTunes" that had so many grammatical errors that I laughed out loud. Somehow, these con men are smart enough to invent these quasi-plausible schemes, but too dumb to pull them off successfully. Although, I suppose some work or they wouldn't keep trying. The folks from Nigeria have been quiet but I think that will be sort-lived.
Have a great day.
Some believe those grammatical errors are a feature, not a bug. The thinking is they improve the likelihood that a responder will fall for the scam by filtering out those who notice the errors. See for example http://www.businessinsider.com/why-nigerian-scam-emails-are-obvious-2014-5
DeleteAnon@1101a
ReplyDeleteWell, because I enjoy solving the daily crossword puzzle and sometimes need to check my answers. Especially on Fridays and Saturdays. I also like to read the comments so I can see other perspectives and likely expand my knowledge thus enhancing the solving experience.
Hi gang -
ReplyDeleteOne of the benefits of blogging here is that you get to have your own personal anonymous troll. Isn't that sweet?
Well executed theme, and lots of other good stuff in this puzzle, especialy the long verticals.
But, despite Yellowrocks' excellent apologia @10:43, I was annoyed by several of those items. And the French. BANC is not too bad, but PIEDS nu? - Just NONO! Plus, BESOT belongs on the trash heap, with all the dreaded A-words.
Our granddaughters all went through their PRINCESS stages, but have now moved on to other stages of life. Except for Abby, who come to think of it, has always been a bit of a tom boy and never went there.
I once, many years ago, had lunch in N.C. at a restaurant called the TAR HEEL. The special that day was chicken gizzards and macaroni. I am not making this up. I was informed that the ham was good, but pretty salty, and another item I briefly considered was good, but pretty greasy. So I ordered something else. All I remember about it was that it was very salty and very greasy.
I suspect that white for the AWAY TEAM arose to give the home team a chance to display their colors, and also that the two teams would have a stark difference in appearance. I read an item about a basketball team long ago that had striped jerseys, and kept passing the ball to the refs. Nothing good came of it.
Happy 13th!
JzB
I've heard that, back in the day (WAY back in the day), the home team wore white because they can launder their uniforms and keep them clean. The away team wore grey because they didn't have access to cleaning services on the road, and the grey hid the accumulation of dirt gathered on their road trips.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the uniforms of the away team usually displayed the name of their home town (Detroit/Cleveland) to let the crowd know where they're from, while the home team displayed the actual team name (Tigers/Indians).
Now, it seems the home teams schedule in advance what type of uniform they want to wear, and the away teams have to adjust accordingly.
What did you all think of the NFL Color Rush scheme on Thursday Night Football this season? Some colors were just horrendous, but others weren't too bad, I thought.
I enjoyed this puzzle, and got the east side readily enough, but the mid and south west gave me a bit of trouble, and in the end I even had to look up an item or two. Nonetheless, thanks, Bart, and you too, Lemonade, as always.
ReplyDeleteIt was great getting Cabo's peninsula immediately--have never been to Cabo but have been to BAJA.
Favorite clue: blush inducing H.S. class. I sure don't remember my Catholic school offering a class on this subject.
Have a good Friday, everybody!
My not-too-reliable memory recalls the high school basketball home team wearing the "light" colored uniforms. Might still be true for March Madness -- the higher-seeded team wears white??
ReplyDeleteNice execution of the theme and some nice fill. I'm with Jazzb about the French, especially PIEDS nus, which is likely to be totally unknown to more than 25% of people who do crossword puzzles. I also dislike SMAZE. At least I did learn that IMAX is also a type of camera. About the term "SQUEET," I jokingly use it as a rushed way of saying "Let's go eat."
ReplyDeleteI didn't use my iPhone or iPad to view the blog today, but from what you folks are saying it sounds like maybe Google has made more "improvements" to the site. I have seen through the years that every time Yahoo "improves" something at its site that they break 3 or 4 other things, and it often takes them months to ameliorate the bugs. A better system needs to be developed to manage large-scale programming projects and coordinate large teams. There's too much of "I didn't know this section of code had any connection to or effect on those other parts." And there's not nearly enough adequate commenting or documentation of the code.
Gosh, I sure sound crabby today, so I'll wish you all a good day and take my leave.
Jayce, I'll bet if you're like me, you just l-o-v-e-d writing code documentation.
ReplyDeleteTotally positive on ROSEHIPS and inordinately proud of myself for remembering a word that I never have used. Thus the SE corner was doomed. Many a TA DA has been lost to the pride of a physicist playing a word game. I should stick to something easy like Quantum Mechanics or the unified field theory...
ReplyDeleteI finished this with good time DESPITE what I can only call far-fetched clueing. SMAZE? Really? Ugh.
ReplyDeleteAND............UNDOCUMENTED CODE IS SPAGHETTI WITHOUT THE SAUCE. Unpalatable for all but the few !!!
ReplyDeleteTen years retired from program management and you make me want to go find a code pig and hit em with a switch!!!!
I'm with Jayce on dumb programming moves ... a couple of years ago, Yahoo decided to "improve" things, with they did without talking to any of us users, and it took months to figure out what used to be easy. Not 'crabby' at all -- a legitimate, but unheeded, gripe.
ReplyDeleteAnd also with FAB ERA on NFL uniforms: when some team even had orange cleats, it was beyond campy.
Actually, desper-otto, not that I l-o-v-e-d it, but I found that if I wrote a paragraph or two describing exactly what a particular subroutine would do and how it interacted (if at all) with other parts of the overall program, including its inputs and outputs, it made the job of writing the code much quicker and more accurate. Sometimes my comments were longer than the few lines of code that implemented what my comments described. I learned that describing not only what the code does but also why it does it, made debugging it an order of magnitude easier. It also made it possible for someone else, at some future time, to look at the code, understand it, and debug or modify it as necessary. I feel very strongly about this, and when I used to be in management I insisted on it rigorously.
ReplyDeleteMore to follow.
Continued:
ReplyDeleteHere is an example, typical of my commenting style. Comments start with the ; character.
; Interrupt Handler Recv_From_KB. Bank-switched, priority 3.
;
; While the keyboard is idle, it allows its Clock and Data lines to float high.
; When the keyboard transmits a byte, it will pulse its clock line low then
; high 11 times, once each for the start bit, 8 data bits, an odd parity bit,
; and a stop bit. The keyboard's Clock line connects to the V25 processor's
; INTP0 interrupt input pin, which has been initialized to produce an interrupt
; on a transition from low to high. Thus, the first time the keyboard Clock
; line goes low (it passes through an inverter), this handler will be invoked.
;
; This handler receives the 11 data bits from the keyboard, converts them into
; a data byte, and puts the byte into the keyboard buffer. The keyboard must
; transmit all 11 bits within a few milliseconds. If this handler has not
; received 11 bits within 3 milliseconds, it will time out and quit. The
; details of how this works are in the comments that accompany the following
; code.
;
Recv_From_KB PROC FAR
;
; First of all, since this is a bank-switched interrupt and the segment
; registers have all been preset in the initialization of the register banks,
; we can assume that ES is already set to the IDA segment:
;
ASSUME ES:IDA_SEG
;
; Set DI to point to the beginning of the bit buffer. The 11 bits will be
; put into this buffer:
;
CLD ;Make sure direction is UP.
LEA DI,KB_Bit_Table
MOV INT_OCCURRED,FF ;Set flag to non-zero.
;
; Read the value of the keyboard data bit. The keyboard data line connects to
; bit 2 of port 1:
;
MOV AL,Port_1 ;Read the port.
AND AL,00000100B ;Isolate the keyboard data bit.
SHR AL,2 ;Shift the bit down to the LSB.
XOR AL,1 ;Toggle bit polarity due to inverter on port.
;
; Since this is supposedly the first of 11 data bits from the keyboard, which
; is the start bit, AL should be zero (the start bit is always zero). If AL
; is not zero, this is not the start bit, so something is wrong. Exit this
; handler immediately without doing anything else:
;
JZ Recv_KB_0 ;Got low start bit, so continue.
JMP Recv_KB_Ret ;Exit immediately.
And so on.
From the linked article "White at home, color away" That's what I thought. I used away team, but didn't feel good about it.
ReplyDeleteSorry about the lack of tabs (indenting). This blog seems to have taken them all out, making my code harder to read than it actually is.
ReplyDeleteFYI "Black Water"
ReplyDeleteContrary to popular belief, there is no violin on this recording. There is, however, a viola which is played by session musician Novi Novog. The viola is larger and tuned a fifth lower than a violin and is an octave above a ‘cello. It also includes wind chimes and an Autoharp courtesy of Arlo Guthrie.
I can't attest to this, just reporting. Santa
In the NHL the Home team wears the dark uniform (typically). They used to wear the white uniform but swapped back in 2003-2004
ReplyDeleteI see that I am late to the party and it is just mid-afternoon. I am on my laptop but tried to access the blog from my I-pad after reading of the problems and it just crashes. (It has done this before when there are a lot of embedded links and pop-ups and I just figured that my I-pad was short on free memory. Interesting that it always reverts to the blog of July 3 2016 - can anyone explain?)
ReplyDeleteThanks Bart and Lemonade for the fun today. I got it done but visited a few other PORTs of Call before arriving at the correct answers.
Hand up for ROSE Hips before OILS, Iran before IRAQ and never having heard of SMAZE (I figured it was a combo of Smog and Haze - thanks YR for the explanation).
Thanks to Lucina for explaining Time change=EDIT.
I have enough High School French to know PIEDS. But my Canadian advantage did not extend to OLEO, a word I learned from crosswords. We have margarine (usually in tubs not bars) and I thought the kitchen bar was ISLE (short for Island) but it did not fit the perps.
Have a great day. I am NOT off to PORT Dover!
PortDoverFriday13th
Managed the CW w/o a single cheat, which is terrific for me for a Friday!! Fun CW, thanx, BB! Great write-up, thanx, Lemonade! Why do u say the carton is banned? Never heard of SMAZE, though. Owen, B, C, C. Thanx for the grins. Very late to the CW today, for a bunch of reasons. This infernal cold seems to FINALLY be yielding.
ReplyDeleteI reached here on my iPad now!
ReplyDeleteWill Rogers said, "A stranger is a friend I haven't met yet." For me a strange word is a friend I haven't met yet. I have met SMAZE frequently and love her. Does the fact that others have not yet met her make her existence illegitimate? I love meeting strange words and adopting them as friends. I find many words that are snubbed or dissed by some are well used in other contexts. Keeping an open non-judgmental mind when meeting new words increase one's vocabulary. My toast tonight is to strange words who have become my friends.
ReplyDeleteA few days ago I tried to insert a link, but forgot the http:// at the start. So this site considerately inserted the missing prefix -- http://blogspot.com/ . The effect was similar to today's malfunctions. I deleted the post and re-posted it correctly.
ReplyDeleteLemon: A bench in French is a wrench to my sense, since the clue gave no warning of a foreign forming!
IMAX: I don't know about the picture-taker, but a projector can also be termed a camera. And it operates in the dark, from a hidden booth!
Anon@10:12 -- Amen, brother!
Jayce: There is an HTML character called a no-break space, and there are Unicode characters for spaces of various widths: no, en, em, etc. Don't matter. Blogger kills them all! Limericks are customarily indented, but not on Blogspot (nor Facebook)! Two spaces after a period for a sentence break? Nope. ASCII art? Fugeddabout it. Concrete poetry?
It
..is
....to
......laugh!
There once was a singer, a pea-picker, by George,
With a voice that was lower than a Taos gorge!
But he was a hot-head, that was the deal
"One fist of iron, the other of steel"
That was Tennessee Ernie FORGE!
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteTook 3 Googles to keep me playing - NALA (can never recall the lioness), LOHAN (never saw the movie) and EAMON (who?). So, DNF.
Thanks Bart. My GRIM performance doesn't mean I didn't have fun. Lem - nice expo. And Black Water in the back ground while I read your post lifted my DNF funk. Thanks.
WO: I was GRIM on Firm; essEnces b/f ROSE OIL; kOSMO Kramer; ALGAe; raja was 100% wrong.
ESPs: EDIT(?); ESSE; BANC; PIEDS
Fav: I'll go w/ AGRA 'cuz, once in a row, I remembered it sans perp. 'Course any reference to the Doobie Bros is smile ERECTing.
{B+,B,A-; C - I don't get it}
FLN: YR - Thank you for the Cub Scout Motto. I guess some of that sunk in w/ me 'cuz I act that way though I vaguely recall any of it. Mostly I just remember Den Mom providing Juice and Cookies while we spaz'd.
YR - I saw 70mm and knew IMAX. That was my 1st fill in the south. They did Everest (2-D) on iMax. I couldn't not think of the poor camera man - 40lb camera w/ only 90sec of film per roll! - while I watched it.
IM - I wish my users were that phish savvy, er CUTE(?)... Good on you.
Jayce & D-O: Code should be self-documenting unless it's Perl. Then 40 lines to explain "while (<>) {chomp; do stuff;} is just too cumbersome. Screw you if you can't parse s/firm/GRIM/g; :-)
Misty - the creepy (IMHO) gym teacher taught SEX ED at my Catholic HS. I noted the volleyball girls were kinda squirmy. We did have to sit though a '50's era PSA like this one: Bad Touch [@8:31 - watch all 17m if you have time - funny]. Most of us already knew what he was talking about anyway 'cuz we were mostly Italian, Irish, and/or Polish Catholic kids - we knew how babies were made b/c we had so many brothers & sisters!*
My TON of work is done(ish) for the week and I rode my bike so it's Friday's repose (LAIN(?)) Time [Thanks Lucina for 'splain' EDIT].
BTW, the next Fri13 in '17 is in OCT which is brilliant! No better month for it.
Cheers, -T
*I'm oldest of 5 ;-)
Wadaya know! the worked!
ReplyDeleteCon te try
cre poe
Mig not hist !
hten be ory
Wait, COSMO Kramer? I thought it was COSMO Topper, who was friends with George Kerby and I couldn't recall if Jerry was the wife or the Saint Bernard!
ReplyDeleteYou're not foolin' anyone OKL - there's no way you didn't know COSMO Kramer ('cuz Elaine didn't fit). :-) C, -T
ReplyDeleteAnonymous T, wasn't able to access your link (old computer). But you're right that some of the kids at Catholic High must have known stuff without a SEX ED course because we did have classmates disappear from our classes, only to learn they had gotten pregnant. Kids grow up, no matter what, don't they?
ReplyDeleteHands up for FIRM before GRIM. Three of you have admitted it, but I'm sure there must be more. FIRM is practically a synonym, whereas GRIM is merely an opinion.
ReplyDeleteI liked NAIF, although I much prefer NAÏF - even if that inserts an umlaut into LAIN. Best of all were the theme answers, each of them full spanners! Good on you, Mr. Beisner!
Back In the day there was Auerbach, the bald guy called Red. And he didn't believe in letting anybody watch his Celtics for free. Result. We never saw the green uniforms.
ReplyDeleteBut. Regardless, I entered HOME and DAIS and FALA(FDR). Finally, with a JOLT I got it all straightened out.
THIEF was perps.
Lemonade, you always do a great write-up. Owen, #3 was pretty good. BB thanks for the doable Fri.
Hmm,
ReplyDeleteThe puzzle was fun,
But the silliest links I found may be too risqué for the blog.
I will leave it to your imagination...
Jayce, DO, & Chuck- Back in the ancient history of programming computers for the neophyte end users ( in this case pharmacists) our main programmer just wrote "NL" for "Enter" on some of his instructions. This was before PCs. These guys were used to New Line or Return on electric typewriters.
ReplyDeleteGreat example of never to ASS-U-ME anything of a first time end user.
Also, about 20 years ago my nephew was hired as a programmer for a company that processed insurance claims for companies. All the other programmers quit with instruction not to be contacted. There was very little documentation and it took him over a month to figure out what was happening, while everybody was calling him with 'this is an emergency'; he said everybody that called him had an emergency.
His latest venture is called 'Sky Coach' which enables football teams to watch instant replay from their bench. The NFL and NCAA banned it because it worked too well, but over 500 high schools and the Canadian Football League use it. He had to go to Canada for the Grey Cup to make sure everything worked for the game.
ReplyDeleteHead Goon -- Smarty Pants.
Started sorting out my taxes today. Didn't spend much time on the puzzle.
Fun Friday night; soaking leftover Christmas cookies in milk so I won't break a tooth.
ReplyDeleteI came across some old reruns of 'The Avengers' on cable. Lots of fun. Mrs. Peel is still as scrumptious as ever. Was there ever a mention of a Mr. Peel?
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of classic British TV fare, what about 'The Prisoner'? That was another quirky little show.
Before he did the Prisoner, Patrick McGoohan played the same character in a series originally called DANGER MAN .
ReplyDeleteBart, where are you?
Back aboard after a long day, and the blog appears to be trouble free now.
ReplyDeleteArgyle 8:28 - Smart! I got some tasty homemade caramel popcorn at Christmas, and failed to notice the hard unpopped kernel in the batch. My molar has been hurting ever since.
Bill G - Yes, as I recall we were given to understand that Mr. Peel had gone missing, possibly in action, freeing up his wife to fight crime with another man. In Diana's last episode, he turned up unexpectedly and therefore his wife had to resume her former life, which left no room for John Steed and his avenging lifestyle.
It's sad how often child stars like Lindsay Lohan go off the rails. At least Emma Watson has kept her head, apparently.
Peel for what it's worth was the name of a powerful British politician during the time of Disraeli and Gladstone
ReplyDeleteHow do I know this? From the link we had a few puzzles ago to Disraeli
WC